Roto Truck build!

Fifteen year old 'Modern' Meccano

Click on the picture to enlarge
and count the teeth!

Work is continuing on the Merry Mixer but that is all going to be a bit tedious for a few days and there is no point in showing you any of that until the repetitive stuff is done so I have been relegated to the kitchen table tonight. I thought I would have a go at building an old but unused set that I bought a while ago for the parts. So first job was to open all the packets an see what we have. I know the contents of this set have a good supply of useful bits including a couple of the 24t tri-axle pinions (these will mesh at 1/2inch centres with the 12t pinion making them very useful for compact gearboxes), lots of rod and strip connectors, 1 inch rods and a whole lot more. there is even a brass short coupling. Meccano were using fewer and fewer brass parts even then. Now they don't have any in the current range of available sets except for one... Anyone know what set that is? The rest of the set is full of other handy parts. Another bonus with this kit is the use of black bolts - something else that is thin on the ground at the moment.

Building commenced with the chassis. I will apologise upfront for the poor quality of snap-shot photography of the build bit as I said this is a 'Ralph's Table' job, so we are down to hand-held, built in flip up camera flash. But I think you will get the idea.    

The first stage is to build the chassis

Next the two lots of steering gear and racks are fitted. along with the side tanks. Make sure you fit the tanks on the correct side of the chassis - Please, don't ask me why I am telling you this! and this completes the first assembly. This is now put to one side while the cab is built.

First bit done!

The cab assembly is straightforward and makes good use of short rods and rod and strip connectors. This is where these sets excel. In the traditional progressive sets you only got one of these in the smaller sets and a No. 10 set only had four. There are 16 of them in this set!

Looks more like a roll-cage...

That's the second sub-assemble completed now the third and final assembly is just a case of bolting a few pieces to the cylinder. Add the gears that drive the steering racks to the chassis and it is read for final assembly.

Ready for assembly

The finished model is remarkably solid and has plenty of play value. I do wonder how many of these sets ever got built. The gears need a bit of setting up to get the steering to work properly and the tri-axle has to be positioned in the correct orientation. although there is an illustration that has an explanation mark in a triangle indicating that care is needed, it does not explain why. To the average child or parent trying to help this would be meaningless. That said I think this is a great little model and the set is full of useful bits so it will make its way into our building stock once we get around to dismantling it.

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Finished - Click on the picture to enlarge!

These sets are hard to find these days and we have had them for sale in Ralph's Shop in the past although not for a while now. They do appear, from time to time, on eBay, in the charity shops and at boot fairs, so keep your eyes open if you want one...

All it needs now is a driver - Click on the picture to enlarge!

Ralph.