Some times it is the small things that make you happy.

[cypherman]

Hi all,

As I have mentioned in an earlier thread I have taken a break from restoring and repairing loco's. Moved on to buying a lot of scrapped wagons and fixing them. I never thought I would get such a feeling of satisfaction with them as I did with the locos. But some of them Just lifted my soul when I finished them. I have fixed up about 40 wagons now. Here are the ones that have given me the greatest satisfaction and why. The first picture is the lot that most of them came in. The circled wagons are the ones I am showing.

1/ This is what looks like a very tall mineral wagon on the left hand side of the picture. Had to scratch build the roof and the end arches of the walls. Also had to repair the damaged chassis.

2/ This was the old Hornby box van with sliding doors at the top of the picture. I had to source a new chassis as for some reason this was on and old Triang chassis. I scratch built new doors for both sides. I think they turned out nicely. 

3/ All there was of this wagon was the body with broken side rails. I sorted out a chassis and repaired the under gear on that and repaired the side rails.

4/ Again all there was of this was the body. It originally had a short wheel based chassis. But I wanted it on a slightly longer chassis. Sorted out another damaged chassis from my increasing stock pile. Made running boards and front/rear footplates. I had heard of a shorter wheel chassed brake van similar to the Hornby one and thought why not try and make one. Nothing to loose.

5/ The four wheeled coach was a different matter. The body had been repainted and very nicely painted in green with gold lining. The only problems with it were the chassis was smashed and unrepairable.  All the detailing on the ends had been file completely off back to just flat plastic. So I took another 4 wheeled coach I have and used that as a template to rebuild all the detailing. So all the hand rails and steps are now separate and not just moulded on to the body.

All the wagons got a full repaints. I just painted the ends of the coach and its new chassis. All the chassis were missing at least one buffer. So they were also repaired.

I know that these may not be the most earth shattering repairs and mods. But they have given me immense satisfaction in doing them. After all that is what this hobby is about.

Edited November 19, 2023 by cypherman

[BernardTPM]

2 hours ago, cypherman said:

2/ This was the old Hornby box van with sliding doors at the top of the picture. I had to source a new chassis as for some reason this was on and old Triang chassis. I scratch built new doors for both sides. I think they turned out nicely.

Ah, the 1968 Tri-ang Hornby Vanwide. The real vans were 17' 6" whereas the Tri-ang chassis was just 16', but they took the all the length out of the doors. The two ends and fixed side panels were well modelled though; theoretically you could just build scale sized doors, mount on a new underframe (oddly enough with LMS style fitted brake gear) and new longer roof to make it a scale model. Of course, they chose the oddball version with vents in the doors but not on the ends. Or buy the Parkside kit or an R-T-R one now, but back in the '70s those options weren't around. Hornby did a new Vanwide in the '80s, this time 16' 6" long but with everything shortened in proportion so the end panels were too narrow on that one.