Meccano Magazine
My father bought me my first Meccano Magazine when I was 9 or 10 and I was an avid reader until it stopped production in the 1960’s. I was therefore delighted when Pat Whalley handed me two editions from June 1930 and October 1931. The covers have long disappeared, but the rest of the magazine is in remarkably good condition and is well worth a read. The variety of articles is amazing and must have thrilled many a boy, whatever age from 9 to 90 it would seem. There are articles on modern inventions, the latest airplanes, boats, ships, railway engines, plus information about stamp collecting and the advertisements are just amazing to see, what prices!! All the illustrations are in black and white, but they are of good quality and I’m sure these would inspire the young model makers of the day to try to make such a thing with their Meccano set.
I not only inherited my father’s Meccano set, but had one of my own plus his Hornby clockwork ‘O’ gauge railway engines from 1924. On Christmas Day, 1949, I received my very own Hornby Dublo electric train set, it cost £12.10s, two and half weeks normal wages in those days. I still have the engine ‘Sir Nigel Gresley’ an A4 streamlined L.N.E.R. express engine, and two tinplate teak style coaches. The engine is still in working condition and has pride of place in my glass case 61 years after manufacture.
If anyone would like to see these two magazines, do contact me on 01249 715741 and I will deliver them to you and will collect them afterwards for another reader.
Michael Rumsey