DO YOU remember the Clyde Model Dockyard? 

This favourite shop of many a small boy and girl was located in the Argyll Arcade until it closed in the early 70s. 

It was the best place in the city to buy Hornby train sets and model aircraft, and many a pocket money hoard was spent by Glasgow's children in awe of the range of toys and models on display.

Dan Harris, who grew up in Maryhill and now lives in East Kilbride, remembers it well. 

“Seeing old pictures of the Clyde Model Dockyard reminds me of the short-lived Garscube Model Aircraft Club that I founded and disbanded when I was 13,” says regular Times Past contributor Dan. 

“I had recently returned from Canada – I was evacuated there during the war - and wanted to resume the hobby of model aircraft construction I had started the summer before. It was 1944, and I was working after school, earning pocket money delivering groceries for the shop my mother managed. 

“I didn’t want to spend all of my pocket money on model aircraft, because I also bought gramophone records.” 

He adds, smiling: “So I had a brilliant idea. Start a model aircraft club and charge a membership fee.” 

Most of my Dan's pals were aged 14 and out working full time, he recalls. 

“The six members of my new club were schoolboys,” he explains. “The deal was, I would buy the first kit, show them how to assemble the aeroplane, then launch the ‘plane out of our tenement room and kitchen top floor window.  

“In return, they would each give me sixpence until we had enough money to buy another kit. The names were put in a hat to determine the order in which they would own a kit.” 
Being a former Boy Scout, Dan explains, he “displayed some leadership.” 

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He adds: “It was agreed that prior to the start of every meeting, we would all stand at attention around the work table (my mother’s mahogany dining table) while our club anthem, Skyliner was blaring away on the family radiogram’s turntable. 
“So I went to the Clyde Model Dockyard and proudly told the shop assistant of my ambitious plans and assured him we would be regular customers. I engaged in some technical talk with him and he recommended I should purchase a model Spitfire.  

“I rejected this suggestion. It was only a single-winged aircraft. I wanted to show off my skills with a double-winged aircraft. So I purchased a Tiger Moth. I used to love watching them taking off and landing at the small airport across from where I lived in Canada. 
“These planes were used for training purposes by the RAF and the RCAF during World War2.” 

The great day of the club’s first meeting arrived. 

Dan says: “Everyone stood to attention in our front room, while our anthem blared out, much to the annoyance of our neighbours directly below. They used the shaft of a sweeping brush to bang on their ceiling. 
 
“Having an entrepreneurial brain, I collected the weekly club fee before starting my construction work. After some hours and a couple of free tea breaks, I had the ‘plane assembled.  It was now time for the maiden flight of the Garscube Model Aircraft Club. 
 
“I instructed the members to split into two groups, one to spread out in the back court, the other to go over the wall and into the swing park. I then opened our top floor kitchen window, wound up the elastic band, and released my bonny Tiger Moth into the sky.” 

Dan pauses. “It plummeted nose first at a fast speed and lay crumpled and in bits right below my window,” he grins. “When I got to the bottom of the stairs, our youngest member Harry, age 11, was waiting for me.  He stood smartly to attention, trying hard to hold back a smirk, saluted and said: ‘No sign of the pilot, sir. He must have done a runner...” 
The Garscube Model Aircraft Club was put into immediate administration, says Dan. 

“The members were given back their membership fees.  None of us ever built a model aircraft again.”