The Meccano Society of Scotland

Menstrie Meeting 2011

In May 2011 we held our annual Menstrie Meeting and Challange.
The Challenge this year was to construct a walking machine powered by a modern french electric motor. See the Challenge Rules page for more details.

Menstrie Challenge - Report

There were five entrants this year. On the general photos below the entries were from lift to right:-
Douglas Carson (6 legs)
Gordon Stewart #1 (2 legs)
Gordon Stewart #2 (4 legs)
Alistair Nicol (6 legs)
Andy Knox (8 legs)

Most of the models suffered from the a lack of ability to walk in a straight line. They tended to go in gentle curves thus making the distance between the start and finish lines greater than it otherwise would be. Indeed some never reached the finishing line as they curved so much.

Douglas Carson's entry won its first race against Alastair Nicholl's entry, but was then got badly infected with direction deficiency. Alastair Nichol's entry was the fastest walker but almost always went astray and did not finish the course. The most elegant walkers around were Gordon Stewart's two entries, but these were rather slow. The winner of all its races was Andy Knox's entry. This had a sinister arachnoid type motion nd, while not very fast, was very reliable and walked in a good straight line. Andy was thus presented with the winners trophy.

Pictures from Menstrie 2011

High resolution versions of the photos are also available for download if desired.

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