30f Ambulance (1935-48)

Hi Dave, nice Garage. What does the box look like?I just returned from the Houten meet today. A huge fair, despite auctions, internet etc., with nationalities from all over Europe and a few thousand visitors. I met among many others John Beugels and Rob van Hoort, regular contributors to our DTCA forum.I had a nice addition with the open windows grey no. 30f Ambulance, with nice medium size white smooth tyres, ridged DT hubs and a closed chassis, which makes dating fairly certain on ca. 1946. The radiator unit is remakably shiny, with a lot of the original plating preserved. Compare in this two of my other ambulances.Some pictures: Kind regards,Jan

Jan, What a wonderful find. I have been looking for the same ambulance....an early post war with windows. That is one model that really suffered when they closed the side and rear windows. Yours appears to be a very nice example......paint is nice and shiny, those white tires are in great shape, and that is the best preserved radiator shell I have seen, with most of its plating still present. Very nice acquisition ! Regards, Terry

Hi Jan, Wonderful Ambulance! A great find, I've not seen the Postwar open window version in grey before, only in cream. Chris Warr.

I have always liked this Ambulance, and in particular, the pre-war versions, with their open rear windows and also brightly painted color schemes. Like some others mentioned earlier, I think this model really suffered in the later post war versions, with those rear windows filled in.....just looks too plain! So I found an early post war version, with the open windows, but otherwise not in very good condition, and missing a headlight. So I had a good friend and fellow Dinky collector, who also happens to restore them, do a little project for me. I wanted to re-create, as faithfully as possible, the pre-war look, with the red fenders and dark grey body, and white tires. So this is not really a code 3, but what I would call a sympathetic restoration of a classic pre-war Dinky. I have included a couple of photos alongside my existing 30f Ambulance, so you can see the difference in appearance...those windows add a lot! Regards, Terry

I just bought and received a very nice model of the 30f Ambulance, and it is a very early post-war version, with open windows and the smooth, non-ridged wheels. The color is a very different shade of grey, especially compared with Jan's shown in an earlier post above. I looked through my usual Dinky Toys references, but could not find any information, other than grey color....even Jacques Encyclopedia does not show or mention this variation of grey. This model also still has an impressive amount of plating left on the grill....more than any of my other 30 or 36 series models. It was a bit grubby when I received it, but a careful cleaning showed it to be in excellent condition. I am also including a photo of this one alongside my earlier purchased Ambulance, showing the comparison between the open and closed window versions. To me, Dinky lost a lot of charm with this model when it closed all those windows. Regards, Terry

Hi Terry, a new beauty for your marvellous collection indeed! Some of my photos above apparently dropped out during the conversion to the new website. I don't know which they were exactly. I just send two anew for comparison. Indeed the shades of grey may differ, as is usual for these early post-war grey models, lighter, darker, more 'creamy' or stone etc. Moreover, your and mine 'windows' examples seem to have an additional 'yellow film' over the grey, which is rather hard to remove. I thought I had succeeded, but our detail photos always unveil more than is visible with the naked eye! So I may improve and finish the cleaning one of these days. Are they possibly from a former heavily smoking owner or is his very type of paint attracting more polluted air or vulnerable to surfacial discolouration than others? Please note that your example with smooth hubs (1945/46) is slightly earlier than mine with ridged hubs (ca. 1946). The white tyres look like new replacements, but they are all original, just cleaned with pure water! Kind regards, Jan