Just this week, I finished a long quest, to finally complete my little collection of Ford trucks.  Over the years, I had slowly acquired different models, and finally, there was only one left, and the most difficult to find and acquire.....the Ford 25H Plateau Brasseur.  This is an interesting and somewhat unique Dinky model, in that it appears to be a flat truck, but with an added tailboard, somewhat similar to the Fodens with tailboard.  But the tailboard on this Ford is not cast in with the bed, but a stamped tinplate piece, that is tabbed into the rear of the bed, via two slots that were cast into it.  Another unusual feature of this truck, is that apparently the French Meccano factory did not want to have to create a separate die for this model, but instead decided it could share the die used for the similar 25I Benne Entrepreneur, which is an open wagon, with sides and a solid tail.  Apparently the die was made so that the side and back could be left out, and instead, replaced by steel inserts, allowing the truck to be cast as a flat bed.  This must not have been real efficient, as there are signs on the finished bed, that some hand work was needed to finish off rough areas of the casting, where there was some kind of joint apparent.  To accommodate the tabs on the tinplate tailboard, it was also necessary to design in two bosses on the underside of the chassis, to accommodate the slots for the tabs.

       At the end of 1950 or early 1951, Meccano decided to make some changes to the die, resulting in the fact that it was not possible to share its use with the Plateau Brasseur version...only the Benner Entrepreneur and the covered trucks (SNCF, Calberson, & Grand Moulins) would be made going forward.  So the 25H Plateau Brasseur was then a somewhat limited item, as it had a shorter production life.  Couple that fact with the likely hood that many of these did not survive hard play.....that tinplate tailboard would not be very strong at all, and be easily damaged or just disappeared.

      Accordingly, these are few and far between to try and find, and somewhat expensive if and when a nice one is located.  Mine is not mint, it has a few chips, but is in excellent condition, with very shiny paint and bright axles.  It appears to have been handled, but not played with much, if at all.  The first year or so of production, these all had the metal tires and wheels, later replaced by the rubber "m" tires.  So this is a very early version, likely from 1949.

         Best regards,  Terry