Dug up two pictures from my image files a moment ago, featuring the Foden Flat Truck both in a 1940s and a 1950s rush hour scene:

Jan—-Wonderful & lovely scenes......thanks for sharing with us!
Best regards, Terry

That scene is indeed beautiful, and I really like the way each item has been carefully updated to reflect the changing Dinky Toys range.  For me the double-decker bus is a step too far out of scale with the others, but in a way that is part of the Dinky charm.

I really like diorama scenes, and that was one of my favourite things in the old Meccano Magazines.  Unfortunately space is an issue for me.  I do have a dedicated diorama display case, but it's got Spot-On models in it at the moment (with Dinky pavements fulfilling a useful purpose, as they are much more manageable than Spot-On road sections in a smallish space!).

I made the display table in the mid-1990s, for occasional exhibits. The mid-1930s display, as shown in the Dinky bibles, served as an example. I found a picture with a better scale compatible scene, shown below:

At the risk of getting scolded for being off the Foden topic -- I have always loved your wonderfully done display table, Jan. It is so very evocative of the displays produced by Meccano Ltd. itself.

I always wondered why you made the roadways red, however. Is this color a common thing in your country?

Not as bright as Jan’s maybe but we do have some red roads in the U.K.

Hi Jonathan, I painted the roads red because the entire display was made of scrap material and I simply happened to have some remaining tins of red and grey and green paint at my loft. Although it’s all fantasy (only having the b/w picture available as a model), in my country – and I presume in Britain too – the far majority of the roads within built-up areas were brick roads before WWII. The result is brighter than brick red indeed, but that happened to be the colour the tin contained, a kind of ‘naive’, ‘gay’ brick red. By the way, I only did not cut the pieces of glass of the cover myself, because it is too thick for amateur manually cutting and polishing. Kind regards, Jan 

Jan, your display looks beautifully made and very professional - it makes my attempts feel very amatuer!  Bright red roads give a lovely bright look lovely bright look which is in keeping with the diorama's simple charm.

I don't know about brick, but wooden blocks were used to pave many London streets before WWII.

I see that Meccano were happy to carry the mix of scales to extremes, including the tiny tram and AEC Q bus, and some aeroplanes!  I see from the book "Dinky Toys & Modelled Minatures" that the original board was offered for retail as well as shop display use - are any survivors known?

Sorry that this is distracting from the original Foden topic - what is the best way to handle discussions which go off at a tangent?

See my comment on: http://dtcawebsite.com/comment/12442#comment-12442