UK Societies & Clubs
With over 90 clubs to choose from in the UK it might be wise to start with some indexes of who’s out there:
North East London Meccano Society
South East London Meccano Club
Telford & ironbridge Meccano Society
To see options on how to navigate Dropbox - hover over right.
Meeting Ready Reckoner
Now available -see far right.
Meeting Ready Reckoner
This is an Excel spreadsheet listing each club’s meeting. It updates itself every year and may be printed. Initial paper size is A3 but nothing is locked so you may re-size as you wish. It is mathematical, not receiving any short notice changes, therefore in each case it is wise to check the website of the club involved. Last checked: Jan 2020.
(click the picture to access)
Meccano
1. Early Days
Meccano was developed as a toy by Frank Hornby for his son. Originally made in tin-plate by hand Frank realised its enormous potential and opened his Factory Of Dreams producing Mechanics Made Easy. He knew that it would be a success for a 100 years into the future -and it is. The much under-estimated Engineering hobby is still going stronger than ever. It is excellent what can be done and even what people want to model and how well they work -let’s face it James May proved it !
You can read about Meccano, another great British Invention, on the following websites:
History Of Meccano - Graham Jost
History O Meccano - Alan Esplen
Deconstructing Meccano - The Independent Newspaper
Other Products Once Produced By Frank Hornby - FrankHornby.com
There are more including Wikipedia.
Where To Buy Meccano In UK
The first stop will be Meccano themselves or your local toy retailer. Instructions for all their current sets are available: Instructions. Help and FAQs with their robots are available: SpinMasterSupport.
However there are many other commercial sources of modern sets -obviously you will use your favourite online search engine to find these. Beware even though every week large quantities of Meccano change hands they are not always at bargain prices ! Modellers may need to buy individual spare parts for which there is a thriving community and this is as full as list as I know. In no particular order:
Meccanoman -Dave Taylor’s considerable selection of new parts.
MW Mail Order -Howard Somerville’s enormous selection of model plans and literature.
Meccano Hobby -Quality parts and literature from almost every type and era of Meccano by John Thorpe.
Meccano Spares -Shop with confidence for your favourite parts.
Meccano Sales -Melvin Wright’s quality second-hand source.
Meccano & Compatible Parts -Sales of Meccano from many different nationalities.
Meccanoshop -Online sales of new and used Meccano. Also ModelIt 00 and N train accessories. Used to be known as Frizinghall
Mike Rhoades -Click link to download parts list. He is a non-online seller. 01482-650463.
(Closed: Reproduction Parts -Was Stuart Borrill manufacturer of standard and innovative new parts. However website is down)
Another sales list can be found on Alan Asplen’s Parts Page
Any more suggestion are welcomed (please email me)
2. Present Day
3. Clubs
There are a large number active adult clubs around the world most of which meet around four times a year and many of which put on exhibitions that’ll surprise you.
International Society
Some may be surprised to know how international Meccano has become. Sadly this society website has now closed down:
Index Of Known Societies & Clubs In The World
There are several indexes of who’s out there:
Meccano Webring << There is a temporary fault with this site so try the Web Archive: Melvin Wright Meccano Webring.
5. My Own Experience
I have been active since around 6 years old. My father David Goodman with others founded the very first Meccano society, the Midlands Meccano Guild, in 1967. I joined as a very Junior Member from the start -perhaps to the anooyance of some of the rather august personalities involved.
From the records it seems my membership payments were a bit hazy perhaps because this was seen as an adult club, When junior membership was introduced Dad preferred to treat us as a family so even those subs seem a bit hazy. However as my prowess was so inspired by such incredible machines my collection grew - not least because of the generosity of the adults in the society. Thank you. I too grew and was accepted even though at the time I chose some rather unusual subjects eg Dragsters, destructive robots (long long before Robot Wars was conceived), beautiful luxury road vehicles, robots etc. I was also a member of Henley Society Of Junior Meccano Engineers.
In my early 20’s my membership of MMG lapsed as I went into the big world of work. In my 40’s I then joined my local West London Meccano Society (of which I am currently Chairman). Later I joined Telford & Ironbridge Meccano Society and rejoined Midlands Meccano Guild. Of course I visit others societies where time allows.
6. Meccano Photo Vaults
Disclaimer
Whilst some care has been taken to check externally linked websites no responsibility is offered nor implied for the suitability, legality or reliability of content therein.
NZ Meccano
This is one of the first and now largest banks of information esp photographs. Based in New Zealand it has a very efficient search function.
4. Other Indexes
Like many great hobbies there’s a whole world of Meccano going on. This page is divided into the following 7 sections:
1.Early Days
2.Present day
3.Clubs
4.Other Indexes
5.My Own Experience
6.Meccano Photo Vaults
7.Working Meccano On YouTube
Matt Goodman’s Models
I don’t hold myself in anything like the esteem of those above but here are my own modest contributions:
Sentinel Steam Waggon:
Bumper Cars - see end
7. Working Meccano On YouTube
Of course stills cannot convey the experience of seeing working models close to but video gives a better impression of what’s going on. Although there are thousands of videos out there these caught my eye because they aren’t just a string of static shots and the production standards are reasonable.
(please let me know if you find more)
NON-MECCANO BIG MODELS
By the way if you want to see stupidly big take a look at this:
Or this:
And someone must’ve been very bored:
On the beach:
Slot cars
The Danish toy
Hamburg’s train warehouse
Giant model aircraft
Fastest model SR-71
Majestic Concorde
Submarine launches torpedo
John & Mike Molden’s Superb Models - Hold Tight Riders - Video Production
Rollercoaster “Wild Mouse”:
Giant fairground ride “Top Buzz”:
Giant fairground ride “Jet Force”:
Haunted House:
Maurice and Tony Rednall’s Models
Their classic radio controlled digger:
Alan Wembourn’s Models
Scale model of computer controlled gearbox
Ferris wheel
Roll up bridge in London’s Docklands
Chris Shute’s Models
Matchbox filling machine
Poetry Machine
Treacle Mine Fantasy (Wem is his home town)
Gargantua programmable crane
Colin Bull’s Models
Ball Roller
Biggest Models*
Graham Shepherd’s biggest:
James May’s Toy Stories
Note that there are no full episodes made available by BBC merely trailers.
Meccano The Hobby
Giant Bridge in Liverpool
Motorbike
Models That Do Maths
Analogue differential analyser
Babbage’s digital Difference Engine
Programmable sequencer
Tip
After saving the file somewhere sensible create an Alias to it (Shortcut on pc) and drag that on to your desktop so that any time you want to quickly see what’s on press Spacebar
(on a Mac).
There’s no equivalent built into a pc but there are tiny apps that are claimed to do the same thing: Seer or Quicklook. Otherwise you will need to enable the preview pane in File Explorer.
v1.0
A snip at just:
41kb.
Meccano
Not completely exhaustive but the New Zealand Meccano website has become a significant depository for photographs from around the world: New Zealand Meccano
For a collection of basic old photographs (WLMS 1998-2005) you may wish to see Chris Bourne’s: Meccano Library
I maintain significant stocks of Meccano club photos on this website as well: Meccano Vaults (shortcut at top of this page)
I have put a large number of Meccano railway related photographs at the bottom of this page Preserved Railways
University Of Belfast
(*see below)
Youtube
Tim Edwards Meccano Index
This is a huge index of Meccano sets, engineering drawings of parts, magazines & more. Also Hornby and Dinky and more. He is based in Northallerton and has the best personal website. Highly recommended..
Alan Esplen’s Meccano Pages
This is a very finely crafted website and worth spending a lot of time getting to know. It covers all the bases and he keeps it bang up to date.
David Williams’ Canadian Meccano Links
Whilst this site looks archaic - it is ! Because it predates this website (created in 2009) and even most of the internet ! Started in 1996 David has kept it up to date and whilst it’s quirky you’ll find plenty of original material and links here that other sites miss out ! The Douglas Fir of websites here should not be dismissed. (I only discovered this in 2020)
(click on any logo)
Parts Lists
I’ve scanned a modest collection Meccano parts lists stored on the following link. There are better ones on other websites but they change every so often so you need to hunt around if you are looking for something specific. Meccano Parts Lists
Johnny Meccano
Straight out of God’s Wonderful Country Australians John Burke and his son post their wild Meccanoings in many places on the web. There’s also a magazine which is full of ideas. Back issues can be found here:
University of Kent -Dr Tom Ritchie
Differential Analyser Explained (MG):
History of Meccano from the very start (TR):
Making Meccano
There aren’t very many recordings of the inside of Meccano factories.
Poor footage of the original factory in early 1970’s as uploaded by Keith Lloyd: Meccano, Hornby Factory, Binns Road, Liverpool
Marc Rebibo made a documentary in English of his Calais factory in 1980’s. It has been uploaded by Bob Thompson here:
Unusual Uses For Meccano
From the Johnny Meccano stable comes this quite remarkable throw back to
yesteryear (I don’t see a PAT Test label on it though): Meccano Valve Amplifier
For a quick look at what Meccano is all about click this picture to see a short international YouTube
