Oops - Manual Labour - Part 5A
Another One That Nearly Got Away! - A Post-War Addendum

Those of you with even a modest memory may well remember that when I wrote parts 1 and 2 of this series, covering pre-war manuals, a couple of years ago, I got it wrong. Within milliseconds of the second article going to press, Bob Burgess waded in with a previously unknown version of the 'New Series' manual, spawning Part 2A. Well, this time it's Chris Boutal, as the star, but the plot line is the same. However, Chris managed to score a double, beating Bob two faux pas to one in the embarrass Pete Bradley qualifier – good luck in the finals.

To explain: Chris has a previously unknown version of the pre-war manual – with a twist. The more common versions have either sixteen or twenty pages, whereas Chris's version has an even more austere eight pages. This steers me towards the theory that this would be the earliest post-war manual. As with many things, in life in general, and BAYKO in particular, I can't prove my assertion, but the desperation to get something out into the market, anything at all, is likely to have driven Plimpton in this direction.

Comparing this new version to its successor, the sixteen page version, the front cover [page 1] and pages 2 and 3 are identical. The first, modest change is to page 4, where the small table explaining the meaning of the various abbreviations used on the model plans is absent. Page 5 is again identical in both versions of the manual.

Page 6 is the site of a major difference. It shows two models which could be built from set 1, which was actually the largest available at the time, though neither the page, nor, indeed, the models appear in the 16 page successor. However, life never being simple where BAYKO is concerned, and both do appear in the third, and subsequent twenty page versions. The “Modern Bungalow” and the “Seaside Chalet” appear on pages 12 and 13, respectively.

Page 7 has a similar story to tell. It shows a “Double-Storey House and Garden”, which doesn't appear in the sixteen page version, but is on page 18 of the twenty page versions. By contrast, the “Bridge Signal Box”, also shown on page 7, doesn't take a second bow until page 25 of the 1948 set 3 manual!

Finally, if rather tamely, page 8, the back page, is [apart from the page number!] identical to the back page of the sixteen page version. A further detail is that the front cover of Chris's eight page manual carries a rubber stamp comment that “Larger Size Sets than No. 2. and 1“X” will not be available before June, 1947.”

Chris Boutal's second contribution to this 13th hour article is a new-found version of the 8-page post-war support leaflet “How to Build with BAYKO”. In fact this was the final of the three different versions which Plimpton produced and first saw the light of day in 1947.

The differences which make this version unique are strictly limited. Page 8, which comprises the list of prices of all the “BAYKO separate parts” which were available at the time, carries two additional lines of script "Purchase Tax must be added to the above prices, at the rate of 3d. in the 1/-. Spare Parts cannot be supplied direct." Other than that, the other seven pages are identical to those in the slightly earlier second version.

The additional script can be found underneath the parts list itself, and immediately above the corporate details, at the bottom of the page.

As has been demonstrated twice already during this now seven part series on BAYKO Manuals, stating that we have finally reached the end of the series may be a little premature. However, keeping my fingers, and anything else I can legally do so, crossed, that is the end of the series…