16c Scammell snow plough wheel writing

[DrJeep]

One of the grey plastic wheels on my 16c Scammell snow plough has the faintest indentation of a word. It's so faint and small that I can really only see it in a photograph, but I think it's the top half of "England". I've played with the contrast but it's still not easy to see. I think it's only on one wheel on the snow plough. I can't see it on my GPW Rentaset.

I noticed something similar on John's GPW 25c, which looks like it might have "Lesney" upside down on the front wheel in the second picture.

Does anyone else have anything similar?

[mbox2000]

Yes, my SCAMMELL has it on the right front wheel. I can't really make it out, even under a magnifying glass and bright light. There are also faint traces of the letters on the other 3 wheels but only partial and very faint.

Jay

[mbox2000]

I checked my other grey wheel SCAMMELL and it is on all 4 wheels. Looks like Lesney to me.

Jay

[DrJeep]

Thanks, Jay. It’s good to know it’s on other Scammells too, though interesting that yours seems to say Lesney. What do we think is going on here? It’s not sharply moulded and not on every gpw of this size, but it must have been deliberate.

[tractorboy]

I've got 2 models with lettering on some of the wheels.
Using a digital viewer it looks like ENGLAND is inscribed.
I've played around with the contrast on the first pic…

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Others are similar

S20171229_005.jpg (324.63 KiB) Viewed 1044 times

S20171229_006.jpg (360.25 KiB) Viewed 1044 times

S20171229_007.jpg (243.15 KiB) Viewed 1044 times

[DrJeep]

Thanks, Rodger - your lovely clear pictures confirm that it says England, and it's interesting that it's not on all the wheels on yours either. As it's been found on three different continents (Australasia, North America, Europe) it must be real!

[GHOSTHUNTER]

Registration marks, names and logos were added to components and or packaging to put out a warning to the so many copyists out there, those companies who thought they could copy something from the Lesney empire without premission.

LESNEY and ENGLAND appearing on plastic wheels may be part of this process.

Ghosthunter.

[DrJeep]

Registration marks, names and logos were added to components and or packaging to put out a warning to the so many copyists out there, those companies who thought they could copy something from the Lesney empire without premission.

LESNEY and ENGLAND appearing on plastic wheels may be part of this process.

Ghosthunter.

Certainly, and also to show customers they’d bought the genuine article. This one seems strange, though:
- it’s too indistinct for a customer to notice
- it doesn’t seem to be on every wheel
- the moulding is quite poor and not up to usual Lesney standards - for example, the wheel nuts on the early 6c Euclid or indeed the fine tread pattern on these wheels

[Malibu]

I also do have a modell with the described writing on one wheel.

Stephan

[DrJeep]

Thanks, Stephan - it's good to know that there are others with mixed wheels too. There's also a discussion of the same question on the 3c Muir Hill site dumper thread

Hugh, I believe these same tire dies were used for quite a few years with the Lesney England lettering gradually fading away as the dies continued to wear. The discussion on the #16 Plough Truck having faint and almost unreadable Lesney England on the sidewalls of the GPW versions means that some of these same worn dies were still in use to cast those later GPW tires. I have an idea that the sidewall letter detailing may have been left off the later replacement tire dies because of cost, leading to "Mixing" of both lettered, non-lettered, and faintly lettered wheels on certain models as time went on. A mention of this fading lettering in Nicks listings may be proper as a subnote, but noting their use on certain variations in any coding guide just seems as though it could never be in any way kept accurate. The fully lettered easiest to read wheels are generally on the earliest examples of this 2C, but as later codes are looked at in detail, the lettering is seen fading away on these front tires. If Lesney meant to purposefully remove the sidewall lettering at some point, they would have done a much better job of it on those dies in question. Cheers, Kwakers

if there are wheels (without the extension) on the thick axle supports that have the faded imprint, then such imprint could/should be found on all the other models using this size wheel. Either that or it's an error.

Between us, we have several 16c snow ploughs with mixed grey wheels (lettered and unlettered), and black wheels with a clear imprint of Lesney England are recorded on the 3c dumper. I'm sure Kwakers is right to suggest that it might be too difficult to document all variations with the lettered wheels, but it would be interesting to know whether they're on anything else. My feeling is that they're not very common (but I'm often wrong!).