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hi dave, your ladder needs turning around, pips should be to the rear lol,

motorman wrote:Ghosty's rational about the ladder possibly coming from the Y-6 is a very plausible explanation for many ladder swaps and must be considered.

I note that the Merryweather i have has the red/brown ladder with small "Pips" and is identical to the ladder shown on the Y-6 image Ghosty posted making it pre 1980. The ladder in Daves' image has the more pronounced rounded pips making it post 1980.

Can it therefore be concluded that if the ladder on my model is pre 1980 then my Merryweather could very well have left the factory with this ladder?

I have tried to remove the ladder from my model and it would not budge, it is a nice tight fit!!

hi, i be more than happy with this model, i would say it could had left the factory like this, sometimes we look too hard for a reason/answer, as i said before it was a production line, if it came to hand it went on the model, and as you only paided 50p there can be no thoughts of deception on behalf of the seller, if it worrys you i give you a quid or 2 for it lol

jeff f wrote:

motorman wrote:Ghosty's rational about the ladder possibly coming from the Y-6 is a very plausible explanation for many ladder swaps and must be considered.

I note that the Merryweather i have has the red/brown ladder with small "Pips" and is identical to the ladder shown on the Y-6 image Ghosty posted making it pre 1980. The ladder in Daves' image has the more pronounced rounded pips making it post 1980.

Can it therefore be concluded that if the ladder on my model is pre 1980 then my Merryweather could very well have left the factory with this ladder?

I have tried to remove the ladder from my model and it would not budge, it is a nice tight fit!!

hi, i be more than happy with this model, i would say it could had left the factory like this, sometimes we look too hard for a reason/answer, as i said before it was a production line, if it came to hand it went on the model, and as you only paided 50p there can be no thoughts of deception on behalf of the seller, if it worrys you i give you a quid or 2 for it lol

Mmmmmnnn let me think about that

motorman wrote:Ghosty i have seen at least 4 examples of these ladders appearing on 1969 models in the past week on ebay, including the Merryweather i picked up today. The dates just dont add up? why:?

We are going back to wanting to see sealed, untampered-with blister-card mounted Merryweather models, with a Tan or a Brown ladder fitted. For this to happen, the ladders would have to exist in those Two colours, with small and large 'End-Pips' before the end of this model's deletion from the range in 1974 (for the single model), and 1979 (for the 'Twin-Pack' model).

If the reference books are to be believed, all full production Merryweather models were fitted with a White 'Smooth' ladder. By 1978 when the model was added to the 'Twin-Pack' range, this ladder had been modified with the addition of small 'End-Pips' and re-coloured to Orange-Red for inclusion on to the Rolls-Royce 'Fire Engine', introduced during early 1977, it is natural to assume the Orange-Red ladder would find it's way onto the Merryweather, but so far I have not seen any 'Twin-Pack' Merryweather models with one fitted, still sealed on the blister-card packaging, they have all been White ladders!

Models taken out of their packaging for various reasons known only to their owners (for playing-with perhaps!), it seems natural one Day to replace the ladder with another one, but where are you going to get a replacement from? the only other model to use the ladder upto the introduction of the more recent 'Fire Engine' range of around 6 models, was the Rolls-Royce, but it's ladder is Orange-Red upto 1981, then White (with large rounded 'End-Pips), from 1983 onwards.

GHOSTHUNTER.

Hi all. I guess this ladder without end pips qualifies for 1973 - 74 colour trial (base has four rivets). I bought this example back in 2009. Are u sure about the YY origin of small square and big rounded pips on ladder, Ghosthunter ? Professor F seems to consider two types of ladder being in production from 73 to 75 (He calls end pips "end extension"). When was this casting phased out by the way ? End of 74 or first semester of 75 ?

I honestly never thought buying a 50p Merryweather would cause so much debate or as Mick likes to call it "a great racket"

Hello Matchboom, yes, I am happy with the account of the history of the ladders as I mention them in my post and as depicted by a senior member of staff at Lesney in the 'Forty Years' book about colour change and 'End-Pip' size and from my own collection of 'Yesteryear' Y-6 Rolls-Royce 'Fire Engines', I have recorded 8 types of ladder fitted to the Rolls-Royce, none of then coming from the Merryweather model and I only mentioned significant dates for these in my earlier posts.

Your single model with the smooth ladder looks great and on my laptop the ladder looks to be in a Red colour, a known 'Pre-Pro' ladder colour.

GHOSTHUNTER.

Unfortunatly, some media say the ladder for the Y-6 Rolls-Royce was borrowed from #22, 'Blaze Buster' but the ladder is actually different at one end to allow it's fixture to the model.

GHOSTHUNTER.

motorman wrote:I honestly never thought buying a 50p Merryweather would cause so much debate or as Mick likes to call it "a great racket"

Yes, your big mistake was saying the ladder was a so and so...

Ghosty.

Let's throw this one in found it on the interweb so can't say anything about it