Essex Models and Miniatures

Some time ago I wrote an article on the Triang Arkitex and mentioned back then that I remembered the sets having red girders and I quote “Back in the early sixties when I was a small lad, I remember having a girder building kit, for years it eluded me as to what it was until a few years ago after seeing the Triang Arkitex online, it seemed familiar but in the deep corridors of my memory I thought the girders were red, maybe I was getting mixed up with the Matchbox girder truck, it was 50 years ago I had these.

I was right but had the wrong sets, what I had was the Chad Valley Girder and panel building set No1

When I removed the lid over 50 years of time rolled back and there I was six years old again.

The red girders as I remember them and the thin moulded panels, this was it, this is what I had.

Since then I have acquired a second set, The Chad Valley Bridge and road building set.

This was one I never had but made sense to add to the previous set, in time I will post some pictures of it made up but until then leave you with the pictures of these unique and possibly rare construction sets.

These sets were manufactured in the UK by Chad Valley and sold up until the middle 1990s when it was discontinued.

In the UK, Kenner licensed the Girder and Panel brand to the nearly 100 year-old toy company, Chad Valley. The sets were nearly identical.

Chad Valley started way back in 1860 as a stationary printers and went on to make board games, the name Chad Valley came from a local brook/stream called the Chad in Harbourne.

One history says that Chad Valley were taken over by Palitoys in 1978 and Woolworth’s in 1988, though apparently continuing to use the trademark.

In the US, similar sets were made and sold by Kenner (under various partnerships/owners including Sears and General Mills) and called “Bridge and Turnpike” rather than “Bridge and Roadways.” They have also been discontinued. From 1992-1996 a Canadian company, Irwin, also produced Girder and Panel sets, though they appear to have been mainly the sets to construct buildings and not roads and bridges. They too have now ceased production.

Kenner sets are more often blue coloured girders but are from the same mouldings, the panels do differ but would fit in with the Chad Valley sets.

There is also a new company called Bridge Street Toys which seem to be making the parts again, to check it out Click Here or on the link below.

http://www.bridgestreettoys.com/