Dinky Toys vintage model of the month

After the war, Dinky Toys began to re-appear in the shops much to my delight and no doubt to that of many other children. Often I was taken to the Co-op Department Store (CWS) and would always insist on visiting the basement which had the toys. On one particular occasion I saw the newly released Bedford End Tipper, and, of course, I wanted one! But in those days it was expensive at 5/9d (around 30p), so I left bitterly disappointed, without the model.
Happily, some time later, I was given one as a present. This was the original green version with black wheels. The Bedford End Tipper (No 25m) was introduced in March 1948 and was illustrated in the Meccano Magazine. This Dinky Toys advert was in black and white and showed it alongside other models.
All the previous Dinky Toys tipping wagons just had a tipping back which you lifted up to tip the load. Here for the first time you could turn a side handle to tip the rear body. The ingenious spiral column, fitted through a square hole under the back was turned by a gear wheel on the handle shaft which allowed the body to be raised and lowered in a realistic manner.
The early colours, apart from the green, were in orange or cream, both with black wheels. Later the orange one gained green wheels, the cream one red wheels and the green one had light green wheels. These colours were followed by one with a red cab and cream back or one with a yellow cab and light blue back. All these models were sold in trade boxes of four.
The first colour picture shows the model with the red cab and cream back in the 1953 catalogue. This colour is shown throughout all the catalogues up to its deletion in 1963. The 1962 and 1963 catalogue illustrations show the model with windows.
During the Dinky Toys re-numbering of 1954, the Bedford End Tipper was given the number 410, but still retained its ‘Dinky Toys’ status. It continued with the yellow and light blue with yellow wheels and the red and cream models. At a later stage there was a yellow and dark blue back variation. These models were now sold in individual boxes. Some of the final models, usually in red and cream, also had unpainted radiator grills and headlights.
The ‘real’ Bedford tipper was an ‘O’ Type 5 tonner. The cab was developed from the pre-war model and now had a shallow ‘V’ form for the split windscreen. They were manufactured from 1945 to 1953 and sold well on the home and export markets. Some 10,000 Bedfords had been exported between the end of the war and October 1946 and most of these were the 5 ton models. I wonder how many Dinky Toys versions were eventually exported? 
The Dinky Toys cab and chassis also provided the basis for a truck, an articulated lorry, a refuse wagon and a car transporter through to 1965 when the Refuse Wagon was deleted. Not a bad run for an evocative Dinky Toys model.

 For more information on this and many other Dinky Toys contact the DTCA at www.dtcawebsite.org