Melbourne Meccano Club Inc. meeting December 2002

Our final get together of the year was held once again on the rear deck at Lindsay Carroll's . Many thanks to Lindsay and his Daughter Moira for looking after us all so
well, including a neighbour's cat that decided
it might as well join in as well! As always for this end of year meeting we had an excellent turnout with 32 members and 4 family members attending.

People began arriving well before the scheduled starting time of 1 pm and as
always the first hour or so before the commencement of formal proceedings passed very quickly. There were the sales tables to be perused, models to be inspected, general chit chat and catching up with Meccano acquaintances and friends.

At 2 pm our new President Mike Maloney called the meeting to order and welcomed us all to Lindsay's. On this occasion he did not have any visitors to welcome and unfortunately none of our recent new members was present either.

He then had the sad task of informing us that Alan Lomax had been killed in an off-road motor cycling accident shortly after our exhibition. Alan was not at the exhibition, but he frequently made the trip down from Wodonga to attend meetings. His cheerful, smiling face will be missed greatly by everyone. The Secretary has sent a condolence card on behalf of Club Members to Alan's family
.
Bill Davis our Treasurer provided a run down on the Club finances. At the moment we have around $4,000 in the bank and about 68 financial members. With a bit of luck additional subscription renewals will have increased this number by 15 Dec. Bill also gave a rundown on the financial side of our recent exhibition which yielded a net profit of $590.

Kimball Monger , Exhibition Chairman, then gave a short account of our very successful exhibition and thanked those who had brought models along. Thank you Kimball as well for organising it so well.

Graham Jost brought us up to date with the progress of the video that was shot of the Exhibition. Little editing has been done so far and the producer would like to have voice over, describing the models. But of course this can't be done until the editing is complete. In summary the final version of the video is still some way off.

On the subject of videos, Roger Hall also shot a half-hour video of the exhibition and brought it along to the meeting. This was played a couple of times during our afternoon tea break. I have to confess to not viewing it all, but I liked what I saw. Thanks for bringing it Roger.

Jack Parsisson our co-ordinator of external exhibitions provided a run down of these activities since our last meeting in August. Reports on our displays at Monash University, World Vision Centre and Red Hill Consolidated School are included in the newsletter. At Red Hill, exhibitors received a free lunch and a glass of wine as well!
Jack also brought us up to date on

forthcoming external exhibitions provided the news that MW Models are closing their retail shop in March next year. The following is the text of a message that Geoff Wright posted on Spanner on 5 Dec.

"As I announced to last Saturday's meeting of the Henley Society of Meccano Engineers, due to a considerable downturn in business we are no longer able to afford the luxury of our considerable commercial premises. Accordingly, we are planning to close our retail shop at the end of March 2003, but will continue with world wide mail order using a post office box number.

"This will mean that we will have to offer our collection of display models for sale. Details will follow in our next NewsSheet, which we hope to send out in January.

"When our present stock of spare parts has sold out, we will concentrate all our energies on producing MW ModelPlans and will actively seek contributions to extend the range.

"To promote our ModelPlan service, I am seeking invitations from UK club secretaries to attend club meetings and bring a display of MW literature for sale. I have recently attended Runnymede and Holy Trinity meetings on this basis, and was made most welcome. By this means I will be able to keep in contact with many of the good friends in the Meccano world which we have made over the years.

"So, I am still not retiring! Just changing direction!

"Please note, the Henley Society will continue to hold their meetings as usual (last Saturday in February, May & November) and the Henley Gathering 2003 will take place in the Christ Church Centre on August 30th 2003."

Exhibition photos on the web.

Mike Wright advised that a friend of Doug Ward's has posted a selection of photos at http://members.ozemail.com.au/~geaton/PhotoAlbum05.html

Model Display

Graham Jost was first cab off the rank with a new (Servetti) braider and gave us a demonstration. It ran faultlessly!

Peter During demonstrated his latest model, a gantry crane in 1978 blue/yellow and explained some of the issues associated with its construction.

Sandra Hall brought along
two models - just as well since the model display was a bit limited on this occasion.
The first was Noah's Ark in blue/gold
from the No 3 manual of that era.
Her second model was a windmill in
(original) nickel Meccano from one
of the 1920s manuals - a most
attractive model Sandra.
Where did you find
those nickel parts
in such good
condition?

Mike Maloney showed off his synchronous motor which runs quite well. Mike's next project is to use in the construction of an electric clock.

Bill Inglis has built another model from his Motion Series, 50 Model Outfit. This one is a motor scooter. It had a bit of trouble staying upright when running on Lindsay's decking - does much better on an even surface.

Tony Press brought along a motor
lorry built from a No 2 Dinky Builder
outfit together with a re-strung No 2
Dinky Builder set. Tony also
provided some information about
history of the product. The original
Dinky Builder was introduced to the
market in time for Christmas 1934 and
it is interesting to note that sometime in the early 30's the Stanley Company of America produced a similar new pin and plate construction toy which they named 'Stanlo'. The first Outfits comprised No 1, complete with Trees (from the Hornby Train Series) and four small steel Wheels and No 2, complete with a Lamp Shade and Stand (from the Meccano Lighting Set), supplied in
glowing colours of salmon and jade
green with blue and white wheels.
The boxes were light green with large
brightly coloured labels.

Finally, Roger Hall gave us a look at the contents of the Special Edition Train Set. Much of it is made up from traditional Meccano parts, but typically (for these days) a lot comprises special plastic parts.

Back to Home Page