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Part 124/5: Reverse Angle Brackets

124	Reverse Angle Bracket, 1''	1921	-	4	4	4	N°9
125	Reverse Angle Bracket, ½''	1921	-	9	9	6	N°1

The parts

Both reverse angle brackets were announced in the May 1921 edition of the Meccano Magazine, but it appears that they were certainly available before that date (as usual).  Indeed, a reply to a suggestion printed in the March 1921 edition of the Meccano Magazine states that "we have already added to our list of parts a ½'' reversed bracket...", and so we should look for earlier examples of this part.

It soon became obvious that the smaller ½'' version was a far more useful part, and this is shown by the fact that at the next substantial change in the manuals (in 1937, after the lettered outfits were dropped), the ½'' version was supplied in outfits as small as No.1, and yet the longer 1'' version did not appear until outfit 9.  As a result, the ½'' reverse angle bracket is one of the most common parts in the Meccano system, yet its lower-numbered brother is a relatively rare one.

Chronological variations

The two parts here were split between the colour schemes of the major and minor small parts during the middle of production.  The longer part 124 exists in dark green and gold, but the shorter part 125 remained in nickel plate and then became red during the blue/gold era.  Note that we do show part 125 in dark green in the table below – these are exceptionally rare and probably shouldn't be considered a 'standard' colour scheme.  Collectors have one or two of these amongst hundreds of part 125s, and this part is one of the easiest to repaint to an indistinguishable condition from new.

Post-war parts are as expected, including that part 124 is found in silver paint, which is logical if this distinction continued.  As usual with these pages, I'm going to leave options open for new versions to be added, rather than assume all the wrong things as is often found in DMS/EMP.  The classification of part 125 as a 'bracket' and 124 as a 'part' continues right to the end of UK production, with part 125 found in iridescent finish.

There don't appear to be many significant changes to the reverse angle brackets that I can see, during the entire period of production.  The most obvious but least significant is the change from rounded end to truncated end for part 125 only, which happened a lot earlier than we might expect (in the strips, for example, this change didn't happen until the mid-70s).  It looks to me as if Mechanised Army (1939-on) and all later parts have truncated ends, but gold and earlier parts have rounded ends.  All part 124s I have seen have rounded ends throughout.

One other possible thing to consider is that (in the small number I have looked at) it appears that one of the folds on part 124 was in a slightly different place on the earliest nickel versions than in all later variants.

The picture to the right shows a nickel and a later gold part 124, where you can see that the elongated hole end is longer on the later versions than in the earlier nickel version.  All later parts I have checked are similar to the gold one in this photo.  Is this common to most nickel parts or do I just have a few oddities?

Variations and oddities

None known

1954-57 spare parts box for part 125

Dealer spare parts boxes

The box to the right shows a box of six part 125, the very common ½'' reverse angle bracket, dating from between 1954 and 1957.  After 1957 this box label would have changed to light green, and before 1954 it would be missing the part code 12432.

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	124	125
Nickel plated	21	.ni	.ni
Dark green	27	.dg	.dg
Medium green (pre-war)	33	.mg1	.mg1
Red	34		.re
Gold	34	.go
Matt olive green †	39-41		.ma
Medium green	45	.mg	.mg
Light green	58	.lg	.lg
Silver painted	62-3	.si
Nickel plated (post-war stamping)	62	.ni1	.ni1
Zinc plated	66	.zn	.zn
Matt brass plated	78	.mb	.mb
Iridescent	79		.ir
		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

Nick Mascall      (at 11:15am, Fri 5th Nov, 10)

I have three identical nickel 124s (stamped Meccano twice) from sets probably dated 1926-27 which have the fold close to the elongated hole, as in your comparison photo.

Staffan Kjellin      (at 7:46am, Sat 17th Oct, 09)

Hi, I have checked my parts 124 and it seems that at least the dg and gold have both versions of the enlonged hole ends.

Brian Maunder      (at 3:11am, Fri 7th Aug, 09)

I have an example of part 124 in irridescent Reply: Great! Could you send us a picture?

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