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Your LOCAL Media since 1918! Volume 106 Issue 16
www.tofieldmerc.com
Wednesday, December 13, 2023
Local man named Meccanoman of the Year Kari Janzen Staff Reporter Dennis Caswell of Tofield was recently awarded the Norm LaCroix Award and named the Canadian Modeling Association for Meccano and Allied Systems (CMAMAS) Meccanoman of the Year. “Meccano is a hobby that has been around for over 100 years, and is generally intended for young boys. It consists of metal strips and plates that are bolted together to create models of virtually anything. Models can be of cars, motorcycles, airplanes, ships, construction equipment, and so forth. When a person starts out with Meccano, the models are usually very small, so that they do not occupy a lot of space,” said Caswell. Caswell grew up in Ontario and was first introduced to Meccano as a child. “It was at that time a fairly common children's toy. It isn't so much so, now, but the point is you don't just play with it, you build. And as a budding engineer, my parents could see that,” he said. The year that the Meccano association’s founder Norm LaCroix passed away was the start of the Meccanoman of the Year Award. “The award is for excellence in promoting and displaying Meccano models and building them, recognized by the people who know what's involved with it,” Caswell said. “I have exhibited models at a number of toy and hobby shows, but since moving out to Alberta, the opportunities to do this have been limited. With the farmer's market in Tofield displaying and selling a wide variety of items, I saw an opportunity to set up a Meccano display and give
out flyers for the Canadian Meccanoman’s Association so that anybody who was interested in Meccano could find out more. This came to the attention of the association and as a result, I was given the award of the Canadian Meccanoman of the year for 2023. This is quite an honour, and I am humbled that the association would grant this award to me,” he said. Meccano is an enjoyable hobby for Caswell, who is now retired. A model can take many hours of time to piece together, and so it can take months to complete a project. Caswell’s most recent model is a cargo ship. “I'm nearly finished the cargo ship I've been working on it for a month and a half, and it’s well over two meters long. It's big,” said Caswell. Other projects Caswell has done include a two cylinder motorcycle engine, a double Ferris wheel, and an elaborate old tyme Ferris wheel. Caswell has several models built at once, as he has a lot of Meccano, but it can vary between projects on how long a model stands before he’ll take it apart. “I have a lot of meccano. I've got two large models and I'm planning a third one. I've got one that I built two years ago and it's still together,” he said. In Ontario Caswell has attended elaborate Meccano shows. “I have seen a person bring in a car model with a three speed automatic transmission which also had remote control. Since moving out west, I miss going to these shows, but I have done my own displays at the farmer’s market for the past two years, and will be doing so again next year.”
Tofield's Dennis Caswell was recently awarded the Norm LaCroix Award and named the CMAMAS Meccanoman of the Year. KARI JANZEN PHOTO
One of Caswell's more recent projects is a cargo ship that extends beyond two meters long.
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