By Rod Socket

If a club's assets are its members, then the WLMS has an embarras de richesse. [For on our list there is the finest and most innovative scale modeller, a system expert, a leading-edge technician and the most popular man in the Meccano movement. And even not counting myself, we have a wealth of talent, experience and enthusiasm.] So let us take stock and look, briefly, at just some of the jewels in our crown. [Anyone who has been in the club for any time will already know them well and may skip this article; lest any be offended, those who are themselves mentioned must on no account read on.]

Terry Allen

To achieve eminence in Meccano, there is no need to be vainglorious, pushy or loud; one's work speaks for itself. Take Terry Allen; honours and trophies willy nilly beat a path to his door. Terry's style is as distinctive as a Bugatti in Sainsbury's car park; his vintage motors are like the sculpted silver centrepiece on a stately dining table. With infinite patience every strip, bolt and washer is agonised over, perfected, then polished to a brilliant shine. A model reflects its builder, and none more so than his! Like the Bible printed on a postage stamp, the details should be examined through a magnifying glass. The whole car takes two years to build (longer than the prototype) and has the feel of a Rolex watch. A Terry Allen model is a mirror of thoroughbred engineering.

Bob Brooker

Another automotive specialist with an individual style, the Brooker name is synonymous with realism - such realism as stops the onlooker in his tracks and drops his jaw. Screw your eyelids and you are looking at the real thing. His vehicles cause traffic jams in exhibitions, mobbed by the car enthusiasts, and his whole stable makes an exhibition in itself. Surprisingly, Bob has yet to win a competition, perhaps because to the purist majority the means counts for more than the end. But ask any open-minded member of the public, "Which was the best and most memorable model?" - You have guessed it!

Bob Ford

A long-serving and respected pillar of Meccano society, Bob is one of the most skilled modellers around today. There is a jewel-like precision to his work, a finesse honed by years of practice. A Bob Ford model is a work of art, seemingly built from new parts, an illusion that testifies to his dexterity and care. Whether their aesthetic quality is by design or a natural by-product of his technique, the sad thing about these beautiful objects is that they get taken down. Bob's models should be preserved as part of our Meccano heritage.

Tim Gant

While still at school Tim was already in the front rank with a portfolio of patents and innovations. More remarkable still is that after exile to Cambridge he returned to the club in full vigour, unsuborned by lesser pursuits. Is the credit due to him or to Meccano? Tim is a Meccano schizophrenic; both purist and radical experimenter - fortunately in separate models! In purist mode Tim adheres scrupulously to Binns Road, yet with each model he breaks new ground with novel applications of old parts. In the other, Tim is the leading expert on the rolling chassis and the pioneer of radio control in Meccano. He feels that this last endeavour is under-appreciated; perhaps he is ahead of his time. But mark my words: Tim Gant will one day be the next Dr Keith Cameron.

Julian Head

Some meccanomen achieve greatness, others have it thrust upon them. Julian, it appears, was born the finished article, winning our coveted Members' Trophy with his first model. With this talent, Julian has planted the groves of academe in Meccanoland, researching his material with assiduous scholarship and teaching; the Head Lecture has become a standard fixture of club meetings. Julian regards Meccano with earnest seriousness, as all of us should, ever seeking to know and obey Hornby's will.

Paul Joachim

Scientist, man of letters, writer and Meccanoman extraordinary, Paul has risen from nowhere to the forefront of the movement in just five years, by dint of feverish energy and a brilliant, atavistic intellect which (devoid of false modesty) he keeps no secret. Paul revels in kudos - for the WLMS and Meccano in general and for Paul Joachim in particular. Indeed, lest the credit go to a namesake, the author's middle initial and photograph are published in CQ above his erudite articles. But there is only one Paul Joachim, and who could deserve it more? Paul is an exponent of the prototypical scale model, and each one he produces is the compleat supermodel incorporating an important Meccano 'first' such as the swashplate and the (practical) automatic transmission. Paul does not lavish time on niceties of finish and his models look shabby. But this is not the point. He builds models in order to take them apart - the end product is not the finished model but the design, and the ensuing model plans which sell world-wide. Where will he go from here?

Rowan Joachim

Rowan used to seem a nice little boy - until introduced as the Club's first female member! Rowan was a cross between the child prodigy Ruth Lawrence and Shirley Temple. Her imagination and precocious Meccano talent (hereditary of course) brought her a virtual monopoly of the junior prizes. But her real forte was in public speaking. Her aplomb and cute spontaneity made Rowan's talkabout the highlight of the meeting. "DA-DEEE!", her shrill protest when-ever father interjected with a helpful remark, had us rolling in the aisles. Alas, the time came for Rowan to put away all childish things and graduate to ponies and boys. Haste the day that she regresses, like the rest of us.

Nick Rodgers

If another biblical flood comes during a club meeting, will the Greenford Annexe float? It should - it's wood! And if we are carried off to alight on Horsenden Hill, alone on the Earth and relying on own resources, who will be our leader? We have many men of talent in their own spheres; but who would be the admirable Crichton? Nick Rodgers is the good sheriff of the Westerns, and no Meccanoman or his widow has wanted for his help. As a modeller, Nick has nothing left to prove; he has enough models in his loft to stage Henley on his own, and enough parts to build the Forth Bridge full scale. But nowadays his energies are directed more to building Meccano clubs - first the WLMS and now Runnymede.

Nick Rudoe

There comes a time in a Meccanoman's career when everything he has learnt from earlier models comes together to create the masterpiece that raises him to the rank of Master Meccanoman, one of the elite. For Nick Rudoe, that moment was his Giant Dragline. A model can be truer to the prototype than the prototype, and Nick (never overtly taciturn) alone could achieve it - with the robot Threepio, life size, with himself inside. But Nick is a classical modeller and connoisseur of the 1950's era. To behold the lush Red and Green acres of Nick's demesne incites, like nothing else, that lust for Meccano, engendered in us all by childhood deprivation, that is never satisfied.

John Sharp

To say that John Sharp has a mechanical aptitude is to say Einstein was good at sums. The man is a Meccano genius, and no one knows it better than he. John makes the occasional guest appearance, bringing a model of mind-boggling complexity, which (he will modestly mention) took him five minutes to build. So many abstruse mechanisms packed so tightly together make a dissected human brain look simple, yet it all works. It is all so amazing and wonderful, I wish we could see more of it.

Howard Somerville

Ted Spivvins

Meccanomen come from all walks of life, and Ted is the lowest common denominator. Hair and sideburns slicked with Meccano graphite grease, he never brings a model - there is no money to be made in that! A finger in every pie has Ted, and a shrewd nose for a bargain too. Who else could get a grand's worth of Electrikit for fifty quid? Never mind Magna Charta; it pays the milk bill. He gets stuff cheaper still from the dealers - when their backs are turned. Calais parts; no onward selling? - Pull the other one, Guv! But enterprise such as this is not to be aspersed, for it has its human side. He likes to help the handicapped - they don't know what an MM is worth, after all. And rest assured that when you pass on, he will visit your widow the same day and try to unburden her - of your collection. My wife will be ready for him - with a loaded shotgun.

Philip Webb

The timeless Reverend Webb is a Cliff Richard clone and he, his attractive wife and charming children make the perfect family on the Weetabix packet. But behind the homiletical, anodyne urbanity lurks a man of many talents. Philip is inter alia an artist, both in Meccano and on paper. He is a cartoonist of perceptive wit whose work is (dare I say it) wasted if only published in the ephemeral newsletter. Philip applies the cartoonist's art to his models; a slight exaggeration of the distinctive features and a touch of humour makes a Philip Webb model begotten of the prototype, not created.