The Meccano Magazine was an institution that seems to have run from 1916 to 1981.

I was surprised and pleased at the huge response to my posting scans of the Meccano Magazine from July 1945 here on the blog at the weekend: the magazine was bought in Lichfield and scanned for the blog by the young David Evans, who correctly posited it as something readers would love.

Since then, the ever-inquisitive Peter ‘pedro’ Cutler has also been busy, and has found that the magazines – which appear to have run from 1916 to 1981 – are all beautifully archived in full on a French website that can be found here at this link.

They are all well scanned and archived. My compliments to the site authors – that’s a real time capsule. The site can be a bit slow so bear with it; there’s a huge amount of data there deliver from a free server, so patience is a must.

The diversity of articles is huge – but some raise eyebrows; this one about the wondrous material Asbestos is an interesting thing indeed.

A point was raised about the ducks on the cover of the one I featured, and their lack of relevance to the content. Looking at the cover gallery, among trains, cranes, ships and some slightly unsettling militaria, they do seem to have had the odd aberrant wildlife or rural cover. They’re all gorgeous.

Peter sent a comment yesterday which I held for this article, speculating on the cover art (which does remind me of Ladybird books, I have to say):

Maybe this chap?

‘The illustration is of a block setting crane and is by W.H.Pinyon an illustrator who’s work was commissioned by the Meccano company for their cover designs and advertising over many years. The crane illustration was used on manuals from 1948 – 1955.’

http://www.alansmeccano.org

There really is some wondrous stuff on that site – do check it out. Thanks to Peter for his hard work and continued research, and also David for the original scans!

You lot never cease to amaze me: comment here, or Brownhillsbob at Googlemail dot com. Thanks.

Alan Esplan’s remarkable Meccano excavator: click the screen shot to visit his site.