MECCANO

[Steamie+]

For those of us who had a Meccano set when we where younger this was made by 2 guys who took over 1200 hours to make, all the wheels are moving at the correct speed i.e. the driving wheels are running in sync with the front and back bogies, and the regulator in the cab worked to, they are able to turn the engine speed up and down.


This was the Highlight of the show i went to in Macclesfield.

















Hope you enjoyed the photo's.   

[austinbob]

Great photos - I used to love Meccano  - I wonder if I could get a No. 10 set off ebay??

[Steamie+]

Great photos - I used to love Meccano  - I wonder if I could get a No. 10 set off ebay??

Thanks Bob, i wish i still had mine, there was a guy selling some at the Preston show last week, only bits and pieces, he wanted £40 for them, you would have been hard pressed to make anything from them at all.    

[austinbob]

I started off with a number three set when I was old enough to hold a screwdriver and then, every year, I'd get a conversion kit as a Xmas present (set 3 to set 4; set 4 to set 5 etc.) until I had a complete No. 10 set.
Happy days...

[Bealman]

I had a number 5 set and added stuff to it.

Then, in 1969, at the height of the moonshots, I used it to build an antenna on the roof..... covered it in aluminum foil to hopefully rust proof it, and it never worked, and to this day I don't know what happened to the contraption.

[austinbob]

Meccano don't seem to do 'sets' like they used to and that can be expanded. They have a 'set' focused on producing a particular model and 'piece buckets'. All very lego like. Still I suppose that's who Meccano are competing with now.

[Steamie+]

Meccano don't seem to do 'sets' like they used to and that can be expanded. They have a 'set' focused on producing a particular model and 'piece buckets'. All very lego like. Still I suppose that's who Meccano are competing with now.

Yes it is such a shame about the sets, i am sure you an get one from specialised shops but has for the cost.. 

[Carmont]

A child of the 80s, this is the set I had and still have...

[themadhippy]

I got as far as set 6 with a couple of motors before females became  a distraction,however looking back i think  sticking with meccano would have been a lot less hassle and a dam site cheaper.

[Zogbert Splod]

I have two fake-ano sets. I got them in a local cheapo shop. They are themed sets. One is a tower crane and the other was a dump truck if I remember correctly. Neither model was ever built, I bought them for the metal work back in my Arduino robot phase. I think I paid around 7 or 8 pounds for both together. They have been a great source of bits and still are.
The toy section of this 'cavern of Oriental delights' has supplied me with many bits and pieces over the years.

[Malc]

I was fortunate in that my elder brother left me a chest full of mechano when he left home. I was even more fortunate that when he married , he had two daughters, so he never wanted to reclaim it. I wonder what happened to it?

[Nick]

I had a Meccano Powerdrive Set when I was about 11 or 12. It included a motor with a 5-speed gearbox.

I remember building a fairground ride with four aeroplanes dangling from cord on either Xmas or Boxing Day. The ride whirled round at a frightening speed in the right gear...

I can't imagine that now - metal planes hurtling round until some vital nut and bolt came undone from the vibration, something flew off and it was repair time...

Are children allowed to build Meccano nowadays without wearing a hard hat, goggles and protective footwear??

[austinbob]

I notice that there don't seem to be any flat plates anymore. They have sharpish edges so may be considered a hazard these days.
Society seems to insist on trying to eliminate risk - an impossible and unnecessary target in my opinion.

[Newportnobby]

I used to have loads of Meccano in the early 1960s and regularly used to make a cable car which I ran from floor to picture rail level.
Do I hear the sound of younger folk asking what on earth picture rail is?

[austinbob]

I know what picture rail is... It's that thing that gets in the way when you do the wallpapering.