Frank Hornby: Inspiring future generations
The Frank Hornby Charitable Trust
Maghull’s Frank Hornby
Heritage Centre
A journey that started with humble beginnings, tinkering with a toy to entertain & educate his children, to being an inventor, industrialist, businessman, politician & millionaire.
February 2026 - The Royal Mail is celebrating Hornby Railways with a new range of postage stamps
https://shop.royalmail.com/special-stamp-issues/hornby-model-railways
French Dinky ‘Cougar’ Toys
Are these Dinky Toys? Well, yes & no. They have’ Dinky Toys’ embossed into their plastic bases. The green one is a BMW 530, the gold one a Peugeot 504. They’re French Dinky Toys and were produced 1980/81.
Maghull's Frank Hornby Heritage Centre acquired them (plus 2 others) recently and has been looking into how they came about. We know they're French Dinky Toys, but they're also known as Cougar Models. Many of the 'Airfix’ era Dinky Toys were produced in the early 1980's in France under the name of Cougar Model Toys.
For example, the BMW 530 four-door saloon car. The Model number is 1404. It was issued in the early 1980's, the scale being about 1/43rd. This one is in metallic green and is of both die-cast and plastic construction. The interior is in grey plastic with a plastic cream base. 'Cougar' decals are applied to the side doors. The wheels being black coloured ‘Speedwheels’. The Cougar decal is also on the Peugeot 504.
A liitle further digging on the internet and we discovered the involvement of French model-making company Solido.
You could call them French Dinky ‘follow-ons’. They’re going on display at Maghull's Frank Hornby Heritage Centre
French Dinky Half-track - 822
Our Trustee, the aptly named Les French, bought this model in France for 1 Euro (about 80p). It was in a terrible state, no tracks or tyres and a botched paint job. A repaint, new tracks & tyres, a French flag, plus a new plastic gun turret and it’s pretty much back to how it would have left the French Dinky Toys factory.
It’s now on display at Maghull’s Frank Hornby Heritage Centre
Mamod Steam Engines
Our Heritage Centre has been presented with a beautiful 1950's Mamod stationary steam engine by John Langton of Formby.
The model is in all but mint condition with its original box, instruction sheet and even the receipt for purchase (by John's Uncle) from Lucas's Hobbies in Liverpool. Thank you John for donating such a great model to our Trust.
We now have 3 stationary steam engines, which were all made to work with Meccano models, on display as part of our ever growing Hornby/Meccano collection.
1939 Hornby Dublo D2 Set
This is a cracking addition to the displays of Hornby items at Maghull's Frank Hornby Heritage Centre. It dates from 1939 and was recently passed on to us by Mike Howard.
The excellent Brighton Toy and Model Museum has some interesting information about this wooden D2 set:-
https://www.brightontoymuseum.co.uk/.../Category:Hornby...
We don't have the full set (which sold for 25/- in 1939) because the arched station canopy part is missing. We do, however, have the separately purchased wooded block signal box (see below), which sold for 11d. What a find, thank you so much Mike.
Recording memories of Meccano Factory workers
We’ve recorded the experiences of Ernie Busby during his working time at the Meccano Factory. This is the first such recording the Frank Hornby Heritage Centre has undertaken. One of our trustees conducted the interview and the recording has subsequently been edited and turned into a YouTube video by a Sefton Libraries volunteer. Please access it via the link below:-
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8qHSXTjEz9I
We hope you enjoy listening to it and if there are other Meccano employees out there who may wish to participate in this project please email Tony Robertson at t3robertson@gmail.com
The project aims to digitally record the working memories of former employees, which would otherwise be lost.
A National Museums Liverpool podcast all about Maghull's famous resident Frank Hornby
Les French & Tony Robertson take part from the Frank Hornby Trust to help tell the story of the world-famous toy maker and his influences - https://www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/stories/frank-hornby-national-museums-liverpool-podcast
This website aims to explore all things in the Hornby Universe, past and present, with the objective of generating a vast knowledge base in order to educate and connect enthusiasts.
The Frank Hornby Charitable Trust runs and curates the Frank Hornby Heritage Centre in Maghull on Merseyside, the Town where Frank Hornby lived for much of his adult life.
The Heritage Centre is within Meadows Leisure Centre on Hall Lane Maghull, L31 7BB. It opens the same hours/days as Maghull Library, presently 10 am - 5 pm Monday to Friday and 10 am - 2 pm Saturday.
Please note, we’re NOT open on Sundays and Bank Holidays
Our Heritage Centre, whilst being very much about Frank Hornby and the products of his Meccano Factory, also takes an interest in products that subsequently fell under differing ownerships, particularly following the demise of the Meccano Factory in 1979.
See our FHHC gallery photos under the ‘Products’ tag above
There’s no charge to visit our Heritage Centre but donations can be made via our collection box.
Please see our disability access statement for the FHHC on our ‘Places to visit’ page under the ‘Clubs, Associations & Enthusiasts’ tab above
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Our Memories/Education Box is available to be borrowed via Sefton Council’s Library Service
Please follow the link below (or speak to Maghull [Meadows] Library staff) & search for ‘Educational Box: Frank Hornby’ to start the booking process - Educational Box: Frank Hornby
The Hornby/Meccano items in the box include a clockwork 0 Gauge train & track, 2 built Meccano models & some Dinky Toys.
Explanatory cards box tell users all about Hornby/Meccano so that they can lead a talk in schools, care homes, or to community/local history organisations, etc.
Looking for someone to give a Hornby talk?
If you’d like one of our volunteer trustees to come to give a talk please email Les French at caractorgraphics@yahoo.co.uk
We do ask for a minimum donation of £30 for such talks to cover our costs and to bring some money into our small charitable trust.
Our trustees will usually travel to venues within Merseyside and Lancashire but please feel free to contact us if you are further away to see if we can accommodate your request.
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On display at Maghull's Frank Hornby Heritage Centre
A Coventry Climax forklift truck in good play-worn condition (Dinky No.401) and a beautifully restored Dinky Supertoys Bedford Pallet Jekta van (Dinky No.930).
Donations to our Charitable Trust
Monetary donations go straight into our funds which are used to make appropriate purchases for display at our Maghull Heritage Centre.
We have a donations box in our Maghull Heritage Centre which can also be used to pay for books purchased from our small library of mainly railway related reading.
We often get donations of model railway-related items, model cars, transport-related books, items of Meccano etc. etc. If the items are unrelated to Meccano/Hornby/Dinky Toys/other products of Hornby/Meccano we will usually sell them to help our Trust. If they are Hornby etc. we will put them on display at our Heritage Centre. If we already have an item we’ll keep the best and sell others.
All our funds are used for the benefit of our Trust and we are grateful for all donations.
If you’d like to donate items to our charitable trust please contact Tony Robertson at - t3robertson@gmail.com
National Museums Liverpool (NML) Curator Sharon Brown writes about famous designers, inventors and scientists who were inspired by playing with Meccano as children
https://www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/stories/how-meccano-changed-world
