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Parts 7-9f: Angle girders

Fairly soon after starting to use Meccano parts, you realise that perforated strips have no strength at all to resist bending.  Initially, girders were created using two strips connected at 90 degrees using angle brackets, and early outfits had as many as 252 angle brackets included to help with this.  Fortunately, this didn't last long.  The angle girder was designed to do the same job in one part.

Crucially, Meccano retained the slotted holes in one side (the same as the original angle bracket), allowing for adjustment when bolting parts together.  Much later, this enabled hugely complex structures to be built using Meccano such as the blocksetting cranes, which would have been almost impossible without this vital design element.

7	24½'' angle girder	1918	-	12	12	8	N°10
7a	18½'' angle girder	1918	-	6	6	8	N°10
8	12½'' angle girder	1906	-	26	26	16	N°5	Was part 9 until 1911
8a	9½'' angle girder	1921	-	12	17	6	N°9
8b	7½'' angle girder	1922	-	4	8	4	N°9
9	5½'' angle girder	1911	-	24	24	12	N°8	EMP says from 1909
9a	4½'' angle girder	1921	-	8	15	8	N°10
9b	3½'' angle girder	1921	-	7	7	8	N°10
9c	3'' angle girder	1921	-	3	3	4	N°10
9d	2½'' angle girder	1921	-	6	7	8	N°9
9e	2'' angle girder	1921	-	2	2	4	N°10
9f	1½'' angle girder	1921	-	4	4	8	N°9

The parts

The above picture shows the full range of angle girders in medium green, dating from the 1950's.  The first two, part numbers 7 and 7a, are the only Meccano parts longer than 12½'' and effectively determined the size of outfit boxes from the date of their introduction.  Post-war outfits 8a and 9 contained the 18½'' girders, and outfits 9a and 10 contained the 24½'' girders, and these boxes are all just wide enough to take these parts.

Chronological variations

The very first angle girders, only available in 12½'' lengths, were of folded-edge tinplate like the MME perforated strips of the time.  These are rare parts, only produced in late 1906 and 1907.  In 1907 the Meccano angle girders, like the perforated strips, became solid steel.  These were initially tin-plated and then nickel-plated by the beginning of 1908.

Unlike perforated strips they retained their sharp corners until as late as 1916 (or perhaps earlier, tbc), when the corners were rounded off and they took their final form.  There have been no changes to the design since that date.

This photo shows how the ends of the angle girders changed.  From left to right:

• Early sharp-cornered nickel girder from 1907-15
• Later rounded nickel girder from 1916-26
• Dark green from 1927-33
• Gold from 1934-41
• Medium green from 1945-57
• Light green from 1958-63
• Silver painted (badly, over light green) 1964
• Silver painted over bare metal, 1964-65
• Zinc plated, but with severe oxidation known as 'zinc rot', from 1966
• Much better zinc coated, from 66 to 77 (probably 70's)
• Dark blue enamelled, 1978-79

Variations and oddities

We often find factory mistakes in Meccano parts, and here's one found in a pack of 1½'' angle girders.  You can see that one of the six has been bent the 'wrong' way, and thus the holes are too far from the fold and the elongated holes are too near.

Rob Mitchell has pointed out that a number of mid-70s 2½'' angle girders have oversized holes and slots, as per the example shown to the left below a normal part. Richard Payn has confirmed that this also occurs with zinc plated 9d's (as supplied in the standard outfit 10), but not with dark blue ones.

The yellow part 9d is from the Highway and Super Highway Multikits. The holes and slots should be 0.172" diameter (approximately 4.37mm) but are clearly bigger than this in the lower example.

Dealer spare parts boxes

The longest girders were wrapped in brown paper, as you can see from the 18½'' girders shown above top.  Shorter ones were later packed in the normal yellow dealer spare parts boxes.  As usual with these boxes, the ones with yellow labels signify medium green (before 1958), the labels changed to green to signify light green parts (58-63), and later in this same period the boxes became a much lighter yellow, as the top box shows.

A range of smaller angle girders in boxes.  The blue label on yellow box is from the next era, from late 1964 at the start of the silver/yellow/black period through to around 1970, so it probably contains silver-painted or more likely zinc plated parts. Note that rarer parts in particular were slow to change, so you can't be absolutely certain with box types.

Individual part numbers

Part numbers for the parts on this page are as follows:    Unique part numbers
For identification, each variation has been given a suffix to the main Meccano part number. These suffixes consist of a two-character code for the colour, and if there are many variations, a further number and sometimes letter code to identify each variation. See the bottom of the 'Parts' page for further details.

You don't need to worry what the codes are, just click on any one for a photograph.

The button above turns on and off the display of DMS numbers (where they are known). The DMS (Development of the Meccano System, Hauton and Hindemarsh) published in 1972 and added to in 75 and 82, suggested part numbers for every variation of every Meccano part. These numbers aren't perfect, but they are recognised and also referenced in the EMP (Encyclopedia of Meccano Parts, Don Blakeborough).

Description	from	7 24½''	7a 18½''	8 12½''	8a (9½'')	8b (7½'')	9 (5½'')	9a (4½'')	9b (3½'')	9c (3'')	9d (2½'')	9e (2'')	9f (1½'')
Folded tin	06			.mm
Tinned steel	07			.ti
Sharp nickel	07			.ni1			.ni1
Japanned	16						.bs
Round nickel	16	.ni	.ni	.ni	.ni	.ni	.ni	.ni	.ni	.ni	.ni	.ni	.ni
Dark green	27	.dg	.dg	.dg	.dg	.dg	.dg	.dg	.dg	.dg	.dg	.dg	.dg
Medium green	33	.mg1	.mg1	.mg1	.mg1	.mg1	.mg1	.mg1	.mg1	.mg1	.mg1	.mg1	.mg1
Gold	34	.go	.go	.go	.go	.go	.go	.go	.go	.go	.go	.go	.go
Medium green	45	.mg	.mg	.mg	.mg	.mg	.mg	.mg	.mg	.mg	.mg	.mg	.mg
Light green	58	.lg	.lg	.lg	.lg	.lg	.lg	.lg	.lg	.lg	.lg	.lg	.lg
Silver paint	64	.si	.si	.si	.si	.si	.si	.si	.si	.si	.si	.si	.si
Zinc plated	66	.zn	.zn	.zn	.zn	.zn	.zn	.zn	.zn	.zn	.zn	.zn	.zn
Olive green †	72						.am				.am
Yellow †	76				.ye		.ye				.ye	.ye
Dark blue	78	.db	.db	.db	.db	.db	.db	.db	.db	.db	.db	.db	.db
Dark yellow †	78				.dy		.dy				.dy	.dy
White †	79				.wh		.wh						.wh
Iridescent	79						.ir
		ALL	ALL	ALL	ALL	ALL	ALL	ALL	ALL	ALL	ALL	ALL	ALL

Please send us pictures of missing parts! Hints and tips for pictures
Take a picture of the part in very good light, preferably on a plain yellow background, without a flash but with a tripod.
Ideally, trim the picture to about 150 pixels per inch of the Meccano part (unless the part is particularly big or small), save it as a reasonably good quality jpg file with a filename of exactly the part number, for example 19b.ni1.jpg, and email it to us by clicking on 'Contact us' at the top of the page. Thanks!

• A greyed-out box shows that no part exists for that colour combination.
• Part number codes with a green background have an attached picture of the part, just click once on the code to show a photograph of that part in a separate window.
• Parts marked "†" were temporary or economy parts, or existed only within specific themed outfits. The previous part continued throughout or afterwards.

Further information

Total number of messages on this page: 26.  This is page 4 of 5.     

Rob Mitchell      (at 4:33am, Mon 21st Feb, 11)

Richard - Agreed: the DB 9ds aren't afflicted with oversize holes after examining my huge sample (four - don't laugh).

Richard Payn      (at 6:32am, Fri 18th Feb, 11)

Hi Rob, I have zinc and 1970s yellow 2.5" girders with the bigger holes, but all my DB girders have standard holes.

Rob Mitchell      (at 3:18am, Tue 15th Feb, 11)

I'm surprised that no-one has yet mentioned the large numbers of late Binns Road 2½" Angle Girders (zinc, yellow, dark blue) with oversize holes. A check with a vernier caliper showed them to be 4.5 mm diameter with the slots as wide. It appears to affect only these parts and not the 2½" Flat Girder from the same periods.

derek willetts      (at 3:54am, Sat 8th May, 10)

I confirm Robert Kay's comment about 16 1/2 Binns road girders in Zinc. I have a number of these stamped symmetrically from both ends. I have examined the ends with a powerful lens and they are not cut down, I can see the 'shear' marks clearly from the stamping machines, also the zinc plate is clearly correct at the ends. part 7b perhaps.....

Stephen Brook      (at 1:01pm, Wed 28th Apr, 10)

As with the strips, it seems a small correction is needed to the "Individual part numbers section" above. "Zinc plated" should read "from 1966" not 1970. Any vacancies for a good proof reader on your staff? How much is the salary? Reply: Thank you Stephen, this is now corrected. I am always looking for proofreaders and can offer the same salary as everyone else on this site gets!

Tony Brown      (at 6:22am, Fri 19th Mar, 10)

In the early 20s there is some evidence that the modelroom had some 6.5in girders. The Page Blocksetter I believe has some in it and also the pre SML27 dragline model uses some if you look carefully at the pictures. Even if these were cut down ones from the time we should perhaps wonder why the model room were producing models that used 6.5" girders.

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