Meccano - One of My Favourite Toys

An Advertisement for Meccano from a French magazine, November 1922

Times were hard in 1950s England for working people. We weren't poor but we weren't rich either so there wasn't a lot of spare money. One year, when I was about seven years old and my brother about five, he got the most magnificent birthday present.

It came in an old wooden box - it looked like a big box to us but I suppose it wasn't as big as I remember. When my brother opened it, there were all these strange, thin, flat, metal pieces with holes in them all the way along. They came in various sizes too. Then there were circular bits and other shapes plus lots of brass screws with nuts to fit on them.

It was a collection of Meccano pieces. I can't call it a set because it was obviously a collection that somebody had put together from several Meccano sets.

That was the start of a love affair for both my brother and me.

A model steam locomotive built with Meccano at a Meccano exhibition in Madrid.
Copyright © José M Macías (lonoak) - Creative Commons License

I have to admit that neither I nor my brother were skilled engineers nor ever likely to be. We did love playing with the Meccano set, though. An instruction book had come with the box and we did our best to build some of the simple models and sometimes we succeeded. I can vaguely remember building a tower on one occasion, for example. I think we were most successful when our father helped us.

My brother and I have a stubborn streak and don't like to be defeated so, in spite of finding it difficult, we played with Meccano for years. I think we improved over time but neither of us ever felt that engineering was our true vocation. I am certain neither of us, not even with the help of our father, could build this magnificent model of a steam locomotive, pictured above.