Garden Railway Forum

(please excuse dreadful photo)

As a way to get my hand in as were with model making again I'm going to build myself a little Avonside saddletank loco around a Meccano No:1 clockwork mech. This loco is intended to operate on the wooden railed part of the Kotanga tramway and for that reason it will be fitted with special driving wheels intended for use on wooden rails. Actually the 'special' wheels are four repro wheels intended for a Lionel standard gauge loco that I picked up cheap somewhere some years ago., BUT they will be just the job for the purpose and that's wot counts.

The reversing and brake controls are going to be set up for hand in the cab operation which is something I really like doing with my large scale locos. Hopefully that will work out alright and I won't be continually derailing the poor wee thing while trying to drive it. The back end of the spring motor is going to poke its way into the cab a little, but I should be able to disguise most of it and it shouldn't be anymore blindingly obvious than all the plumbing live steamers have to hide away in their cabs.

I almost got myself derailed by finding an electric motor and some nice gears, - including a lovely worm gear, - amongst my Meccano bits, but I was strong and resisted all temptation. They will keep for another day and another loco

Excellent Annie, If I could get a key for my meccano clocky I might try something similar.

Looks interesting.............

You might want to consider controlling the top lever in the same way as Hornby did: a steel rod with a brass knob on the end, coming out just under the cab roof. The lever on the right-hand end should stick out into the cab nicely. Always remember to have a firm hand on top of the cab or boiler when using the controls........

Thanks for the advice Brian It's been a while since I seriously set about driving a 'clocker' . I used to own a playworn Hornby tank engine which was a joy to use for shunting. Only a light touch was needed on the control knobs to make it stop and reverse. My No:1 clockwork motor feels like it will require a much firmer hand to operate.

steam Technology, - a key shouldn't be too hard to find. Hornby clockwork keys fit and failing that a workable key can be easily made up from some square brass tube soldered onto a piece of flat stock.

The key for mine needs a triangle shaped key which is a bit more of a challenge.

Wow, I haven't seen a key like that before. What make of clockwork mech is it?

I'm having problems with not being well at the moment and I'm finding the plywood I normally use difficult to cut. So I'm going to order some sheets of 2mm card and use that instead.

Wheels for locos are expensive so I had a think about it and decided to seek out and purchase some Meccano flanged wheels to do duty as loco wheels. As I'm planning on using wooden rails I think the Meccano wheels will be fine as they have a similar profile to wheels intended for use on wooden track. They're a match for the clockwork motors I'm using as well which makes fitting them up as easy as can be.

As it happens Meccano flanged wheels remind me a lot of light railway disc wheels in the O&K catalogue too which is close enough for me.


These wheels are 1&1/2 inches in diameter which is a useful size.


And these ones are 3/4" in diameter.


All going well they should turn up later next week along with the sheets of 2mm card I've ordered.

Something I want to try is to make dummy spoke inserts from card to fit the centre of the larger wheels I'll be using as driving wheels to give them a more realistic appearance. Once the card inserts are hardened with superglue and painted I think it would be difficult to identify the wheels' origins.

Meccano wheels work great, Annie, I used them on my solar tram

steam Technology:115228 wrote:Meccano wheels work great, Annie, I used them on my solar tram

Thanks, that's nice to know Even with postage and the exchange rate it's waaaay cheaper to buy Meccano wheels than it is to buy proper 16mm scale wheels.

On the subject of metal construction set type flanged wheels I should mention the wheels by AC Gilbert made for Erector sets.  I have some of these that I picked up cheap from a Kiwi Meccano enthusiast who didn't want them and in my opinion they aren't so good for using on large scale models.  The older type are fairly solidly made, have a large flange, - but the flange is set back at an angle which would make it a nightmare on point frogs.

Older type are on the right and the more recent ones are on the left.


Newer type wheels.  These are lot more tinny than the older ones and not so strong even if the flange does have a better shape.


For some peculiar reason some flanged wheels will have a hole punched in the flange and not always very cleanly.  These AC Gilbert wheels are an inch in diameter measured across the tyre which places them halfway between the two Meccano sizes.

Unless someone gives me some of these for nothing I haven't any plans to acquire any more.  They are cheap enough to buy in the US, but postage to New Zealand from the US is beyond horrible which is why I stick to buying from the UK.

Hi Annie......there was once a chap in the 16mm lot who used the caps from shotgun cartridges ...used of course

Crackingjob:116067 wrote:Hi Annie......there was once a chap in the 16mm lot who used the caps from shotgun cartridges ...used of course

Now there's an Idea, Although the flange would be pretty skinny.

After much successful hunting on various auction sites I now have an adequate supply of Meccano wheels so I won't need to risk life and limb looking for spent shotgun shells during duck hunting season

From what I can understand from the esoteric art of Meccano identification the nice red spring motor in the picture above is a No:2a which has quite a bit of torque to it from its huge spring. I've got the smaller No:1 spring motor as well which confusingly has a 'Hornby' decal on it and this motor runs very nice and steadily, but it's plain that it needs a seriously good clean and lube to remove years of dirt and carpet fluff from its insides.

Fitting the No:2a into an wee Avonside 0-4-0ST is going to be a bit of a squeeze, but if I can do it I should end up with a really useful engine

After checking the drawing I'm using I discovered that I'd printed it off to the wrong size. Now that I've corrected that I've found that the No:2a spring motor is going to fit just fine. Mind you I'm working in 1:19.5 scale on 45mm track so your experience may differ to mine.

Locos in New Zealand didn't get brass plates with their names on as rule, mostly they were painted on their tank sides. I'm going to name the Avonside 'Ponga' which is the name of a NZ tree fern that has a characteristic unfurling frond.

Sort of appropriate for a clockwork loco don't you think

Hi Annie, did you manage to get any further with this loco, ive got a meccano no1 reversing motor, and I was looking at making a small tram loco out of it, so would be keen to see any progress youve made with ponga