Meccano Show 2023
Report written by Tim Surtell for our Winter 2024 Newsletter
Saturday 7 October 2023
Falconwood Community Centre
Falconwood
London’s most popular Meccano event returned to Falconwood for its 44th year on 7th October. Featuring working models of cars, cranes, trains, fairground rides and more, the show offered a great day of family fun with free admission for accompanied children.
Visitor numbers were lower than last year at 126 adults and 89 children — the dip may have been due to the heat wave forecast for that weekend.
In the main hall, SELMEC members and guests displayed their Meccano creations. In particular we welcomed first-time exhibitor Cindy Ashford and her charming Teddies’ Playground diorama.
Cindy Ashford’s Teddies’ Playground diorama
A view of the main hall
Visitors could build models from instructions in the Make It With Meccano Workshop, and could also enter their own models in the Creative Challenge contest to win prizes. This year’s winners were:
- 4–7 category: Ryan Li, 6, who built a motorcycle.
- 8–13 category: Tymon Zarczynski, 10, who built a forklift truck and also chose a forklift set as his prize.
- 14+ category: Richard Biscoe, 39, a repeat winner who built a helicopter.
Ryan Li
Tymon Zarczynski
Richard Biscoe
Ryan’s model
Tymon’s model
Richard’s model
You can see all the Meccano Creative Challenge photos in our Facebook album.
The nursery and conservatory hosted several non-Meccano guest exhibitors:
Tony Rutherford of the Beckenham and West Wickham Model Railway Club displayed his OO gauge Cedar Court Wagon Yard layout.
Tony Rutherford’s Cedar Court Wagon Yard layout
Tony Jackson of the Bexhill Model Railway Club brought his Hornby Dublo tabletop layout.
Tony Jackson’s Hornby Dublo model railway layout
Peter Wood of the Croydon Model Railway Society exhibited his Hornby tinplate tabletop layout.
Peter Wood’s Hornby tinplate tabletop layout
John Hewes of the Electronics Club ran a Circuits Workshop where attendees could build working electronic circuits like traffic lights using real components and microchips.
Building circuits in the Electronics Club’s Circuits Workshop
Download the Circuits Workshop instruction sheets in PDF format
Bob Vine entertained with his ‘Load of Balls’ display of amusing but useless mechanical ball contraptions and hands-on toys for kids.
One of Bob Vine’s marble contraptions
Thanks go to Chris Warrell for managing the pay desk, Cathy Claydon for running refreshments, Brian Leach for transport, and our members for staffing the rotas. It was another successful show highlighting the creativity and fun of Meccano model-building.
Chris Warrell would have normally added a list of members who attended, but most of the list went missing! Sorry about this.