The 24a Weatherill hydraulic excavator was introduced in 1956 and was 58mm long. Weatherill were not the manufacturers of the vehicle, they just made the shovel and the hydraulic equipment that powered it,
I believe the tractor modelled by Lesney was actually a fordson major but I could be wrong here as the hudraulic equipment could be fitted to other makes as well.
The Lesney model can be found painted in either orange or in yellow, the orange version is quite common, the yellow version is far less common but it does not carry much of a premium,
To add to play value it was fitted with a die cast shovel assembly which was hinged to the body so it can be raised & lowered.
It was enhanced by the application of silver trim to the exhaust pipe and to the hydraulic rams found on either side of the drivers cab.
It was also fitted with a black & white 'Weatherill hydraulic' decal to the rear end, The decal was also used on the next model of this vehicle, the scaled up 24b Weatherill excavator. Apart from the previously mentioned colours used the only other variation concerned which kind of axles were used, early issues had flat head axles with crimped ends and later issues were fitted with dome head axles, also with crimped ends.
The 24a was the first model to have its number cast into the wheels and it was the first model to have its number cast on the underneath of the model, So the underneath is marked as 'No24' but both the front and rear wheels are marked with a tiny 'No23', Supposedly the model was renumbered from '23' to '24' after the dies had been made .
The Weatherill was perhaps not one of Lesneys best sellers but it was later scaled up to become the next weatherill the 24b which was the exact same model but larger so it must have had some success as between the two models the weatherill was in the 1-75 range for eleven years.
It was packaged in 'B' type boxes and the box can display two different illustrations of the model, The excavator was replaced by the larger version, the 67mm long 24b in 1959.
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