The same but different!

85 years apart but from the same family...

Having just completed building the model of the Steam Wagon from the 1929 steam engine manual (see HERE), It struck me how similar the 'look' of the model is to the current 10-model, Multimodel set models. The skeletal construction and the use of braced girders to 'fill' areas that are solid on the prototype is common to both.

...and from a lower angle

There have been periods in the life of Meccano when all seemed lost. The product was going off in a direction that I was not very happy with. In the early 1980s, after the closure of the famous Binns Road factory, in Liverpool, and the subsequent offering from the then owners, Airfix, I thought the brand was dead. Fortunately for the Brand (but no so much for me - I was a creditor) the Aifix empire collapsed and after a short period of uncertainty Meccano was revived by the Meccano factory in France who had managed to gain control of the brand.

Today, the current sets are vastly different from those made and sold decades ago but the models still show amazing similarities and are totally back-compatibility, using the same hole spacing, diameter and thread specification. Change whatever you like, Mr Meccano, but do not ever change these specification and Meccano will live for ever with granddad's Meccano being compatible with today's offerings.

Ralph.