Meccano Factory Drawings

Meccano at Binns Road in Liverpool produced thousands of factory drawings for Dinky Toys, Hornby, Hornby Dublo and presumably Meccano. Below is shown an example which is for the 157 Jaguar XK120: I have never seen any drawings from the French factory at Bobigny offered for sale or auction.Presumably there are drawings out there, has anyone got a French drawing?Dave

Hi Dave. Unfortunately, I have none. Richard

Hi Dave and Richard, here is an example of no. 32E Fourgon Incendie Premier Secours Berliet, the French Fire Engine: Kind regards, Jan

Fabulous Jan ! This 'Premier Secours Berliet' is one of my favorite Dinky ! I am curious : how did you get this drawing ? Is it an original ? Congratulations Richard

Dear Richard, I do not own this drawing myself, but I am always gathering whatever picture I find of Dinky design drawings for my own research. This one I got from your encyclopaedic fellow countryman. Kind regards, Jan

Jan, the ladder on your pristine 'Berliet 1er secours' is not properly fit on the top of the truck. You might loose it at the first high speed turn...(LOL). It should be turned 180 degrees length wise and be enclicked in the second opening...You are usually so 'perfect', that I cannot let this one go...(Re-LOL)... Most friendly, Jacques H.

Hi Jacques, thanks for the advice. In fact, this photo is some years old already. So, after some troublesome fire fighting actions the Dinky firemen found out that the ladder was fitted the wrong way, and they turned it 180 degrees some time ago, to their great satisfaction! Regards, Jan

A drawing of the French no. 23j Ferrari: Regards, Jan

I have just acquired a Dinky factory drawing and it throws up something which I think is a new bit of Dinky info. The drawing is of the baseplate for the Austin A40 Devon Van (Shell/BP etc) and was originally drawn on 15th October 1952 when the old numbering system was in place. On the 17th of June 1953 the old sales number of 32a was renumbered to 470. No 470 Shell/BP introduced in May 1954. On 8th November 1954 the sales number of 470 was deleted from the plate, to accomodate the next two introductions. No 471 Nestles introduced in October 1955. No 472 Raleigh introduced in April 1957. I have never seen reference to a sales number 32a in any Dinky literature, or any other website before. I firmly believe this is a new bit of information.

Hi David, very nice! Reading this I thought I knew. And indeed, on page 248 of DT&MM you will read that among the models with letter suffix numbers which were not issued until after re-numbering there is the Austin Van Shell (470), which had the pre-production catalogue number 32a. In my own collection catalogue I have made a note that it is included in the USA catalogue of 1954 under no. 32a and named Austin 'Service Van'. Congratulations with this very interesting acquistion! Kind regards, Jan

Hi Gents, Makes sense too as the Trojans were No 31x etc. Is it just me, or does anyone else prefer the old numbering scheme? I know it was hugely overloaded, and No's like 28 and 25 for example had run / were running out of new codes, but I just really like the idea of a series, oh, No 23? A racing car then. Just to be bloody minded I'm going to refer to the Austins as 32a 32b 32c now. :laugh: Chris Warr. PS: Oh and what of the Omnisport? Forget it they didn't make one.

I never saw the Omnisport van in the flesh so I cannot be totally sure of it's authenticity. I do come down on the side of an impressive paint job rather than coming out of Binns Road. Dave