Morning all, phew its 49f sun cracking flags......
Back to the Mecano I had a basic set one christmas and some time later was given an alloy look alike the two didnt quite match the hole centres were different ...
The instruction book you got with your set told how to build basic cars,cranes & windmills.
The frustrating thing was getting to the back of the book where you were shown mega Clyde Gantry cranes the size of a small boy!
all you needed was Set number 100 plus to make Frank Honby a rich man

http://www.melright.com//meccanosales/#tensets
OMG the price of the number 10 set $3000 !!!
looking at the pictures I'm wondering if in fact the alloy set I had was in fact Mecanno the were definatly softer than the traditional red and gren steel parts
I was lucky as a kid I was given Dinky toys from Canada . RAF cousins who had trained over there bought them back I think that they were not obtainable in wartime England.
I remember A mate down the road had a older sister who married a Canadian.He and his brother had grand red pedal cars and a scooter with a pedal drive just in front of the rear wheel .With both feet on the platform one foot pressed down on this pedal a chain drove the wheel and you released the pedal and pressed again
there must have been some freewheel device
As you can imagine the brothers were very popular
From the Canuck who must have been in the Canadian airforce we were given a aircraft fuel tank
The shape and size of a dingy the top had been cut out to make us a flat bottomed boat this carried about 6 kids at once
" Swallows and Amazons " eat you heart out
We sailed it on the River Eden (the river Eden Ran Through EdenBridge)
It became the flag ship of our Navy
The lesser vessels were Rafts' constructed from Oil Drums rope and scrap timber (KonTiki it wasnt )
Most of us couldnt swim but Not a child was lost despite not having Knowledge of metacentric heights or any nautical detail.The adult free building of the project might have been because if we had enlisted "grown up" help it might not have got off the ground. dads might have been happy enough But the mums would have put the kybosh on the fun. We had to build the craft close to our launch site Once afloat there they stayed till they sank Self regulating this that meant we couldnt transport the craft to nearby lakes not having the transport Modern kids take for granted .

The Alsager Model Railway Association which I belong to has a thriving Junior section so the hobby is still alive and well, these youngsters are well into modern outline and certainly not chasing the past....

Mornin' - ditto! (Very frosty too by the look of it!).

.....I also had a heavy sleep storm last night....

Morning all

dark but no frost