NORTH WEST MECCANO GUILD


Clicking on many of the pictures enlarges them and provides extra information. The models are usually attributed to the builder.

The Guild is always interested in preventing good Meccano going to waste. If you have any Meccano to re-cycle, please contact the Secretary or a member at one of our events.

Click  “Exhibitions” for a calendar of our events. Or “Event Details” for information about individual ones.

Click “North West” for information about Meccano on display and  Meccano related locations in the North West of England.

Mr. K Moroney’s Photographs

One of Mr. Moroney’s relatives very kindly gave one of our members a small collection of photographs formally in the possession of an employee of Meccano Ltd. He started work at the age of 14, probably in the Publicity Dept. He later worked in the model room and appeared be involved with the production of large and very large models for display at trade fairs.

The pictures appear to date from about 1934 and 1935 and some appeared in the Meccano Magazine.

We have managed to identify most of them.

Trolleybus.

This model was described in the July 1935 edition of the Meccano Magazine.It was built for display on the stand of the Whitecross Company at the British Industries Fair in May. Whitecross was a firm making conductor wire for trams and trolleybuses and perhaps Meccano Rod. It was built from Blue & Gold Meccano - the plates being fitted plain side outwards. The Headlights are Lighting set parts. The model ran continously on a circular track 9ft. in diameter.

The wires were energized at 20 volts, but a high voltage motor and a Meccano Transformer were installed in the bus. Only the outer wheel was driven. Since the bus was provided with a full set of seats - Meccano Motor Constructor parts, it is difficult to see where the electics were fitted.

The model contains a few non-Meccano parts.

LNER Locomotive No. 10000.

     This is a model of Gresley’s unsuccessful experiment at producing a locomotive using high pressure steam - in this case, 450 psi. The boiler was Yarrow watertube one, which was triangular in shape. Like other attempts to use high pressure steam on a locomotive it was not a success and it was soon converted into a more normal one. In this form it lasted until 1959 - long enough for it to be replaced by a Diesel.

Instructions for building the Meccano model appeared in part, in successive issues of the Meccano Magazine, starting in January 1935.

Model of a Heavy Articulated Truck and Trailer Carrying a Long Heavy Steel Girder.

This model ( scale 1.75” to 1ft. Or 1:6.9) was produced to help with the choice of route for a 68 ft (17.3m) girder weighing 100 tons from Marylebone Station Goods Yard to a site near the Marble Arch in London. The total weight of the model combination was 1½ cwt (200 lb, 90 kg) and its total length about 11½ ft. (3.5m) . Scale drawings of the road layout at the various junctions on the route were marked out a suitable shed and tests made to decide the best route and obtain the information to mark the roads where needed along the route. The procedure is reported in more detail in MM Mar. 1934.

   The construction of the lorry described, probably with enough detail to enable a replica to be built in MM May 1932.

The model has reappeared in later editions of the Meccano Magazine and other Meccano literature, including Standard Mechanisms 168 and 172.

Pithead Gear.

We have not been able to find information about this model. It is impressive.

It looks as if it was made for the Whitecross Stand at a British Industries Fair.

The webmaster has a vague memory of seeing it on the editorial page of a post-war MM, but this would be likely to have been used when there was nothing better.

The cage can carry Hornby trucks which run in and out of the  cages on inclined Hornby rails.

The picture on the right is believed to show the inside of the winding house.

Engine Room of a Twin Screw Turbine Driven Steam Ship.

The three pictures above show a model of the engine room of a twin-screw turbine driven  steam ship. It was next to last in series of articles entitled “British Marine Engine History in Meccano”. The articles described the development of marine engines, illustrated with Meccano  models. Rather sketchy instructions were provided. A few of them have been built by members  and can be found on other pages of this web-site.

Picture C is a reproduction of one of the pictures in  the July 1934 Meccano Magazine and shows the whole engine room with the two turbine engines in the middle and numerous items of auxiliary machinery.

Picture A shows electricity generators and the control platform. The electricity switchboard is at the right-hand end.

Picture B shows one of the turbine units. The high and low pressure turbines at on the left hand end. The gearbox, needed to convert the the speed  of the turbines to the lower speed needed for propeller, is in the middle. The stack of Wheel Flanges on the right represents the thrust block which transfers the thrust of the propeller to the hull of the ship.

Click to Enlarge

A

B

C

Model of a Rolls-Royce Buzzard Aero Engine.

This was described in the December 1935 issue of the Meccano Magazine in an article entitled “Aero Engines in Meccano”.

If you have not heard of it, it is because only fairly small number were made. It was a typical RR engine - a Vee 12 with a direct drive supercharger. It produced 800 HP (600kW). Eventually, it was developed to become the Griffon engine.