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Parts 97-100a: Braced Girders

 
97Braced girder, 3½'' 1918-550
97aBraced girder, 3'' 19261962000
98Braced girder, 2½'' 19181962880
99Braced girder, 12½'' 1915-18180
99aBraced girder, 9½'' 1919-220
99bBraced girder, 7½'' 1926-010
100Braced girder, 5½'' 1915-16162N°9
100aBraced girder, 4½'' 19261962000

The parts

The complete range of braced girders in medium red
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Loading picture Bracedgirders

Braced girders were introduced in 1915 but not added to outfits until they were reorganised in 1921.  They were initially supplied only in the Inventors Outfit A, and the number of these that are found shows how successful that accessory outfit was.  Very unusually, the part was shown in many models in the manuals from as early as 1916.  No doubt this helped to sell the parts!

As you can see from the table above, additional sizes were added through to 1926, and the full range was available right up to 1962.  The change to single braced girders also saw the dropping of the 2½'', 3'', and 4½'' lengths.  Meccano claimed that these lengths couldn't be made single-braced, but this is obviously rubbish.

In fact, although the braced girders were very well supplied in the pre-war outfits, they were effectively replaced by the flexible plates.  From 1937, the only part supplied in any outfits was the 5½'' braced girder, joined by the 12½'' in 1962.

DMS/EMP shows all sorts of strange dates for the braced girders.  As a result, the table below has been thinned down until we find more examples.

Chronological variations

The image below shows the five most significant changes to the ends of the braced girder through the years.  Chronologically from left to right, these are the open ended (both square and round ended), then the closed ended (most common version), then the single-braced version from 1962.  The right-hand example is French production, also supplied as a UK product from 1985 to 1992.

Five different ends on braced girders through the years
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Loading picture Bracedgirderends

The other change happened right at the very beginning of production, between around 1915 and 1918.  In what is thought to be the original type of braced girder the bracing is noticeably thinner than the bracing on all later versions.  The "thin" types are around 0.19'', (4.8mm or around 3/16''), and the "thick" around 0.21'' (5.2mm or almost 7/32'').  However, this is very difficult to measure.  There are many early square-ended braced girders with such variable stamping that there are braces between these two sizes on one part.  Even later dark green and medium red girders often have braces between 5.0 and 5.5mm on the same part.

Narrow and wide braced early nickel girders
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John Bader
Loading picture Bracednarrowandwide

However, there are some parts as you can see from the right that have entirely narrow braces, and it is these that are thought to be the earliest type.  On some parts such as the 5½'' girder these are relatively common, but on later-introduced lengths such as the 2½'' girder they are very unusual.  This change in frequency leads us to believe that the narrow-braced girders are the earlier ones.  However, you may note that part 97.ni below, the round-ended later version, clearly has narrow braces although all its brothers have wide braces.  Isn't that interesting?

Sharp-cornered (left) and rounded (right) braced girders
Loading picture Bracedgirderrounded At some point in the mid-70's, three of the braced girders (97, 99a, and 99b) changed subtly, to have rounded inside corners as you can see from the before-and-after photograph right.  For some reason, the 12½'' (part 99) and 5½'' (part 100) didn't change, retaining the sharp inside corners.  These parts were of course the only ones supplied in outfits at the time.  Later, however, part 99a was included in the Crane Multikit, and these are all found to be rounded.  In fact, it is thought that all versions (as spare parts) of 99a, 99b, and 97 were rounded.

With the change to dark yellow in 1978, the shapes remained.  Thus, dark yellow versions of 97, 99a, and 99b always have rounded corners (including the 99a in the later Crane Construction Set), but dark yellow parts 99 and 100 have sharp corners.

Friday-afternoon 18-hole braced girder
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Ed Barclay
Loading picture Braced18hgirder

Variations and oddities

It's interesting to speculate on the type of machinery used to make braced girders.  Often it's the mistakes that made it past quality inspection that give us the best clues.  To the right is an 18-hole braced girder, where the outer frame is exactly one hole shorter than it should be.  The bracing has a strange termination (and indeed perhaps this is 3 holes longer rather than one hole shorter!)

Slightly too long 15-hole yellow girder (see inset for detail)
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Loading picture Braced15hlonger Then we have this yellow girder shown, where the girder is fractionally longer than 15 holes because of some kind of slip in the machine.  The inset clearly shows where the holes go out of step with the normal red girder.  As you can see, the final brace is thicker too, implying that the girders are made using some kind of rolling press tool where the braces and holes are stamped together.

French (left/top) and Exacto (right/bottom) braced girders
Loading picture Bracedgirderexacto French production of braced girders gave up the closed-end version quite early (possibly 1955?), and kept this open-ended braced girder style with the change to single-bracing in the 1960's.  It appears that the same styles were used by 'Meccano – Industria Argentina', an officially licensed Meccano factory in Argentina between 1967 and 1985, who are now known as Exacto and continue to make Meccano-compatible parts.

Of course, Exacto parts made after 1985 are not officially Meccano parts.  Not an issue for a builder but something to know if you are collecting parts!  If you look carefully there is a difference.  The Exacto braced girders (shown right and bottom in this picture) are slightly darker yellow, and slightly thicker than the Meccano France part (shown left and top in this picture).

A problem then, with the part below.  Ed shows us an example of a French yellow (1983-on) part 100a, received from France through the Canadian distributor.  It isn't Exacto, but Meccano France don't show this part as existing in any colour.

Strange 9-hole French yellow girder
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Ed Barclay
Loading picture Braced9hfrench

For the moment, we'll have to file this one either as an experimental part or as a factory mistake.

Very confusing eight-hole braced girder
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Loading picture Bracedgirder8hole

John Bader also gives us our next oddity &ndash this eight-hole open-ended nickel plated part.  Look very carefully.  He has, and is as certain as he can be that there has been no cutting.  But if you look even closer you'll see that there are no larger braced girders of this type that it could have been cut from.  The strange left-hand end style only appears on the 3'' braced girder.  Although one stamping is slightly offset the other one is central.  John has two of these from the an enormous nickel collection of the late Frank Beadle.  We're going to have to assume that they were special model room parts, I think.

And finally, more of the unexplainable from Ed:

I have a huge supply of Braced Girders.  A legacy of saying to G. Maurice Morris "send all you have" before realizing just how many he had!

Anyway, while recently sorting through my supply I came across the attached.  Square ends which we assume ended around 1918.  Marked Fabrique en Angleterre which should have started in 1921. 

So, as far as a date just where does this part fit?  The Meccano marking is much more pronounced than the rather feint FEA.  Old stock restamped to make them marketable?

Ed Barclay
Square-ended MFEA braced girder
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Ed Barclay
Loading picture Bracedgirderoddity

You might note that in the "Further Information" at the bottom of this page, a contributor named Brian refers to these square-ended MFEA parts in "both short and long lengths". It's quite possible to imagine that an overstocking of square-ended braced girders was sent to France in 1921 or later and had to be overstamped to make them comply with the new regulations.

Dealer spare parts boxes

The sequence of braced girder spare parts from 1950 to 1964
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Loading picture Bracedgirderspareparts
Early post-war part 98 spare parts
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Loading picture Bracedgirderspareparts2

Shown above is a post-war pack of 2½'' braced girders, part number 98.  To the right, the sequence of red braced girders is clearly shown with examples of part 99b, the 7½'' braced girder.

From top to bottom: brown paper wrapped girders, followed by the yellow box with a yellow label and part number (12356).  These date between 1954 and 1957.  Below that, the label changes to light green to signify the new colour scheme from 1958, and the parts are light red double-braced girders.

At the bottom of the picture is a pack of the new design of single-braced girders dating from 1962-64.  Note that the label hasn't changed, and still shows a picture of the double-braced girder.

5½'' braced girders in larger boxes
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Loading picture Bracedgirderspareparts3 The 5½'' braced girders part number 100 to the right have the same sequence.  Shown are the 1954-57 medium red parts in a yellow box with yellow label, and the 1962-64 light red single-braced girders in a yellow box with light green label.  Note that the boxes are considerably larger than they need to be – in common with many spare parts packages they share boxes amongst many sizes.

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
Descriptionfrom97
97a
98
99
99a
99b
100
100a
Nickel plated, narrow (3/16'') braces15.ni1a .ni1a.ni1a  .ni1a 
Nickel plated, open ended, square ends15.ni1 .ni1.ni1  .ni1 
Nickel plated, open ended, round ends18.ni.ni.ni.ni.ni.ni.ni.ni
Pea green, open ends26.pg.pg.pg.pg.pg.pg.pg.pg
Dark green, open ends27.dg1.dg1.dg1.dg1.dg1.dg1.dg1.dg1
Dark green, closed ends27.dg.dg.dg.dg.dg.dg.dg.dg
Nickel plated, closed ends (special order)27.ni2.ni2.ni2.ni2.ni2.ni2.ni2.ni2
Medium red, closed ends33.mr1.mr1.mr1.mr1.mr1.mr1.mr1.mr1
Blue with gold crosshatching34.bg.bg.bg.bg.bg.bg.bg.bg
Medium red, closed ends (post-war45.mr.mr.mr.mr.mr.mr.mr.mr
Light red, closed ends, double-braced58.lr.lr.lr.lr.lr.lr.lr.lr
Light red, closed ends, single-braced62.lr1  .lr1.lr1.lr1.lr1 
Yellow, closed ends, single-braced64.ye  .ye.ye.ye.ye 
Yellow, closed single-braced, rounded ¹76?.ye1   .ye1.ye1  
Dark yellow, closed ends, single-braced78   .dy  .dy 
Dark yellow, closed, rounded ¹79.dy   .dy.dy  
French yellow, open ends, single-braced83.fy  .fy.fy.fy.fy.fy
Zinc plated, single braced †²94-99   .zn    
ALLALLALLALLALLALLALLALL
Note:  ¹  Often found in the Crane Multikit, all yellow and dark yellow versions of parts 97, 99a, and 99b had rounded inside corners from the mid-70s onwards.
²  From Master Set 7064.

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: 16.  This is page 3 of 3.   Previous

Staffan Kjellin      (at 7:37am, Sun 4th Oct, 09)

I have found a 100a.ni2
Will send you a photo.

David McDonald      (at 7:33pm, Fri 4th Apr, 08)

I have an eleven hole square-end braced girder with a US patent pending with a RD 64893? number above it. Would you please be able to give me any idea if this is an 1920's Meccano part or would it be from a Mechanics Made Easy set? Thank you very much. David McDonald

Reply: MME parts are prior to 1908, and so a braced girder cannot possibly be a pre-Meccano part, and neither can a part that is stamped. Square-ended US-patent girders are likely to be late teens parts -- can you identify the average thickness of the braces? Almost certainly it's a part 100.ni1

Donald Morton      (at 7:06pm, Sun 24th Feb, 08)

The parts list in my manual for the A set dated 1982 shows open-ended single-braced girders of 12 1/2" and 5 1/2" so they existed earlier than the 1985 date quoted here.

Reply: It's true, but the site is deliberately concentrating on UK Meccano at present, which is why all previous French parts are not shown. The first Miro-Meccano UK parts list is dated 1983, although French outfits were certainly imported before that date I understand from Oscar that 1983 is the start of "official" UK outfits. I have corrected the table above.

Brian      (at 7:18am, Wed 13th Feb, 08)

I have some Fabrique en Angleterre square-ended braced girders in both short and long lengths, which contradicts your age criteria above!

Ill shoot some photos if you like!

Reply: Definitely! I certainly thought square-ended was well over before MFEA, which is 1921-onwards. Good pictures please!


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