In my last entry I casually mentioned that I had started work on some ex-Metropolitan Ashbury carriages. These are card kits by Street Level Models/ CDC Designs, which I bought several years ago and which have been sitting in the rainy day stash ever since.

The first step was to cut out the windows and paint the resulting white edges.

The main reason these kits have sat unbuilt for so long is because I have been trying to find some appropriate running gear for them. The bogie wheelbases are around 7', and the shortest RTR bogies I could find were 8' type. I didn't want to go for longer bogies, so eventually I went for some diamond frame wagon bogies from Parkside Dundas, which are if anything a little too short.

Once I had built the bogies, I was able to build the carriage floor and solebars.

I was more than a little concerned about how the card floor might flex and twist, so I braced it up with some plastic sheet and strip.

In the angle between the floor and the solebars and bufferbeams I fitted some lengths of 2mm square plastic strip. Above the floor and running between the bogie centres I fitted a large plate of 0.5mm plastic sheet. I may add some more bracing; as I am planning to build an interior though I anticipate that the body and internal partitions, once fitted, will provide sufficient strength.