Apart from lots of driving and being ill I did manage something constructive while we were away in France. I carefully packed just the body castings from some Wrightlines D class wagons, small soldering iron, flux. solder, files, knife... you get the picture! Quite a lot of stuff really as well as lots of pre stained balsa and my invaluable balsa stripper.

I started off one lazy afternoon on some A frames and in my now customary fashion I placed precut strips onto a sheet of templates overlayed with some double sided tape. Pretty tedious really but the sort of job you do find little short cuts for as you go along. Quite a lot of PVA later I had my first 20 odd.

Then came several sessions of duck boards which along with PVA needed plenty of local lubricants to perhaps not speed up but to make the process a bit more enjoyable. At this stage I didn't really know how many I needed (duck boards not drinks!), so got down to it while every one else was in the pool and soldered up the wagon bodies. The awful truth that I had been dreading then came fully home - I would need an awful lot! I tried to work out ways of building a box and just putting a few around the outside but was just not going to work. Nothing for it then but to just get on with it. With the 'help' of a small person I eventually ended up with this lot;

With a bit of luck there should be enough for three of these;