Some time ago, I was approached by a pas­sion­ate col­lec­tor. He had an eye for the rare Dinky Toys 48 Petrol Fill­ing and Ser­vice Sta­tion. First intro­duced to the pub­lic in the June 1935 issue of Mec­ca­no Mag­a­zine, this mod­el had unique charm, part­ly because its pro­duc­tion last­ed only a short time before com­ing to a halt at the start of World War II.

Dinky Toys 48 Petrol Filling and Service Station advertised in Meccano Magazine, June 1935

Vir­tu­al­ly impos­si­ble to find, let along in good con­di­tion, the No. 48 Petrol Fill­ing and Ser­vice Sta­tion — which was pro­duced from 1935 to 1941 and lat­er from 1945 to 1946 — encap­su­lates the peak of tin­plate crafts­man­ship from the ear­ly Dinky era and stands out for its vivid lith­o­graph­ic detail­ing and peri­od brand­ing, a rare sur­vivor of 1930s toy-mak­ing ele­gance.

A near pristine Dinky 48 Petrol Filling and Service Station
Image: J K Diecast Models

The col­lec­tor want­ed noth­ing less than a paper repro­duc­tion of this icon­ic sta­tion, com­plete with all the orig­i­nal details. With a smile, he told me, “I’ve dreamed of own­ing an orig­i­nal for years, but the prices on the mar­ket are sim­ply out of reach.” I promised him I would recre­ate the mod­el, pro­vid­ed I could find the right images of the charm­ing ser­vice house.

After exten­sive search­ing through archives and old adver­tise­ments, I final­ly found the per­fect image. The sta­tion was made in var­i­ous col­or com­bi­na­tions of green, blue and orange bases and green, yel­low and brown roofs. With this infor­ma­tion in hand, I set to work. First, I care­ful­ly sketched out the con­struc­tion details, made a pro­to­type, and adjust­ed it until each part fit togeth­er per­fect­ly.

I start­ed by craft­ing the base plate, fol­lowed by the ser­vice house, the roof, and the roof bor­der, each piece cre­at­ed sep­a­rate­ly. The com­po­nents were rein­forced with card­board and cov­ered with thick col­ored paper. One by one, these parts were glued onto the base plate. As a final touch, I posi­tioned the red crown on the roof. proud­ly dis­play­ing the station’s name. When the ser­vice sta­tion was final­ly com­plete, it felt like an homage to a bygone era and a trib­ute to crafts­man­ship of the past.

The col­lec­tor received the mod­el with a broad smile and told me that, although he had wished for an orig­i­nal, this paper repro­duc­tion touched him even more. It was not just a copy but a work of art: a piece of his­to­ry reborn in a new, arti­sanal way.