Bedford Cabs

I couldn't resist buying this old Army Fuel Tanker that was going cheap and which had caught my eye because of the cab. As far as I know all the 1134 models have the old 'Big' Bedford cab.

Then I started to think about it a bit more and remembered that the other two uses of the tanker section were the Mobilgas and Milk editions, each of which gets issued with a new cab and, in those cases, a new number.

The US Army fuel tanker first appears in January 1965. But the Bedford TK style cab had been pulling the 1131 Machinery Carrier and the Low Loader in November 1963, more than a year earlier! Indeed, it is that TK cab that gets to pull the US Army Machinery Carrier issued as 1135 at the very same time as the 1134 Fuel Tanker.

Whilst I appreciate that the Mobilgas and Milk tankers didn't get new cabs until later in 1965, it does strike me as most odd that Corgi should have attached the old S type cab to the Tanker and the new TK one to the Carrier when the TK would have been then then 'current' cab for all these articulated models.

It is, therefore, entirely reasonable to see a 1134 with the TK cab but what I feel is that this is a combination by someone at some point in time and that somewhere in someone's loft lurk a khaki 1135 and an old S type cab in a similar colour. Whilst what I have bought is possible to have existed, I suspect it didn't really.

So now I am searching for old army trailers and khaki S Type cabs! Both 1134 and 1135 were produced in very paltry numbers, though, and had a lifespan of only a year or so at best. They're quite sought after now so my chances are pretty slim.