The Opperman Motocart: three wheels and a standing driver

The driver of Dinky’s Opperman Motocart stands behind a single front wheel, with a broad load bed immediately behind him. There is no enclosed cab. Our museum example combines a green chassis, brown body and red wheel centres.

The real Motocart was a compact working vehicle for jobs such as carrying produce around market gardens. It came from S. E. Opperman, an engineering firm with a factory at Stirling Corner near Borehamwood.

The company had a surprisingly long connection with transport. Elstree & Borehamwood Museum traces its roots to a nineteenth-century watchmaking and engineering business, followed by electric cars around the turn of the twentieth century.