Jones Fleetmaster Cantilever Crane
DTCA Chairman, Michael Driver, picks another vintage favourite by Dinky.
Cranes are fascinating, and especially mobile ones – seeing them travel between jobs and then watching them as they hoist goods, vehicles, boats or building materials to building sites or goods to warehouses. Children have always enjoyed toy cranes with their winding handles and jib movements, and Dinky Toys added the Coles Mobile Crane and others to provide these toyland thrills.
In April 1967, the Dinky Toys Jones Fleetmaster Cantilever Crane (No 970) arrived ready for its first job.The review in the Meccano Magazine of that month has three illustrations in black and white of the model – one with the jib closed, one with it extended and a picture of a real one unloading a boat. The review gives a detailed description about the model and the real vehicle, and suggests that sceptical collectors might say it was only a crane fitted to an existing Dinky Toys Bedford TK casting! The first colour illustration is in the 1967 Dinky Toys catalogue showing it with a white cab roof and turret.
The model is in red with a black chassis and red plastic wheels, and a white crane jib.The crane body has the words “Jones Fleetmaster” cast on each side of the body. A label with “Jones” is on the rear of the body and on the offside spare wheel cover. There also are small “Jones” labels on the front jib section. On the first models, the cab roof and turret are in white, but from 1971 the model was in chromatic red, or in yellow with the roof turret now in the same cab colour.The crane jib was still white and the later models had chromed wheels.
The crane is mounted on a new chassis using the Dinky Toys Bedford TK glazed cab.The cab is modified and now has the glazed turret.The jib for the crane is in two sections, which are hinged, enabling it to be folded when travelling.To operate the crane there is a handle on the side.This turns two separate winding drums with the first one for the hook cord. By pulling the lever out this engages the drum to raise and lower the jib.The jib also has a load indicator indicating up to a maximum of 10 tons.
The models were sold in illustrated end flap boxes, which included a card packing piece and an instruction leaflet on how to operate the crane, and replace the hook and jib cords. Later models had the jib extended and came in long blister packs before deletion in 1977.
The real crane was produced by K & L Steelfounders and Engineers, from Letchworth, in Hertfordshire. They designed the Fleetmaster crane unit and this was fitted to the modified Bedford TK chassis, as represented in the Dinky Toys model.The actual crane jib can reach 20 ft and this can be increased to 30 or 40 ft by fitting intermediate sections. Perhaps this a bit too complicated for such a Dinky Toys model.