Richard. It was indeed optical illusion for me. My question has been completely solved by your explanation and your very clear photos. Thank you very much for that.

Kind regards, Jan O.

As a collector it is always interesting to compare certain castings of models.

On my search for a 521 replacement without plate reinforcement on the fuel tank of the truck, I came across these sold 2 Bedford Artics on the QDT website.

I was amazed at the casting differences of these 2 models. The 521 Artic with Supertoys hubs on the trailer has a fuel tank on the truck without plate reinforcement on the top, while the earlier model with ridged hubs on the trailer has a plate reinforcement on the fuel tank.

The model with Supertoys hubs on the trailer was produced after the ridged hubs period on the trailer and logically should have a plate reinforcement on the tank of the truck, but it does not. It can't be a mistake on the assembly line of fitting the wrong wheels on the trailer, because the Suptertoys hubs has a wider hole and a thicker axle. They both have a Dinky Supertoys base. I would like to own such discussion models.

Jan Oldenhuis, 13 October 2020.

Jacques. With the truck it is indeed striking that different castings alternate and are used again later. The first type of rectangular front fenders for instance came back in the last issues. This is clearly the case and to see on added pictures with the different types of front fenders and the wheel spacers. Note also the 3 different types of front axle support.

I suspect that the start of the plate reinforcement of the truck's tank occurred roughly at the same time as the transition from ridged hubs on the trailer to grooved Supertoys hubs around October 1952. The change to Supertoys hubs can be found on drawing Job No.13630 under point 3 and is dated 7-10-52 as shown in comment # 58. The change to plate reinforcement on the tank of the truck is unfortunately not mentioned on the assembly drawing Job No.12876, but undoubtedly on the cab / chassis drawing Job No. 12841 which is unfortunately not (publicly) available.

Because they are different components that are produced separately from each other and then linked together, these unexpected combinations from trailer + truck can, in my opinion, arise in transition time from one casting to another and is interesting to notice and research.

Jan Oldenhuis, 15 October 2020.

Finally I found a replacement 521 without plate reinforcement on the fuel tank and with ridged hubs. It's the same as in post # 27 with a green box. Only mine is a slightly earlier version with a small tow hook. The pencil price 5 / - on the box indicates the price of 1949. It also has a yellow color dot on one end of the box and a red control stamp on the outside of the bottom of the box.

Jan Oldenhuis, 26 October 2020