Midlands Meccano Guild Model Reports 1-100 ©MMG 2017 14 1st Guild Meeting Saturday October 28th, 1967. Held at: The St. John Ambulance Hall, Western Road, Stratford-on-Avon, on Saturday October 28th from 2pm to 8pm, and proved to be a very successful inaugural meeting. The turnout, both of models and members was quite excellent and they came from all points of the compass around the Midlands. The programme went according to plan. I am very pleased and absolutely staggered to be able to say this for such an off the cuff venture. Groups of members converged from various centres such as Nottingham, Rugby and Oxford to be greeted with tea and biscuits on arrival. The setting up of the models occupied the first half hour but a reasonably prompt start was made about 2.30 with a short address of welcome from Bert Love and Ernie Chandler. The Secretary announced a surprise item in the form of a Meccano Christening cake which would be ‘unveiled’ at tea-time and cut in honour of the Guild’s first meeting and the rebirth of Meccano Magazine, the editor of which had promised Bert Love that a photograph of the cake and the ceremony would be used in the Editorial of the first issue of the new edition. Models were then demonstrated and commented on individually by their respective builders and the variety was most interesting. Ron Fail brought his endless chain clock which worked like a dream and showed a remarkably neat solution to the striking plate mechanism required for the 78 hourly strokes required for a 12 hour day by 1 using hub discs as the cage of an epicyclic gearing, the output being provided by /2” angle brackets on the rims of the hub discs. Pat Briggs brought two nice lantern clocks which ticked away merrily on temporary floor stands and although one of them contained a custom made 30 tooth escape wheel, the purpose being to get a pendulum of ‘Royal‘ length, i.e. one complete cycle in two seconds, the second used a 2 inch sprocket as the escape wheel and kept perfectly good time. The clock cases were most realistic in appearance, great care being taken to use the full range of brass Meccano parts to simulate the ornate decoration of the period. Ernie Chandler produced a model dragline taken from one of the current manuals for the No. 10 set and the chassis of a veteran car with some particularly interesting ‘solid‘ tyres. These were square section rubber pipe sealing glands pressed on to 3” artillery wheels with a most realistic effect. Arthur Locke, the veteran member of the group, showed a prize winning traction engine in original nickel parts with the old domed headed bolts used with great effect. David Goodman showed a nicely balanced replica of the vertical single cylinder steam engine used in the early ‘Comet’ paddle steamer and a modern prototype high speed plate clutch mechanism. Bob Faulkner showed an impressive multi speed gear box with excellent gear shift locking as the basis of a super designing machine. Roger Lloyd produced a No. 8 manual model of a breakdown lorry which was carefully constructed and of pleasing appearance. Bert Love cheated completely by displaying three demonstration models salvaged from former Meccano dealers. A Ferris wheel with lights and a demonstration car chassis had been restored from broken and rusty conditions but a model of Tower Bridge with lights was virtually in its original crated condition. The dealers mains motor designed for continuous operation and the special 10 volt lighting transformer were included on a separate board in this display. Alf Hindmarsh put on a fine display of vintage Meccano Aeroplanes built from the Aeroplane Constructor sets covering a period from the early to the late thirties. He illustrated the various differences in design detail and the models were in splendid condition thanks to the care lavished on them by Alf. He also turned up with a working model of the Meccano Supermodel Steam Digger complete with genuine Meccano steam engine and a load of rails on which to run the model. As he lugged this by hand and made the first part of his journey from Lincoln by train, he is to be congratulated both on the excellent working model and his fortitude in facing the trip! Very few of the members attending had actually seen one of the original vertical steam engines made by Meccano Ltd., and they certainly saw Alf’s engine working with the greatest of ease. Esmond Roden stuffed his Mini with two large tramcars of rugged and realistic appearance. One was an open top double decker and the second was the all enclosed version. They were fully detailed with passenger seats, trolley arms, bogies, drum controllers and ratchet check hand brake column on the driving platform. They ran very well on the track provided by Esmond and produced the old tramcar rail clatter in a most realistic manner. Dennis Perkins, Bill Winter, Dick Hardyman and his lad also attended to add enthusiasm and support to the meeting. Clive Hine showed a beautiful fairground model covered in 2 volt bulbs worked in series directly from the mains. Although the superstructure was of painted wood and therefore not strictly a Meccano model, the entire complicated drive system was made from Meccano parts which provided off-set, planetary and tilted motions at will to the main revolving superstructure and showed an excellent understanding of complex motion mechanism. Nigel Chandler laid on photographic lighting and a stand-by camera and I wish to place on my report a vote of thanks to Nigel who was a great help in dealing with the mass of tripods, leads and general camera Page 2 equipment required to get adequate coverage of such a meeting. The focus of the meeting however, was centred on a magnificent giant level luffing crane designed and built by Eric Taylor. It was an absolute masterpiece! Eric claimed that the model was not original as a similar one appeared in a French Meccano Magazine some years ago but as the illustration was about the size of two postage stamps, the credit still goes to Eric for a wonderful model. Standing higher than Eric himself, the jib luffed to full radius as smoothly as a Rolls Royce engine and the slewing, hoisting and travelling motions were just as well carried out and, what is more, all movements were controlled by a remote switch board making the model not only a joy to behold but a great pleasure to operate. The model was voted the most outstanding in the exhibition and what camera film was left in the Secretary’s camera after the group photos was completely used up in taking various shots of the model’s details. The single suspension bucket grab was particularly well designed and efficient. ellW done Eric. Well done all of you,- it was a great show. The break for afternoon tea started at 4.30 p.m. at which stage, the Meccano Christening cake was ‘unveiled’. The cake was decorated with red, green and white icing piped round a red circular strip and four corner motifs comprising green architraves. The bolt holes were filled with silver cake balls and the whole thing looked genuine ‘Meccano’. A group photograph was taken of the cake cutting ceremony and then tea was served by Mrs E. Chandler, Mrs E. Taylor and Mrs B. Love. There was plenty to eat for all and an excellent variety of refreshments were served. The raffle took place at this stage for which members were invited to buy shilling tickets which, in every case, won a prize of value between 1/3 and 4/9,- the proceeds going to the rental of the Hall. Obsolete literature, early Meccano Magazines and a display board of the most rare obsolete Meccano parts were on show. Jim Gamble demonstrated a brass finish restoring method and some home spraying of Meccano parts in true Meccano red and green enamels. He would have brought a giant block setting crane but the Secretary didn’t get the message properly so we shall no doubt see some of Jim’s modelling in the future. Eric Taylor contributed some useful hints on home spraying with car aerosols and his entire crane had been re-sprayed in silver and grey at home by Eric. Business meeting This was held after tea, the minutes of which are as follows. The stage was taken by Ernie Chandler and Bert Love and the meeting got down to the business of electing a Chairman and Secretary. It was pointed out that Esmond Roden was the founder member of an earlier group centred on his home in Cheltenham and that the turn up of members was the flowering of seeds planted by him in previous years. Ernie Chandler was elected Chairman,- a worthy tribute to our Stratford ‘Contact’ who was the prime mover in securing the St. John’s Hall for our meeting and for recruiting a large portion of the membership. Bert Love was elected as Secretary and it was then moved that in recognition of the early founder member of the South Midlands Meccano Society, Esmond Roden be appointed: as President of the Guild. This was carried unanimously. Correspondence A letter had been received from John Franklin, Editor of the New Meccano Magazine expressing interest in the Guild’s activities and asking for photographs of the Christening Cake for inclusion in the first edition of the new issue. A letter had been received from Mr W.