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Newsletter February 2002 Pag1

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President Tony Press Treasurer Mike Maloney Newsletter Editor Bill Fitzgerald

Secretary:

Graham Jost36 Gladwyn AveBENTLEIGH EASTVIC 31659578 6850

Website

http://www.melbmci.ezhoster.com

MELBOURNE MECCANO CLUB INC NEWSLETTERIssue No 1 February 2002

Kimball Mongers Kim Kahn Hillclimb Racer at Karralyka CentrePhotograh courtesy of Graham Jost

Page 12 Melbourne Meccano Club Inc

MECCANO DIARY

MMC NEXT MEETING

Sunday 14 April 2002At Bri Phil Hall,80 Gardenvale Rd ELSTERNWICK (Melway 67 H7)1.00pm Sales Table2.00pm Meeting Starts

Please bring a small plate of afternoon tea to share.

FORTHCOMING EXHIBITION

Scoresby Steamfest (NBEntries have now closed)

Sat, Sun, Mon 9, 10,11, March 2002, 10.30 am to 4 pm each day.1200 Ferntree Gully Rd SCORESBY (Mel 72D9)

OTHER MECCANO CLUB MEETINGS.

SEQMG

Next Meeting: 20 April at 1:30pm at Frank Cherrys47 Ballinger Crst, ALBANY CREEK, Qld. Ph: 3264 4279

Maylands Meccano Club (Perth)

Meetings are held at the Maylands Meccano Club, 16 Kennedy St MAYLANDSusually on the first Tuesday of each month.

Contact Ross Smith(Secretary) on 08 9367 8906 to confirm details

Meccano Modellers Association (Sydney)

Next Meeting: March 23 (arrive 1.30 2 pm) at Corry & Louise Boross.8 Ascot Road, KENTHURST, NSWPlease phone beforehand (02 9654 1396) and bring a plate.

Annual Exhibitionis on Saturday 27 April 2002 (10 am 4 pm) at FrenchsForest Baptist Church, 615 Warringah Rd Forestville, NSW.Admission: Family $5.00, Adults $2.00

Buy and Sell

Wanted - Meccano MagazinesNov 60, Jun 61, Dec 64, Aug 72.Barry McDonald 03 5232 1296

Wanted - Meccano MagazineSeptember, 1971Bill Inglis, 03 5751 1846

For Sale Meccano Replica PartsJack Parsisson 03 9789 5796email: [email protected] site: http://www.meerlu.com.au

For Sale Replica Channel SegmentsBill Inglis: 03 5751 1846email: [email protected] site http://www.meccanonut.com/wri/

For Sale Meccano CordLight red similar to that used by Meccano in the1930s. $13 for 50m.Jim Osborne: 03 9596 4426 orDoug Ward: 03 5335 9444

For Sale - late 70s Meccano 4-drawer cabinet,aluminium handlesGraham Jost 03 9578 6850email: [email protected]

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Newsletter February 2002 Page 3

Advertising in Newsletter. YourCommittee has formulated guidelinesfor this, particularly with a view tofostering item 4 of the Clubs State-ment of Purpose. This item reads:[The goal of this Club is to foster all

aspects of the Meccano Hobby includ-ing] the acquisition, disposal andexchange of parts and literature, for the

mutual benefit of members.

Advertisements need to be short (theeditor will trim overly verbose submis-sions) and will be included onlyif spacepermits. For the moment there will beno charge although this could bereviewed later.

Chairing of Next Meeting. By wayof a change, our Vice President JimOsbornewill chair the meeting of 14April 2002. So try to get along to findout how someone else manages theshow.

Exhibition Committee. Unfortu-nately we were once again not over-whelmed by nominations from thoseeager to participate. Graham Josthad indicated that he did not want toserve as Chairman and KimballMonger agreed to take on this some-what onerous task. But we finallymanaged to fill all 6 position asfollows.Kimball Monger ChairmanDave DennerBill FitzgeraldGraham JostJack Parsisson (as general ExhibitionCoordinator)Tony Press (as President of MMCInc)

Exhibition News. Jack Parsissonreported that we have received invita-tions to exhibit at the following locationsfor 2002.

Berwick District Show on 23 and 24February. So it will be all over by the

time you receive this newsletter.

Melbourne Steam Traction Rally on 9,10 & 11 March see back page fordetails.

Model Train Expo and Hobby Show(World Vision Centre) in November more details later.

Regarding the Steam Traction Rally,


zinc and it is fully operational. Unfortu-nately there is no photo suitable forinclusion in the newsletter. Sorry aboutthat the editor will do better next time,Peter.

Alan Weaverbrought along his modelof the Airship from the Crazy Inventorsseries. It is pleasing to see the young-sters getting into Meccano modelling.

Graham Russelldemonstrated spe-cially cut compound gears that can beused to construct very compact reduc-tion gear trains. The compound gear(see photo) is a 57 tooth gear and a 19

tooth pinion there is no bosssince the gearrotates freely onan axle. Anexample of an81 fold reduction

gear box isshown in thephoto. A 19 tpinion on themotor shaftmeshes with the

57 t gear of a compound. The 19 t gearof the same compound meshes with(the 57 t of) a second compound on anadjacent axle. The 19 t of this secondcompound meshes with a third com-pound rotating freely on the same axleas the first compound. The final drive istaken by a normal 57 tooth gear. Lookat the photo it makes it much simpler.

Tony Pressbrought along an unusedBuz Gear Set from the 1960,s anelaborate and well presented setsomewhat like the Meccano Mecha-nisms set of the same era. Only a fewof this Buz set were made (despite the

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the organisers require a financial contri-bution towards the cost of their PublicLiability Insurance. Jack has negotiateda rate of $9 per exhibitor for the 3 daysand the Committee decided after somedeliberation that this cost will be borneby the Club on this occasion. This is

partly to encourage members to exhibitat these functions and also to recognisethe very useful public exposure that theMMC Inc. obtains from being seen atthem. We often get new members fromsuch gatherings. Our Chairman, TonyPress expressed the Clubs thanks tothose who do exhibit for the valuablecontribution they make.

Guest Speaker - MMC Inc. Web

Page. Paul Johnstonecontinued thetradition of guest speakers by bringingus up to date with developments of theMMC Inc. web page(www.melbmci.ezhoster.com). Thosewho are regular visitors will havenoticed some changes and improve-ments to the layout which facilitatesnavigation. If you have internet accessand are not a regular visitor then youare really missing out on somethingand I would encourage you to have alook. For those without ready access,remember that in Victoria your public

library has freeaccess. Just ask at thedesk and the staff will get you going. Ifyou need lots of help, try and choose atime when the staff are probably notbusy they really are in the businessof providing a full library service to thepublic.

For various reasons Paul has movedthe site to a different server. It is still

free but there is a limit to the spaceavailable and we will soon be reachingthis limit. Rather than remove material,Paul has decided that he will decreasethe size (and hence the quality) of theimages that he puts up.

The site includes much of the content ofour bi-monthly newsletters, but the website is not a substitute for the newsletteror vice versa. In particular, there aremore pictures on the web site and theyare in colour which makes them muchmore impressive than any black andwhite image on paper, regardless of thequality of the printing. Paul has alsoincluded links to members personalhome pages, namely Wes Dalefield,Paul Johnstone and Jack Parsisson.

Other links are to the InternationalMeccanoman site and to the MeccanoWeb Ring (http://www.meccanoweb.com/meccring/)which has links to over 60Meccano related sites.

Since 5 November there have been358 visits to the site including manyfrom overseas. So the web is certainlybecoming an important way of makingourselves know.

Following Pauls presentation, our

President thanked him for this impor-tant contribution to the Club. Keepingthe site up to date is no small effort andPaul does an excellent job here. Also,our web page has been the first point ofcontact for several of our members.Tony also recommended that membersmake the effort to have a look you willnot be disappointed.

Spanner Group. On a related topic


mechanised using theFrench motor and gearboxfrom the 1990s. Wesasked for ideas about atensioning device for thetracks. One suggestionwas to look at Bert Loves

article in Meccano Engi-neer No 10 which de-scribes the construction oftwo army tanks. Butthese models seem toonly have a means forsetting the tension whilethe model is being con-structed rather than formaintaining a constanttension. Any other ideas?

Roger Hallscontribution wasthe motor lorry from the No 5 red/green set. It had been constructedusing beautifully refurbished parts(including the tin roadwheels) and wasmost impressive. As one memberremarked weve all built that as akid. I know that I did and it was one ofmy favourites.

Graham Jostshowed ushis walking dog (whichmoves quite realistically)

designed by Lynn Kraus(from Canada) all genuineMeccano we are assuredeven down to its eyeswhich are from the 1978Meccanoids set.

Peter Duringhas nowcompleted his OctopusFairground Ride in yellow/

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Meccano Exhibition at the Karralyka Centre

.

.

.The day saw seven nobleMMC Inc souls brave thewilds of Ringwood Eastfor this first exhibition inthe New Year. The day

was warm, and ended updecidedly hot, but wewere comfortably coolinside the superbly air-conditioned centre.

In the foyer, on the left,with suitably arrangedtables, was DaveDennerwith his ex-panded Tricky Track.The main feature of thislatest version is that he

has incorporated apassing place, enablingtwo locos to be runningon the track simultane-ously. The first loco toarrive at this point stopsuntil the second onearrives, after which theyeach proceed on theirway. A very neat (andvery necessary!)addition to the layout,

Dave. The CrazyInventors airship andhelicopter and severalsmaller models com-pleted Daves generousdisplay.

Kimball Mongerwasnext with his Rider inthe Sky and Kim Khanhillclimb racer running

John Brand negotiates with Graham Jost

(must be too cheap Graham, if John is interested!)

Dave in pensive moodnow what else can I add to Tricky Track


Ringwood East Saturday January 19 2002

on its dynamometer. Theformer had folks craning theirnecks skywards, the latterwondering what all the noisewas about: Kimball had put in a

resonant device to emulate thenoise of this particular machineat full throttle, rather success-fully!

After KimballGraham Josthadhis Partridge Ball Roller andPenguin/Lego Staircase. Eachperformed creditably enough,though not as perfectly as hewould have liked - he promisesto do better at next showing.He was grateful that the noise

from Kimballs racer even droveits builder nuts till he slowed itdown to a more modest roar!

In this group of tables JackParsissonwas on the rightwith his Plough Tractor, RoadRoller and Liberty Ship MarineEngine. Each of these per-formed faultlessly all day,demonstrating how thingsought to be done. Well done,Jack! He also had his hand-

operated Schmidt Coupling andright-angle drive models for thefiddlers.

Over along the window wereJohn Brandand Roger andSandra Hall. John had hisSeaplane in fine fettle, com-plete with yellow-tipped blackpropeller spinning away all day.Kimball and Jack

Well, useearplugs if

you dont likethe noise!

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2002_Feb