How refreshing it is, amid all the apathy and cynicism in the world, to encounter earnest dedication and seriousness of mind. At Henley, Julian Head, behind his Engine (which must surely be the finest first model ever produced by anyone), had taken to heart the criticism by the purists of the painting, mutilation, and foreign materials necessary to obtain the wonderful result.

Julian had done scholarly research, finding precedents in Meccano scripture for his methods. He produced an old MM where painted cardboard was prescribed in a model, and another plan which (although deprecating it as a general practice) contained instructions to mutilate a part. Most importantly, the MMs in question had been published in Frank Hornby's lifetime, and presumably sanctioned by Him.

Was Hornby, I questioned, Himself the architect of the True Faith? Was it not His apostles, the engineers in Binns Road who developed the Meccano proper that we love and worship? Was it not Ellison Hawks and others who wrote the Gospels? It is not their work and word which is canonised, the true authority to which we turn to know what is right?

I fear a schism in the Meccano movement; it happened to all the great religions as they grew. One day they will find out who was right. Will we?