A big shout out to Jack, who responded to my wanted advert here on RM Web to offer me two older Lego sets dating from the mid-noughties, which are now highly collectible. Jack kindly built the sets to check they were (almost) complete, then took them completely apart so I had the pleasure of building them myself. He also sent me a quantity of old 9 volt track. I can now set up an extended run for my 9 volt train that is sat in the Lego cupboard.

The sets were the TTX Intermodal Container Wagons from 2005 and the large Octan tanker wagon released as part of the 'My Own Train' range in 2001.

The TTX is actually an articulated wagon with two cars sharing a central bogie.

The containers themselves are a bit small, but they stack, just like the real thing.

The Octan tanker had two integral pieces missing, both easily replaced from the spares stock. I turned round the 'fence' ends to make it look less continental. It's also missing the tiny valve wheels it's supposed to have on each end of the tanker. But those looked a bit silly anyway so I haven't bothered replacing them.

Compared to the other Octan wagons I have, this is a good deal bigger. The smaller wagons have fixed single axle wheels, whereas this has the rotating double axle set up common on bigger wagons.

It will look OK in a train, perhaps as the first wagon followed by the three smaller ones.

Back in January I acquired another wagon, this time from eBay. It's a box car wagon from the 7898 freight set (the same set the red tipper wagon came in). It's a very light wagon, despite being brick-built. I feel it offers a different profile for a train, so am very pleased with it.

With one roof panel piece removed and the addition of a friendly Duplo character it makes a Triang-esque giraffe car!

(Spoiler alert!) My next post will be about cranes and buffer stops.