Alfred Dunhill, well-known purveyors of (very expensive) menswear and
accessories, commissioned the WLMS to build an animated platform for the window of their flagship store in
Jermyn Street, London, to display some smaller merchandise items. Meccano, with its traditional image as
an up-market boy's toy, was ideal.
Dunhill and Meccano already had associations - Richard Dunhill
(right),
grandson of the founder and present Life President, although not a modeller, owned the
largest private Meccano collection in the UK.
The model was built at his private home using parts from his collection. The garage, designed to house 4 vintage Rolls Royce cars, made an ideal workroom.
The 14' long girder bridge stood on two 8' towers. In each tower was a 3-floor lift. That on the right was a conventional lift with automatic opening doors using a Meccano electrical-mechanical controller (lower left). The other lift, by Paul Joachim, was a twin-cage quasi-Paternoster design. Underneath the arch stood a 4' 6" rotating carousel with a central tower surmounted by a contra-rotating disc.
Dunhill's was a collector's, not a builder's, collection, amassed from the contents of dozens of Tensets and other outfits over many years. Satisfyingly, we managed to use large quantities of the inevitably overabundant parts - flanged wheels, braced girders, flanged plates of all types, hinged plates and even two 6" pulleys!
The team - Roger Poulet, Paul Joachim and Howard Somerville, helped by Colin Davies, Peter Harwood and Terry Allen - were rewarded for their 3-month, full time job with a personal Dunhill outfit and accessories.
The Dunhill project was a wonderful, once-in-a-lifetime experience for all concerned, and undertaken for the greater glory of the WLMS and Meccano in general, and for ourselves in particular. With grateful thanks to Mr and Mrs Dunhill for their kind hospitality.
Photographs
courtesy Photographic Assignments. www.photographicassignments.co.uk.
By kind permission of Alfred Dunhill & Co Ltd.