M9 with Grey Trailer and bpw

[Ewan]

The M9 Hendrickson is my favourite Lesney of all. I had a nearly complete set up (only missing one trailer door) in my shop a while back and was a bit sad when it actually sold so I was really chuffed when a swap with MOKOSEX got me a rather nice and totally complete early version, with the inverted commas on the baseplate. I'd quite like an orange labelled version at some point but hadn't really thought about the grey trailered one until this part set arrived in the post a few days back. I'd been half looking for a unit and trailer to go in a diorama I am planning, because I'm not expecting to have enough space for a complete rig. I must confess, I hadn't even noticed the trailer colour when I placed the bid.....

Looking at the site, all the grey M9s in the pics seem to have the earlier paired dished wheels whereas mine has the individual bpw except for the front axle of the unit which has the single faced M9 wheels. These single faced wheels are slightly different from those on my early unit as the wheel nuts are no longer shown. Comments invited!

[nickjones]

Hi Ewan.
My grey trailered M-9 has the deep dish single wheels, I don't know if it has been recorded with normal bpw before but I don't recall coming across it. great find.

[johnboy]

Hi Ewan, this is one of my favourites as well. I've checked mine but they have the paired wheels so that's a good spot. There's a few variations to look out for with these sets but there's also a difference with the apertures on the tractor unit that needs to be added, one type has braced apertures and rounded corners and the other has squared-off apertures.

[Ewan]

Both my tractors have the braces and rounded corners. I suppose the other thing I should have mentioned is that the grey trailer is the later type with rivet rather than tongue fixing at the front end.

[yellowfoden]

Hello Ewan

Your prime mover wheel combination is a nice find and in the years past rarely seen.

This is one of the harder M9 variations to find, but interestingly this is the third one to come up in the last few months. The Vectis Southwest Matchbox auction on the 7th august 2013 had the same variation. See lot number 546

Not sure what the policy is in posting a Vectis photo on the forum so here is the link.

http://www.vectis.co.uk/Page/ViewLot.as ... 7&Start=20

The early grey version came with the blue dolly and later they came with the unpainted dolly on this wheel combination version as above.

These grey trailers were painted with the doors assembled, so sometimes the paint cover on the doors is incomplete due to doors moving while being painted.

[Ewan]

Thanks for that Yellowfoden, much appreciated. It's useful to know about the dolly because I will keep my eyes half open for a second trailer even if it takes years and now I'll know which dolly to look for too. I can't check the doors though - it doesn't have any!

I love the username by the way - every time I see it I'm reminded of a winter about 20 years ago I spent as driver's mate on a gritter. Ours wasn't a yellow Foden, it was a yellow Maggie but nearly every other wagon in the yard was a RR/Perkins engined Foden and I can still remember the noise of them ticking over as the back of one's throat slowly filled with diesel exhaust fumes in the cold winter's air

[hotwheelsbob2000]

ROADTRAIN!



My grey trailer has the individual wheels in all positions including the front of the Hendrickson.

[Ewan]

I've just got a tractor and one grey trailer with the dished wheels. The trailer has the rivet front fixing. Does anyone have the grey trailer with the tongue fixing as that would be another variation?

[johnboy]

Another small variation to note here (blink and you might miss it!). The trailer on the left is a later one, with a riveted base and the hinge-pin locators are slightly larger and look to have been strengthened and the bracing that runs horizontally above the doors has been enlarged slightly. (Didn't stop the door coming off though

[Diecast]

Very nice spotted John, I like the variations by Major Packs. I have two variations by grey trailers: yellow and orange decals and different type of wheels.
Antonin