2005 Meetings

October 2005

John Day (all the way from Devon) is in the process of building a small Block Setting Crane as published in the November 1960 Meccano Magazine. The instructions were supplemented by editor’s notes. John is using parts that he has re-sprayed to an excellent standard with 30 x 5½” angle girders required.

Neil Bedford recently decided to build two simple models . These were of a Land Rover in medium red and green from a #8 set instructions and a 3-wheeler from the October 1960 MM. A Magic Motor powered the car.

Sam Medworth showed a series of the currently available £5 models from Calais, using the new spring steel parts. Each model is supplied with a small number of extra parts. When the series of models has been bought, there are enough parts to build the bonus model. The models were a Cabin Cruiser, Quad Bike, Grab Crane, Skidoo, Helicopter, Motorcycle and sidecar, and the bonus model which was a Catamaran.

Tony Lavender has built a parallelogram linkage Weighing Scale. This was to demonstrate its ability to stop a merchant selling under weight goods through placing them at different distances from the fulcrum. Tony had constructed some over-hung weights to demonstrate the principles.

Dave Northcott has constructed a Bluebird land speed breaking car out of a mixture of pre-war, Calais and 1978-9 Blue Meccano. The different blues were hardly evident.

Richard Smith showed his #10 set model of the Snow Loading Machine, which we saw earlier. A battery pack has now been fitted.

Peter Evans also attended and is just about to start building the Super Model Luffing Crane.

July 2005

This meeting enjoyed good weather which allowed us to display models out in the garden as well as in the house.

Sam Medworth had previously been involved in an exhibition to mark the 60th anniversary of the end of WWII. For this he had created several models of the era including an early mono-plane model, an anti-aircraft gun made from Mechanised Army parts, a No3 set tank and a battle cruiser model from a mid-30s H set manual. He brought all these models along for us to enjoy, with some posters and examples of wartime Meccano Magazines, to show how these "shrank" during the war due to paper shortages.

Paul Montacute had a Modern Supermodels version of a traction engine which looked lovely but which he thought was not as technically well designed as he would have liked.

John Harwood, who we welcome to the fold, brought along a tank and transporter made from 1970s Army set parts.

David Northcote had built a recent Constructor’s Quarterly version of Sir Malcolm Campbell’s Bluebird car. Very similar to the 30s No.6 set model, it none-the-less improved upon it in various ways, for instance, by having working steering.

Richard Smith had taken a break from his big models and came with a very convincing Star Wars ‘enemy’ space cruiser model.

Having brought his late 30s blue and gold sets along to the Exhibition in April, Malcolm complemented this by displaying his earlier mid-30s blue and gold sets which ranged from an 'A' up to the ‘super’ 'L' set.

January 2005

  • Ron’s Supermodel-of-the-moment was No.31 Goods Warehouse with Electric Elevators. A fine model of its period, it even had a built-in safety brake should the cables supporting the lifts snap.
  • Richard Mackriell came with a small car from a 60s manual which came in very useful when we were planning the constraints for this year’s scrapheap challenge (see above)!
  • David Northcott had a Pat Briggs designed orrery, featuring Venus as well as the Earth and the Sun. Apparently the Venusian day is shorter that the Venusian year, or is it the other way around, but not many people know that!
  • David Hobson had a good range of sets and models from the French firm of Constructor. The basic unit in the earlier sets was a rhombus shaped girder unit which they developed in a range of ways over the years. David also had examples of metal architectural construction sets. There was Bricktor from the States made by the Erector firm and Corus from France.
  • Malcolm brought an example of an early American rival to Meccano called American Modell Builder together with early American Meccano sets. Frank Hornby took AMB to court in the ‘teens’ for breach of copyright and eventually succeeded but at considerable cost.
  • Sorry no pictures this time!