Well everyone, for some reason postings on this thread have fallen way off. So I thought I might keep going to see if I can stir up any interest. Fatman posted a wonderful video of a Hornby train race and the little M1 loco's were doing quite well. So I thought I might post some pictures of what an M1 loco might have looked like when purchased for that all important Christmas gift to a youngster. The M1 locomotive was available from 1926 and was originally copied from Bing. In 1930 it was changed to a different pressing and a reversing mechanism was added. Except for color changes it remained this way until WWII stopped production. After the war the M1 loco was the first back in production. The lithography was new and the mechanism received some post war improvements. Lithography / color changes went on but the loco remained remarkably stable. It went out of production in 1956 but remained for sale (presumably with left over stock) till about 1958. The version shown in the pictures below dates from about 1948 (the dating feature is the "Hornby" under the cab windows in black). This was part of the M1 goods set which was supplied with a tender, track, and two open wagons labeled "LMS & LNE".
Here is the entire M1 Goods Train set in the original box. By the way, the red little stick on label at the bottom of the box lid says: "Made in England for Sale in the United States by H.HUDSON DOBSON 200 Fifth Avenue, New York"
The Meccano Limited Guarantee and test verification. It is interesting that the M1 series was the lowest price line that included the Meccano Guarantee. There was an even smaller line ( O gauge but a smaller scale) called M0 and one of the differentiating features was that it did NOT carry the Guarantee and like Lionel "Scout" trains had a coupler that was incompatible with the rest of the line.
If you wished, you could fill out this form and become a member of the Hornby Railway Company
Here are the "extra's" that came with the set. The key and two lithographed pieces of luggage, I guess these were the "goods" the train was to carry. Note the small green one says "Hornby Series" on the top.
Here is the Hornby Type M1 locomotive as it would have been from about 1948 to 1954.
Here she is pulling her LNE gondola out of the tunnel on my layout.
Here is the entire "Goods Train" including the two gondolas and the tender.
For those of you who follow railroading in the UK you might wonder why, since nationalization of the railroads took place in 1948, this train set still carries the names of the individual lines. Well Hornby was quite a ways behind the time, it did not bring out a train set in 0 gauge that carried the post nationalization livery until about 1953. OBTW, since I had this fellow out of the box, I wound her up and put her on her way. The M1 handled this little train with no problem and easily made it around my entire loop plus.
Well that's it for me. I hope we can get a few more "tinplater's" to sign on. Best wishes
Don
