Glasgow tram no.472 was one of the first series of four hundred 'standard' cars built by Glasgow Corporation between 1899 and 1904. Originally open-topped, 472 was one of relatively few selected to be fitted with an 'unobtrusive' covered top to the upper saloon in 1906, which is the car is modelled. Most of these cars were used on the Sinclair Drive route for which the sides of the upper saloon were pained red, but 472 is reliably recorded as having started off on the 'white' route to Glasgow University. At that time Glasgow trams used a trolley-pole rather than the more familiar bow-collector which was standardised there in the 1930's; the model is provided with both.
There is no internal strengthening bulkhead to the "unobtrusive" top cover which is why most of them self-dismantled (ie fell to bits) by the mid 1920's. They were replaced first by a much more sturdy open-balcony structure incorporating two bulkheads of naval strength (still to be seen on Glasgow tram 22 at Crich), and latterly by the all-enclosed upper saloon which forms the 'classic' Glasgow tram in many people's minds (and which, for the nervous, still retained the bulkheads).
In contrast, the lower saloon and driver's platforms, as well as mechanical components such as the Brill 21E truck, proved extremely long-lasting; car 472 duly acquired an all-enclosed upper saloon and an enclosed 'round dash' driver's vestibule, and was only finally broken up in 1958; indeed, many of the class were still in operation when the Glasgow tramways closed in 1962. More recently, preserved sister car 22 operated all summer in Glasgow at the 1988 Garden Festival, and is still one of the regular operational trams at the Crich National Tramway Museum to this day in virtually the same ornate 'white' livery as that in which car 472 is modelled.
This model won a Bronze Medal at the 1989/90 Model Engineer Exhibition.