ISSUED  1956

DESCRIPTION

SCALE 1:80

One of the first 3 Yesteryear models ever put on display at the Harrogate Toy Show in 1956. The Allchin was a beautiful model and the main variants on this model were the rear wheels and the boiler door colour. On the very first run, the treads across the rear wheels were cut straight across. This was changed to treads that were diagonally cut across as Jack Odell wanted to prove to other diecast companies that it could be done and ejected from a mould. These type treads can be forward or rear facing depending how they were assembled and sometimes even both the same type wheel on one model so there are many permutations involved.

One variant to the rear wheels was they normally came with just red centers and the outer edge plain metal but some are painted all over red the same as the front wheels. Axles can be either crimped on early versions or riveted on later versions. The very last run has smooth wheels from the Y11 Aveling & Porter Road Roller as it is presumed the dies wore out and as it was at almost the end of the run not worth making new dies (Note: there are variations on these smooth wheels so be careful to check they are the right ones and genuine). There is a peculiar one unlisted that has smooth rear wheels but with crimped axles, aka an early model. It is now believed to be a trial by the Lesney chief designer, Ken Whetton, to see if these wheels were suitable to finish off the run as he was known for crimping axles on trial models

The next variant concerns the boiler door which came in copper, gold, silver and the all elusive green which was exactly the same as the body colour and probably done due to the plating machine breaking down. No significant shade variations have been noted about the green colour but shades do exist due to age wear on the paint used and it remained fairly standard for the whole life of the model. The gold trim gradually decreased as time went on as a cost saving exercise.

Early models have 9 slats in the cab floor while later versions have 11. The rear tow hitch became less defined as time rolled on due to wear on the mould. The flywheel came in black and later on brown ones were used sporadically.

BOILER DOOR

COPPER

GREEN

GOLD

SILVER

WHEELS

STRAIGHT

ANGLED IN

ANGLED OUT

RED

SMOOTH

BOXES

'A' TYPE

'B' TYPE

'C' TYPE

 'D1'TYPE

ODDITIES or PREPRO MODELS

On all models the front axle assembly is cast as part of the body and rigid but on a few found so far, the front assembly has been cast separately and a small rivet inserted to make the whole lot swivel so giving it steering capabilities. My model has crimped axles on this version and why it was done I'm not really sure. Perhaps to get more play value or realism, but it certainly seemed a fiddly job for an assembly line process that relied on speed and these may well be trial models. You can see the tiny rivet going through the boiler and underneath the axle center. There are currently around 6 known to exist although some have been seen with screws in where this fragile section has broken off but the giveaway is that the rivet was inserted first and then sprayed with the body so it was over sprayed inside the boiler.

No prepro models are known to exist, but these interesting ones were auctioned off at Vectis a few years ago and notice the chrome vanadium finish to the Allchin body. These are presumed to be original 'test' shots along with the Y9-1 -  very interesting models.

To convert to other currencies goto the following site

http://www.xe.com/ucc/

PRICE RANGE

DESCRIPTION

Common 

Silver boiler

Green Boiler

Straight treads

Red treads

Smooth rear wheels 

Steerable

35 -30

70-80

350-400

 80-100

80-100

600-800

600-700