BP Autotanker - Major Pack No1
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BP Autotanker - Major Pack No1 |
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| This is an interesting one;
I've known the toy all my life and always assumed that it was an airport
refuelling vehicle, because of its futuristic shape I guess. Now I'm
thinking it was a design exercise, probably sponsored by BP, to show how
modern they were. I found a picture on the internet of the real vehicle
being exhibited at the 1960 London Motor show. It's smaller than you'd
think, probably 6' or so to the top of the cab. It is described as: 'Thompson Autotanker Leyland Dromedary BP'. Let's analyse that - because I can't find much more on the net. Thompson were a firm of boilermakers founded in about 1810 who graduated to making road tankers, they made the bodywork for the - '4,000 gallon Autotanker, six compartment, aluminium alloy, frameless integral road tanker for petrol' - according to a website telling their history, where there is an illustration of the same vehicle. Leyland is a given, but 'Dromedary'? A Government website laying down rules about road traffic defines dromedary as: "Dromedary truck-tractor" means a motor truck designed to carry a load and also pull a semitrailer by using a kingpin to fifth wheel connection", not an 8 wheel rigid then. ‘Wagon and drag’ I think we call that arrangement. So my guess is since it was made in 1959/60 and it has a Leyland chassis which means it has to be an Octopus. So there you have it - Thunderbirds style road transport before there were Thunderbirds, F.A.B. Virgil. 'Major Pack No1' is a very grand reference from Matchbox, does that mean it was a new departure for them into bigger toys? a pre-cursor of the King Size range? The BP Petrol Tanker was released in 1963, it was always corporate BP green and yellow in colour, the only variation being knobbly or smooth black plastic wheels. The knobbly wheels version is the one to go for. |
| Green, yellow; BP livery | ||
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| Last Edit: 04/09/2011 | Page Added 31/01/2009 |