A few highlights from the Meccano world’s biggest event of the year, held over two days in May at the Embassy Theatre, Skegness.

Alan Wenbourne describes the development of his model of the Heavy Equipment Transporter System (HETS) tractor (M1070) and semi-trailer (M1000) which is used by the US Army as a tank transporter.

The T-square has a blade (9½” Flat Girder) sandwiched between the stock (a 3½” Flat Girder and a 3½” Narrow Angle). Only useful for small drawings, but I drew the table using it.

This was one of our informal quarterly meetings where our members showed off their latest Meccano creations.

This model was inspired by Dinky Toy № 962, the Muir-Hill dumper truck, another model I sent to the church jumble sale. Oh dear! Whoever wrote in 1 Corinthians 13:11 that “when I became a man I put away childish things” clearly never had a Dinky-Toy…

The Man in the Moon has been ‘un-banished’ and appears to have taken up Sunday-league cricket. Let’s hope he doesn’t get banished again. He has been placed at SQUARE LEG. He stands a few metres out from the wicket, roughly level with the crease, and to…

Looks good, but plate bending is bad.

An awful model from the 1970s № 4 set which doesn’t have a chance of actually moving.

45 turns of the outer hand means 1 turn of the middle hand, and 45 turns of the middle hand means 1 turn of the inner hand, so the combined ratio is 2025:1.

Work in progress.

From the Motion System set. Powered by a 3V motor.

From a Design Set with alterations. A 3V motor powers the propeller and wheels.

Featuring a built-in imperial ruler!

In mathematics, this is a logarithmic spiral based on larger and larger squares that have dimensions of the Fibonacci numbers: 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13 and 21.

Built to the same scale as my other Dinky Toy-inspired racing cars, this one is scaled up from my Maserati racing car Dinky Toy. The model is powered by an elastic band.

A motor car chassis with details such as four figures in each of the four seats (three of them drinking beer!), steering and an engine. This particular model is in a smaller scale compared to the motor car chassis shown at the March 2025 meeting.

Model 17 from a № 10 set, with a modified bucket chain, plus other minor alternations.

Built using Dinky Builder parts.

Short wheelbase. 4 wheel drive with hub reduction steering. 4 forward and 1 reverse gearbox. Inter-axle differential. Crane on turntable with manual winches.

It wasn’t very long after finishing my last model called Momentum that I started with the development of yet another new one. You could say it was due to having gathered creative momentum that I soldiered on, or that I perhaps I am a un-fatiguing Meccano…

Over Christmas 2023 just for a change I decided to build a small model of a dinosaur which I named Pliciosaurus. It had four legs, a long neck and tail and very sharp teeth. In early 2025 it was displayed in a Spanish club in Portobello Road with two…