Issued 1963-66    Length 110mm    OO/HO scale (1:76)

 

The Bulk Milk Tanker was the second Budgie model to be based on an Albion truck. The same casting was used for the cab and chassis as the Bulk Flour Tanker (288) with the milk tank replacing the flour silos.

 

The cab and chassis were one casting with clear windows in the cab and silver trim on the front headlights. Initially painted dark blue, a late version was coloured red and this is quite rare. As with the earlier Albion model, three different bases were used on the Bulk Milk Tanker in an attempt to incorporate suspension.

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The first (type 1) base was painted glossy black and had 'No.292 Bulk Milk' cast under the cab, 'A Budgie Model' in the centre and 'Made in England' at the rear. The axles, apart from the front one, were fitted into V-shaped extensions and held in place by spikes or pins cast onto the chassis above. One of the advantages of this was that the axles had some 'play' and thus gave the model a simple suspension effect.

 

However, for some reason Budgie chose to change this to a second base (type 2) which had the V-shaped extensions filled in, strengthened and rounded, and 'Made in England' at the rear re-cast with smaller lettering. Both the type 1 & type 2 bases seem to have been fairly interchangeable, and models in C1 open sided packs reverted to type 1 bases.

 

The redesigned type 3 bases incorporated a good attempt at suspension with the introduction of plastic springs above the first and fourth axles. These were fixed to the base at the centre with two arms, like an inverted 'V', pressing on each end of the axle. This type 3 base was used on both the later blue and the red models and was fitted with ridged plastic wheels with knobbly tyres.

 

The tank of the Bulk Milk Tanker was painted pale cream and carried long decals on each side claiming 'You'll feel a lot better if you drink more Milk'. On the rear there was a further 'Milk' decal. The tank was held in place by a central peg and two rivets from the base. 

 

Issued first with silver plastic wheels and treaded tyres, a final run saw the use of smaller ridged silver plastic wheels with knobbly tyres. These were the only wheels used on the red version.

 

Boxes for the Bulk Milk Tanker were initially the standard 'Budgie Models' box (B2) with a descriptive panel on one face. Later, Budgie used blue and white open sided window packs with shrink-wrap (C1) and most of the late models with ridged plastic wheels were sold in these.

 

The blue Bulk Milk Tanker is not hard to find but the red model is fairly rare.