You’ll know when you reach the “Car room,” by the signs on the door advertising a 1938 motor race, together with Corgi, Dinky and Matchbox toy cars. As you might expect it is dedicated to Philip’s and Cris’ shared passion for the motorcar, particularly in its competition guises. Two cases, one an ex-Corgi shop display, are full of Cris’ Corgis, mostly the mint and boxed ones that he collected, once he started work, as a sort of penance for the many that he had damaged by playing with in his extreme youth
.By contrast, Philip, as senior partner, has the older Dinkies in two cases, one of which (you’ve guessed it!) is a former counter display unit and in which the vehicles and accessories are arranged chronically to show the development from Modelled Miniatures to Matchbox made Dinkies.
The third (hexagonal) car exhibit is a sort of ‘no man’s land’ where all the various elements unable to be legitimately set out in the other cases meet and mingle. The top shelf concentrates on Matchbox 1-75 regular wheels and early Yesteryears, plus a few surprises like the inn-signs, souvenirs and a dealers’ stamp. Below, it becomes really chaotic, with a wide variety of model road signs endeavouring vainly to control an array of Crescent, Spot On, Morestone, Charbens, Britains, Tootsietoys, Scamold, Solido, Tekno and a few we have not yet managed to identify, along with the Corgis and Dinkies which did not make it into the “one-make” enclosures.
A
few sections are themed, with displays devoted to Police, Ambulance, Motorcycles,
and Fire vehicles (with a Dinky fire station) plus TV related figures, every
MG model we could find and a few tractors and associated farm folk. In addition,
wherever we can sneak them in, are larger model cars in tinplate and plastic,
by such makers as Clifford, Gama, Schuco and the usual unrecognisable manufacturers.
So far, we have confined ourselves to immobile models, but now we come to the genuine ‘automobiles,’ i.e. the self-propelled. For openers, the cream of Cris’ virtually comprehensive (there are two he does not have, but I am sure that you will work that out for yourself) collection of early (pre-1970) Scalextric cars is set out on a grid, surrounded by period accessories and buildings, with samples of 1/24 scale cars, Airfix models and a few boxes to set the scene.
Next
door, we move down a scale and highlight the ones that did not make it: Minic
Motorway, with most vehicles and all the accessories, rubs wheel arches with
the exquisite Wrenn racers, on their home track, Playcraft and Champion examples.Elements of two further units set out some of the myriad delights of model trains. The backbone here is of “OO” gauge trains by British makers, particularly Hornby, Triang and Trix, with a selection of signals, station and line side accessories, and a vast array of disappointed passengers and railway staff patiently waiting for ‘normal service to be resumed’ (who says that toys do not mirror real life?). Just to prove that there is more to train collecting than British “OO” gauge, we sneak in some Triang “TT,” Fleischmann and Marklin “OO” and Dinky and other floor trains.
The whole exhibit is completed by a small selection of German tinplate “O”
gauge from the Edwardian era by such makers as Bubb, Fischer and Plank.To complete our survey of transport in miniature, we exhibit a veritable flotilla of model ships both for sailing and waterline, under the eyes of a fleet of Triang warships and lead ones from the war years, together with liners, Clyde Model Dockyard models and plastic launches, against a background of the Triang harbour accessories.
Over the tops of the cases, we have deployed representative boxes which once contained Scalextric, Wrenn, Minic Motorway and Airfix racing sets, train sets, Hot Wheels and transport related games, such as Stirling Moss’ rally game and Railrace. The walls have cycle tyre and toy advertisements and a life-size cardboard cutout of Nigel Mansell.