Last weekend I went to the Australian Model Railway Association's (AMRA) annual exhibition at Caulfield race course, as a member of the British Railway Modellers of Australia's (BRMA) stand.

I took along a couple of simple Cambrian wagon kits to construct when I needed a break from operating the demonstration layout. However, that didn't happen and I spent most of the time operating, demonstrating or just talking, but not building anything!!

Today I decided to sit down and build both kits. It took me most of the morning but they were pretty straightforward. Both kits were of open wagons so I wouldn't have had to worry about prepainting anything for the exhibition and both are intended to strengthen the train of Private Owner wagons that my pre-grouping locos can pull (most notably the SECR liveried C class 0-6-0).

One was an LBSCR D1369 5-plank wagon of 1912 to 1926 build, with a choice of ends, which I built in its early guise with the curved tops and sheet rail, plus early pattern brake gear. The other was an LSWR 8-plank D1316 open of 1904 to 1925 build, done with its original doors and early brake gear on one side only (optional later pattern doors are supplied), plus the sheet rail.

The only parts of the construction that gave me any pause for thought were that early brake gear (trying to follow the instructions carefully) and fitting the Parkside NEM coupling pockets at the correct height. The latter was done with a bit of trial and error using the Bachmann Firestone wagon as a guide (itself an anachronism in the previously mentioned pre-grouping train as it dates from 1928 at the earliest, which is when the Firestone factory in Brentwood opened!). The coupling mounts were packed using some 40 thou plastic on the LBSC wagon and 60 thou on the LSWR one.

They are yet to be weighted and painted but here are a couple of photos to show the state of play so far.

Note that I had to use a little filler on the 8 planker and it hasn't been cleaned up yet in the photos.