o.86 AUGUST 2011 IDEX Scone 2011 . 1 Society Meeting 21 st May,2011. 2 Menstrie,2011. 5 Meccano Society of Scotland at Mauchline . 6 Meccano at theRiverside . .11 Meccano Electrics Part 4. .13 Skegex 2011 . .19 East Anglian Report . .31 Meccano Steam Engines Part 3. 33 Meccano on the Internet . .38 DATES FOR YOUR DIARY Society Meeting, Stirling (AGM) . 21 st August Scone. 10 th /11 th September Cathcart (Pollokshaws Burgh hall) . 29 th /30 th October Greenock . 5 th /6 th November Aberdeen (Angus Plumb to co-ordinate) . 5 th /6 th November Society Meeting, Stirling. 20 th November SCOE 2011 SATURDAY 10 TH AD SUDAY 11 TH SEPTEMBER MECCAO SOCIETY OF SCOTLAD AUAL EXHIBITIO Be part of it! If you have not replied to Alan Blair’s request for notification of table space requirements, do it now ! Society Meeting, 21 May 2011 The meeting was held at the Menstrie Scout Hall at approximately 14:30 hours. Members present were Douglas Carson (Secretary), Alan Macdonald (Treasurer), Alistair Nicoll (Newsletter Editor), Hamish Donaldson, Bert Hutchings, Robert Jones, Andy Knox, Gordon MacMillan, Bobby Middlemass, Angus Plumb, and Gordon Stewart. Apologies were received from Jim Berrie, Alan Blair, Tim Edwards, Ken McDonald & Desmond Smith. 1. Secretary: a) Email from John Herdman of NEMS, inviting MSoS members to participate in their exhibition in Carlisle on Saturday, 23 July. Interested members should contact John directly. Andy Knox informed the meeting that the event was yet to be confirmed; apparently there are concerns that the proposed location is too out of the way to attract much interest. b) Email from Greenock MRC confirming our invitation to exhibit at their exhibition on 5/6 November. The Secretary has confirmed our attendance. c) Email from a visiting Meccanoman from the USA. The email was received less than twenty four hours before the gentleman was in Edinburgh and there was therefore insufficient notice to arrange anything. d) The Secretary updated members on his expected move to Dublin. Although not yet finally confirmed by his employer, he expected this to take place in late September, after our annual exhibition. The Secretary stated that given the availability of cheap flights, he and his wife intended to make regular visits to Scotland. He was therefore of the opinion that it would be possible for him to continue as Secretary provided that members were prepared to help, particularly with the organisation of the Cathcart and Balado exhibitions. Members agreed that we should proceed on this basis. Should it prove not to work the question can be addressed again in 2012. 2. Treasurer: The Treasurer reported that of the five non renewals reported at the last meeting, one had now renewed his subscription. The Treasurer asked if anyone had an address in New Zealand for Margaret Tattersfield. Alistair Nicoll had been in recent email contact with Margaret and reported that she was in the process of moving to South Island and that he had sent the Newsletter to her by email. The Treasurer further reported that he had made a donation to the Menstrie Scouts of £100 for the use of the hall for the day. As we pay £40 for two hours at the Smith Institute he thought this was only fair. 3. ewsletter: The Newsletter Editor reported that Rob Mitchell was sending him feedback and helpful suggestions concerning the Newsletter. Rob, as well as being a MSoS member, is also the editor of the SMG newsletter so knows what it is like to sit in the Editor’s chair. Bobby Middlemass again reported that he was in receipt of a copy of the Meccano Modellers Association (Melbourne) newsletter. Bobby asked if we send a copy of our Newsletter in return. The Newsletter Editor responded that he had done this once by email with a request that Melbourne confirm that they wished to continue this arrangement. Nothing had been heard from them and consequently he had sent no more. 4. MSoS Exhibitions: a) Kilmarnock. The Secretary reported that since the organisers were still unwilling to pay any expenses he had politely declined their invitation to exhibit. He had already informed members who had expressed an interest in attending by email. b) Mauchline, Saturday 28 May. All arrangements are in hand and details had been sent by the Secretary to the exhibitors; Douglas Carson, Angus Plumb, Andy Knox, Ken McDonald, Tim Edwards & Alistair Nicoll. c) Skegness, 30 June/3 July. Ken McDonald, Angus Plumb, Andy Knox, Alan Blair and Douglas Carson intend to exhibit. d) Scone, 10/11 September. Alan Blair not being present, the Secretary presented the following information on his behalf. Alan had approached the SVTEC committee with a request for a contribution to our expenses but they were unable to assist. Alan reported details of costs for a modern framed tent extension to the refreshments tent. Two additional bays and a partition between the refreshments area and our space would cost about £400. The space available would be 30’ x 20’. Given that our traditional marquee cost about £200, if we wanted the framed tent then we would need to find an additional £200. Members asked how much space did we have in the existing marquee; the Treasurer consulted his records and stated that this was 40’ x 20’. The initial reaction was why would we pay more for less space? Members asked if Alan’s dimensions were correct; the Secretary consulted his minutes and confirmed that both these and the costs were in line with what Alan had stated at the January meeting. It was pointed out that to achieve more space we would require a third bay for a further £150. This would be a 12% increase in space at a total additional cost of £350. This was felt to be unsustainable. It was agreed that more space was desirable and that Alan Blair should investigate the possibility of a larger marquee from the Boys Brigade. Further discussion followed about the general arrangements for the exhibition. Concern was expressed regarding our ability to source additional tables should we be successful in acquiring additional space and how we would transport such tables now that we could no longer make use of Margaret’s van. There was also a strong feeling, that to avoid the problems experienced in 2010, we must be more disciplined about the layout and allocation of tables. Members should be asked to state their intentions at the earliest opportunity so that by the time of the August meeting a draft floor plan could be made available. Angus Plumb volunteered to draw up such a plan. It was also suggested that a “Tentmaster” be appointed for each day to ensure compliance with the floor plan. The Secretary undertook to convey these concerns to Alan Blair. e) NEMS, 22 nd October at Darlington. Bert Hutchings is planning to attend. f) Cathcart MRC, 29 th /30 th October at Pollokshaws Burgh Hall. Alistair Nicoll, Bert Hutchings and possibly Douglas Carson are the only members currently interested in exhibiting. The Secretary had not yet contacted the organisers and will do so as soon as possible to confirm our invitation and the number of tables we will be allocated. g) Aberdeen MRC, 29 th /30 th October at RGU, Garthdee. Arrangements are in hand and Angus Plumb reported that there might be a payment from the organisers depending on door receipts. Exhibitors are Angus, Keith Remnant, Ed Rebecca and Gordon Stuart. h) Greenock MRC, 5 th /6 th November. Andy Knox, Bert Hutchings and Alistair Nicoll expressed their intention to exhibit and it was assumed that Tim Edwards will also be present. 5. Dates of Future Meetings: These are Sundays 21 st August (AGM) and 20 th November. 2012 dates are Sundays 22 nd January, 18 th March, 19 th May (Saturday at Menstrie), 19 th August (AGM) and 18 th November. 6. Other Business: a) Andy Knox informed us that used Horolene (which he had previously reported as an effective antidote to moles) also has a beneficial effect on grass. This was put down to the nitrogen contained within the product. Andy had also shown a model at the recent NEMS exhibition at Beamish and had been very impressed by both the exhibits at Beamish and the facilities made available to NEMS. b) Bert Hutchings will be exhibiting at the NEMS exhibition at Shildon next weekend on 29 th /30 th May. 7. Vote of Thanks: The Secretary proposed a vote of thanks to Alan Macdonald for arranging the Menstrie Constructors’ Day meeting and providing the excellent lunch. Members agreed in the usual fashion. Douglas Carson, Secretary * * * * * MESTRIE 2011 by Alistair icoll Attendance at Constructor’s Day this year was poor with only about a dozen of our fifty or so members turning up. Only a few of these actually brought a model. Those seen included Andy Knox’s hammerhead crane and Douglas Carson’s twin cylinder steam engine, both of which were to make the journey to Skegness about six weeks after Menstrie. Gordon Stewart had an interesting collection, including one of the original Meccano steam engines and two entries for the walking race. There were only five entries for the race itself and, as last year, it was organised as a series of one to one contests. This meant that each contestant had four races. Most of the models suffered from a lack of ability to walk in a straight line. This is not to say that they staggered about randomly (as Scots humans not able to walk in a straight line do). It was more that they tended to walk in gentle curves thus making the distance between the starting and finishing lines much greater than it needed to be, or in some cases, effectively infinite, as they hit the side of the hall before reaching the finishing line.