At the beginning of December 2008 the Museum of Power at Langford near Maldon had "A-bit-of-d-od",a fund raising event with charity stalls selling Christmas items.

I put on a display of my models with a Christmas theme. The idea of my display was to recreate the nostalgic feeling of a 1950s shop window, busy and crowded with lots to see rather than concentrating on particular models. There are twenty models in the display plus two sets and reproduction Meccano showcards. Models range from a 1913 windmill to models made with 2007 sets. Five were running continuously and two others had to be wound up. The most popular items were the Blackpool Tower, with its lights and lifts going up and down and the Christmas Tree. The two recent set models the Radio Control car and Dune Buggy also had a lot of interest demonstrating to visitors that Meccano is still around and not all plastic! Nearly all the children said, " I like the Eiffel Tower best." All the adults knew it was the Blackpool Tower or perhaps it was because they had read the caption in front of it?

There were also some non Meccano items such as a Bayko signal box made by my wife Anne and a 1950s Hornby clockwork M0 train set rushing round the Blackpool Tower.

We had an accordion player sitting near us playing festive tunes this with the models working and the tin plate Hornby train rattling around made it really felt like the Christmas past I had hoped to achieve.

December10 2008 Revised November 20 2012