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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.

 
724½'' angle girder1918-12128N°10
7a18½'' angle girder1918-668N°10
812½'' angle girder1906-262616N°5Was part 9 until 1911
8a9½'' angle girder1921-12176N°9
8b7½'' angle girder1922-484N°9
95½'' angle girder1911-242412N°8EMP says from 1909
9a4½'' angle girder1921-8158N°10
9b3½'' angle girder1921-778N°10
9c3'' angle girder1921-334N°10
9d2½'' angle girder1921-678N°9
9e2'' angle girder1921-224N°10
9f1½'' angle girder1921-448N°9

The parts

The full range of angle girders from the 1950's
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Loading picture Angle girders 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.

A range of the angle girders through the years
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webmasters, and you may copy it for your personal use, or for a non-
commercial website - if you credit the source. All other rights reserved.
Loading picture Angleends10 This photo shows how the ends of the angle girders changed.  From left to right:
A pair of not-90° angle girders won't bolt together!
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Ed Barclay
Loading picture anglegirdersnot90

Variations and oddities

From the mid 60's to early 70's it seems that the bending machines were not up to scratch and some Angle Girders left the factory not bent at 90 degrees.  The worst lot seem to have been in the No2 Clock Kit and I well remember building this model and being very frustrated as it just would not work with these horrible mis-shaped Angle Girders.  Once they were replaced with 90 degree versons the clock worked fine.

This only seems to have been a problem with the zinc coated parts as all the Multi-kit and later parts I have seen are properly formed. Ed Barclay

One of six angle girders is folded the wrong way
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Staffan Kjellin
Loading picture Anglegirderbent 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.


Some mid-70s 2½'' angle girders have oversized holes
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Rob Mitchell
Loading picture Anglegirderholes 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

A pack of six part 7a angle girders from the 50's
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Loading picture Part7a box
Smaller angle girders in boxes,
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William Irwin
Loading picture SPB 7 long 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.

Short angle girders in boxes,
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Please do not download or copy it for any purpose. It has been
kindly provided for use on this site by the image owner,
William Irwin
Loading picture SPB 7 small 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).

More about bosses More about stampings More about paint colours
Descriptionfrom7 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      
ALLALLALLALLALLALLALLALLALLALLALLALL

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!

Further information

Total number of messages on this page: 26.  This is page 2 of 5.   Previous  Next

Richard      (at 3:32pm, Tue 13th Oct, 15)

The only manufacturer that produced grey angle girders was Exacto, who manufactured Meccano under licence in Argentina. A couple of well known Meccanomen also painted their parts very well in grey in the 1970s.

Anonymous      (at 1:23pm, Tue 13th Oct, 15)

Did Meccano ever produce 24.5'' angle girders finished grey?

Dr. Addanki      (at 8:50pm, Tue 1st Sep, 15)

I think that the column showing "smallest outfit" may have overlooked that the 7a was available in Set 8 (in the light green/red era) and was certainly in the Set 9 from the war on.

Amanda      (at 6:27pm, Tue 17th Jul, 12)

Hi Richard. There is definately no 'meccano'stamped on any of the 160 pieces. However,on microscopic examination of the 6 sections of 8.5" angle girder one end show no paint.(though the set is well worn and paint is missing from most of the other ends too). If the parts are cut down then an excellent job was done. We are sure my husband's father would not have adapted the parts, though it is quite possible that the kit was bought second-hand. Thanks for your reply and help.

Richard Payn      (at 6:26am, Tue 17th Jul, 12)

Amanda, If you look closely at the parts you should see the words "Meccano" and "Made in England" stamped on all of the green bits. Are the ends of the 17 hole girders painted? If they are, they could be specials from a display model, but it sounds as though they are cut down parts, so one end should look rougher than the other.

Amanda Bragg      (at 7:39pm, Mon 16th Jul, 12)

I HAVE WHAT I THOUGHT IS A MECCANO SET FROM THE '50s- NO PACKING/LEAFLETS. A CHILDHOOD TOY OF MY HUSBAND'S.
THE COLOURS ARE LIGHT GREEN & RED. HOWEVER IT CONTAINS 6 X 8.5" ANGLE GIRDERS WITH 17 HOLES. I CAN NOT FIND MENTION OF THIS SIZE. AS I AM LOOKING TO SELL THIS COLLECTION I AM CONCERNED THAT THE PARTS MAY NOT BE MECCANO (THOUGH EVERYTHING ELSE LOOKS COSHER.CAN ANYONE ADVISE?


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