Meccano and Model Railway Links

[Guest dilbert]

I recently came across this site which has some interesting "metal kit" building challenges, however this is linked to Frank Hornby's ingenious other "toy" - Meccano. This may ring a bell with other members, but I suspect very few would have had Meccano kits like this ...

 

First up is 4-6-4 Baltic tank - and this is to 1:12 scale - the loco according to the instructions measures 3' 8" (1110 mm ) in length, it must weigh in at quite a few kilos as well (note that the average weight of a N°1, 25 hole strip is ~35 grammes and this model requires 55 of these strips = just slightly over 1.9 kgs only for this part ... the instructions are fascinating to read, minimal photos but with a vocabulary and style that seems to have (unfortunately ?) disappeared...

 

http://www.nzmeccano...ing=baltic+tank

 

http://www.nzmeccano...ing=baltic+tank

 

From the same epoch, the Railway Service Crane

 

http://www.nzmeccano...g=railway+crane

 

http://www.nzmeccano.com/image-19128

 

http://www.nzmeccano.com/image-19140

 

And other diverse photos :

 

http://www.nzmeccano...&string=railway

 

http://www.nzmeccano...&string=railway

 

http://www.nzmeccano...&string=railway

 

http://www.nzmeccano...&string=railway

 

... dilbert

[Jenny Emily]

Many years ago I remember being taken by my Grandmother to see a gentleman in Hull whose whole front room was taken up by a working model of a crane made from Meccano. It filled the room. The rest of the house had many more huge Meccano models, and one room devoted to nothing but Hornby O gauge. This being nearly twenty years ago now, and my Grandmother having passed away (and she was around the same age as him) I often wonder what happened to it all.

[Kenton]

A big fan of Meccano as a child - many a Xmas and Birthday present plus paper round money went their way.

It probably came before and above my love of model railways - I think the biggest model I built was a model plane complete with rotating props. If only I had known there was a plan for a loco (perhaps my father kept such things quiet/censored - it wasn't exactly cheap to buy the parts. The metal strip had a habit of cutting and trapping tiny fingers and the nuts and bolts never seemed to go through the holes you intended.

 

Great stuff - toys were really boys toys in those days.

[Guest dilbert]

The strange thing about these images is that the sheer size of these models is very deceptive, i.e. they look a lot smaller than in reality. It is still Impressive stuff...

 

The Meccano brand seems to survive the generations and trends .. the nipper, who is now fourteen, was building Meccano (albeit initially plastic) models from the exploded diagrams without assistance before he could even read. A few years ago, we used to go around the local car boot sales and pick up bits 'n pieces and part finished models for modicum prices. A recent tidy up in the garage has revealed a batch of stuff that even I had forgotten about - some of this does need restoring (at least seventy years old), which should be an interesting exercise. Another retirement project, no doubt... dilbert

[peach james]

I can remember dad making a meccano crane for me in 1980, when I was 4 or so. I think there might even be a photo of it around somewhere. Dad had up to set 6 in the UK, it went ~10 years ago, via his cousin Ian. He'd offered it to me, but that was conditional on me paying the shipping...

 

I rather Lego myself:

 

 

(it even includes railway, so is topical!)

 

James