Frank Hornby: Inspiring future generations
The Frank Hornby Charitable Trust and
Maghull’s Frank Hornby Heritage Centre
A journey that started with humble beginnings, tinkering with a toy to entertain and educate his children, to being an inventor, industrialist, businessman, politician and millionaire.
This is Ed Straker’s car from the Gerry Anderson TV series UFO
Dinky Toys produced it in this colour (gold) and later yellow, yet on TV the car was brown.
This is an example of the Meccano Factory deciding not to use liveries as per the TV programmes. We’ll see more of this colour swapping as this website details the Dinky models produced for the Gerry/Sylvia Anderson TV programmes.
World Cup of Stations Winner 2024 is Maghull
Our local railway station ‘Maghull’ on the Merseyrail Northern Line to Ormskirk has won a prestigious award. The station is yards away from Frank Hornby’s first Maghull house (The Hollies) and it celebrates Frank Hornby and his Meccano Factory works via these information panels. Congratulations to all involved and please check out this YouTube video - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eQt3vjM_a4k
In October 2017 filming for a Michael Portillo Great British Railway Journeys TV programme (Series 9 Episode 14) took place in Maghull and at our Heritage Centre.
Here’s a photo of Michael arriving at Maghull Station having travelled via Merseyrail from Liverpool.
Former Class 86 Locomotive plaques on the wall of Maghull's Frank Hornby Heritage Centre together with an explanatory caption board beautifully designed by Sefton Libraries.
The plates were originally unveiled by Ken Dodd on the locomotive in the 1986 at Liverpool Lime Street Station and appropriately his widow Lady Anne Dodd unveiled them again when they were presented to our Maghull Heritage Centre.
A small diorama is included using one of the 00 Gauge ‘Frank Hornby’ Class 86 locos produced by Hornby Railways in 1988. It has scale nameplates on it but you’ll have to look closely as they’re very small on an 00 Gauge model loco.
We’ve partnered with Sefton Council Libraries to theme Maghull (Meadows) Library along Hornby/Meccano/railway/model railway lines and a G Scale model railway (not a Hornby scale) has been built within the library courtyard via National Lottery funding.
G Scale was chosen because it is robust and does not require a high level of maintenance. The photo above shows the project in October 2024. The train is controllable via a push button during times yet to be decided by Sefton Libraries.
A 2nd G Scale end-to-end line within the library has also been built. . See photo below. Tony, one of our trustees, together with local G Scale expert Bill have developed these exciting projects with Sefton Libraries.
The inside G Scale railway runs on 17 meters of track, back and forth, when it’s in operation. All the lineside items - bridge, station, signals, water tower & signal box - are Hornby 0 Gauge. The bridge (not on this photo) is constructed of Meccano and made by expect builder Chris Harris.
Thunderbirds are Go - Dinky Toys FAB 1 from Thunderbirds - ‘Get the Rolls out Parker we’re going for a drive’, ‘Yes M’Lady’
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 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 is no charge to visit our Heritage Centre but donations can be made via our collection box.
Please see our disability access note for the FHHC on our ‘Places to visit’ page under the ‘Clubs, Associations & Enthusiasts’ tab above.
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Our Memory/Education Box is available to be borrowed via Sefton Council’s Library Service.
Please follow the link below and 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.
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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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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
Hornby O Gauge tinplate coal truck on display at our Maghull Heritage Centre.
Display of BAYKO at our Maghull Heritage Centre. Meccano manufactured it from 1959 to 1964. Prior to that it was produced by Plimptons of Liverpool.
Meccano Red Arrows ‘flying’ in the FHHC
Dinky Toys Thunderbird 2 with Thunderbird 4. As with FAB 1 it’s on display at Maghull’s Frank Hornby Heritage Centre
Donated to our Trust in October 2024 by David Spratt of Southport a boxed Hornby Dublo set from the early 1950’s. It’s now on display at our Maghull Heritage Centre.