This Meccano model of a Steam Tug Boat was published in the 1937- 1941 No.7 manual and subsequently in the 1945 -1947 manual although this in reality was a just a re-print of the 1937 manual. The model has particularly happy memories for me building it as a child in the mid-nineteen fifties. My model is built with the parts that were available when the instructions were published I did not adhere to the building instructions or the two pictures but followed the general look of the tug using more parts than were included in the original No.7 set. I pinched the style of the lifeboats from friend and fellow Meccano modeller Rob Mitchel who built the same model a few years ago. The Lifeboats shown on the instructions involved severe bending of four 199 curved "U" section plates I used four mint 1950's parts never used straight out of the box, giving a better look than those shown in the instructions. Although the tug is far from a scale model I think a good representation of a typical steam tug built 1920's-1950's.The black and white picture at the bottom of the page shows tugs off Gravesend Kent, I took this picture in the mid-nineteen sixties.

The original 1937-1941 Instructions