Canadian MeccaNotes 200012 · be recognized that members who do not live in the Toronto area need to leave in good time in order to get home safely i.e. before it is too dark, we

CanadianMeccaNotes--- Issue #20 ---

Dec. 2000

Left: Hibernia Oil Rig by Allan Bedford

Below: Gemini 8M Telescope, built byDonald Morton from Victoria

Lower left: Radio Controlled Labyrinthdesigned and built by Scott Pitts

Toronto Hobby Show 2000

Photos by Earl Pitts and Charlie Pack

2 Canadian MeccaNotes December 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© Copyright 2000C.M.A.M.A.S. and/or Indi-

vidual Contributors.Meccano and Erector are registered tradenames and are used throughout Canadian

MeccaNotes by kind permission ofMeccano S.A.., Meccano Inc. and Irwin

Toy Ltd. of Toronto.

North American subscribers to CanadianMeccaNotes are automatically members of

the Canadian Modeling Association forMeccano and Allied Systems (CMAMAS).

Canadian MeccaNotesThe �Canadian MeccaNotes� (ISSN 1207-2249) newsletter is published 4 times peryear (March, June, September and De-cember) by the Canadian Modeling Asso-ciation for Meccano & Allied Systems(CMAMAS).

�Written and produced by Meccano en-thusiasts for Meccano enthusiasts.�

Canadian Modeling Association forMeccano & Allied Systems (CMAMAS)130 Neptune Drive, Suite 1109Toronto, OntarioCANADA M6A 1X5

http://www.edmc.net/cmamas/

[email protected]

CMAMAS ExecutivePresident ... Colin Hoare, 18 Tweedle St.,Glen Williams, Ontario, Canada L7G 3S5,[email protected], (905)873-8261

Vice President ... Attila Szakonyi, 78 GihonSpring Drive, Rexdale, Ontario, CanadaM9V 4X9, [email protected],(416)741-1652

Treasurer ... Marsha Brandston, 130 Nep-tune Drive, Suite 1109, Toronto, Ontario,Canada M6A 1X5,[email protected]

Secretary ... Colin Hinz, 148 Howland Ave.,Toronto, Ontario, Canada M5R 3B5,[email protected], (416)516-8686

Editor/Webmaster ... David Williams, 3017- 111A Street, Edmonton, Alberta, CanadaT6J 3Y5, [email protected],(780)438-1197

Subscriptions(4 Issues Per Calendar Year)

o within North America: Canada - $30;U.S.A. - US$28 Make cheque or moneyorder payable to CMAMAS, mail to Trea-surer, address above.

o elsewhere: rates upon inquiry, availablefrom MW Models, address on page 27.

Editor�s NotesMany thanks to Scott Pitts, GregRahn, Ivor Setten, Don Redmond,Jerry Dubois, Attila Szakonyi,Colin Hoare and others for sup-plying articles for this issue.

Enclosed is your 2001 CMAMASMembership renewal form;please renew as soon asconvenent.

The CMAMAS website has beenupdated with some new material lately. Firstly,all exective and AGM minutes are now postedthere. The executive made a executive decisionthat we will not send these out in paper form butwill instead post them on our web site in thefuture.

Some digital camera photos of the Toronto HobbyShow taken by Lynn Krause are available exclu-sively online.

Similarily, Colin Hoare sent out the CMAMASmembership list a month ago in electronic formto everyone with email. However he did distrib-ute a paper version to those wthout e-mail.

Meccano France parts are still available. ColinHinz and Marsha Brandston have been busyfilling orders and some parts are now sold out.The CMAMAS website now has an updatedprice list.

On page 8 I have reproduced two posters for theNepean Hobby Show on Saturday-Sunday,March 3-4, 2001 and the Georgian Trangle ToyShow on Sunday, June 3, 2001. All are wel-come. For more information contact AttilaSzakonyi, [email protected], (416)741-1652.

December 2000 Canadian MeccaNotes 3

The 2001 Toronto Hobby Show will be on Fri-day-Sunday, November 2-3-4, 2001. We will becelebrating the Meccano centennial in the con-text of the 2001 Toronto Hobby Show. The clubwill arrange for additional space at the show,and all Meccano enthusiasts are invited to bringmodels and displays. Participants are encour-aged to bring exhibits which relate to the specialoccasion. In addition to our expanded presenceat the show itself, there will be a special dinneron Sat. night after the show. The club willarrange for hotel discounts at the same hotelwhere the dinner will take place. More details tofollow.

Wanted: news of upcoming hobby shows to beadded to the CMAMAS website.

I have some material for the next issue but I�ll beneeding more. I have some gems from MichaelStephens, Ivor Setten, Ted Klink and others inreserve for future issues.

As always, the newletter is only as good as thecontributors. Your articles, photos, model plans,short news items, want, sales and swap ads arewanted. Items in machine readable form (e-mail,diskette) are prefered but everything is accept-able, including good old HB. If desired, yourmaterial can also be posted on our website. It�sa great idea to document photos on the backusing post-it notes. If you�d like any part of yoursubmissions returned, please say so; otherwiseI will keep everything.

On the left is a photo of Jim Cormack of Calgaryin his Meccano room that Itook this summer. He hasbeen busy with non-Meccano endeavors over thepast few years but he tellsme that new models arecoming soon.

Please note that I plan topublish the March 2001 is-sue around March 1, 2001so the final deadline is Feb-ruary 25, 2001.

David Williams

Table of Contents

Editor�s Notes 2Presidential Perusings 4Meccanoman of the Year 2000 5The Meccano and Hornby Train Show in

Steinbach, Manitoba 6Leduc West Antique Society Exhibition 8Hobby Show 2000 91945 #3 Set 13Radio Controlled Labyrinth 16Past �Meccanomen of the Year� 21Arthur C. Clarke & Meccano 21Experiments, Freaks and ???? 22Meccano Men�s Clothing 23Train & Toy Show, Ottawa 24SKEGEX 2001 - 100 Years of Meccano 25�Nickel Rocket� Corrections 26Flat Feet 26Irwin Toy News 26The Peddler 26


Presidential PerusingsHere in southern Ontario, the winter weather hasarrived, albeit briefly, but it does mean that thelong nights are coming in, and modelbuildingwill � hopefully � begin in earnest for many of ourmembers. I say hopefully be-cause many of us � myselfincluded - have seen such anincrease in workload both atthe office and with other com-mitments, that finding the timeto sit back and enjoy ourfavourite hobby is becomingmore and more difficult. Wewere witness to this phenom-enon at the Hobby Show herein Toronto in early November.Although we did see severalnew and exciting models, many of the otherswere brought back for the third or fourth time, aclear sign that few of us have the time to buildanything new. It is to be hoped that this situationwill be remedied in time for Hobby Show 2001,however, as this will be the centenary of the startof Meccano, and the theme surely has to beBring A New Model In 2001, no matter whichHobby Show one plans to attend (and I includemyself in that bracket, I should add).

Although a report on the 2000 Hobby Showappears elsewhere, there are a couple of thingsthat occurred at this Hobby Show about whichI want to comment, as they are probably com-mon to many shows, and these comments willpossibly serve as a guide for anyone who orga-nizes other shows across the country.

The first of these relates to the commitment tostay to the end of the show. Although it has tobe recognized that members who do not live inthe Toronto area need to leave in good time inorder to get home safely i.e. before it is too dark,we had so many departures by three o�clock onSunday � fully three hours before the showofficially closed � we were, quite frankly, embar-rassed by the large number of empty tables thatwere left behind. Next year, therefore, attendeeswill be asked in advance what time they plan toleave, and, if it at least two hours before theshow closes, then the number of models thatthey bring, as well as the amount of table spacethey will be allocated will � albeit reluctantly -have to be restricted.

The second request we will ask of exhibitors isthat they bring with them their own signs thatstate �Please Do Not Touch� if they do not want

anyone handling their models. When we haveother modellers who bring models that are in-tended to give young children the opportunity forhands-on experience, it is vitally important thatwe do not have any unfortunate incidents whereone of our members, in the interest of protectinghis/her own model, shows what is best de-scribed as a lack of diplomacy, and berates ayoung member of the public because a modelwas touched.

As most of our members know, we were able topurchase the remaining stock of Irwin Toysspare parts, and many of our members havetaken advantage of the favourable prices that wehave been able to offer. Credit for the negotiationof this purchase has to go to our Treasurer,Marsha Brandston, and the work in processingthe orders to our Secretary, Colin Hinz. If youhave not requested an order form from Marsha,and you want to add parts to your collection, Irecommend that you do so without delay. Allattempts to date to establish contact with thenew owners of Meccano, Nikki Toys, have failed.All of our American colleagues, and, as I under-stand it, even Geoff Wright, have yet to hear fromthem. This, despite the fact that many telephonecalls have been made. As a result, parts willalmost certainly be scarce fairly soon, althoughthere are alternate sources of supply such asAshok Banerjee in India, and Marc Rebibo�s sonin Argentina, who is planning to restart theExacto line of parts.

In October, I happened to be in England onbusiness, so I took the opportunity to see someof the top Meccano people during my stay. Thefirst visit was to see Ernie Chandler, who hasbeen actively involved with the MidlandsMeccano Guild since its foundation. For the pastfew years, he has been the Honorary Secretary ofthe Guild, but this year he was elected to theposition of President. Ernie is, to me, the epitomeof the classical Meccanoman, with his modelsdemonstrating the best use of the mechanicalside of the hobby. Our friendship goes back forover a quarter of a century, as we first met inStratford in 1974. I was able to attend the Guild�sMeeting at Stoneleigh on October 7th, but had toleave before the Annual General Meeting tookplace. It was a fine show, with models rangingin size from Ken Sador�s reproduction of NielsGottlieb�s Walking Dragline (so large, that the jibcould not be mounted because the ceiling wastoo low!) to John Sleaford�s wonderful miniaturemodels of Traction Engines.

I also had the opportunity to see the Editor of


�Constructor Quarterly,� Robin Johnson, inSheffield. Robin is extremely enthusiastic aboutthe next issue of the magazine, which will be thefiftieth. Skegness was my next Meccano stop,where I saw Mike Cotterill: we discussed theupcoming SkegEx Meccano show. For those ofour members who subscribe to the North Mid-lands Meccano Guild Gazette (Newsmag), youwill have read that new rules on the size ofmodels have been imposed for next year�s show.Quite simply, some of the models this year werejust too huge. Even so, Mike is hoping that theattendance in 2001 will be the biggest ever, as itis the Centenary Year for Meccano.

Two more stops were made before I returned toCanada. One was to Henley-on-Thames (whereelse?) to see Geoff Wright, and the final one wasto the D-Day Museum in Southsea, where I tookin the Exhibition of War Models 200 BC � 2501AD that Fred Pesketh had put to-gether. This was a great display,one that sadly will never be dupli-cated, I suspect. All in all, a greattrip.

Plans are being made around theworld to celebrate the centenaryof the foundation of our greathobby. Most will be fairly modest,consisting of a dinner on the Sat-urday night of a major exhibition(e.g. SkegEx). If anyone has anidea about what could be done inCanada, that he/she thinks will beworthwhile, however, please feelfree to contact me about it. If it isnot too expensive, and the Execu-tive endorses it, there is still timeto implement the idea.

All that remains is for me to wisheveryone the best for 2001 � andlots of great models for whatevershow you chose to attend.

Colin Hoare

Meccanoman of the Year2000

It gives me great pleasure to inform you that theExecutive of the Canadian Modelling Associa-tion for Meccano & Allied Systems has nomi-nated Greg Rahn as the Canadian Meccanomanof the Year 2000. This has been done in recogni-tion of the work he has done in researching thehistory of Meccano, and for attempting to cata-logue the many variations in the development ofthe system.

Colin Hoare

Greg�s ReplyI would like to thank the CMAMAS organization,that I have been a proud member since 1995, forthis unexpected honor! I had no idea my contri-butions to this hobby warranted any sort of

accolades. Iwould like tothank everyonethat has helpedme in mymeccano pur-suit. This goesout to all mypersonal con-tacts and mymany Spannerf r i e n d s .Thanks alsogoes out to ev-eryone that hasput up with thehounding, toresearch themany areasthat I think need�lookin� into!�

Special thanksgoes out to the�Collector Syn-dicate� � thetruth is outthere .......

I will continue to research, write, hound, pester,dig up old meccano for sale, ask for special partsand bits for restoration of sets and other thingsas long you all will have me .......

Greg Rahn

Cochrane, Alberta, Canada


The Meccano and HornbyTrain Show in Steinbach,

ManitobaNov. 17 and 18, 2000

It was the first Meccano show in Manitoba,although Rick Collette has had impressiveMeccano displays in toy shows. It seemed to mea remarkable success. Both Friday and Saturdaybrought out constant traffic from streams tohordes, with many indications of astonishment.FAQ�s (and non-voiced answers) were: 1. Howlong did it take you to build that? (We don�t keeptrack, and we like it to take as long as possible)2. How many nuts and bolts did you use? (If wehad counted, it would have taken us even longer)3. What does the kit cost? (It�s not a kit, and wedon�t want to know). A few tentative Meccanohobbyists were much encouraged to learn of thevast possibilities of the system, and of the cur-rent availability of parts.

Rick Collette, who also made room for PeterHusband�s Hornby tracks, organized the show.Two other Meccano contributors were Ed Senkiw

and myself - Bill Derksen.

The centerpiece of the show was Rick�s Level-luffing Crane. His frequent demonstrations, withall seven motors humming and all mechanismsrunning seamlessly and quietly, were a greatdelight, and frequently brought applause of as-

tonishment.

Several people also recognized thePinyon blocksetter from manuals andbox covers of their childhood sets.Rick�s version of this historical crane iswhat I call a faithful recreation of thevisual experience of the youngmodeller. For example, on our oldboxes, the engine house roof lookedlike a single part (�artistic interven-tion�, according to Pinyon expert JulianHead) so Rick has provided us with aone-off one-piece roof! Mechanismswhich we cannot see, however, havebeen up-dated to provide a completelysmooth, remarkably quiet, and reli-able performance. Rick also showed aface shovel, articulated �Versatile� trac-tor, the super model Steam Shovel, aMeccanograph, a traction engine, aswell as smaller models, including somefor hands-on crank operation. Note-worthy features of several of his largermodels include a differential-based au-tomatic brake for winches and tangle-

Face Shovel by Rick Collette

Clock onGRB byRickCollette


proof reaving.

Ed showed a huge trac-tion engine, a racecar, andhis giant blocksetter,which could be describedas his �fantasia� on SML4. He was also showingoff his GRB from AshokBanerjee. You have to ad-mire his ingenuity in call-ing into sevice a largenumber of sector/flangedplates in his track sub-structure! He also showeda smaller traction enginewith field discer, andflaunted his new prize -the GRB from AshokBanerjee.

In addition to the Bert Loveseven-foot clock, whichticked away without ahitch, to the amazement ofon-lookers, I showed athreshing machine with acompanion McCormickDeering tractor. Peopledelighted to watch rice andpuffed wheat being fed intothe feeder and to see theone augured up and theother blown out the back,making a fairly realisticmess!

People always stopped towatch several trains avoideach other on Peter�s tracklayout.

The displays of historicalparaphernalia representedboth Meccano and Hornbytrains.

Bill Derkson

Winnipeg, Manitoba

Left to right: Ed Senkiw,Peter Husband, BillDerksen, Rick Collette.

Variant of SML4BlocksettingCrane byEd Senkiw

Traction Enginewith Field Dicerby Ed Senkiw


Leduc WestAntique Society

ExhibitionJuly 29-30, 2000

Gordon Frank and I exhibitedMeccano models at this showwhich is located close toEdmonton. There�s now a spe-cial modeller�s shack which weshared with an exhibit of steamengines. Facilities werecramped so we couldn�t bringtoo much.

The exhibition park is home to apermanent display of antiquebuildings. For this event, peoplecame from all over to displayand parade their old steam trac-tors, cars, trucks, cranes, etc..

David Williams


Hobby Show 2000A Report

All roads led to the International Centre onceagain for the first weekend in November, and theMeccano booth was well supported by C. M. A.M. A. S. subscribers. In addition, we were

pleasure of welcoming Jack Partridge from En-gland, who has graced us with his presence onseveral previous occasions: it was wonderful tosee him again. We had our usual solid represen-tation from south of the border, although sadlyLou Boselli was unable to be withus for the first time in several years.From Canada, we enjoyed our firstvisit by Donald Morton, whobrought his model all the way fromVictoria B, C, - a relatively short trip,since he had previously taken thesame model to Britain to display.Another newcomer was LynnKrause, our first lady modeler whohad taken up the hobby of her ownvolition i.e. it was not as a result ofher husband being already. Alsowe had the pleasure of the com-pany of Marg LaCroix and son Mike(and I am still enjoying what is leftof the finger cookies that she broughtalong). Another returnee was EdBarclay, after an absence of severalyears.

As indicated in my �Presidential Perusings,�while there were a lot of models on display, nottoo many were new. Two that were brought forthe first time were, however, outstanding. AlBedford had decided that he should reproducethe Hibernia Oil Rig that sits off Newfoundland inMeccano. What a superb model it proved to be:

one of the finest models thatAlan has ever built, in fact.Octagonal in shape as the origi-nal, it required over 4,000 Nuts& Bolts in its construction. Itwas equipped with threecranes, all of which were con-trolled by various motors.

Sitting next to Alan�s modelwas a model of a Gemini 8MTelescope, built by DonaldMorton from Victoria to Basedon the originals in Chile andHawaii, Donald made cleveruse of Rod & Strip Connectoras well as End Bearings tocreate the dish, with a circle ofCurved Strips at the top. TheCanadian Astronomical Soci-ety, of which Donald is a mem-ber, also had a display at theHobby Show: various mem-bers of the Society made apoint of coming over to see the

model, led by Heidi DeBond, the mother ofAndrew DeBond, who is also a C. M. A. M. A. S.subscriber.

Our American contingent was led by CharliePack, who, as always, returned to the United

Don Redmond'sQueen Mary

Robert Gibeault'sTwin CylinderSteam Engine


States with far more Meccano than he arrivedwith! Charlie brought along two very attractivemodels, both fairly small, but each was packedwith detail. The good news is that he plans towrite themup for pub-l i c a t i o n .One is aR o a dGrader, andthe other aRough Ter-rain Crane �the lattera d a p t e dfrom KeithCameron�smodel thatwas pub-lished in theSeptember1990 edi-tion of�Construc-tor Quarterly.� Whereas Keith�s model made useof the water hydraulic system that had beenlaunched at that time, this version is of a moretraditional design.

Lynn Krause has been mentioned earlier in thereport, and she brought along four models, thelargest being a Cable Car, plus the smallestwindmill I have ever seen, as well as a pair ofminiature cars.

Don Redmond, as always, found anew way to make his display par-ticularly interesting to themodelbuilding cognoscenti. In thefront of his display were eight differ-ent small windmills, all built to ap-proximately the same design, butconstructed from different modelingsystems. There were models builtfrom Structomode, Erector, Märklin,Trumodel, Bral, Temsi, plus one fromearly Meccano, as well as a moremodern version. In addition he pro-vided an elevator built from Stokysparts, and a very large model of athree-funnel passenger liner called�Meccania.� Judicious use of blackplates and white flat girders form thehull of the ship, which made it par-ticularly attractive.

Last year, we had undertaken thedisposal of Terry Stewart�s collec-

tion, and we had asked that anyone who pur-chased one of the models that Terry had beenworking on should complete that model, andbring it back with him to this year�s show. Two

of our group roseto the occasion.The first was ourVice-President,Attila Szakonyi,who had com-pleted (GeoffW r i g h t � s )ModelPlan No.93, the A-FrameBeam Engine thathad been de-signed originallyby Philip Webb.This is the firsttime that this par-ticular model hasbeen built on thisside of the Atlan-tic, so it was a

pleasure to see it in operation. The same wastrue of the second such model � built this time byDoug Armstrong of Ottawa. This was the big-gest steam engine that Brian Rowe had everbuilt. I remember seeing the original in BrianRowe�s house about ten years ago, so it was apersonal pleasure to see this model on display.Doug also brought along an excellent TowerCrane. About six feet high, as well some of the


small models that have been built from therecent sets that Meccano Limited have beendistributing.

Hubert Hogle was positioned next to Don, andwe had his robotMartha Mark I back(for the last time,claims Hubert, as hewants to bring aMark II version nextyear). He alsobrought his Mobiusloop model backagain, but with amajor change in de-sign. The frame hasbeen completely re-built: gone are the11-hole by 5-holeFlanged Plates, andnow the entiremodel is built fromPerforated Strips, Angle Girders, and Flat Gird-ers. The curves have been extensively improvedby substituting the 7-hole Flat Girders with 3-hole Flat Girders, which has improved the run-ning of the traveler.

Our Quebec contingent was sadly a bit smallerthis year than in previous years, but we did havethe pleasure of the company of Dr Robert Gibeault.His contribution was the classical Supermodel

No. 32, the Twin Cylinder Steam Engine. Thisversion was in yellow & silver, with the 119�s indark red.

Eric Eisen�s approach to modeling in Meccanohas alwaysbeen to encour-age the hands-on use of mod-els, and thisyear was no ex-ception. Everyone of his mod-els (other thanthe balance)had a crankhandle thatvisitors to theHobby Showcould turn tosee each one ino p e r a t i o n .There were

several from which to choose � a windmill, tworoundabouts a saw, and several more.

Earl Pitts, accompanied by his cousin Glen, hadhis usual display of extremely large models.Keith Cameron�s Automatic Meccanograph, theGrand Orrery of the Solar System, to name buttwo, as well as the Liner that he had built for theShaw Festival, the plans for which will be pub-lished in an upcoming issue. Glenn did build a

crane as well whilstwe were at theshow. The highlightfor the Meccano en-thusiasts, however,was not a model, buta vintage set � Earlhad acquired a No.O Meccano Set thatwas originally manu-factured in 1923. Itwas in absolutely topnotch condition.

Of all the non-Meccano construc-tion kits on display,the one that reallycaught the eye wasthat brought by ourAmerican colleague,Kendrick Bisset.Most of us had neverheard of, let alone

Jim Harrison'sCars & Vehicles


seen any Mechanimal Sets before this Show, butKendrick had acquired a couple on e-bay re-cently, and proceeded to build and operate thesepeculiar models -all made of alu-minium, it shouldbe added.

Ed Barclay obvi-ously wanted torecapture theglory days ofsteam, as he hadno less than fourlocomotives ondisplay. One wasa reproduction ofthe old Q1 classlocomotives thatwere seen on theSouthern Regionof British Rail. Theother three wereall saddle tank locomotives of different sizes. Heand Manfred Hammer rivaled one another forrailway models. Manfred had brought his TrickyTrack model back, along with two short freighttrains.

Painters go through different periods in theirartistic lives, when they change emphasis on theprimary colours that they like to use � well, GerryDubois is obviously going through an AndreasKonkoly period at the moment, as he broughttwo of the Hungarian�s steam engines along todisplay, one of which was Canadian Model PlanNo. 4. He also provided a demonstration differ-ential.

We had two of Meccano Limited�s former dem-onstration models on display this year, one byMike Shaw, and the other by Don Pearson: bothwere the same model, a fairground roundabout,and both had been restored by their owners.Mike also brought a second fairground model,the Octopus Ride Supermodel, although thetransmission he used had been taken from an-other model, as the original design just did notwork. Mike also made a model constructed from24 Flanged Sector Plates bolted together to forma circle, with a picture of Frank Hornby in themiddle.

From Kirk Roth we had five models, the largestbeing the Mississippi River Boat. The othersconsisted of a musical band, a helicopter, a threefunnel liner plus a Bagatelle Game

Philip Edwards brought along car chassis with

its three speed automatic gearbox that uses thesmall gear rings as well as three relays to operateit. Philip brought this model because the Ferrari

that he plannedto bring hadtaken up smok-ing just before heleft, and was horsde combat.

Joe Long our fi-nal U. S. visitor,brought along hisdemonstrationreplica Erectorparts. What wasalso impressivewas a miniatureChristmas dis-play that he had,including thesmallest Erector/Meccano set

imaginable.

Last but not least, the Secretary, Colin Hinz,brought along the Twin Beam Pumping Engine,which he is in the process of constructing. He didtry to get some work done during the Show, butthe orders for spare parts and sets was so highthat he spent most of his time running back andforth to the Storage Unit filling orders.

All in all, it was a successful meeting. TheAnnual Gen-eral Meetingwent bys m o o t h l y ,and bothA t t i l aSzakonyi andColin Hinzwere re-turned to of-fice as Vice-P r e s i d e n tand Secre-tary respec-tively.

Colin Hoare


1945 #3 SetAfter 6 long years of war and austerity, it wasfinally over. WWII came to a complete end by thefall of 1945. People looked forward to returningto normal lives and the metal toy market, stoppedin Jan 1941, was to gearup again. Things had togo slow, as there wereother needs, for the sameraw material asMeccano. A Governmentregulation, at this time,dictated that the maxi-mum value of a toy wasnot to exceed 15 shil-lings. This meant thelargest set was to be the#3 set. The fall of 1945saw a rapid retooling, ofthe former war machinein the Binns Road fac-tory, back to toy manu-facture. The goal was toget some meccano setsout to market for theXmas season. The normal 6 months lead timewas reduced to a mere weeks! Along with theneed to punch out the required meccano parts inmetal, the paper and cardboard for boxes andmanuals had to be secured. This lead to someausterity and curious fits andfinishes in sets that have sur-vived today. As previouslymentioned, the largest set inthe stores for the 1945 Xmasseason was the #3 set. In theHCS #6 Meccano systembook by Bert Love, he men-tions on page 186 �a goodexample of one of these late1945 sets has not beenfound...� The author cameinto possession of a near mintexample of this interestingera�s largest set, and assertsit is an genuine example. Onehas been found! It came tothe author as a complete setand it�s near unused condi-tion and the presence of allit�s packaging attests to it�soriginality (see 1945 #3strung pic). The set also hada November 1945 Meccanomagazine with it, in the box,

when discovered. The price was 10 cents whichsuggests it was for export to North America. Theexport origins of this set has bearings later.

By this time, the blue/gold color scheme hadbeen totally abandoned and the export livery, in

medium red and green,of the prewar era, con-tinued postwar but toall markets includingthe domestic UK mar-ket. Another Govern-ment regulation alsodictated that the words� Made in England� hadto be stamped on allparts. This is a goodway to distinguish preand postwar mediumred and green parts.The red cardboard box,the set is contained in,is standard postwarfare. The smallish labelwas destined be a fea-ture of all meccano

sets, large and small, until 1954!(see box andmanual pic) The parts were strung to the familiaryellow card. The set was initially dated using theperfectly preserved guarantee tag still glued tothe inside of the lid. (see guarantee sticker pic)

Notice it is of prewar is-sue (1939!) It is thoughtthat large stocks of un-used slips were used upin the early postwar yearsof recovery. It just madegood sense not to wastethem. This is seen on sev-eral occasions, with la-bels and such, over theyears at the Binns Roadfactory. The date code B310 5 on the slip is stan-dard code for all sets andsuch until 1950. The B3represents the set size, the10 is the month-Octoberand the 5 is the last digitin the year. It was notuntil 1950 that 2 digitswere used in the datecode. Necessity and com-mon sense dictates why!The October date sug-gests this is an early set


and some of the observations of the parts willindicate the early days after production startedwere not all that great, as far as material andf i n i s hgoes!

Observa-tions ofsome ofthe partssuggestthat thequality ofm e t a lavailablet omeccanowas notf i r s tGrade. Allof the flexplates in this set are lighter in weight and �feel�than a later postwar plate. The difference is quiteevident when the 2 are compared in person. Thepaint is curious. It has a very waxy finish asopposed to being shiny. One likens it to thewax over an apple. It was applied ratherthickly and almost appears to be a bad homepainted part! (see Waxy paint on plates pic) Itis not, however, as the strongly stampedwords �Meccano� and �Made in England�are clearly factory applied after the poor paintjob. All the red painted parts seem to havesuffered the same fate in the early going. Onemust attribute this to a poor quality of paintand possible a poor finishing step, on top ofpoor steel. The green parts have fared better.The green paint is shiny in it�s finish but stillappears to be rather thickly applied on somebut not all of the parts. Note that the #187road wheels are red with black rim. In 1947,a fling with silver centres seemed to have onlylasted for about a year according to the collectivethinking in meccano collector circles. In 1948,they onceagain werer e d / b l a c k .One wouldhave thoughtthat initiallyafter the war,they mayhave been sil-ver centeredand the idea rethought soon after...? Evidentlynot.

The brass parts are good quality and areindistiguisable to the later parts. Another pre-war leftover, in the form of the small loaded

hook, has obviously carried over. Thehook is clearly the prewar version paintedmed red, instead of the black, as it was inthe days before the war. The ball on theseearlier ones are .38" in diameter. Thestandard postwar ones are .43" in diam-eter. Another example of leftover stocksbeing used up. One wonders how longthey lasted? The grip on the crank handleis a more translucent and darker shadetype of red plastic than the standardpostwar opaque and lighter shade of red.These too were possible left over stock.The 1" #155 rings are definitely prewarfare. They are white like the ones found inall sets from 1937-41. (see white tirespic) The main difference between these,prewar ones and standard postwar ones

(other than not being black!) is that they are anoff-white, almost cream color. It is thought that

these wereincluded inp o s t w a rsets until1948 or so.They werethen manu-factured us-ing blackrubber. An-other fea-ture is thes t r i k ing lya u s t e r esmall partsbox! (seesmall parts

box pic). It is the same dimensions as the later,more decorated boxes, but this one is covered ina plain lime green paper. The plain label says just

enough to claim it�s function! Very soonafterwards, the more familiar yellow motor-car boxes were used, that gave way to theyellow boxes with the pictured parts on thesides. If one of these plain lime green boxesare found in one�s collection, be sure that itis probably early postwar and should bekept as a piece of history.

The manual included with this set is the so-called emergency printing. But this one is

unusual! The prewar contents are wrapped in adark blue cover using the mid 1930�s instructionmanual artwork inside. This blue cover is like the


emergency 1941 printing and is thought to havenot ex-i s t e df o r1945.( p i c -ture onp a g e31 oft h eH C S# 8book).A l lknownDec 1945 printings were green (research sug-gests outfits 1 to 5 printed). The Mar 1945printings in blue are showing up outside of theUK generally so an assumption can be made thatthese were the early export ones. Research hasturned up other early blue manuals (see appen-dix) The green treatment was used for 1945,1946 and 1947. The all new manuals, withupdated internal artwork (white lines removedfrom plates, etc) and the Pinyon cover debuted in1948. Accessory manuals for this time(1945)were printed for outfits 1a to 5a in orangeemergency colored covers, the same as the 1941issues. The blue manual in this set has a printer�smark: 13/345/12.75 (S.P.). Common theory hasthe manual, for these sets, printed in Dec 1945only! This manual was printed in Mar of 1945,before the war even ended! Did they jump thegun? A little too optimistic? This certainly putsthis set in the very early category! (see outfit 3blue manual pic).

The author asserts, judging by the finish of theparts, etc, the presence of the early printing of

the manual, it was an early effort and of suspectquality. This all adds up to the need toget export sets out as soon as theycould and by what ever means avail-able. The early printing of the manual,the poor first efforts of parts finish andthe fact it was found outside of the UKsuggests it is a very early export set.Research has failed, so far, to find outwhat the (S.P.) at the end of theprinter�s mark stands for? Anybody?Things did get better later ... By Marchof 1946, they were manufacturing setsup to #5, 1947 saw the #6, 7 and 8,1948 saw the #9 set and finally the

#10 set in the spring of 1950. Overall this is quitea curious and rare set, seldom seen.

The author would like to thank Phil Grover inNew Zealand and Jim Gamble and Clive Westonin the UK and others for their help with thisarticle.

Any questions can be directed to the author [email protected].

Greg Rahn

Appendix: ManualsBlue manuals known: (Export?)

#1�13/345/21 (S.P.)

#2�none found��

#3 �13/345/12.75 (S.P.)

#4 �none found��

#5 �13/345/4.25 (S.P.)

Green Manuals known: (domestic?)

#1�13/1245/50

#2�13/1245/40

#3�13/1245/40

#4 �none found�

#5 �none found �

Accessory manuals known-orange covers

#1a �13/1245/6

#2a �13/1245/13

#3a � 13/1245/13

#4a � 13/1245/11.5

#4a � 13/1245/2

#5a � 13/1245/9


Radio Controlled LabyrinthPart 1 of 2

Designed and built by Scott Pitts.Instructions prepared by Colin Hoare.


This model is, in a sense, a development (albeita rather extensive one) of one of the MW ModelsModel Plans, the Ping Pong Ball Bouncer de-signed by Mike Cuff. The Archimedean Screwthat particular device) but the rest of the modelis entirely Scott�sown design. In orderto build the model,only a modest quan-tity of parts is required- other than 100 or soFishplates. There is,however, one keynon-Meccano itemthat must be acquired- the piece of trans-parent plastic(plexiglas) that is13.5" square x ¼�thick, and drilled asdepicted: in addition,some non-Meccanoelectrical switchesand motors must bepurchased, but theseare readily availablefrom Radio Shack. Ifthe modeller elects tofollow the originaldesign to the letter, apiece of black car-tridge paper, also13.5" square shouldbe incorporated in themodel, with holes cutout according to the same layout as the plasticsquare; in addition, it should have the holenumbers and lines drawn on one side of thepaper as shown. Since the plastic plate is suchan essential part of the model, its arrangementwill be described first.

Please note that, for the sake of clarity thealignment of the model has been based on thefour points of the compass, with the ArchimedeanScrew unit being considered the south side, andtherefore the ball return arrangement is on theeast side.

To start with, there are a total of 17 (somenumbers have 2 holes) 1¼� holes drilled in theplastic plate, through any one of which therolling ball can fall. The design is as shown, butobviously it can be altered to suit the preferenceof the individual modeller. An additional twelveholes, all approximately 1/8" in diameter aredrilled around the edges as shown, i.e. in align-

ment with the eight penultimate holes of the four12½� Angle Girders, as well as with the centralholes on two diametrically opposite sides (north& south), and one hole adjacent to the centralhole on the other two sides. These holes must be

large enough for thenecessary 3/8" Bolts topass through. Finally,there is one hole drilledon the north side adja-cent to one of the cen-tral holes (on the eastside) that is largeenough to permit a rodto pass through, butwith the minimum of�slop�. These AngleGirders can now bebolted in place, but it isimportant to rememberthat (a) 1½ x ½� DoubleAngle Strips (lugs fac-ing outwards) and 12½�Strips (each one biasedby one hole from thecentre to ensure the fourcorners of the cartridgepaper are held in place)are attached at the sametime on the underside ateach point of attach-ment (b) the elongatedflanges of the Girderspoint upwards and in-wards and (c) Single

Arm Cranks are bolted to two Girders which arepositioned on the east and west sides, with thebosses in line with the central holes of theGirders. The four Girders are also joined at thecorners by Angle Brackets.

The other features of the attachments to theplastic plate are the guides around which the ball(or marble) will roll. These consist of the follow-ing, all of which are built using Angle Brackets tocreate the 90 degree bends:

1. One S-shaped piece made from three 3" andtwo 1½� Strips

2. One truncated U-shaped piece made from two2" Strips and a Fishplate

3. Two L-shaped pieces, one made from two2½� Strips and one from two Fishplates respec-tively

4. One compound Reversed Angle Bracket madefrom a 2" Strip and two Fishplates.


5. Finally, there is one composite additionalguide, which is made from a 2" Strip joined to a4½� Strip by an Angle Bracket, with the latterextended by a 1" x ½� Angle Bracket. To this inturn is bolted another L-shaped assembly madefrom two Fishplates bolted to another AngleBracket.

It is important to note that additional AngleBrackets are bolted to all of these units - mostlyjust one, but, in the case of the first and last unitsmentioned above, two that are then used to bolteach one to the plastic plate. Standard Bolts areused to attach each piece to the plate, aftersuitable holes have been drilled with a drill bitthat is just slightly smaller than the diameter ofthe thread of the Bolt. In this manner, the threadsof the bolts act as screws (but don�t expect touse them again afterwards!). To complete theguides, two 2½� Strips, one on the north side,and one on the east, one 2" Strip on the south,and two 1½� Strips, both on the west side,should be positioned as shown, i.e. once again

using Angle Brackets to join them to the respec-tive 12½� Angle Girders.

To the lowest vertical hole of the 1½� DoubleAngle Strips, 12½� Strips are bolted. To the freelugs of the Double Angle Strips, pairs of 12½�Strips are bolted on the west, north and southsides, trapping four 6½� x 6½� Plastic Red Sailsbetween them. On the east side, pairs of 2½�Strips are fixed by their central holes, againtrapping the two sails between them. An ObtuseAngle Bracket fixed to the innermost hole of each2½� Strip has a pair of 3½� Strips bolted oneither side of it, again having the Plastic Sailsclamped between. At the lower ends, 1" x ½�Angle Brackets are fixed. Next, a 5½� x 1½�Transparent Plastic Plate is formed into a ta-pered loop, with the nut and bolt passing throughthe end hole on one side, and the penultimatehole on the other. Double Angle Brackets arebolted to the elongated holes of the Angle Brack-ets, and these are attached to the looped Plate bytheir central holes.

Four compound T-shaped Angle Girders areassembled which, on one side (the topside) aremade from 12½� Angle Girders and 2 ½� AngleGirders overlapped one hole, thus being 14½�long. On the underside, however, the compoundGirders are 15" in length, and are built from 12½�Angle Girders and 3" Angle Girders. In both


cases, the shorter Girder is joined to the longerGirder round hole to elongated hole. Wheneach of the two compound Girders are joined,it is important to note that (a) the shorterGirders are at opposite ends, and (b) 1½�Corner Brackets are sandwiched between thetwo units. These Brackets join the four com-pound Girders at the corners (along with AngleBrackets attached to the upright flanges at thecorners, plus more Angle Brackets underneath,also at the corners). The T-shaped Girders arebolted together at several points along theirlength, and A4 Washers must be placed be-tween them to avoid distortion. To completethis assembly, three things have to be done.First, two more Single Arm Cranks are bolted inplace on the east and west sides, with thebosses covering the central (i.e. the fifteenth)hole. Second, a Long Threaded Pin is fixed inplace on the north side, four holes in from thenorth-west corner. Third, two Angle Bracketsare bolted to the ninth and thirteenth holesfrom the same point, with the former bentabout 10 degrees away from the vertical, andtowards the corner. A 3" Angle Girder is at-tached to this Bracket, to which in turn is fixeda second such Girder, overlapped four holes,with the overlapping area creating a U-shapedGirder. Two 2" Narrow Strips are bolted inplace, both spaced from the girder by three A4Washers, and carrying a �servo�. A 2½� Striplinking the second Angle Bracket and the upper2" Narrow Strip supplies the necessary bracing.

The frame that holdsthe plastic plate as-sembly as well as theouter square is con-structed as follows:four 18½� Angle gird-ers are bolted togetherto form a square, withbracing, in the form of3" Strips, on three sidesonly (it is the north-west side that is ex-cluded). Three more18½� Angle Girdersare bolted together insimilar fashion, but thefourth side (the eastside) is made up of apair of 7½� Angle Gird-ers, leaving a gap of2½� between them.


Bracing, again in the form of 3" Strips, is thenbolted in place at all four corners. The two unitsare then joined by four 5½� Angle Girders at thecorners, with the south-east Girder having acorner Gusset bolted to it. In addition, two more5½� Angle Girders join the upper 18½� Anglegirder to the inner ends of the 7½� Angle Girders.Cross-bracing between the pair, in the form oftwo 5½� Strips, is added as shown, and theGirders are also extended downwards by 3"Strips that overlap theGirders by five holes.The bottom pair of holesof the Strips will have a5" Rod passed throughthem that will serve asone point of attachmentfor the Return Track ar-rangement (see below).Additional bracing atthe corners, in the formof 4½� Strips, betweenthe 5½� Angle Girdersand either the 18½� or7½� Angle girders isalso used: note that onthe north and southsides, only two suchStrips are used. Twopairs of 5½� Angle Gird-ers are bolted in place

centrally on the northand south sides by theirround holes, spaced ½�apart, and, to the hori-zontal flange, pairs ofFishplates are bolted bytheir round holes abovethem. To the latter,Angle Brackets and 1½�Angle Girders are boltedin place, the former bytheir round holes andthe latter by their elon-gated holes, and use ismade of the elongationto extend the Girders asfar inwards as is pos-sible. The Angle Brack-ets are linked to the 5½�Angle Girders by brac-ing 1½� Strips. One ad-ditional 5½� AngleGirder is attached on thesouth side, with theelongated flange on the

inside of the frame, i.e. the round hole flange isattached to the lower 18½� Angle Girder by anAngle Bracket, and the elongated hole is at-tached to the upper 18½� Angle Girder by a ¾�Bolt, with one Collar and four Washers beingused as spacing. The Angle Girder is braced tothe 18½� Angle Girder by a 2" Strip and an AngleBracket. When the 2" Strip is bolted in place, a1½� Narrow Strip should also be clamped inplace, positioned horizontally. A second such


Strip is similarly fixed in place 2" below it, and thetwo hold a �servo�

The legs of the frame are built by making U-shaped Angle Girders, from pairs of 5½� AngleGirders (using their round holes) that are boltedin place at each corner, to which are attachedpairs of 2½� Triangular Plates joined at the apexby a Double Angle Bracket. Use of the elongatedholes of the girders is necessary to align the twoplates. A 3" Pulley fitted with a Tyre forms thefoot: this is held in place by a 3½� Rod in its Bossthat passes through the Double Angle Bracketand the central hole of the Angle Girders, with aCollar clamped to the Rod above the Girders.

The Screw LiftBefore anything else is done, the ArchimedeanScrew should be built. It consists of an 11½�Screwed Rod to which is attached a ThreadedCoupling at the base which holds a 2" Rod. TheCoupling is locked in place by a nut, with a 6-holeWheel Disc between them. A Fishplate is thenplaced on the Screwed Rod by its round hole,and is locked in place by a nut. This process isthen repeated, but the Fishplate is rotated sothat the top of the slotted hole of the firstFishplate is just visible. This rotation is in aclockwise direction. 94 Fishplates are added inthis way, and are securely clamped by nuts sothat they cannot move when lifting the marbles.A final Fishplate is bolted to the ninety-fourthFishplate at an angle; so that, when leaving theguide, the marble is given an additional impetus.The screw lift is completed by the addition of aScrewed Rod Adapter. At this point the screwlift can be set aside until it is fitted into the tower.

...continued next issue

Past �Meccanomen of theYear�

Annually, the Canadian Modeling Associationfor Meccano & Allied Systems (CMAMAS) rec-ognizes someone for their contributions to ourhobby - the �Meccanoman of the Year�.

Past winners were:

1999 - David Williams1998 - Earl Pitts1997 - The Hogle Family1996 - no award1995 - no award1994 - Manfred Hammer1993 - John Worfolk1992 - Dr. Keith Cameron1991 - Ed Barclay1990 - Don Redmond

Arthur C.Clarke &Meccano

On Tuesday, November29, 2000 the CBC Ra-dio-1 program, �Writ-ers and Company�, Eleanor Wachtel interviewedA.C. Clarke, (author of �2001, A Space Odessy�,etc.). About 11 minutes into the interview, hemade about a minute�s worth of commentsabout his pleasure as a boy with Meccano,lamenting that today�s engineers, who live onthe Internet, may come up with impracticaldesigns because they haven�t had the directexperience that Meccano provides with real-lifestructures, gears, etc.

An audio copy of his reflections is available onthe CMAMAS website under �Special Features�for anyone interested. You need the RealAudioplayer. The total interview is 49.5 min long andat 11.25 min he talks about his �Beloved MeccanoSet�.

Thanks to Michael Stephens([email protected]) for altering us to this pro-gram.


Experiments, Freaks and????

Observations by Ivor SettenLooking through any large collection of Meccanoparts one can often find items which are eitherslightly different or decidedly out of place. Thisarticle does not refer to those parts which havebeen redesigned during their long productionperiod. This would include the obvious BracedGirders and the introduction of slots and centreholes in flexible plates and the change to doubletapping. A1so ignored are those parts whichhave obviously been �Don Redmonded� andwhile they are very useful they beer little resem-blance to their original form. This leaves us withthree categories but even these have grey hazyborders.

ExperimentsIn this category I would place those parts whichwere manufactured in a specific design but werechanged quite quickly. Parts such as the Chan-nel Segment without the top lug, Pulley Blockswithout a lug, 7" Circular Strips and Bevel Gears30a and 30c cut at 45 degrees fall into thiscategory. In the case ofthe Bevel Gears this wassimply an error whichwas corrected almostimmediately but a fewdid reach the generalconsumer.

The Propeller, part 41,has always intriguedme. The original designis absurd and would bemore use as a desertspoon. Why such astrange shape was cho-sen can only be speculated upon. Perhaps theshape was simple to produce on the machinesthen at hand but I tend to think that there wasmore to it than that. The part first came intobeing around 1908/09 and at that time just howmany people had actually seen an aircraft pro-peller, sometimes called an air screw. Shipsscrews or propellers (same name note) were wellknown as was a cooling fan. The original MeccanoPropeller is a cross between a ship�s propellerand an electric fan. Perhaps the original designerhad never seen an air screw and assumed thatthis is how it would look. We�ll never know nowbut at least it does give an explanation to the oddshape, but why did Meccano Ltd. wait almost 20

years to correct the shape.

An excellent example of an experiment is aWorm in my collection which has a 6BA tapping.Over the years a few of these 6BA worms haveturned up in collections but none that I know ofare actually stamped with the Meccano name.Speculation is that the standard 5/32 BSW holewould be too big for the boss and, on the Wormonly, trials were made with the 6BA size. It wassoon found that the 5/32 BSW size was, in fact,satisfactory and became the standard thus leav-ing the 6BA worm as the experiment.

There are probably many other examples ofexperimental parts but it is not the object of thisarticle to list them all.

FreaksI have always had an affection for the freaks.Errors of production, mis-punchings, off centretappings etc. For coin or stamp collectors thesefreaks would be worth vast sums of money butfor Meccano collectors they are valueless. Al-most all freaks are useless as they just don�t fitproperly and besides there is no point in describ-ing a model which only works when a freak isused. What actually makes a freak? A doublepunched strip is a freak and so is the no-hole stripthat I have. The no-hole strip should have beena 5-hole strip but for some reason the holes werenot punched, all it received was a very smalldimple where the centre of the hole - should havebeen. How about left-handed parts those wherethe flats have been fed into the bending machinethe wrong way around. Angle girders bent withthe slots on the shorter flange are freaks butwhat about Propellers Blades (why do thesekeep cropping up?), pawls with boss and cams.These left-handed items turn up quite often solarge numbers must be inexistence and in somecases, especiallypawls, they are veryuseful. So are theyvariants or freaks? Theominous Grey Area.

Some Double AngleStrips fall into thisgrey category. In theearly years especiallythere are marked dif-ferences in where thelugs are bent at a rightangle. This differenceis so pronounced thatsome early DoubleAngle Strips actually


fit into each other so if one is building a modelwith period pieces it is necessary to make surethat all Double Angle Strips are the same. Aftera long period of stability this problem seems tohave croppedup again. In arecent model Ifound that ashaft washopelessly outof line and uponinvestigation Ifound the cul-prit a 1" x 1/2"Double AngleStrip new fromCalais in whichthe lugs weredecidedly bentin a differentposition. A regular part fits inside the offender.The part actually came from the Collector seriesof Action Packs and is the only one I have seen.Is it a freak or an experiment?

????These are parts have been deliberately manufac-tured, probably for special use but were neverissued as spare parts. Display models often hadthese parts in them. 49-hole Strips and FlatGirders and extra long Axles to name a few. Adealers display model of the 1960�s used a 9"Rod with Keyway, the keyway being used tothread a current carrying wire through the bossesof various parts. But what of the Braced Girderillustrated? Part 100a the 4 1/2" Braced Girderceased to exist in 1962 when the single bracingwas introduced. It has never been producedwith single bracing either in the Liverpool closedand version or the Calais open ended type. Someyears ago I built a few models for the companyand submitted a list of parts used which was toreplace my parts. In making up the list I made anerror in that I wrote part 100a instead of, I think,103a. When the parts arrived imagine my sur-prise to find two 4 1/2" open ended BracedGirders. Why would these have been in stock atCalais? What were they made for? I can�t imaginethat just two were produced to fill my replace-ment list.

Another part which surprised me recently was ahexagonal nut. One fell into the deep recesses ofa model so I reached in with a magnetic screw-driver to pick it up but to my surprise it was non-magnetic. I extracted the nut and upon examina-tion I found it not to be of the regular mass

produced Meccano nut. This was a very finelymachined nut with a nice chamfered edge farsuperior to the Meccano nut. I have since ex-tracted several hundred of these nuts from the

bulk of my sup-ply and havediscovered thatthey all comefrom the Miro-Meccano Ac-tion Packs ofthe early1980�s. I sup-pose that anoutside manu-facturer wascontracted toproduce a sup-ply of nuts forM e c c a n o ,

something that has happened many times dur-ing Meccano�s long history.

So when is a part a variation, experiment, freakor simply just an odd-ball? The borders are ahazy grey area - just another frustration to thepurist. One last thought; suppose my list ofreplacement parts included 104 or 167 would Ihave received Loom Shuttles or Geared RollerBearings ?

Ivor Setten

Meccano Men�s ClothingBelow: Meccanomen in New Zealand now havean ideal brand of clothing available locally.


Train & Toy Show, OttawaSeptember 16-17, 2000

Top: Don Redmond�s Windmills in different construc-tion sets.

Left: Doug Armstrong working on his crane.

Below: Larry Yves Loto Ping Pong Ball Maze

An article will follow.

Jerry DuBois


SKEGEX 2001 - 100 Yearsof Meccano

Our Exhibition next year will be held at theEmbassy Centre, Grand Parade, Skegness, wherewe were in 1999.

We will open to receive Exhibitors and Tradersfrom 9.15am on Friday July 6th 2001 and gen-erally on July 7th and 8th. As in the past we willclose around 5pm each day.

The Embassy has been extensively remodelledand one consequence is the loss of the smalldressing rooms that in 1999 housed severaltraders. These rooms have not been replaced.Accordingly all our Traders will be in the maintheatre area -like the Festival Pavilion but with-out the spare floor space. The Traders will haveto accept a measure of �scaling down� and I willbe writing to each of them individually.

Modellers space will also be tighter and al-though the team of Stewards accomplish miraclesit is not fair to expect them to continue tosqueeze quarts into pint pots, when the quartsare growing and the pints shrinking.

As a result we will enforce the following rules formodellers:-

1) No model will be welcome that exceeds 2metres in length. Let me know in advance of anymodel more than 1 metre wide. Height up to 10metres will be acceptable.

2) A number of smaller models totalling less than2 metres from any one modeller will be welcomebut may be subject to �squeeze�.

3) �Marginal� trading may have to be restrictedor prohibited. If people want to share a dealingtable please let me know.

4) Lighting is better at the Embassy but we nowhave a stock of table lamps for modellers use.

5) We expect all electrical appliances, transform-ers (even 70 year old ones) and motors to beelectrically safe and fused down to 3 amps orlower.

6) We have enjoyed free parking next to ourExhibition Hall for many years. This can nolonger be presumed. I will make a further an-nouncement before the show.

SKEGEX 2001 - In the Evening2001 is of course the Centenary of Frank Hornby�screation of Meccano, originally Mechanics madeEasy, our common interest.

It is also our 20th SkegEx Show and 24 yearssince the North Midlands Guild began. A tradi-tion of �get togethers� has been established atSkegEx and for 2001 it is proposed to have:

1) On Friday night a �low key� buffet at my local�The New Park Club�.

2) On Saturday night a sit-down dinner to markthe 100 years of our shared hobby/obsession.This will be at The Imperial Cafe, Grand Parade,Skegness, across the road from The Pier en-trance, with plenty of car parking. I envisage upto 150 people being there. It will be open to allMeccano enthusiasts and their families. No otherofficial Meccano get together is proposed forSaturday.

The cost per person will be £13.00 and the menuis likely to be:

Vegetable Soup or Egg Mayonnaise or FruitJuice. Fried Sole (in breadcrumbs) TartareSauce and Lemon. Roast Chicken or RoastBeef or Baked Sugared Gammon andPineapple, all with vegetables, creamed androast potatoes. Apple Pie or Chocolate NutSundae or Fruit Salad and Ice Cream. Cheeseand Biscuits. A free bottle of French TableWine will be included between each 4 diners.

Further bottles of wine may be purchased at thetable for cash (currently £5.70 per bottle). Thebar is nearby and diners may purchase otherdrinks from there, before, during and after themeal. Meal selection will be done at the table onthe night.

The gathering is scheduled to begin at 7.30pmserving at 8pm and the bar will close at 11.30pm.

Activity will be on the first floor and there is a liftin the building.

This message has gone out in November 2000issue of Newsmag and now on the �Spanner�Internet. What I would like to have by 31-01-2001 is an indication of the numbers likely toattend - no binding commitments at this stage.In the March 2001 Newsmag and on �Spanner�I will ask for cash payments by May 2001 andfinalise the booking on that basis.

I can be contacted at:

[email protected] Park Avenue, Skegness, Lincs, PE25 2TF,EnglandTel: 01754 764544 after 6pmMike Cotterill


Irwin Toy NewsNovember 27, 2000

TORONTO (CP) - George Irwin, president andCEO of family-controlled Irwin Toy Ltd., is step-ping aside to �pursue new opportunities,� thecompany said Monday. Just over a year afterfacing down other family members in a board-room confrontation, �Mr. Irwin is confident thata strong management team is in place to con-tinue the direction the company has been headedin the past year,� the release said. S. MacdonaldIrwin, chairman of the board, was named interimchief executive officer of Toronto-based IrwinToy, whose extensive product line includesMeccano, Slinky, Yo-Yo and the Dragonball Zaction figures. In October 1999 George Irwinfaced a management showdown as former ex-ecutives, some sharing the Irwin name, chal-lenged his strategy to deal with changing mar-kets, intensifying competition and new technol-ogy. Since becoming CEO in 1990, George Irwinhas taken the toymaker into global markets witha focus on Canada, the U.S. and Australia. TheCanadian-based toymaker, founded in 1926,reversed a 1998 loss of $3.3 million to a profit of$1.7 million in 1999 and has produced profitsthis year, partly on the strength of a propertysale.

�Nickel Rocket�Corrections

These are corrections to the article that appearedin the September 2000 �Canadian MeccaNotes�.

On page 10, 2nd column, 2nd paragraph -�Across the two 3-in. strips, mentioned above, a7in. rod carries the valve mechanism.� shouldread �Across the two 3-hole strips, mentionedabove, a 7in. rod carries the valve mechanism.�,i.e. �3-hole strips�, not �3-in. strips�.

Also, these photo captions were inadvententlyomitted from the model photographs:

Photo 1. �Rocket� modelled in nickel Meccano;on base, photo of 1929 replica built by theStephenson firm (pages 1 & 13).

Photo 2. Firebox, cylinders and valve gear (page6).

Photo 3. Driving wheels, cylinder and connect-ing rod, slidebars, crosshead and valve pushrods(page 7).

Photo 4. Top view of cylinders, valve gear andslide bars (page 8).

Photo 5. Right cylinder and feed water pump(page 9).

Photo 6. Boiler barrel, safety valve, left cylinderand crosshead (page 10).

Photo 7. Firebox, left cylinder, eccentrics andpushrods to valve mechanism (page 11).

Photo 8. Tender water barrel (page 12).

Photo 9. Front (funnel) end and base; motorunder lower left; decorative upright backing(page 13).

Flat FeetWhen it is desirable that a model sit close to atabletop, but without scratching, very thin plas-tic feet can be made from the lids of 35mm. filmcanisters. These have flat centres with about 1/8in. clearance above the rim, sufficient toaccomodate a Meccano bolthead and washer.Both clear (Fuji) and dark (Kodak) lids can befound, and they are usually free at any photoshop.

Don Redmond

The PeddlerFOR SALE: 1986 French Meccano #10 Set. New- unused condition, inventoried and organized.E15R Motor and gear segments with pinionincluded. Price US$ 3,000.00, will not ship,must be picked up. Lou Boselli, 19 Payson Road,Cornwall-on-Hudson, NY 12520, USA, (845)534-2863.

FOR SALE: Meccano Collection. I live inGreensville, just 40 km or so west of Toronto(real close to Hamilton/ Dundas area). I wouldprefer to sell it as one lot (to ease the trauma ofselling a lifetime collection). I have at least 2600+pieces, plus the magazines, as well as 4 of theone model units from Canadian Tire about 5 - 6years ago, and a Motorized set from Exploratoy(opened but unused). Also a fair number ofmanuals and other info.

See the CMAMAS website under �Sales andWants� for an inventory. I would like $750 CDNfor the entire lot.

Jay Miller [email protected]


Model Plans and CanadianMeccaNotes Back Issues

Can be obtained from:

o within North America: Colin Hoare (addresson page 2), Money Order or Cheque.

o elsewhere: MW Models (address below).

MW Models4 Greys Road, Henley-on-Thames, Oxton,England RG9 1RY, phone: 0491 572436, FAX:0491 571175, [email protected]

http://henleyhighstreet.inetc.net/mwmodels/acatalog/

Credit cards are accepted!

FOR SALE: Meccano parts: yellow/blue,Red/green, gears, motors and windups,manuals and complete sets l973 vintage,sets 3 to 6. Send for price lists or yourwants. Earl Pitts, 26 Dyer Court, Cam-bridge, ON N3C 4B8. (519) 658-2086 oremail [email protected]

Wanted: any meccano spare parts in theiroriginal yellow boxes or paper wrappings,any old set or motor boxes, yellow string-ing cards and small parts boxes. Send listto: Greg Rahn, 211 Riverview Green,Cochrane, Alberta T4C 1K3 [email protected]

Wanted: aMeccano elektronset #1 or #2 fromthe 30�s. Com-plete or not. Alsowant a 1920�selectrical set orjust parts of a set.Send list to ad-dress above.

Wanted: anymeccano advertising booklets, catalogs and pricelists. Send list to address above.

The Peddler cont.


Manitoba Meccano ShowPhotos by Rick Collette

Racecar byEdSenkiw

Large Showman's TractionEngine by Ed Senkiw

McCormick Deering1530 by Bill Derksen

Documents

Canadian MeccaNotes 200012 · be recognized that members who do not live in the Toronto area need to leave in good time in order to get home safely i.e. before it is too dark, we