BAYKO Nerd's - Questions and Answers

One possible answer is to enable the brick to form the end of 2 walls by allowing bricks to be aligned at right angles to both ends. However, I believe the answer is simpler.

Apart from generating a small material saving, the design Plimpton adopted allowed the mould to be made in 2 parts, not 3, and which would also allow the brick to fall easily out of the mould.

I think the answer to this one is quite simple. The volume Plimpton produced of these bricks was relatively small.

Producing a full height version of these bricks would have required Plimpton to produce and maintain 2 moulds, and manage 4 stock lines instead of 2...

...and all for no extra revenue!

Again I believe the answer is quite simple. Having gained some experience of the new parts in the 20s series sets, Plimpton will have learned that the Curved Bricks, when used around a corner or with a Bay Window Cover, and the [then] proposed Long Bricks create a problem at the junction between two bases where there is a missing row of rod holes.

This didn't matter earlier, when every BAYKO part was either 1 brick or 3 bricks wide, but could cause major complications with the new parts which are 1½ bricks long - and no holes to put the rod in!

The answer to this is that you need an odd number of holes to cater for a full number of bricks.

As the gap between bases has a missing row of rod holes and is thus 1 brick wide, you always had a full number of brick slots available, no matter how many bases you joined together.

I suppose I could try and be clever and say that they might otherwise have increased the number of 1-Brick Rods in the sets - but I could never prove that, even if I believed it.

However, if you look at the 2 versions of the first post-war manuals, you will see ½-Brick Rod confusion. Both versions had photos of models showing only ½-Brick Rods but both had plans showing only 1-Brick Rods, however, they had different parts list, with only the later version mentioning ½-Brick Rods.

The photo [left] shows ½-Brick Rods in the model, yet the diagram below clearly specifies 1-Brick Rods for the half brick high Curved Bricks across the bottom of the diagram - you work it out!

The answer as to why they added ½-Brick Rods, without reducing the number of 1-Brick Rods seems to be - to make sure there were enough 1-Brick Rods to build all the published models - probably!

You could also argue that at least it would give Plimpton minor savings in the larger sets #3 and #4, which had not been launched at that point.

Conjecture again, I'm afraid, but, a cursory examination of architectural styles would show that the use of external steps hanging off the exterior walls was really a throwback to the 19th century. Modern buildings tended not to do that and Plimpton would certainly wanted to keep BAYKO up to date...

...especially if it meant you could reduce, by 67%, the number of moulds you needed and the number of stock lines, to say nothing of the significant material savings generated!

The answer is simple - the Heliport - shown on page 17 of the standard MECCANO era sets #11 to #14 manual. The reason, however, is slightly more obscure...

...MECCANO provided a pair of the largest size Roofs ['D'] in set #14, but, in set #15, they only provided one, which was partnered by a Dormer Roof piece...

...the one with the hole...

...and I'm sure health and safety would have had something to say about the hole!

There are plenty of other models requiring two 'D' Roofs, but these could all have been modified slightly by using the Dormer Roof and Dormer Window Unit.

Thanks to Chris Boutal for spotting this one.