Ford Service Ambulance, 3 Ton, 4X4 - 63a
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Ford Service Ambulance, 3 Ton, 4X4 - 63a |
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| Part of a small range of
military vehicles added to the Lesney range in 1959 the Service
Ambulance, Ford, 3 Ton, 4x4 remained in the range until 1963. This same
vehicle was made in about 1:50 scale by Dinky with opening rear doors.
It is a curious vehicle in that it took me a very long time to pin down
the model of Ford on which it is based, in 1959 Ford was making the
Thames Trader and this is clearly not a Thames Trader, although it
always had a familiar look. I have to thank Nick Jones and his totally
invaluable website (http://www.vintagebritishdiecasts.co.uk)
for the answer. Ford bid for the Army contract to supply a new 3 tonner
ambulance and won the tender without having a suitable vehicle in their
range and had to put this truck together quickly using available and
off-the-shelf parts. For the cab they went to the same maker of lorry
cabs which supplied the cabs for Commer trucks. Which is why this Ford
appears to have a Commer cab. The variations to this one are mostly around wheels & axles. In ascending order of desirability and value we start with the most commonly found variant which has fine tread black plastic wheels and crimped axles, next up is the same wheels with rounded axle ends. Rarest wheel type is the knobbly black plastic wheels with crimped axles. However the most desirable - and quite valuable - variant is the fine-tread black plastic wheel / rounded axle version in a D type box. This is the blue and yellow box with a full colour illustration of the model and 'Matchbox Series' written in a continuous arc above the picture. |
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Knobbly tread wheels, crimped axles (repaint) |
Knobbly tread wheels, rounded axles | |||||
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| Last Edit: 04/09/2011 | Page Added 02/02/2009 |