This was one of our informal quarterly meetings where our members showed off their latest Meccano creations.
At around 2:00pm we had a short committee meeting, followed by the Model Tour in which members were invited to give a short talk about their models — in particular their entries for the Secretary’s Challenge!
The Other Systems Secretary’s Challenge
This Challenge came from the instigator of the Secretary’s Challenge, Geoff Carter, it being ten years since the first of the Challenges was set, this being number 41.
His idea was to make a model using a Meccano ‘Other’ system. This allowed models from the Car and Aero Construction sets, X-Series Meccano and Dinky Builder from the 1930s. From after the war, members could choose from Plastic Meccano (later to become Junior Meccano) and, for a short time, Prima Meccano, Mogul and the recent Speedplay and Xtreme systems. There’s one other system, almost standard, but he thought the strip construction was distinctive enough for it to qualify (standard wheels were allowed, owing to the rarity of the original fixings). It was, of course, Mechanics Made Easy.
The model could also be built using Bayko (manufactured by Meccano for a while) and Cliki (Meccano imported it from Denmark, a Lego-type system). There may be other systems we haven’t thought of. Members were free to add some standard Meccano to their model if it helped.
Systems not allowed because they’re not distinctive enough (they use mostly standard Meccano with only a few special parts — although, if members thought they were different they were free to use them) are the Multikits, Mechanised Army and Electrikit.