Man attempts world's largest Meccano model

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9 жыл бұрын

(31 Jul 2014) LEADIN:
If you're of a certain age, Meccano is your childhood toy of choice.
A Meccano model builder in South Africa is attempting to break the record for the world's largest Meccano model.
STORYLINE:
Weighing 1.3 tonnes, it took retired lecturer, Graham Shepherd five years to make his coal extractor model.
Measuring 12.5 metre long by 4.9 metre high (41 by 16 foot) Bagger 288 coal extractor is a labour of love.
At 96 metres (314 feet) in height the original bucket-wheel extractor was said to be the world's largest land-based vehicle when it was first introduced in 1978, for use in Germany where it is still digging coal.
"The bucket wheel excavators of this class, which is 240,000 cubic metres per day of coal - they are the largest, land-based fully mobile machines in the world, and so it excited me to attempt to build the world's largest Meccano model of the world's largest, moving, land-based machine," says Shepherd - a retired math lecturer from Grahamstown, South Africa.
Shepherd hopes his working model will be recognised by the Guinness Book of World Records as the largest Meccano set ever built. There is currently no record for Meccano models.
Meccano engineering kits have been around for more than 100 years.
From being very popular with youngsters in the first half of the twentieth century, Meccano is today more of a niche adult hobby as Meccano historian Tatchell Venn explains:
"It started to decline in the 1960s with the arrival of lego. And particularly overseas with the arrival of television, colour television. And then further decline took place with the arrival of the computer, and computer games for youngsters, where they could achieve instant gratification. As opposed to spending hours trying to solve problems and achieving results from that - a workable result from that. One finds that many members of the clubs from those days went into engineering fields, or they were very capable of solving problems even though they weren't engineers such as working on motor cars."
57 motors drive the Bagger replica, from the bucket-wheel excavator through to the conveyer belt which transports the coal directly to a power station.
Most of the motors used on the model are vehicle windscreen wiper motors.
Shepherd used ingenuity during his design phase.
"To build the model, basically, what I had to do was get a lot of pictures off the internet like these that you see in front of you here, and by making measurements on the pictures, on the photographs, with a ruler to calculate the ratios of the various parts of the machine. That's because I did not have the actual plans of the machine." he says.
Given the weight of the model, the parts had to be stronger than original Meccano parts.
Shepherd hand-made about 40,000 parts himself, including plates, strips and girders.
The plates were laser cut by an engineering firm, while Shepherd drilled the holes. Shepherd says that part alone took 18 months:
"I calculate that I've drilled about a million holes into all these plates. If you stack that one on top of each other that's about a kilometre of drilling - a kilometre of deep hole drilled into mild steel which is quite a thing to ask your little domestic drill press over there to do."
Anthony Els, who is Chairperson of the Meccano Club of South Africa, says it is acceptable to use replica parts.
Shepherd is now putting his Meccano model up for sale.
He is asking US $150,000 and can pack it into seven parts for transport.
The Meccano company has recently been bought by Canadian firm, Spinmaster who have plans to revitalise the brand.
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Пікірлер: 22

@korky7775 5 жыл бұрын

You know 55yrs ago i got my first Meccano for Christmas and as i opened it and looked at all the parts inside in my head i imagined that i could build something like this from my kit...and i did ok it was maybe a little smaller but to me it was a GIANT of a model and ALL mine...loved Meccano and still do...

@Spacekriek Жыл бұрын

I'm 54 this year and I received my number 2 set on Christmas day, 1976. Today I have a double nr. 10 set and it is still providing me with endless hours of fun but also good prototyping.

@regbarlow5872 4 жыл бұрын

That is one fantastic model , he’s lucky he has the space to build it , and an understanding wife :)

@tonyrobertson498 3 жыл бұрын

Wow, congratulations from the Maghull based Frank Hornby Trust. Maghull, Merseyside, UK was where Hornby lived for much of his adult life and where we have an exhibition called the Frank Hornby Heritage Centre within Medaows Leisure Centre.

@jean-louisfigureau6364 3 жыл бұрын

realy the biggest model !!!!

@petersullivan3551 3 жыл бұрын

Good grief..... it's ENORMOUS! How much would the parts cost....????

@bertspeggly4428 4 ай бұрын

I believe he made the parts himself, which is very impressive, but is it really Meccano?

@newspaniard 4 жыл бұрын

Just checked my tenset list and decided that even with two, there is not quite enough parts to go into competition with you so, I surrender. Superb model. Has, Krupp seen it or the video, at least?

@haweater1555 Жыл бұрын

My dad gave me his British-made set from his youth. Parts are the same red/green colour as this, dad would have built his set up around 1947-1950.

@falconoilcompany 7 жыл бұрын

An incredible piece of work, great respect to anyone with that kind of commitment. Fascinating. I know ive commented on this post before but I have re-watched the video again for the "Nth time" and I still think its tremendous.

@apb1934 3 ай бұрын

This is the sort of thing needed to serve my wife’s gravy

@huguessonnic2102 Жыл бұрын

Simply sublime. Congratulations to you all

@thehoopsters5255 6 жыл бұрын

Great Video, thanks for sharing

@haweater1555 Жыл бұрын

He's had to custom fabricate a lot of these parts. And drill them full of holes at ½" intervals to make them look authentic, even if most all of the holes will never be used.