Where have you gone Meccano?

[Paul Adsett]

I grew up with Meccano. It was, without a doubt, the best toy ever invented. I should not even use the word toy, because Meccano truly was real engineering in miniature. You could create fantastic working modesl of cranes, trucks, bridges, buildings, anything your mind could conceive. You could make all the incredible mechanisms ever used, such as differentials, epicylic linkages, pulley systems, continously variable transmissions, you name it. Did you know that the first artificial heart was conceived using Meccano? It was invented and manufactured in the UK and its hey day was the period of the 1930's thru 60's. America had the Erector system, which was closely related, but Meccano was bigger and better and more colorful.
Today, Meccano is a shadow of it's former self. It's name is used for cheap plastic and flimsy metal systems manufactured in China. It's not that bad, you can still make some fairly decent models with it, but it lacks the robustness and grandeur of the classic system.
Lego has the corner on construction systems. With a great product and massive marketing it has left Meccano in the dust. Lego Technic systems are great for learning about mechanical engineering, and they have some truly impressive models. But Lego lacks the flexibilty of Meccano, and the Lego sets are primarily stand alone systems. Lego of course is a plastic brick system, whereas Meccano is essentially a metal strip and plate system. Meccano models are less real looking than Lego, but somehow they seem more impressive.
Meccano is a system just waiting to be re-discovered and remanufactured as the classic system of sets.

If you want to see what Meccano can do just take a peek at this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UPC4RPjiehY

[Steve Klare]

Hi Paul,

When I was about 7 years old my grandparents were cleaning out their house for their move to Florida. I wound up with my Dad's 1940s vintage Gilbert Erector Set. I learned how to use a screwdriver and a wrench, I learned (by experience) NOT to stick my little fingers in the worm drive of the electric motor. (-Ouch!). I built the Ferris wheel and a bunch of little vehicles.

When my son was that age it was MineCraft. He'd use his cursor to apply virtual bricks, wood and stone and build up structures. He "built" my wife a house by the Sea and a Drive-In theater for me. It was creative in the sense of spatial thinking and planning and I'll give it that much. What bothered me is it didn't give him a feel for really building something: how it feels to sand a piece of wood or how tight a bolt should be. They don't have "Shop" classes in school anymore. I LOVED Shop: I used to go to the Extra Help sessions after school even though nobody said I needed to!

Last August we drove him out to Indiana to go to college. My wife's car was due for brake pads on all four corners. I did three wheels and he did one, with me as quality assurance. I saw to it that at least once this kid had dirt on his hands that wasn't virtual!

[Lee Mannering]

A long time ago now but in one of the old film making magazines they published a
Build your own 9.5 projector from Meccano, it was fascinating to me as a boy.

[Graham Ritchie]

Hi Paul

I look back to those early days of using Meccano as a time when you start using your hands, as how to put things together and pull apart with nuts and bolts. Its that experience in the practical feel at a young age that years later, you use as a motor mechanic or working on aircraft as examples.

Meccano is a great introduction to what might be the real thing one day.

[Brian Fretwell]

It seems they have gone mainly to single model kits now, none of the sets with a book of many things you can make, or invent your own. I managed to get a Number 10 (the largest) kit when a shop was closing, I think they had had a fire. When I was at secondary school. It is still in a box (not the original) somewhere in the house.

I never did make all the models. Perhaps I should have got it out for "lockdown".

[Steve Klare]

What bothers me about things like Lego coming with a set of parts and a one project set of instructions is even though it's good to be able to follow instructions (VERY good, actually!), it's also important for the kid to imagine something on his own and build that! Kits, yes. Big bin of miscellaneous shapes, yes too!

-yes, we need people that can transport and place steel and weld and rivet and paint, but somebody needs to design the bridge in the first place!

OH! -and Lego bricks have sharp corners and really hurt middle-aged feet when you step on one! Until my son was maybe 15 I never walked into a room barefoot without enough light to see what I was stepping on!

(We have cats now: same problem...different...textures!😝)

[Graham Ritchie]

Talking about Meccano reminded me of this huge and very heavy book I bought new long ago, there are over 400 complete magazines and features in it.

Its a wealth of information, at the time it was very expensive to buy, and I am not sure if its still in print.

Its well worth getting.

[Brian Fretwell]

I have a feeling that Meccano was sold to a French company quite a few years ago now and they took it to the kit only idea we see now. I'll have to checck up on that.

[Ali Hipperson]

I bought my nephew a pretty good Meccano Set for his 10th birthday, it came in a retro-style box and, if I remember correctly, you could build a few different kits from it??

Growing up I remember one of my elder brothers having a Meccano Set which I occasionally dabbled with, but if I'd had my own set and persevered then I might have started on the correct road to acquiring some basic and decent mechanical (and then electrical) skills - rather than having virtually zero ability in these matters, which would really come in handy nowadays in our hobby! 🙄 Steve, you're SO right!

Of course, Meccano was the creation of Frank Hornby, whose other great creation was the OO Gauge model railway for the masses who didn't have the wealth or living-space of the more affluent.

Along with the subject of this Forum, model-railways are my other great hobby and passion ☺️

[Brian Fretwell]

Wetherspoons have a pub called the Frank Hornby, but in Maghull not Binns Road, Liverpool.

[Steve Klare]

-let us not forget!
.

-that the ultimate accessory to your construction set is the steam engine to make things happen dramatically!

This is Mamod SE2a. I bought it new when I was 14 years old, which some days feels like about 90 years ago!

It is timeless and ageless. At times it's sat for 10 years straight, but when I fill the boiler, fuel it up, lube it and light the flame it runs as loudly and as furiously as always. It's too simple to not work. It's to be respected: it can't pinch your little fingers, but it sure can burn them! You should also be savvy enough to know what happens when a boiler runs dry! The mounting holes in the baseplate are pitched for Meccano. It runs on solid camping stove fuel which according to my wife "stinks up the house". (-to each their own). -that much being said: when my son was maybe five he thought he had the coolest Dad on the planet because of things like this!


-and yes, Ali: they made a locomotive, and yes, I have one! (It makes the moments after a derailment very, very lively!)

[Ali Hipperson]

Absolutely fantastic Steve, it looks fantastic! I suppose it's one of the eternal lessons, 'the simpler, the better'!

I had toyed with the idea of getting a 'live-steam' loco a while ago but for the very reason you mention, decided against it 😲

[Steve Klare]

It's a spectacular educational toy, Ali: you learn a lot from it, both about model trains and real trains.

About real trains you learn what a pain in the butt steam could be, very labor intensive. You can't just turn the key and drive off: you spend more time in preparation and after-care than actually operating it.

About model trains you learn to appreciate electric propulsion a great deal. As I said: It makes the moments after a derailment very, very lively! This thing doesn't need track to run, just to turn. ("Objects in motion tend to stay in motion...") If the surface is smooth enough it just keeps blazing along. It doesn't matter what's in the way: a staircase, a table edge, the CAT! Now it probably will tip over, and you'd better hope it tips into something fireproof, there are actual flames in there which go in whichever direction gravity tells them to! You'd also better have an oven mitt handy, you can't just pick it up to re-rail it bare-handed. (OUCH!)

(-and my wife says it stinks up the house!)

Long before our time, model trains were either clockwork or live steam.

-can you imagine seeing an Ad. for an electric locomotive powered through the track back then?

• Remote control, both speed and direction: YOU are at the throttle!
• Operation on demand with no cleanup afterwards
• No boiler fill, no odors, no flames, no fuel
• Unlimited range
• Much safer, especially for young people

I would absolutely HAVE to get one of these modern electric wonders!
.

(I'm still kind of fond of it!)

[Maurice Leakey]

The beauty of Meccano was the availability of an "A" set.
For instance, if you had a number 4 set you could buy a number 4A set. The two together now became a set number 5. And so on, up to number 10.

Maurice

[Ali Hipperson]

Steve: Despite it's 'dangers', I still think it looks great and really like the practical education it gives on Steam propulsion - still my favourite era 😊 I have several books and original Hornby catalogues from the 50's-70's that carry adverts for their 'new' electric train-sets, and if I could easily be the excited boy pictured in the adverts in them!

Maurice: I didn't know that about the Meccano Sets, but what a clever system which would still make all the previous sets useful.