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 and educate his children, to being an inventor, industrialist, businessman, politician and millionaire.
Feb 2025 - National Museums Liverpool have a brand new podcast all about Maghull's famous resident Frank Hornby.
Les French and Tony Robertson take part in the podcast from the Frank Hornby Charitable Trust to help tell the story of the world famous toy maker and his influences - use this link to listen to it -
https://www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/stories/frank-hornby-national-museums-liverpool-podcast
New to our Maghull Heritage Centre - Jan 2025
Dinky Toys models from the original Star Trek TV series - A Klingon Battle Cruiser and USS Enterprise.
They were produced in the final years of Liverpool’s famous Meccano Factory.
Both fire plastic disks as weapons. The USS Enterprise also has a Shuttlecraft.
A boxed Centurion Tank, 2 sports cars and 4 racing cars
This collection of Dinky Toys vehicles, from former Maghull resident Phil Clayton, has now joined our displays at the Frank Hornby Heritage Centre. Thanks Phil, much appreciated.
Liverpool Electric Cables Railway Drume/Wagons
Hornby made wagon loads for its Dublo & O Gauge Series model railways in various types. Here we see a Liverpool Electric Cables drum in O Gauge. Maghull’s Frank Hornby Heritage Centre has just acquired it.
Liverpool Electric Cables Company was a Bootle based company in Linacre Lane so it seems it was this company's cable drums that Hornby was representing, unless experts out there think differently of course.
Three cracking bespoke Hornby O Gauge wagons
We’re delighted to be able to put three totally refurbished Hornby O Gauge wagons on display at our Maghull Heritage Centre.
They have been repainted from wrecks by Hornby Railway Collectors Association member Steve Webb who has kindly donated them to us. They look great and there are no others like them. Thanks so much Steve, we appreciate your generosity.
Two G Scale railways for Maghull Library
Our Trust works closely with Sefton Council Libraries and via this partnership two G Scale model railways (not a Hornby scale) have been constructed, one inside Maghull (Meadows) Library the other outside in the courtyard.
The inside G Scale railway runs on 7 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. There’s also a bridge (not visible in this photo) that’s constructed from Meccano and made by expect builder Chris Harris.
The courtyard railway whilst complete will not be in use until fire damage at the adjacent Maghull Town Hall is repaired. We do not have a timescale for this work so watch this space for news.
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 (or speak to Maghull 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.
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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
Do you remember BAYKO?
We have a display of it at our Maghull Heritage Centre. Meccano manufactured it 1959/64. Prior to that it was made by Plimptons of Liverpool.
New to Maghull’s FHHC
Display of Meccano, Hornby & Dinky postcards.
A great 1950’s Hornby Dublo set
Donated to our Trust Oct’ ‘24 by David Spratt of Southport a boxed Hornby Dublo set from early 1950’s. It’s on display at our Heritage Centre.
A Meccano helicopter on display at Maghull’s Frank Hornby Heritage Centre