Wednesday, December 4, 2013
Beautiful Mechanical Models
I was very fortunate to be allowed to use the fine photos from Mr. Andrew Bennett of The Antiques Storehouse in Portsmouth, England, as well as his fine store on ebay. Andrew had a most-interesting diversity of toys that I don't get to see here in North America, and that's why I had initially contacted him. While looking at his merchandise, I came across some very nice Meccano models that also were capable of moving (electricity). I know I was going to write about these models, and decided to for today. You'll see why tomorrow, when I add a "special" finished model from another seller.
For those who don't know, Meccano was a company eventually purchased by Hornby that was located in Britain, and produced fantastic kits to be assembled. They pieces had round holes throughout the parts, and brass or brass-coloured nuts and bolts were used to assemble whatever model could be built with a kit. Since all the parts of every kit were useable, you could buy more kits or more-complicated kits and work 2-4 or more kits altogether. In the USA, there was the A.C.Gilbert company that made a similar product. However, being a Canadian, we naturally had Meccano, since Canada at one time was part of the British Empire, and is still a member of the Commonwealth.
The model is based on the type of caravan (trailer) that you'd see in the
U.K. in the 1940's-1960's. It reminds me a bit of the gypsy caravans.
The fun part about accessing UK people is that I get to learn some "lingo"
Lorry for truck (North America) and caravan for trailer (North America).
This one is also interesting. It's a coal-powered model of a tractor.
I like the real pieces of coal that were added to the back holding area.
Another fine model of a traction engine, which if I'm not mistaken
is called a paver in North America.
If you examine the photos of this post, you will see the many different parts that the kits came with. Larger kits had more parts and more complex parts,so children could built more elaborate structures and machines. You can see that even some of the parts (aside from the nuts and bolts) were also made of brass (or brass-coloured metal).
When I first started to blog, I had resold 2 unused (mint condition) Meccano kits. At the time, I though that since Meccano had originated in Great Britain, I thought that there might be a Meccano club there, and there was. And as they say - "the rest is history". I sold the 2 sets to one of the club members.
You can still purchase Meccano sets, and they are fantastic. For old-enough children the sets provide a great education in terms of exploring what one might make without a set of plans. As well, assembling the parts with the nuts and bolts will improve manual dexterity.
Thanks for dropping by,
and have a great bpart of the day or night,
wherever you may be.
Stacey
toysearcher@gmail.com
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