BAYKO Storage Box

This really was quite a difficult entry for me to place. Eventually I've settled for its inclusion within the Packaging section, primarily because it's made of cardboard, though, in reality, it is 'packaging for the home', rather than the more conventional usage.
Animation showing BAYKO Storage Boxes with and without labels

Animation showing BAYKO Storage Box interior
The BAYKO Storage Box itself comprises six separate pieces : -
Lid : -
With or without the standard 1950s BAYKO Building Set label, but a shallow affair, just 1.5 inches - 38.1 mm deep, i.e. NOT extending the full depth of the box. [right]
Box : -
Simplistically this is a deeper, 5 inches - 127 mm, version of the usual post-war set # 3 box, with a pair of 1⅜ inch - 34.9 mm high supports for the Small Tray.
Partitioning : -
The box [above] includes a rectangular card section, without a bottom piece, which both partitions the box and supports the Large Tray. It's roughly the length and width of a slightly truncated set #2X box, and is 3⅛ inch - 79.4 mm high. [Roofs?]
Mini Section : -
I hesitate to call this a Tray, though, with four [deep] sides and a base, that's really what it is. This also helps to support the Large Tray. It is 3⅛ inch - 79.4 mm high.
Small Tray : -
The 1¾ inches - 44.5 mm deep, Small Tray has seven sections, made by gluing 3 mini-trays across, making the Tray strong and rigid. One section occupies around 30% of the Tray. [for Domes, etc?] This Tray sits to one side, on the supports provided, and also supports the Large Tray. A little surprisingly there are no cloth tabs to facilitate removal.
Large Tray : -
The 1½ inch - 38.1 mm deep, Large Tray has three rows [separated by 2, pre-cut, cross pieces], of 7 sections [made with 3, spaced mini-trays, as above], one section is slightly larger than the others. The Large Tray sits inside the box, resting on top.
This tray is fitted with cloth lifting tabs, to facilitate handling.
All that means that, within the cardboard infrastructure, there are 30 distinct, separate divisions which little Johnnie or Jenny could use to hold a variety of BAYKO parts - but it doesn't stop there! The box yields three further, identifiable storage areas formed by the positioning of the infrastructure, though not actually part of it : -
Other Storage 1 : -
There is, effectively, a modest, secondary storage space, underneath the Small Tray, between its card supports.
Other Storage 2 : -
Again, there is another such storage space, alongside / between the Partition and Mini-Section. [for Bases?]
Other Storage 3 : -
Finally the accumulative cardboard infrastructure, as described above, is just lower than the inside of the box, by about ⅛ inch - 3 mm, leaving a little room [section 33!!!] for manuals and other literature.
Clearly some significant, practical thought, by an experienced BAYKO user [player?] had gone into the total BAYKO Storage Box design package.
The method of manufacture is essentially the same as that used for both the standard set boxes and the cardboard Retail Display Cabinets, producing a box which was strong enough to cope with careful, rather than vigorous, handling by the young BAYKO collector.
As I've already alluded to, to date two distinct versions of BAYKO Storage Boxes have been identified. They exhibit two distinct differences: -
Firstly, and the most obvious difference, is that the style [left] was manufactured with the standard 1950s set box label. The second style [right] clearly does not include this label.
Secondly, there is a more subtle difference in the size of the tabs fitted to the Small Trays. The label-less version has broad, robust, cloth tabs to lift out the Tray, whereas the labelled version has much thinner [less robust] cloth tabs.
If forced to choose, I believe the label-free, chunky cloth tab version is the later of the two, cost saving and weakness elimination, respectively, being the most likely drivers.
The purpose of the BAYKO Storage Box is surely self-explanatory, but, of course, individual BAYKO collections are all different. As the letter [below, left] says, none of the individual storage sections are labelled [unlike their Retail Display Cabinet equivalents] leaving the young modeller free to devise his or her own storage strategy!
Brief letter from Plimpton about the use of the BAYKO Storage Boxes.
For completeness, I've included the full, if modest, text of the accompanying letter in the small table [right] : -
MEMO RE USE OF STORAGE BOX.
As this container is intended for use with varying collections of Bayko, we have not included a specific layout of parts.
It will be interesting for you to plan the use of the various divisions to the best advantage.
These BAYKO Storage Boxes can easily absorb a set #4 and more, making them aspirational rather that essential, though how on earth can you aspire to something you don't even know about
I've been collecting BAYKO, on and off, for over sixty years, and, until relatively recently, I'd never actually heard of these Storage Boxes. Of course I've come across lots of wooden 'Dad boxes', parental carpentry projects for housing those treasured collections, and it's easy to conclude that most of these wouldn't have existed if the [free?] availability of 'official' BAYKO Storage Boxes had been more widely known!
Given the lack of any relevant printed resource, I cannot provide any information at all on either the ordering procedure for these BAYKO Storage Boxes or the charging [purchase or postage] in respect of these transactions…
A further point of frustration is that the accompanying letter is undated, so we don't even know exactly when it, and the Storage Box, were in use. However, we can pin the date down a little, as the Plimpton address is given as Gibraltar Row, where BAYKO lived between 1938 and 1955, though the Storage Box colour scheme is very much post-war, and the label from 1949 to 1959. I can't see this sort of cardboard guzzler existing in the immediate post-war austerity years, so I suspect 1950 to 1955 to be most likely. However, up to 1959 must remain a strong possibility, though any associated correspondence would certainly need to have been printed on paper with an updated letterhead reflecting the updated address.
Thanks to Robin Throp for first bringing this to my attention and to Stan Curran who provided many of the images here.
Finally, it's also been suggested, though with no concrete evidence, that these BAYKO Storage Boxes could have doubled as Salesmen's Sample Boxes. The [later?] label-free version, with no BAYKO branding, perhaps gives the lie to this, but it must remain a possibility.
There's always an alternative precedent somewhere!
Let me explain - BAYKO Collectors Club member, Peter Crooke, has been digging into his memory banks for us. In the small, local, toy shop of his childhood, the owner used one of these Storage Boxes as a container for his working stock of BAYKO spare parts.  This particular shop was located on the corner of Seabank Road and Magazine Lane, Wallasey [CH45 5AL] on the Wirral, which, coincidentally, was also the Plimpton family's nearest toy shop, perhaps suggesting at least 'informal' acceptance of this scenario.  Coincidentally, another, good looking BAYKO collector lived not too far away in the mid 1970s, though with no memory of the shop in question - alas. To further complicate the linkages, a late friend of mine, Paula Brown, who also had a substantial BAYKO collection, lived in the same general area - the links roll on.
 
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