According to Google, today is Frank Hornby's 150th birthday - there's a rather nice clip art on the top of google.co.uk's home page!
Happy Birthday to Frank Hornby. As a child my godmother worked in the Binns Road factory in Liverpool. At the end of the avenue where I lived in Liverpool the No.6 tram service passed Binns Rd as it travelled along Edge Lane to and from the city centre terminating at the Pier Head. There one could alight to find Cunard and Canadian Pacific liners at the landing stage. Stashed away I still have some of my old Hornby Dublo 3-rail that 'Aunty Flo' could get with a staff discount. I really did enjoy my 'Meccanno' No.5 set as well. Does LEGO instill an engineering mindset in our young ones like the Meccanno sets did to us golden oldies?
Roger
Well Lego was one of my favourite toys when I was growing up in the later part of the 1960
I have always had the impression Meccanno with its nuts and bolts etc would develop an able bodied child's fine motor skills such as hand/eye coordination much better than the chunky Lego blocks. Just a retired special needs teacher's point of view though the chidren I taught had poor motor skills and Lego Technic was more suitable.
Roger
I can remember building Meccano (I think that's the correct spelling) models when I was three, including adding trafficators and windscreen wipers to a lorry built by my older brothers on Coronation morning 1953 when I was 3 1/2. Before I was four I had taught myself to read some of the words in the Meccano instruction books, I remember they were particularly fond of the word 'journal'!
I had learned all my engineering skills, such as they are, by the time I was eight from the Meccano set, principles of gear reduction, how and why to brace structures etc. I have no idea how my life would have developed without these insights. I do wonder about the youth of today who for the most part cannot and will not do anything unless it can be done on a keyboard. Having said that, their skills in that area, of course, vastly surpass mine. But a lot of them can't spell or punctuate! (The panda says no!)
Rod
Thanks Rod, I have so far put one extra 'n' in Meccano!! It is too long since I had a Meccano set. I enjoyed reading the Meccano Magazine as well because it was one issue that introduced me the narrow gauge and the Festiniog Railway. The thing I liked most was that the magazine taught and informed us youngsters just as much as Meccano did.
Roger
Ah! The Meccano Magazine. A total anachronism these days, but back then intended to educate and inform without beating you over the head with it. Amongst other things, it introduced me to the narrow gauge, the Talyllyn Railway (Enchantment for three shillings, March 1958) The Donegal (September 1959) the Festiniog, the Cavan and Leitrim, the West Clare and my first photograph of 'Edward Thomas' (On the broad and narrow gauge in north Wales, April 1957) including the first tantalising reference to 'the now closed Corris Railway'. Very scary to think this is all well over 50 years ago.
Rod
I remember a recent visit to the Bethnal Green museum of childhood. (Come to think of it, it was before our Matthew was born so it was over 23 years now...) And drooling over a big Meccano set in one of the showcases - was it the set 10 that had everything in it?
Those of us in the 'elderly gentlemen' age range have much to thank Frank Hornby for.
Roger
I recognise the 'elderly' bit, but....
Rod
I remember that his early locos ran like clockwork. :)
Is that my taxi? :-[
Still got my meccano...
Mal.
Sadly my Meccano is all gone the way of most toys, not helped by frequent house moves, the downside of being a "services" child. I didn't have a huge amount, but still a fair bit and looked longingly at the amazing creations designed to tempt you to buy more. My favourite parts were the gears. Beautiful brass they were. I seem to recall that I had enough to make either a differential or a simple gearbox (i.e. selectable gears) but not both. I guess it must have been this one:
(https://forum.009society.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.internationalmeccanomen.org.uk%2FREFERENCES%2FCollandHistseries%2FEvolGears%2Fhistfig10.jpg&hash=78c292732dcdea95d5e6da6bafaf8add4de7e9ee)
The plastic was definitely yellow. I guess it was about 1963.
We have actually used Meccano parts to rotate the turntable on 'Gairloch'. Originally powered by Frizinghall supplied mechanism that was not as successful as wished we changed it to hand a cranked type with the extra parts obtained at a local swapmeet.
Roger
Quote from: rod335 on May 16, 2013, 08:12
Very scary to think this is all well over 50 years ago.
I stopped listening to "The Vintage Chart Show" when I thought, "I remember that," and then they said, "And that was a hit 30 years ago today!"
As for Lego... bah! Betta Builda beats it hands down! Wonder what happened to mine...
I wish I was young enough now to think back to 1983 as being long ago. I was listening to Pick of the Pops on Saturday from 25 May 1961 and remembering exactly what I was doing and the June 61 RM, 'The Denny Special', coming through the door. Seems like only ten years ago. Ho Hum.
Rod