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i was going through some cases today and i found a couple of muir hill dumpers and i checked the base for the newly found no hole variation...well they both had holes...but i noticed one hole was smaller than the other...i took a pic and i think you can see the size different

i tried measuring but its a tight fit and i kept getting different results...so i gave up

Looks like you have two different sized front wheels on that right hand casting!
What's the story with these holes in bases? There seems to be a handful of different regular wheels models with these holes. They also seem to be on the earlier castings of each model, so are they pre-production models or something?

Cheers Steve
Matchboxkiwi

I agree, the highlighted BPW looks to be thinner than the others and the highlighted injector rings are larger.

Further evidence to Lesney using two sets of moulds for maximum production capacity, I do not know what purpose the holes on this model serve.

If you do want to measure the holes, carefully place a piece of thin, cone-shaped card in the hole, and with a really sharp pointed pencil, draw round the card while its in the hole, take the card out, open it up and measure the line on the card, with practice you will master this for any future casting holes etc.

GHOSTHUNTER.

GHOSTHUNTER wrote:I do not know what purpose the holes on this model serve.

We've discussed this previously and the conclusion was the the addition of holes to the baseplates marked the move away from the spray painting of loose components lying horizontally on a chain belt to the same components being suspended vertically on hooks. (I assume this gave better paint coverage and may even have removed the need to turn parts over in order to obtain even coverage on both sides.)

Hello Idris, yes I was fully aware of the reason you give and have seen pictures of models being sprayed in this way, on hooks, but when the castings have natural holes, such as this one does, the axle housings, I wonder why they would introduce more holes!

GHOSTHUNTER.

GHOSTHUNTER wrote:Hello Idris, yes I was fully aware of the reason you give and have seen pictures of models being sprayed in this way, on hooks, but when the castings have natural holes, such as this one does, the axle housings, I wonder why they would introduce more holes!

My guess would be that the new holes were positioned such that the component would hang evenly, i.e they are on the centreline of the casting. Presumably this meant that the hooks could be spaced closer together (especially if they also rotated in order to facilitate even paint distribution).

AH YES! I can see that, thank's Idris.

GHOSTHUNTER.

Brad Pittiful wrote:i was going through some cases today and i found a couple of muir hill dumpers and i checked the base for the newly found no hole variation...well they both had holes...but i noticed one hole was smaller than the other...i took a pic and i think you can see the size different

i tried measuring but its a tight fit and i kept getting different results...so i gave up

Hi Dan,

Methinks that the two models in your picture are examples of the earlier and later casting, respectively, with the thinner and thicker axle supports.

Having looked at the models in my own collection, I believe that all early castings with the thinner axle supports have a slightly smaller hole (that is if they do have a hole!) and all late castings with the thicker axle supports have a slightly larger hole.

So no additional variation this time - I think!

thanks for your input Christian!