Diana 45

[jonnyone]

I'm not sure if this has happened to other members here but every now and again I make (to me at least) a small discovery on the collecting journey.

I dont claim to know all there is to know of the Diana/Original 45 but I thought that I had the basic history of things. So, not too long ago on seeing a fairly clean example of what I thought was the last of the model- the T01, I decided I would phone and purchae the gun. Further photos confirmed it as pretty clean and so I went ahead and purchased.

Now I knew that the last of the 45's were basically a model 34/6/8 series gun dressed up as a 45 and so when the gun arrived I wasnt surpised. Indeed this was what I was looking for. The lack of tell take stock cross bolt grommets above the trigger was a giveaway. I wanted an example of the last production 45 to roll off the line.

What I wasnt expecting was this example was actually marked up 45 T05 with capital "TS" beneath. I have presviously (from memory) seen two T01 examples over the years but not a T05. And I have no idea what the TS stands for.

There are no huge differences other than the model designation on the cylinder though the stroke of this example does appear longer than an 88 model 34 that I compared it to and an infinetly longer stroke than the early 45 examples that I also have.

Firslty does anyone know of this model designation? And out of interest are there other examples from other manufacturers where a model has perhaps lived on in another guise -longer than that percieved by collectors???
EDIT: one unusual thing with this gun is that it came with Truglow sights. I initially thought this was a later addition by a previous owner as I wasn't sure when these started to get fitted to guns. However having removed the fore sight I can see the muzzle was shaped at factory to accept this form of open sight. A friend of mine suggested that the TS designation on the cylinder may stand for Truglow- sights. Quite plausible I guess?

Cheers
Dave