This model of a Horizontal Steam Engine (7.6) is another in my series built from 1934 -1941 blue and gold period manuals. The instructions for the model were published in the 7- 8 manual between 1937- 1941 then again 1948 -1953.

I have never seen the model built up and thought it looked very attractive, It was one from my Meccano childhood I had always shied away from building I think mainly because of the need to bend my only two 25 hole strip plates almost into a semi-circle.

When I started building the model this was not the only problem! The engine base was formed using two 5x11 hole flanged plates bolted to longitudinal girders. The top is only 7 holes wide I could see that this would impose severe distortion of the flanges of these parts and the 5x7 flanged plates required at the top. I overcame this by reducing the width to 9 holes at the bottom but still retaining the basic construction principles of the model. My own view is that the model is more pleasing to the eye by being two holes narrower.

I made the flywheel from a pair of large flanged rings although I do not have them in gold as per the blue and gold period but these look appropriate as many of the circular parts at that time were red. The engine has many other areas that could be improved but I wanted to retain the character and keep more or less within the contents of the number 7 outfit. I do not own the pre war non reversing clockwork motor shown in the instructions and decided just to make it hand operated.

The instructions are not at all clear and in places very confusing I got the impression they had been edited to fit the available space. Interestingly the post war instructions did not include the list of parts but did not expand the instructions. Despite my criticisms I felt the end result was an interesting and attractive model and in my opinion a lot better than its rather boring replacement in the 1954 7/8 manual.

The instruction page from the 1938 number 7/8 manual is shown below.

Page created February 17 2016