Benbros Mighty Midgets

No.28 Foden Chain Lorry

The Benbros No.28 Chain Lorry used the Foden cab & chassis from No.20 Flat Truck and No.21 Diesel Wagon with a new body.  In the 1950's, chain lorries were a familiar sight transporting milk in large aluminium churns and the Benbros model is a neat representation.

Like its predecessors, the cab & chassis section was a single casting onto which the wheels were directly fixed negating the need for a base. Underneath 'Benbros', 'Qualitoy' and 'Made in England' were cast. The body was a simple flat-bed onto which were cast six posts joined by metal bands representing chains.

The first versions of the Chain Lorry were painted either yellow or bright red. The yellow versions had silver trim picking out the chains, headlights, grille, bumper and the fuel tank on the chassis but the red models only had trim on the chains. The wheels were unpainted metal on nail-head & crimped axles. 

As with earlier Foden models, Benbros produced the Chain Lorry in a range of colours. Those fitted with metal wheels included a mid-red version with round-head & crimped axles, pale blue, metallic blue, mid-blue and green, all with silver trim. There was also a beige variation with red trim and a rare beige one with silver trim.

When Benbros switched to black plastic wheels, both the blue (slightly darker) and green models were fitted with these as well as a new darker red version.

Sold only in a Mighty Midget box, the illustration indicated that maybe Benbros had planned another design for the Chain Lorry which did not work out. The box showed a four-wheel AEC vehicle with only four chain-posts whereas the final model was a Foden truck with eight-wheels and six posts.

Finding the Chain Lorry is harder than one might expect and mint versions are often scarce. Some colours are rare, such as metallic blue, beige and green.

Variation 1 : yellow, full silver trim, umw

Variation 2 : bright red, partial silver trim, umw

Benbros No.28 Foden Chain Lorry

Variations

All models had Mighty Midget boxes

(1) YELLOW                 SILVER trim          SILVER chains                umw

(2) BRIGHT RED          No front trim         SILVER chains                 umw

(3) MID-RED                SILVER trim           SILVER chains                umw

(4) PALE-BLUE            SILVER trim           SILVER chains                umw

(5) BEIGE                    RED trim                 RED chains                     umw

(6) BEIGE                    SILVER trim            SILVER chains                umw

(7) METALLIC BLUE    SILVER trim           SILVER chains                umw

(8) MID-BLUE              SILVER trim            SILVER chains                umw

(9) GREEN                  SILVER trim            SILVER chains                 umw

(10) DARK-BLUE         SILVER trim            SILVER chains                bpw

(11) GREEN                 SILVER trim            DARK-GREEN chains     bpw

(12) DARK-RED           SILVER trim            SILVER chains                bpw

Variation 3 : mid-red, umw (round-head axles)

Variation 9 : green, umw

Variation 11 : green, dark-green chains, bpw

Different colours of red

Variation 4 : pale-blue, umw

Variation 8 : mid-blue, umw

Variation 10 : dark-blue, bpw

Variation 12 : dark-red, bpw

Two types of wheels