Outfit 10
1945-1953 Medium Red/Green Period

Because of raw material shortages after the war, Meccano Limited was not able to produce an outfit 10 until 1950.  The example shown is a Presentation Cabinet from 1950.  It was made of good quality beech and plywood.  The dark-oak stained presentation cabinet was a joy to behold and a nuisance to manipulate.  Although two lift-out  trays were provided, packing was still very labour intensive with the amount of cord-lacing required to attach dozens of parts to various pieces of yellow card.  Once the individual parts had been unlaced or wheels and gears taken from their punched cards, the partitioned trays were not particularly suitable for storing a large number of loose parts.

If you click on any of the images below you will view the full sized image.  It should be noted that some of the black motor tyres and one inch rubber rings have been replaced with grey ones.  The one inch tyres and rubber rings were seen in grey at the earliest from 1952, but the two inch and three inch grey motor tyres only appeared from about 1956.  It should also be noted that the centre compartments of the Second Tray had further stringing cards stacked beneath them holding the hub discs, part 118.

Above  is an Overtype Stationary Engine and Boiler that appears in both pre & post war No. 10 manuals.  Meccano Limited did not have the resources or manpower immediately after the war to produce new instruction manuals for the number 10 outfit.  Hence the blue gold flexible plates shown in this model.  Click on the image for a larger view.

Below is one of the instruction manuals providing plans for sets 00 through to outfit 10.  Note that Dad lost his pipe in later years.  Also you could never build the model depicted on the covers, even with a number 10 outfit.  This sort of advertising would never be allowed today!

The Presentation Cabinet was produced up until the end of 1960, so examples are found with light red and green parts, grey tyres and with the new instruction leaflets that were printed in October 1954.  A Meccano Ltd promotional photograph of the outfit, showing grey tyres can be seen on the Presentation Outfit Variations webpage as well as the final form of the Presentation Cabinet.

Photographs and images courtesy of Wes Dalefield, Ian Evans, Roland Jaggard, Graham Jost and Robert Thompson.