Meccano Show 2025
Report written by Tim Surtell for our Winter 2026 Newsletter
Saturday 18 October 2025
Falconwood Community Centre
Falconwood
2025 marked the 200th anniversary of the birth of the modern railway, so we were pleased to be part of the official Railway 200 celebrations with our special emphasis on railway-related models at this year’s Meccano Show.
Several members brought along rolling stock to run around two loops of track on our centrepiece display in front of the stage.
Our Railway 200 display
In the nursery Tomohiro Oxborrow exhibited his ‘Japan in Bloom’ N gauge model railway packed with a remarkable amount of detail in a small space, including cherry blossom, a level crossing, stream and working watermill. Visitors enjoyed spotting all the features such as a roadside stall and farm inspired by the area where Tomohiro’s grandparents live.
Tomohiro Oxborrow with his Japan in Bloom layout
Tony Jackson from Bexhill Model Railway Club brought his vintage Hornby Dublo tabletop layout. With several trains there was always something running on the OO gauge tinplate track which has a central third rail to supply power to the trains.
Tony Jackson’s Hornby Dublo layout
Bob Vine returned to the show this year with his very popular interactive ball races and other contraptions, built mostly from wood. Many of the devices were at a perfect height for young children and some had to be reluctantly dragged away to see the rest of the show!
Bob Vine’s cool ball contraptions
John Hewes of the Electronics Club ran a Circuits Workshop for visitors to build simple electronic circuits including one for a model railway signal. Meccano models by Tim Surtell demonstrated the sequence of 4-aspect signals and other circuits.
John Hewes running the Electronics Club Circuits Workshop
A demonstration of 4-aspect railway signals
Several times throughout the day the Man in the Iron Mask made an appearance, and was promptly chased around the hall by Mechagodzilla! Youngsters were eager to try on the extremely heavy Iron Mask for themselves, and were aided by its creator Santiago Plicio.
The Man in the Iron Mask and Mechagodzilla
Santiago Plicio with his Iron Mask
Attendance this year went up slightly. We had 84 adults (up from 65 last year) and 39 children (the same as last year) giving a total of 123.
It certainly sounded busier, and our ever popular Meccano Creative Challenge attracted 19 entrants. The winners, as chosen by our judges Chris Warrell and Brian Leach, were Ellie Hawes, 5, Matei Mungiu, 10, and Jacek Smolinski, 46. We also welcomed two new members to the club — Raymond Mee from Milton Keynes and Nick Epps from Brighton.
Ellie Hawes
Matei Mungiu and Emilia
Jacek Smolinski
Ellie Hawes’s model
Matei Mungiu’s model
Jacek Smolinski’s model
You can see all the Meccano Creative Challenge photos in our Facebook album.
Thanks go as always to members for helping out with setting up, tearing down and doing the chores, Chris Warrell for handling accounts, publicity and the Eltham Centre display, Brian Leach for transportation, Cathy Claydon and John Gay for catering, Frank Paine for running the raffle, Tim Surtell for running the Meccano Creative Challenge and Make It With Meccano Workshop, Gareth Jones for supervising our Railway 200 centrepiece display, and John Hewes for welcoming our guest exhibitors in the nursery and ensuring they had everything they needed.
A view of the hall from the stage