PRIVATE OWNER PROGRESS

Back in October, I put up a post about a bunch of private owner mineral wagons that I'd bought, for conversion/detailing and eventual use within my NCB fleet. Well, the weekend saw me build new chassis for a couple of these vehicles, using Parkside Dundas kits, Gibson wheels and a bunch of odds and ends from the scrap box. The Dapol (P.J.J.P) and Hornby models (Bullcroft Main) now look much more authentic without the bulky moulded underframes and massive tension lock couplings and just need weathering and rebranding with NCB markings to finish off.

It only costs about £7 to treat each wagon and requires about 2 hours work (just the thing to fill a few spare hours on a wet Saturday afternoon while listening to the footy on the radio). With the bodyshells being nicely rendered, they deserve to be sat on a better class of underframe and will add even more variety to my motley coal fleet.

The bright red brake gear was from the scrap box - left over from an ancient Airfix meat van kit. The metal buffers are from Lanarkshire Modelling Supplies and the solebars and bufferbeams from Parkside. All you need to do is unclip the Hornby chassis, flatten the raised bits, mark out the centre lines and stick the new bits on. Well, you need to get everything set up right if the wagon's to run perfectly, so maybe I shouldn't sound too flippant. Look out for a full demo in print sometime next year...