The Meccano model although pretty basic had its problems in construction. I followed the plans more or less but used some additional parts to make the construction easier and stronger. There was one strange thing in the manual illustrations, that I could not work out was that the boot is seven holes wide and projects from the rear window yet the roof above is eight holes wide! That would make the top cant out and yet the pictures show it tapered in. By making the roof eight holes wide at the front and seven at the rear made it all fit together neatly.After completing the model I went back to it and made several improvements, including fitting seats and inside door panels. The pictures show these changes. The car itself was not a great success with only 34,00 built by the time production ended in July 1953. Many of these sales were due to the severe shortage of cars at that time in the U.K. and buyers had to purchase what they could. The name Mayflower was chosen to appeal to the American market and also in the mistaken believe that Americans would like a small version of a car that looked like a Rolls Royce, the "razor edge" styling and poor performance just did not appeal to its perceived market and only a few were ever sold in the U.S.A. Above left is a beautiful example of the actual Triumph Mayflower, I took this picture at Kidderminster Station at the Seven Valley Railway 1960s Gala on February 18 2006. May 04 2015 Revised January 23 2016 |
This rather charming and simple model is 7.18, Coupe from the 1954 number 7/8 manual shown above. I have built the model using dark blue and yellow from 1978-79 plus some zinc plated parts.
The Meccano model was clearly inspired by the 1949 Triumph Mayflower. The main differences between the Meccano model and the Mayflower is the styling of the rear wings and the head light positioning. 