555 and 955 Fire Engine with Extending Ladder (1952-70)

I saw this on Sunday and it is indeed a truly delightful, and realistic, model. It is a Tower Wagon and they were used by local authorities who had tramways or trolley bus systems which picked their power up from overhead cabling. The one shown above is a Karrier operated by Bradford City Transport who operated Trolley buses from 1911 to 1972, I remember these very well as I was born 9 miles from Bradford in Keighley. Dave

Great picture! That is a very narrow wheelbase for a tower wagon, wouldn't want to go very high on that. Didn't Budgie make one of these? Chris Warr.

First hand info. Jan's model was made from an original picture which I had obtained from the R.A.T.P. and which I probably still have somewhere in my junk. In September 2007, I have photographed the real truck, certainly the last one to exist. It is build on a shortened 1916 Schneider type H bus chassis. At that time, the Museum of Urban Transports was housed in the ex Amiot aircraft factory in Colombes-la-Garenne now demolished and rebuild with blocks of flats.

Greetings all Having been diverted momentarily with a model never made by Meccano (but cleverly made by Jacques) the plated ladder version is a less common example of the 955. The following are photographs of an example that once resided in my collection: I wish to apologize for the size of these images. They were taken in April 2005 with an Olympus 3.5mp camera. The model has been moved on unfortunately, however before it left my company, I photographed it and the first 555 issue together. These formed part of a display I had at a display day with the Brisbane Die cast Collectors Club in 2004. Crikey - 10 years ago!! Kind regards Bruce

Thanks Bruce. I wonder if you or anyone else has an idea or even evidence about the chronology? So, was the plated ladder version the very last issue of 955 or just an intermediary 'experiment' in the later 1960? Kind regards, Jan

Hello Jan Unfortunately, back in 2004-5 when I photographed my 955 with the plated ladder, I did not bother much about the box. I could kick myself for not including the obvious - a detailed photograph of the box may have brought up an original price written on it somewhere. With my sole remaining example of one of the last issues, here is a photograph of it that shows a price of 10/9 - a price that was applicable in April 1968 and it has a silver ladder, not plated. In May the price had increased to 10/11. Hopefully, information will become available providing us with prices written on boxes containing examples of the plated ladder version. Once that is known, we will then know the year this version was issued! Perhaps the plated version was the final example issued in 1969, as the price jumped to 12/6, quite an increase from 10/11 - an increase larger than other larger models. Was this due to the nickle plating? Although comparing both models the one on this post and the other on the Post before last, the wear around the hose reel seems to be identical so one wonders when the greater wear around this area was issued, and logic would dictate it being the last issue. Again, we have to wait until someone can produce photographs showing original, authentic prices! Kind regards Bruce

Thanks Bruce, for your information and suggestions. My chronology issue is raised by the fact that - like yours - my plate ladder version (in the middle) has a matt black finished base plate. My example of the previous one in the yellow lid box also has the matt black base plate. My 'regular' latest version (on the right), however, has a shiny black base plate again. One might expect that black finished base plates would accur in one and the same 'time slot' and in that case the plate ladder version would be an 'incident' in between. But as we know things can have been mixed up in the factory already, during production. Jacques H explained to me that the plate finish process, was not more expensive than the silver painting, on the contrary. By the way, there are no price stickers or notes present on my late end flaps box models. Kind regards, Jan

Jan Thanks for your Post - which states the obvious with Meccano - everything is possible as well as nothing is possible! Just to add confusion to the mixture, the following is a nickle plated version on the last style of lidded box that preceded the end flap box which unfortunately is not in my collection: The price on the other end was 10/3, which was a 1967 price. So perhaps the first of the end-flap boxes came out in 1968, which could indicate that nickle plated ladders were tried out during 1967-68 before reverting to the original silver/aluminium painted ladders until the model was finally retired. I really liked the pictures of all those great 955 Fire Engines of yours. One of my favourite models in the 1950s as well as now. I should post a photograph of my original model which shows the hard life it had fighting countless imaginary fires! Incidentally, the last mention of the 955 was in the January 1969 Meccano price list, although the list was dated '5/68' the front of the price list has the print code of 72975 with '1969' in large numerals in the top right corner. Just to add a little usual Meccano confusion, the December 1968 Order Form does not include the 955 Fire Engine with Extending Ladder. Naturally, the model is not included in the July 1969 Order Form. However to muddy the waters a little, the 956 Turntable Fire Escape is NOT included in the December 1968 Order Form yet it miraculously appears in the July 1969 Order Form! Perhaps there may have been a gap between the deletion of the Bedford cab-chassis and the release of the French Berliet cab-chassis that makes its first official pictorial appearance in the May 1970 catalogue. Kind regards Bruce

Bruce, thank you very much!! This is evidence that adds to the possibility of an 'intermediary' experiment, which stretches over the transition from the lid box to the end flaps box in the middle of the sixtees, which coincides with the period that the matt black base plates were in use. More evidence, supporting this idea (or the contrary) is very welcome! By the way, Bruce, I imagine that you have kept records of the dates of control stamps inside the boxes and the prices current in various periods. Do you know the introduction dates of the yellow lid boxes and the end flaps boxes? Kind regards, Jan

Here is the front cover of an original leaflet for the Commer QX fire engine. It looks to be fighting a mill fire. Dave

janwerner wrote: 'Bruce, thank you very much!! This is evidence that adds to the possibility of an 'intermediary' experiment, which stretches over the transition from the lid box to the end flaps box in the middle of the sixtees, which coincides with the period that the matt black base plates were in use. More evidence, supporting this idea (or the contrary) is very welcome! By the way, Bruce, I imagine that you have kept records of the dates of control stamps inside the boxes and the prices current in various periods. Do you know the introduction dates of the yellow lid boxes and the end flaps boxes? Kind regards, Jan' Hello Jan I am not certain whether you posted the above after I had finished typing up my post or while I was busy adding and editing!From about 1963, the practice of checking each model before it was placed inside its box and then stamping the inside of the lid appears to have ended. Meccano during the early 1960s was going through crisis after crisis, and there may very well have been a slow reduction in staffing levels. Quality checking of what was primarily a toy may have been one of those tasks deemed unnecessary which would release some staff from the pay-sheets. I have however found one stamp, maybe two on the inside of the last type of lidded box with the yellow base, identical to the 955 shown immediately above, but the general rule has been these boxes normally do not have a quality control stamp. (Perhaps there may be others out there!!) These are the sales numbers and dates of the later yellow lidded pictorial box from my records: 437 Muir-Hill 2WL Loader, FP 563 (July 1963) eBay auction 935 Leyland Octopus Chain Lorry handwritten notation on the lid, 'purchased September 1964', Vectis September 1997, Lot 942 908 Mighty Antar with Transformer, 962 Vv (September 1962), owner A Harvey Of course all the above were only packaged initially in this style of box, so one can assume that the last style of lidded box was first introduced in September 1961 with the Foden Dump Truck with Bulldozer Blade. Then as the blue-striped boxes were phased out, those models that started life with this type of box were then progressively given the new lidded box type, although there were exceptions with several models that continued with the blue-striped box until well after the introduction of the yellow and red pictorial lidded box. As for the 955, it would appear that the yellow and red pictorial lidded box with yellow papered base was introduced in 1966, based on a photograph I have on file of a model and its box with the price of 10/1 written on the end. The July 1966 Meccano price list is the only one with this price for the 955. As far as possible, my quality checking stamp data includes the original price written on each box if such exists, in addition to anything else that may be of some use. For instance I have seen a Supertoy with Christmas greetings written on the front and with the year, so this is important. I will be starting a new Thread on this aspect, but until then, I would be grateful if Jacques could leave these posts 'as is' for continuity sake even after the Thread has been established. Kind regards Bruce

Thanks again! Jan