Autumn 2017 Newsletter

June 2017 Meeting

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!

Henwick Primary School Summer Fair 2017

Report written by Peter Clay

This event took place on the 8th July 2017. Usefully we were, as last year, in the hall where refreshments were served. On the downside, although plenty of tables were available they had built-in low benches suitable for young bottoms. This resulted in yours truly perched precariously on a pile of chairs one end, and Brian on some extra high seat like a Wimbledon umpire!

Spectators consisted of parents and children, most of them young. Comments like “cool!" were heard from some children, unlike from some parents — I heard a father tell his son that Meccano was like a sort of metal L**o!

We were honoured to have the local MP, Clive Efford, visit our stall — he chatted to us all (without announcing who he was) and seemed genuinely interested in the models. We gave him a flyer for our show in October — we’ll have to see if he turns up!

So, to the models:

Chris Warrell showed a mini blocksetting crane, Daleks, two small robots from a tin, his Heath Robinson Christmas pudding stirrer, and some small models.

Tim Surtell had his Lightning Leap, Spanish Knight (now modified to take a coin in a slot), maraca, ice cream cart and YouTube ‘1000 subscribers’ plaque. He also did a lot of work in organising everything, putting up banners, and ran Make It With Meccano. Tim reckons about 30–40 took part, including parents. Expecting a lower turn-out he printed 10 certificates and ran out in about half-an-hour!

Brian Leach had his model of Lullingstone Castle gatehouse, castor mechanism and gearbox. One child declared Brian’s castle to be ‘very professional’ but added that it needed a staircase inside. They’re learning!

Peter Clay brought his Meccanograph of his own design, a № 1 set delivery truck and the new Ferrari from Spin Master. This was notable for the amount of plastic strips etc. and even plastic lock nuts — exactly like a standard Meccano square nut but a tighter fit on the bolts. This in a set that advertised ‘real metal’ on the box!

Apart from a tendency of young children to take up a model — frequently a car — play with it, and then put it on another person’s table, it seemed to go well on the whole. ‘A good time was had by all.'

My apologies if I’ve got anybody’s model details wrong.

You can see more photos from the Summer Fair in our Facebook album.

Eltham Park Festival 2017

Report written by Brian Leach

I arrived at about half past eleven and already our gazebo was almost totally set up. I helped with a couple of banners and quickly put my models on the table and we were off.

The gazebo had a red covering which gave the models a strange tint. Red plates became almost orange in colour. [It’s also done strange things to the photos — Brian’s green dinosaur has turned yellow! —Ed.] I am colour-blind but can still work out most reds and greens. Also the gazebo had restricted height. A divider from centre front to back was too low and quite sharp. Fortunately there were no accidents.

The weather just about held, with some sunny spells and only a few spots of rain between 2 and 3 o’clock. It was windy and the side of the gazebo often billowed inwards where I was sitting.

This was the first outing of the new ‘Meccasaur’, built by me in the few days before. It performed quite well, but its feet slipped a bit on the table top as it was on a slight incline. Meccasaur is not on sale in the UK which I think is a big shame. It can walk forwards, left, and right. It roars at passers-by. There is a room guard mode. You can ask it questions to which it nods ‘yes’ or ‘no’. It is also programmable and can record sound. In general, the children liked it — I don’t think any were scared by it.

Also going down well were Chris’s steam loco, James’ ‘Cylindricurse’, Peter’s Meccanograph, Adrian’s pumping engine and Tim’s Lightning Leap. Also the ‘Make It With Meccano’ workshop was very busy.

The festival was open from 12 noon — 5:00pm, with the busiest period being 12 noon — 3:00pm. Later on I wanted some food and drink. The open air BBQ was a disaster. I thought I had about a 10 minute queue but after 15 minutes the queue had only moved four spaces. I gave up and later went to the main canteen. Things were faster there, but it was still quite a wait!

There were plenty of stalls around and Chris spent some time at the St. Luke’s stall (his church) and also participated (with James) in some 4-a-side Walking Football [we won 8–5 -Ed.]. Also, with the festival being run by the police, there were plenty of police cars old and new to look at.

Models on display:

Adrian Ashford — Pumping engine; cabin cruiser.

Brian Leach — Meccasaur; dice; Lullingstone Castle gatehouse.

Chris Warrell — Eiffel Tower; Daleks; steam locomotive on O gauge track; crash tender; mini block-setting crane; bike.

James Plicio — Cylindricurse fairground ride.

Peter Clay — Meccanograph; sports car; delivery truck.

Tim Surtell — The Lightning Leap; Spanish Knight; maracas; ice cream cart.

65 Secretary’s Challenges

Written by Chris Warrell

Many of you may know that the idea of the Secretary’s Challenge came from Geoff Carter (Secretary from 2000 to 2003) in 2001 when he decided that this would be a way of getting more models to the meetings. They were very successful from the start, with a good number of members attempting the first one which was to dig out your oldest Meccano manual and build a model from it. The Challenges have continued at every meeting since then.

To date, we’ve had 65 Challenges which have resulted in the construction of at least 530 models! Introduced in 2013 was ‘The Big Challenge’ where we all chip in to one large model or collection, the current one being the Tube Map.

The first few Challenges were set by Geoff, but later on members started sending in their own ideas. The first was from Peter Clay who invited members to build something with a practical use. So far two of his ideas have been used, with Brian Leach and my wife Cathy contributing a couple each as well. I’ve used eight ideas from Chris Fry (and there’s another on the way).

The most popular by far was the month/year Birthday Model (the idea being borrowed from the ISM magazine) with 24 entries. Some of the Challenges that require a degree of ingenuity have produced only a few entries.

I won’t list all 65 here (you can see them all in the drop-down list in the Model Gallery) but here are my top ten models, in no particular order:

I really have to put Chris Fry’s peloton first because I included it in my ‘Favourite Model of All Time’ article for the International Meccanoman. It was in the Tour de France challenge in June 2014 and won the Geoff Carter Cup as well. It very simply captured the look of a group of cyclists in a tight bunch racing for the finish.

In January 2007 the theme was Film and TV. Andrew Couzens came up with a very realistic Mole from the Thunderbirds series. It had the same rugged look as the Gerry Anderson version.

The Year of the Bus provided the inspiration in September 2014 and Cathy Claydon’s WWI ‘B’ Type bus was a very good model in its army green colours. At the time it still needed its red Spoked Wheels repainting.

Geoff Carter produced what was, for him, a very large model at 6 feet long — the Forth Bridge. This was in the Landmark Building challenge of June 2005. It was actually designed by Chris Shute using parts from the M&S Landmark kits.

Douglas Windibank rarely built models of his own design, but in January 2006 he built a lifting bridge, using parts with the numbers 3 or 0. He’d used ideas from other models for this, which was hand operated.

Quite a few challenges tie in with an anniversary, and in September 2011 it was 60 years since the 1951 Festival of Britain. Stuart Jones came up with a small model of the entire Festival site on London’s South Bank, either side of Hungerford Bridge — which he also modelled.

Snow was the theme in January 2012 and Les Chatfield’s model of a Snow-Trac, based on a Dinky Toy, captured the lines of the original perfectly. Each track was a double width of Sprocket Chain; plastic track would have been out of scale.

The Model Village challenge produced a large number of models at the meeting — and even more turned up when they were displayed at that year’s Show. John Gay’s pub ‘The Bolt Hole’ was nicely proportioned, occupying a corner plot; it looked very good in its dark blue and yellow colours.

There were two winners of the Magic Motor races in June 2010. Ralph Laughton won the speed race with a very minimalist buggy — just the motor and wheels! In the distance race Brian Leach won with a go-kart which was geared for distance rather than speed.

You don’t often see Plastic Meccano at meetings, but young Sam Edwards brought a plastic narrow boat for the Canals challenge in January 2016. It captured the lines of a working boat very well.

I’m always on the lookout for any ideas for the Secretary’s Challenge — I can’t promise that I’ll use every suggestion, but don’t let that put you off!

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