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Parts 1-6a: perforated strips

The original and definitive Meccano part.  The two original ideas that Frank Hornby realised in the Meccano perforated strips were to place equidistant holes all the way along each strip (other toys had holes at each end and other variations), and to make each hole act not only as a bearing for axles, but also as a connection point for nuts and bolts.

1	12½'' perforated strip	1901	-	50	38	24	N°3
1a	9½'' perforated strip	1905	-	12	16	6	N°10
1b	7½'' perforated strip	1922	-	4	13	6	N°9
2	5½'' perforated strip	1901	-	75	40	36	N°0
2a	4½'' perforated strip	1921	-	12	12	8	N°8
3	3½'' perforated strip	1904	-	24	24	18	N°4
4	3'' perforated strip	1908	-	24	24	12	N°6
5	2½'' perforated strip	1901	-	120	120	72	N°0
6	2'' perforated strip	1905	-	36	30	12	N°8
6a	1½'' perforated strip	1907	-	14	14	10	N°5

The parts

The above picture shows the full range of perforated strips in medium green, dating from the 1950's.  Interesting points to note are as follows:

• Strips longer than 5½'' long are a thicker gauge metal than the shorter strips, and they have 'truncated' ends rather than fully rounded or 'radiused' ones.
• Longer strips have the stampings "Meccano" and "Made in England" across the width of the strips – in this example the 12½'' one has both stampings, one at each end.  The 9½'' strip only has "Made in England", the 7½'' only "Meccano".
• In the late 60's the 12½'' strip changed from truncated ends to radiused ones.
• Shorter strips (5½'' and shorter) have "Meccano Made in England" stamped along the length of the strip, centred in the strip, except for the 2'' strip which is stamped off-centre (this seems to be very common).
• In around 1973 the 2" strip gained an extra fifth hole in the centre.
• Starting in 1976, 2½'' strips had truncated ends (as shown in the longer strips above), due to a change in the press tool used.

Chronological variations

Perforated strips were included in the very first parts manufactured as MME (before the name Meccano started in 1907).  They were tin-plated thin steel, with folded-over edges.  In 1908, the parts changed to thicker gauge steel without folded edges, initially tin-plated, then nickel-plated from 1909, then painted from the 20's onwards. This picture shows some (but by no means all) of the variations in strips through the years.  They are (from left to right):

• Tin-plate MME (Mechanics Made Easy, pre-1907) strip with rolled-over edges
• Plain nickel without stampings
• Nickel with rough Meccano stamp
• Nickel with later 'small font' Meccano stamp
• 20's nickel stamped "Fabrique en Angleterre"
• 27-33 dark green, "Meccano" letters are narrower than they are high
• 34-41 gold with much wider letters, wider than they are high
• 39-41 mechanised army green (same stamp as gold strips)
• 45-57 medium green, stamped with the post-war "Meccano Made in England"
• 58-63 light green
• another brighter 'light green' from a similar period
• 64-69 painted aluminium (called 'silver')
• 70's zinc
• 70's multikit yellow
• 80's French production zinc.

Missing from this photo are (among others) the early 1906 tinned steel variety (looking much like the earliest nickel one above), black japanned versions from 1919, 70's Army and Combat multikit olive green, 78/79 dark blue, and post-80's varations in red and other colours.

The following image shows a close-up of the centre stampings from the picture above, in two rows.  Top row pre-war, bottom row post-war:

Note that the stamp is the same for the gold and mechanised army parts (top row last two), and is the same for all the post-war UK-production strips (bottom row all except the last one), even though the stamping is very feint on some of these.  The French Meccano has a much larger rounded font for the "Meccano" stamping.  Current production of Meccano uses this same font but says "Meccano (N)", signifying the new owners Nikko.

Although the thickness of strips does vary, there appears to be a significant thinning of strips during the war. The picture to the left shows pre-war medium green strips (1933-on) to the left, and post-war strips (1945-on) to the right.  The post-war strips are about 15% thinner.

Variations and oddities

The top of these two 1½'' strips is a fairly common 1970's zinc-plated strip stamped "Meccano England" (rather than "Made in England").

The lower is much more interesting, a nickel-plated strip from the 20's which is stamped "Meccano" above the central hole, and "1½'' S." below it.  I have never seen reference to this stamping before (or seen it on any other part other than a 6a), does anyone know anything more about this?

It seems to be the only Meccano part I know of that is stamped with its description!

Dealer spare parts boxes

A range of perforated strips in their 'spare parts' boxes.  At the top is a wired-together bunch of a dozen of part number 1, which I believe would have had a white paper label wrapped round them? They are tied together with thin mild steel wire, once through the holes and once around the entire strips, then twisted together. Below these are brown-paper wrapped parts 1 and 2a from early post-war, then to the bottom left the later medium-green boxes with yellow labels, and to the right the later yellow boxes with green labels (showing these to be 1958-onwards light green parts), and in the bottom right the lighter yellow variation of these boxes. 

Note that there isn't a box for each size of parts, the left-hand 2'' and 3'' strips are in the same sized box, and the centre-right 2'' strips are in the same sized box.  The dead centre 3½'' strips are in a box that is thinner and wider but the same length, the 4½'' strips at the bottom right are in a box long enough to fit 5½'' strips.

To the right is shown a pre-war pack of 5½'' strips, part number 2.  These were wrapped in brown paper and sealed with a printed red-on-yellow scalloped sticker.  The parts here are gold, dating them from 1934 to 1941.

And here are some more gold pre-war strips, this time part 5 (2½'' strips).  Note that the label this time is a diamond, more like the post-war stickers, but still red on yellow.  This might be a later version than the one shown above.

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	1 12½''	1a (9½'')	1b (7½'')	2 (5½'')	2a (4½'')	3 (3½'')	4  (3'')	5 (2½'')	6  (2'')	6a (1½'')
Tinplate with rolled edges	01	.mm	.mm		.mm		.mm	.mm	.mm	.mm	.mm
Tinned steel	08	.ti			.ti		.ti	.ti	.ti	.ti
Bright steel	??	.st			.st		.st	.st	.st	.st
Nickel plated steel	09	.ni	.ni	.ni	.ni	.ni	.ni	.ni	.ni	.ni	.ni
Black japanned †	19				.bs				.bs
Dark green	27	.dg	.dg	.dg	.dg	.dg	.dg	.dg	.dg	.dg	.dg
Grey (part used in GRB)†	28		.gy
Medium green (pre-war)	33	.mg1	.mg1	.mg1	.mg1	.mg1	.mg1	.mg1	.mg1	.mg1	.mg1
Gold	34	.go	.go	.go	.go	.go	.go	.go	.go	.go	.go
Matt olive (Mech army)†	39-41	.ma			.ma		.ma		.ma		.ma
Medium green	45	.mg	.mg	.mg	.mg	.mg	.mg	.mg	.mg	.mg	.mg
Light green	58	.lg	.lg	.lg	.lg	.lg	.lg	.lg	.lg	.lg	.lg
Silver painted	64	.si	.si	.si	.si	.si	.si	.si	.si	.si	.si
Nickel plated	64									.ni1	.ni1
Zinc plated	66	.zn	.zn	.zn	.zn	.zn	.zn	.zn	.zn	.zn	.zn
Zinc plated, five holes	70									.zn1
Olive (Army multikit) †	73			.am	.am
Yellow (eg multikits) †	73			.ye	.ye	.ye			.ye
Zinc with truncated ends	76						.zn1		.zn1
Dark blue	78	.db	.db	.db	.db	.db	.db	.db	.db	.db	.db
Dark yellow (eg multikits)	78			.dy	.dy	.dy			.dy
White (eg Space kits)	79				.wh				.wh
Iridescent	79				.ir		.ir		.ir
Black (Starter sets)	90							.bk
Red (Dynamic sets)	93				.re	.re	.re	.re	.re	.re	.re
		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: 12.  This is page 1 of 2.   

Rob T      (at 4:48pm, Mon 21st Nov, 11)

Joham Also see here http://www.nzmeccano.com/image-49104

Rob T      (at 4:43pm, Mon 21st Nov, 11)

Trix holes are diagonal Meccano X are straight across & straight vertically You will see a photo comparing pieces, towards the bottom of this page http://my-meccano.co.uk/news/70_news_11_09_10.html Rob

Joham      (at 12:38pm, Mon 21st Nov, 11)

Perhaps a little out of place but........how do you tell the difference between Trix and Meccano X parts?

Don Noble      (at 7:22am, Sat 19th Feb, 11)

I have several green 3-hole strips from the dark green pre-war era marked "Fabrique en Angleterre" and with the curious 1 1/2 S stamp. So it went on some time after the nickel years.

Tim Robinson      (at 1:58pm, Sun 30th Jan, 11)

Has any one else noticed that 5 1/2" strips seem yo come with two distinct hole sizes? Most of mine have been refurbished so it's not obvious if this relates to specific periods, or to differences in tooling that may have been extant at the same time.

Steve Clark      (at 6:55am, Mon 24th Jan, 11)

I have a mid green part 1a in my collection that is stamped like the shorter versions on one side only with Meccano above Made In England along the horizontal. It has the usual stamp of longer strips on the reverse. I've checked the others and this is the only one I have like this. Anyone else got any?

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