Winter 2026 Newsletter

September 2025 Meeting

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

At around 3:30pm 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!

Meccano Show 2025

Report written by Tim Surtell

2025 marked the 200^th 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.

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.

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.

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!

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.

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.

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.

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.

Meccano Mornings 2025 (Day 1)

Report written by Chris Warrell

I received an e-mail out of the blue from Jen Kavanagh, a curator at the Museum of Croydon, regarding the idea of SELMEC running a couple of Make It With Meccano sessions in October half-term. It required only two of us on each day (although a spare person would have been useful).

The museum is in the same building as Croydon Library, with its impressive clock tower, right in the centre of town, but a little way from the main shopping area.

The Meccano workshop went very well with a (just about) manageable number of children arriving for the drop-in sessions. Luckily, one or two members of staff were on hand to help out — they also brought us hot drinks!

Wednesday was busier — at one point we had 11 children around the table at the same time. Pretty good since we have only four complete Meccano sets! We were located within the Children’s Library on the Wednesday, but on the following Saturday we were on a mezzanine near the museum, but in a quieter location with no casual passers-by, so far less busy.

Thanks to Santiago Plicio and Brian Leach for helping out.

A Look Back to the 1970s and 1980s

Written by Chris Warrell

In our 50^th year, I thought it was time to have a look back at some old photos from the first decade or so from the club archive.

There are no photos from our first meeting on 24^th July 1976, but I discovered this picture (actually a slide) in a box of slides dated June 1976, that I haven’t looked at in many years. I brought the model — a remote controlled Centurion tank — to the first meeting.

This was our second meeting in October 1976. From left to right we have Peter Clay, Geoff Davison, Adrian Ashford, Richard Greenshield and Charles Yearsley. Richard had joined us that day, having seen a board advertising the club outside the hall.

Pictured at our stand at the Memorial Hospital fete in August 1980 are (left to right seated) Adrian Ashford, Chris Warrell, David Smithers, (left to right standing) Neil Bedford (top left), Stan Bedford (partly obscured) and John Adams.

In our Spring 2026 newsletter we’ll revisit the 1990s — if you can’t wait then see our SELMEC Snapshots series: 1970s | 1980s | 1990s | 2000s | 2010s

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