Explanation of absence
- Thread starter Mick_Berg
- Start date
FootplatePhil
Trainz Tragic since 2002
Another big Meccano fan here (both as builder, and as a collector). My other hobby, and where I disappear to periodically . Have fun.
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Ah, Meccano, I've had and lost a few sets during my childhood. Back in the late 50's and early 60's in the larger Manchester department stores, I recall, particularly around Christmas time, they had magnificent displays of Meccano built structures, tower cranes, cable car set ups, all sorts of things, all lit up and motorized too! I spent many minutes looking at these displays and dreaming about what I could build with all that Meccano stuff! The sets I got for Christmas and birthdays usually seemed quite small in comparison!
Then along came Lego and my allegiance changed!
Rob.
Then along came Lego and my allegiance changed!
Rob.
euromodeller
Imagineer
Oh the memories!
I was born within walking distance of the Binns Road factory in Liverpool.
My Auntie worked on the Dinky Toy production line too
Each Christmas the factory organised a Christmas party in the works canteen for the children and grandchildren of the workers and at which we could watch the the demonstrations of the huge (to me then) Meccano, Hornby model railway and Dinky Toy displays, boy's heaven!
Just around the corner was the Edge Hill engine shed (8A code) where my dad worked as a smokey (smokebox and ash pan cleaner) until he got a job as a dustman!
Yes I was the boy in the old Lonnie Donnegan song!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y7GeZ3YmONw
The man that lived next door to us was an engine driver and used to drive the protype Deltic from Liverpool to London.
What a great childhood I had back then!.
I was born within walking distance of the Binns Road factory in Liverpool.
My Auntie worked on the Dinky Toy production line too
Each Christmas the factory organised a Christmas party in the works canteen for the children and grandchildren of the workers and at which we could watch the the demonstrations of the huge (to me then) Meccano, Hornby model railway and Dinky Toy displays, boy's heaven!
Just around the corner was the Edge Hill engine shed (8A code) where my dad worked as a smokey (smokebox and ash pan cleaner) until he got a job as a dustman!
Yes I was the boy in the old Lonnie Donnegan song!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y7GeZ3YmONw
The man that lived next door to us was an engine driver and used to drive the protype Deltic from Liverpool to London.
What a great childhood I had back then!.
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Somehow that doesn't surprise me Paul��
People have built mechanical differential analysers and Babbage calculating engines, all very impressive!
Cheers
Mick
And another one when I was a kid, built a gramophone, speed was a bit odd mind you, it had the desired effect though Dad went and bought a proper one! sadly my Meccano along with my HO railway stuff and O gauge Hornby Tinplate was given to the Jumble sale by my then "New" Stepfather while I busy sailing the seas in the RN, was not impressed! Didn't find my 009 models though, still got them, albeit boxed up and not touched for 46 years!
Ahh . . . LEGO. I've got a lot of LEGOs. When the Lego series BIONICLE came out, I stopped buying any other LEGOs and begin buying only BIONICLE. I've got at least five different BIONICLE models from each year, well, except the final year as I felt the models for that year just didn't live up to the standards BIONICLE set in the previous years. I've since got back into LEGO, but it's a series called LEGO Architecture, which are various structures from across the world made into LEGO models. These are designed to be built and then put on display. This year they offer a model featuring several buildings from London, which include the London Eye, Big Ben, National Gallery, Nelson's Column, and Tower Bridge. There's one model that they made several years ago that I would really like: A model of Frank Lloyd Wright's masterpiece Fallingwater. Not that these are not cheap. Anyway, here's a link to the model of London: https://www.lego.com/en-us/themes/architecture/products/london-21034
Meccano - there's a long historical thing! Was tempted as a wee boy decades ago to want that but my love for trains overtook that. Instead my parents bought me a German train set from Rokal. Long gone company but eventually got a Hornby-Dublo to build on. Only thing that bugged me was having a third rail and it was only a long time arter when Hornby Dublo became just Hornby proper two rai appeared (!). Knew someone with Triang and although colourful the locos were all plastic and I thought that Hornby Dublo better being metal.........
jeffmorris
Active member
I used to play with Lego construction sets. They have robot kits and advanced model cars with working engines, transmissions, and suspensions.
Dinorius_Redundicus
kuid 68213
Face it Mick, you were never truly absent. Trainz is like that dreadful Eagles song, "Hotel California" - check out any time you like, but you can never leave.
* ducks head and waits for pummeling from Eagles fans*
*
ducks head and waits for pummeling from Eagles fans*blueodessey
Well-known member
Enjoy your Meccano
:wave: Good to hear your OK, that's the most important thing........New diversion is good for the Soul and Mind, for me it was an Erector set some 50 years ago........
As a Kid, it was Lincoln Logs, then American Flyer Train Set, and later on Erector Set, that's what I think got me off into Electronics, Computers, and all the other nifty things we played with. And now, after 4 Years, Trainz has been top of the line for me...Keeps the mind stimulated..........
You enjoy, have fun............
:wave: Good to hear your OK, that's the most important thing........New diversion is good for the Soul and Mind, for me it was an Erector set some 50 years ago........
As a Kid, it was Lincoln Logs, then American Flyer Train Set, and later on Erector Set, that's what I think got me off into Electronics, Computers, and all the other nifty things we played with. And now, after 4 Years, Trainz has been top of the line for me...Keeps the mind stimulated..........You enjoy, have fun............
ray_whiley
Active member
I had what must have been one of the earliest Meccano sets as I "inherited" it from my uncle who was born in the early 1900s - all silver in colour. Later ones were red and green.
Still reminiscing - Trix made an alternative with a much closer pattern of holes, and maybe
somewhat inferior.
A useful "toy" for railway modellers was Bayko _ individual bricks which could be cemented together
to make buildings. Then the cement could be dissolved to start all over again.
Anyone else remember these?
Ray
Still reminiscing - Trix made an alternative with a much closer pattern of holes, and maybe
somewhat inferior.
A useful "toy" for railway modellers was Bayko _ individual bricks which could be cemented together
to make buildings. Then the cement could be dissolved to start all over again.
Anyone else remember these?
Ray
cascaderailroad
New member
My son had a Constructx set of different size girders ... and if you ever stepped on a Blue Knot while walking across the living room floor, in your bare feet ... You can equate with the pain it inflicts:hehe: Owwwch !
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This may sound odd, coming from a Yank, but my first building set was a Meccano. At the time (1955-57), I was living in Germany. My dad was in the Air Force stationed there. I didn't see an Erector set until I came back to the States in 1958. I then build some really strange contraptions using parts from both Meccano and Erector.
Bill
Bill
KotangaGirl
Pre-Grouping Railways Nut
Oh yes Meccano. I had some of that when I was a kiddy. A big box of it purchased from a junk shop. Great fun, though I never seemed to have enough nuts and bolts and always ran out of them part way through building something.
And yes Ray, I had some Bayko too; - went very nicely with my Hornby clockwork trainset.
And yes Ray, I had some Bayko too; - went very nicely with my Hornby clockwork trainset.
Mick,
Meccano was my biggest love as a child ... you now have returned big memories of joy for me that i had making all sorts and being told off for putting my light back on once i knew my dad had gone bed .
I may have to look into this now and maybe buy for my grandsons ... yes not me my grandsons .
But for your absence ill still have to see a doctors sick note.
Thanks for bringing back a big smile mick
Meccano was my biggest love as a child ... you now have returned big memories of joy for me that i had making all sorts and being told off for putting my light back on once i knew my dad had gone bed .
I may have to look into this now and maybe buy for my grandsons ... yes not me my grandsons .
But for your absence ill still have to see a doctors sick note.
Thanks for bringing back a big smile mick
Face it Mick, you were never truly absent. Trainz is like that dreadful Eagles song, "Hotel California" - check out any time you like, but you can never leave.
*
Dreadful????? Pummel Pummel Pummel!
Mick:hehe:
Funny, I used to get up at five in the morning, steal some of my mum's home-made cakes and put together all kinds of silly contraptions.
I left my extensive Meccano collection with my nephew in Wales when I moved to California forty years ago. I recently asked him if I could have it back, and he told me that just a few weeks ago he had given it to the kids next door, after keeping it for me for forty years!!
If you want to reminisce I strongly recommend the NZMeccano website. Tons of great info.
Mick
I had a Bayko set as well, and if I remember correctly, Bayko was put together with wire rods holding the brick blocks together. The one with cement was Minibrix.
I'm restoring a pile of rusty metal into a bright shiny red-and-green Number Nine set from the late 'fifties. It's fun sitting in the garden in the sun, scraping away at this stuff and bringing it back to life. Be careful about buying it on eBay though, it can be addictive!
I had a Formo train set, very unususal, made by Graham Farish of high-end model trains fame. It didn't work well, and was replaced by Tri-ang.
Cheers,
Mick
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