Is there a memorial to Frank Hornby

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Q.� Where are the alleged sites

A.� Outside the former factory entrance in Binns Road, Liverpool, and in that city's Lime Street Station.�I am most grateful to the Liverpool Record Office, which also joined in the search. Terry Cavanagh's book on public sculpture in Liverpool (1997) has no reference to Frank Hornby. Bernard Huntington's book Along Hornby Lines (1976) shows a bronze statue in the frontispiece which he says was 'made during the latter years of his life...' without giving a source where it is or where it is from. The most significant memorial to Hornby, of course, is his work.

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Q.� Biography

A.��Frank was born at 77 Copperas Hill, Liverpool, on 15 May, 1863, son of a provision merchant. Frank also went into the business and upon his father's death became a bookkeeper with a meat importing business in Liverpool.

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Q.� He wasn't an engineer

A.� No. But he was always interested in that sort of thing and tried out new ideas in his home workshop with his two sons - and often made toys from sheet metal. From his models of bridges, lorries and cranes, he thought of making them in small pieces that could be bolted together.

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Q.� And marketing them

A.� Yes - but first he patented them. He could not find a manufacturer, so his employer, David Hugh Elliot, decided to back him. By 1907 his clever engineering toy - Mechanics Made Easy - was gaining a good reputation as interesting, sturdy and educational. It was then renamed Meccano.

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Q.� Successful

A.� Yes - lucrative enough for Hornby to move into a large factory in Binns Road in 1914. German products became unpopular during and after the First World War _ so Horby stepped in. The first models of complete train sets, Hornby Trains, were produced for the 1920 Christmas market. The first sets comprised a 0-4-0 loco, a tender and a coal wagon, plus an oval of tinplate track.

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Q.� And they got more sophisticated as they went on

A.� Yes: stove enamelling replaced tin printing and the trains looked a lot classier. The range grew to include a 4-4-4 tank engine, several more freight wagons, coaches, signals and a station. Hornby's colours changed to represent the changes in the real train companies. In 1925 the first electric train sets appeared to run alongside their clockwork predecessors.

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Q.� And the company expanded

A.� Yes - to American in 1927, but this was not a success and production moved back to England within three years. Marketing, however, was brilliant, with attractive and sought-after catalogues. A Hornby Book of Trains published annually until the Second World War, Meccano Magazine had monthly features and all owners could join a Hornby Railway Company.

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Q.� And branched out

A.� A little. The firm started producing the excellent Dinky Toys - well-made cars and lorries originally known as Modelled Miniatures - in 1934.

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Q.� And then the decline

A.� Sadly yes. After the Second World War, demand dropped dramatically and the firm closed in 1969, despite a buy-out by Tri-ang.

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Q.� And Frank

A.� He died on 2 September, 1936, and is buried in the churchyard of St Andrew, Maghull, Lancashire.

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By Steve Cunningham