A little more freight progress:

First up the Cooper-craft GWR O5 5 plank that I started on last month.

It has now been completed as a running model, with a pair of Bill Bedford units fitted. Unfortunately I have somehow managed to fit Dean Churchward breaks with a RCH lever (found out when I came across the correct breaks when building the O2 7 plank). Trying to decide now if it bothers me enough to correct (the answer is probably yes). The model runs very sweetly (and for once the springing actually has been set up properly).

I've now got the O2 7 plank built to the stage where the w irons need to be added, but a lack of wheels is preventing the next step, this has been built with DC breaks and with a Williams Patent sheet rail. Everything built so far is lacking in sprung buffers, and axleboxes / springs as I need to get on and buy replacement parts (I will be amazed if it happens before Scaleforum...)

Hopefully the following photos will explain my modifications I have made.

First the plastic w irons were chopped off, before removing a large amount of materiel from the insides (being careful to stop before going through the solebar!)

The ballast box keeper plate had 1mm removed from each side, this provides clearance to the centre of the sprung unit.

The body of the wagon was glued to the floor, before gluing the solebars to the sides, once try the w irons were glued into position.

Finally the break gear was added, I used an off cut of the wiron fret as a spacer between the solebar and the break which seemed to do the job nicely.