Iain.d

I went out this morning and caught Perth at sunrise, this is from a suburb called Applecross. There's a jetty just out of shot to the left, its lighting is casting the orangey glow on the old wood stanchions in the foreground. Then I drove down to Fremantle, got a coffee and watched this ship come in. Quite big for our port at about 330m. It took five tugs to turn and berth it on the quayside. Our borders opened last week. Please come and visit. Kind regards, Iain

I have a few bits and pieces on the go at the moment. I’ve been able to begin putting together this Comet Coaches BR Mk1 D23 Restaurant Unclassified. I managed to do all the ‘prep’ work (remove from etches, clean off the etch tabs, drill holes, etc) when we had some time away shortly after Christmas and then this week I spent any evening putting the bogies together and another evening starting the floor pan and soldering in the door hinges. And then putting it together: Its actually a bit further forward than this, the underframe is folded down and the bogie sides are attached and there are steps soldered under each door. You can see I drilled four biggish holes in each end, the idea being it would be easier to solder the ends on using these tinned apertures, but I didn’t notice before I drilled the holes that the cast whitemetal end of the BR Mk1s are recessed, only being in contact with the ends at the edges, which is exactly where I didn’t want to solder, for fear of melting the castings!! Need a cup of tea and a rethink on that. And I’ve progressed a bit further on a Comet Stove R I’m doing. On looking at photos of these vehicles, the solebar stepboards and batteries and their support brackets are very prominent but the kit provides nothing to replicate this. So, I fitted stepboards from scrap brass then I measured and cut some 1mm angle brass, drilled .5mm holes and threaded through lengths of .45mm n/s wire to fabricate the battery support bracket. Some careful soldering and I had half completed the support bracket. I then soldered this half to the chassis and then built the back supports onto it. I thought this much easier than trying to make a complete cradle and try and solder that to the chassis. The underside: And the right way up: It’s not exactly right, but is certainly better than not having it. Next up will the brake linkages and buffers and the bottom half will almost be done. Kind regards, Iain

That looks superb! kind regards, Iain

For many years I used rattle cans for painting carriages and locomotives with, I think, quite acceptable results. This Milholme 2P built 25+ years ago is painted with Humbrol Matt Black, finished in Humbrol Satin Varnish and lightly weathered. The primer would have been Halfords Grey Primer (probably acrylic): This Ian Kirk Maunsell Corridor Composite dates from the late 90s; Phoenix BR SR Green with Humbrol Satin Varnish: This Hornby / Comet refurbish of a LMS D1968 BTK has a Tamiya super fine primer (red oxide) base, Tamiya Maroon (TS11) and finished with Tamiya Semi-Gloss Clear (TS-79) Varnish: This Bachmann / Comet refurbish of a Bullied Semi Open Third is in Tamiya primer (light grey), British Racing Green (can’t recall the manufacturer) with Mr Hobby Top Coat Pearl varnish: Please ignore the 'sticky-up' corridor connectors, obviously they're not like that when coupled up! I do now own an airbrush but continue to use Tamiya TS11 Maroon as I haven’t found a supply, in Western Australia at least, of an alternative suitable / near suitable maroon that I can thin and spray myself. To make my maroon shades seem different, I used varying shades of grey for the carriage roofs – no two of my adjacently coupled carriages have the same shade of roof grey – which tricks my eye into thinking the maroons are slightly different. Weathering, when I get around to it, will also help. Kind regards, Iain

In addition to the stove R shown a few posts above I’ve also moved on with the rebuild of a DJH 7F of (I think) 1970s vintage. I have completed the tender; its running on a Comet Coaches sub-chassis with a few additions in brass. While it looks like a standard Fowler 3500 gallon tender, I’m not sure its accurately based on any particular prototype. The sides are 2mm too short and 2mm too high in comparison to Fowler ones I can reference it to, and it’s the wrong wheelbase to be of the Deeley type that were allocated to the 7Fs in their early days. Also, the beading at the rear isn’t like any I’ve got pictures of. All that being said, I’m not fussed, I think it looks okay; sows’ ears and silk purses…. Having done the tender, although on looking at the photos I note I’ve still to add the rear side handrails, I have turned to the loco. I know some people like to start with the body and then build the chassis, I’ve always started with the chassis and worked up. I don’t have much loco building experience (no more than 12 and that’s more than 25 years ago) but have always felt if I can’t get it to run well it doesn’t really matter how good the body looks. The chassis for this loco is heavy brass strip with the crudely drilled/punched axle holes; but they do seem to be properly spaced and in line. Frame spacers fitted were the old screwed, turned spacer type. I temporarily fitted bearings and marked the edge of the wheel flanges with a scriber. This is so I can work out where to drill holes for the brake gear and other chassis fittings. I don’t like the screw type frame spacers, so my current thought is to cut some slots in the frame to accomodate some EM frame spacers from an Alan Gibson 7F kit (filed down to OO), then assemble the frames and line everything up with the original spacers, solder in the AG ones and then remove of the originals. The slot cut in the frames above, is where the motion support bracket was fitted to this model, but the slot is 2mm too close to the cylinders. When I hand rotated the chassis (before stripping it down) the crosshead contacted the motion support bracket, further confirming that the original builder never got the model to run. For the pony truck I’ll use a Comet Coaches one and fit it with brake gear from the AG kit. Trying to figure all these things out is one of my favourite parts of model making, I’m in no rush with this loco, nothing will be cut or soldered until I’m pretty sure it’ll work. But even then I have no doubt I will likely run into other problems that, with a bit more thought, could have been predicted and overcome….but what would be the fun in that! Kind regards, Iain

Thanks! I don't have much of a soldering philosophy, I use the smallest bit a job will allow and the least amount of solder I can get away with on the bit. I learned the basics from reading Ian Rice's Etched Loco Construction in the early 90s. For soldering brass with 145 or 188 degree solder I have three bits: small (~1.2mm tip), medium (~2mm tip) (rarely used) and big (~3mm tip). On the Stove R I used the small bit for the hinges, drop lights, door stops, body fixing nuts and brake gear. I used the big bit for joining the sides to the ends, doing the solebars and the headstocks. I have a cheap Chinese soldering iron station with a temperature control, but what the digital display displays is probably not accurate - I generally have it set on 365 degrees for brass work, occasionally going a little higher, and 200 degrees (its lowest displayed setting) for whitemetal. I don't think the accuracy of 'my setting' is that important, I think it's all kind of relative, it's more a case of knowing the iron and making small changes to the temperature as each task is slightly different - it depends how much the brass sucks the heat away from the tip. To some that may seem somewhat rudimentary and agricultural and I'm aware there are some good videos available explaining in some detail the temperatures that one should use but my method works for me. As to cleaning, I do scrub the brass with Jif and a toothbrush after most soldering sessions. On the Stove R above you can see it hasn't yet been scrubbed because my fingerprints are all over it! Sometimes I use too much solder or too much flux (the solder will flow to wherever the flux is) and it can sometimes blob or run a bit. On the top left hand hinge of the door above you can see where the solder flowed through the hole the hinge comes through and onto the body side. I carefully filed off the excess, sometimes I use a scapel blade to scrape the excess off. I have never used one of those solder wick things. I think its always easier to add a bit more solder/flux/heat than it is to take it off. I still believe I have a fair way to go with soldering, I certainly haven't mastered the art of it - I'm a shocker when it comes to trying to sweat stuff together!! I might even reach for the glue, but I wouldn't say that too loudly around here.... Kind regards, Iain

I have been progressing with a Comet Coaches LMS D1796 Stove R. It’s going together quite well, the only issue I have had is the etched openings in the tops of the fold up W irons. Each has a cut out to provide clearance for the wheel flanges but I found the openings weren’t large enough for the Hornby 14mm wheels I’m using, so it needed quite a bit of work with a needle file to enlarge them. Of course, I didn’t find this out until they were folded up and tested with the wheels in, so had to take care not to damage or bend the etchings! There are a few threads on building these vehicles on RMWeb and I did a little looking but couldn’t see if others had experienced a similar issue. That said, it could just be me or the wheels I’m using. I’ll consult those threads further as I progress, one has some good images of the underside detail. Otherwise, all the bits for the chassis were easy to assemble. I haven’t yet bent over the wire to secure the centre axle or secured the wheel sets; I’ll do that towards the end of the build. I chose to just use wire between the brake shoes rather than fabricate yokes as I figured by the time the underside is complete with things like brake safety loops and so on, and then dirtied, they probably wouldn’t be seen. And with the body soldered up and secured (just with the provided screws) to the underframe. It’s a while since I built a carriage (about 3 months) and I had forgotten what a faff and bore it is soldering in door hinges and door stops! It now needs a bit of a clean before the next stage. I’ll make the roof detachable so will solder some sort of spacer/reinforcing plate midway along, between the eaves, through which a nut and bolt to the roof can be secured. Kind regards, Iain

I use a Nikon Coolscan 5 for my slides / negative strips. The software it came with no longer works with current Windows or Mac OS; I use Vuescan (paid for, once, which gives a perpetual licence) to operate it. It has an adaptor that does 35mm negative strips, in batches of six, and a slide adaptor for single scans. The quality is about as good as you can get for a top end (considered by most) amateur scanner. I scan everything at 4000dpi and maximum scan area, I used the lowest in built cleaning setting. The images scan at about 70Mb as a TIFF, tidied up and cropped they’re about 60Mb - I think a lot of the scan data is noise as a comparable sized image from a digital SLR is about half the file size 1000+ slides or negatives will take a long time, particularly if you set everything to maximum scan quality etc, and then of course there’s the processing of the scans…. Kind regards, Iain

That's nice, but I'm not sure its 'right' for a UK based layout. As far as I know/remember, EOD / IEDD is done by the Royal Logistic Corps and Royal Engineers, only London has a police bomb disposal unit. Kind regards, Iain

It seems a little quiet around here at the moment, so I thought I'd take the liberty of filling the silence! A week or two back I showed the start on a couple of Slater’s MR cattle wagons that I bought from the marketplace on RMWeb; I can’t remember who the seller was, or if they read this thread, sorry. I’ve done one in MR grey, circa 1921, for a small S&D based project I have in mind. It’s quite clean – there is a picture of this wagon on the internet in immaculate condition, probably newly in service. At some point, I will weather this one a bit and add some limewash streaks. The other is done in LMS bauxite and representing the early 1950s with a bit more weathering and generally more tired looking. Both have Gibson sprung buffers and Roxey screw couplings. Wagons seem to be my thing at the moment and doing the last few builds caused me to dig through some long unopened boxes of stock I made (and packed away) in the early 1990s. They’re all Parkside Dundas, bought from Harburn Hobbies in Edinburgh; my recollection was that they were poorly made, but to be honest, I don't think they are that bad! But I thought over the next few months I'll see if I can pick them off one or two at a time and refurbish and improve them. All the box vans are different types and I’ll go back a few pages on this thread and see if I can work out what I have from those discussions. And in the bottom of the box there were two part built LMS 3 plank opens and a complete one. I’ll probably do one LMS fitted, one LMS unfitted and a BR build fitted and 'load' one with a container and another with the proverbial piece of farm machinery! And I’ve also made inroads into preparing a Comet Coaches Stove R and a BR Mk 1 Restaurant Unclassified for building, so plenty to keep me occupied for a while. Kind regards, Iain

Towards the end of last year, I started rebuilding a heavily damaged DJH 7F that I bought from eBay in 2013. On stripping the whole thing down – it was glued together – I wondered if it had ever actually run; I think not as there were no pickups to the loco’s motor (a Portescap) nor did it look as though any had ever been fitted. But the tender has ‘run’ because there are significant wheel wear marks on the whitemetal on the inside of the chassis. I decided to start rebuilding the tender so put together a Comet tender chassis and fit that. The chassis as supplied needed shortening by quite a few mm at each end to fit the whitemetal body. I had to relocate the guard irons (twice!), first as part of the shortening of the frames and then again to allow the fitting of the removable brake gear. At the moment the original wheels are being re-used but I think I’ll replace them with Gibson’s. I made up a set of tender pick-ups, although I’m not sure if they’ll be required on an eight coupled loco but at least they’re done if the need arises. There’s not a lot of room between the frames and I removed quite a lot of whitemetal from the inside of the tender to avoid electrical shorts and allow the wheels some lateral movement. Also the front fixing for the sub chassis is raised to allow the pickups to have clearance below. I need to think have a think about the coupling method to the loco and how I’m going to finish off the front end. I have to file a new rear coal plate from brass strip, fit a tool box and water filler. I filled the two (massively oversize) holes for the brake handle and water scoop (not needed) on the footplate with some solder and whitemetal off cuts and smoothed off the excess. I will use a bit more filler around the old handrail holes and along the back of the tender to tidy things up. Brass steps will replace the original whitemetal ones - the drag beam will likely be brass to help secure the front ones. So far, a very enjoyable few hours of modelling over the last couple of weeks. Kind regards, Iain

That’s a pretty comprehensive summary from that time; I visited / worked there quite a few times between late 1995 and early 1997. I don’t recall much being transported by rail at that time, all our stock for disposal was delivered by road. We would destroy munitions on the sand flats off Foulness Island when the tide was out. The tide never seemed to be fully out – there was always a thin covering of water so it was very difficult to see the holes left by the exploded munitions, which quickly filled with water, so we would mark the holes with big wooden crosses (like a WW2 beach obstacle) and hope we would be able to see the hole, and where it was in relation to the marker, next time we went on the sands. More than one person fell in hole! Working there between Nov and Feb with the wind blowing off the North Sea was bitterly cold. I remember the rail yard ‘behind the wire’ and seeing a variety of wagons (never a loco), and now regret that I had plenty of opportunity to take photos, only didn’t. I did take this though: Its from the top of the beach near where we used to stay, on what was the old barracks – our accommodation was usually the building next to the beach at the end of Chapel Road. Sorry, like daveyb’s post above – probably not much use other than a nice trip down memory lane for me!

Thank you for that, and the information about this type of wagon, I do admit my knowledge gap of wagons is vast. There was no history of the wagon with the kit instructions although it did say (paraphrased) it could make a 10T or 12T example, depending on the axle diameter. So now knowing a bit more, I’m less inclined to ‘lose’ it in an engineering or departmental train. I’m now more inclined to either paint it in PO livery of one of the Somerset Coalfield collieries circa 1920 (I’ll do a bit of research) or as a tired PO wagon circa 1950ish. Kind regards, Iain

The build of my WSM 7 plank PO wagon is complete. It wasn’t hard but it was certainly awkward. The main brass is 20 thou thick and the part etched lines for the folds needed some heavy filing to open them up or the bends, when made, would never have been 90 degrees. Also, for the soldering everything needed to be done with the biggest bit I have, with the iron at max temperature, this of course meant that some bits became unsoldered as I tried to add other bits… The only glued on bits are the axle boxes. The brass got so dirty – it literally tarnished before my eyes! Rather than just solder the chassis side frames to the underside of the body, I decided to solder an offcut of brass between the chassis sides so I could get the axles all square and free running first, then I tack soldered the whole chassis to the underside of the floor. I have no idea why a hole is etched through the drop side door – I’m aware when some wagons were re-purposed, holes were cut in the sides to prevent over filling with dense materials. I don’t think that’s the case here. Additionally, to my eye the proportions look wrong; it looks too short for its height (it's 64mm/16ft over the headstocks), other open wagons I have equal about 17ft/17ft 6in. It’ll be finished in grey, with 3 link couplings, and added to my engineer’s train. And it needs some door banger stop things. Did I enjoy the build? No, not really. Would I buy/do another one? No….never…! Kind regards, Iain

My second hobby is landscape/seascape photography - Third hobby is kayaking - (Apologies for the wonky horizon (but I wasn't the photographer, mind you, with it being me in the kayak, you probably worked that bit out...!)) Plus travelling as a hobby, which is a bit curtailed at the moment. Kind regards, Iain

A few weeks back I started building some Peco Parkside container wagons; they are now finished. They were a straightforward build, I have only added brake safety loops, Gibson sprung buffers, Roxey screw couplings and my own concocted container fasteners. These comprise Roxey shackles and hooks, some cheap chain and dampers made from brass tube. They’re a bit overscale but I think they look okay. From L-R: Conflat A with BD Container, LNER Conflat S with DX Container and Conflat A with FM Container. The Conflat S has no room under the floor for weight so I wrapped some lead sheet (40g) in tinfoil, painted it a gungy dark green to represent a tarpaulin and stuck it in the bottom of the container and then, over that, fabricated some thin strips of plastic card in a mesh shape to look like some wooden formwork. The container lettering transfers provided with the BD kit are white, I'm not sure they should be - all other lettering on containers I've seen in colour images suggests yellow. They have been reasonably heavily weathered and dirtied using dry brushed acrylic and washes of Citadel Nuln Oil and Agrax Earthshade. I seem to get on better with these washes than some of the others I have. I also started these two Slaters MR cattle wagons, bought here on RMWeb a few months or more back. I have decided to vary them slightly, the RH one with internal rails will be finished in MR colours and numbering and brake gear on one side only. The LH one will be BR bauxite with externally attached rails and brake gear on both sides. Both have Hornby 8 spoke wheels and will have Gibson sprung buffers and screw couplings fitted. And I dug out this ancient WSM etched brass 7 plank PO wagon which I bought off eBay, still sealed in the box, a while back. I’ll also look to put it together in the near future. Not sure about using the wheels though. Kind regards, Iain

Thanks! Yours is coming together well. I think your 'tare' is closer to right. I always thought mine was wrong, but 6-7 is what the drawing on the instruction shows. Kind regards, Iain

The Ratio wagon has a multitude of faults. Some easy to correct, others less so. With what I have learned since completing mine (off RMweb) – its about 8mm too short and 3mm too wide! The bogies while based on a prototype are far from accurate. For the bolsters I glued them (complete) to the sides then chopped off the plastic stanchion and carefully drilled out the sockets and inserted .5mm brass wire. I could and should have made some sort of shackle representation. I carved off the side loops and bent some brass .5mm wire into a loop, drilled the holes in the side, threaded on a chain loop and secured it with a spot of glue behind the frame/solebar. I discarded the plastic truss rods and used .5mm brass for the rods and .8mm tube for the queen posts. There's about 80gm of, cut to size, lead sheet on the underside for weight. The floor didn't line up so the gap is covered with a shim of plastic card. Buffers are from Lanarkshire Model Supplies. Wheels by Hornby. Some chopped up matchstick to represent old dunnage and a couple of Roxey shackles. I will add some chain when I get it. Home produced transfers - I guessed the design and location from internet searches and looking at RTR wagons. If doing another one – highly unlikely – I would try and correct the length and width issues and use the Wizard stanchions. All that said, I’m happy with mine, I think it looks okay. Kind regards, Iain

A few days ago I started building three Peco/Parkside container wagons – the current discussion on wagons was the kick I needed to get going again with them. I had, many months ago, started the preparation – filing off the flash, drilling holes etc – but I got distracted. There was also some good inspiration on RMweb (a thread on Conflats from 2013 – sorry, don’t know how to make a link) much of the imagery by jweallans, and his pages on The LNER Encyclopedia website. On mine, the bulk of the work is done: L-R, a Conflat A with FM container, Conflat A with BD container and a Conflat S with DX container. I will add weight to the containers as opposed to the wagon undersides. The DX container will likely be sheeted as I’m unsure what load could easily / successfully hide the lead weight that I’ll use. There’s nothing particularly special or noteworthy about them. I do like to carve off much of the brake shoe moulded detail and replace it with brass, such as the Bill Bedford brake safety loops and I like to put in the various brake rods and levers. On the Conflat S there will also be safety loops on the brake shoe cross shafts. I have added loops to the containers corners and wagons bases for the securing chains. I have made up vacuum pipes, screw couplings and I’ll fit Gibson sprung buffers once painted The securing chains are based on Roxey shackles and hooks. These are them being made up. The shock/spring absorber (I’m assuming that’s what it is) is made from 1.5mm OD tube with wire loops from soft brass wire (untwisted picture hanging wire) to secure the hook and shackle, all carefully soldered. They’re a bit overscale but they’ll do. I had no chain and am waiting on the arrival of some cheap super fine stuff from the far east to finish them off. Kind regards, Iain

I saw the cut red(ish) wagons, the red on the work surface and the saw.... and for a moment, I thought you'd had a terrible accident...! Kind regards, Iain

I thought it would have been inappropriate to interrupt Tony’s 12 month review of his contribution to this thread with my somewhat less impressive efforts!…that said, I’m happy with what I’ve been able to accomplish over the last year. Overall, I have managed to complete about 10 carriages, seven wagons, a couple of road vehicles, a few motor/gearbox combinations and the strip down, and start to put back together, of a heavily damaged DJH S&DJR 2-8-0. First up I built this 45ft Caledonian Railway Full Brake as a departmental vehicle – a bit of a stretch given the originals were withdrawn in the 1930s, but similar vehicles were converted – another example of realistically similar modelling rather than factually correct? The body work is Worsley Works and the bogies are Fox type, from Roxey Mouldings. I think the roof vents are wrong and should be where gas lamps would have been positioned and I believe there should be some skylights, similar to LNWR vehicles. To go with it, I cut down and modified a Ratio Midland Railway Clerestory Brake Third to a 6 wheel 31ft MR carriage. The underframe / step boards are from brass offcuts and scrap, the W irons by Bill Bedford, wheels are Hornby. These two carriages will form part of a breakdown train. I've since learned that the running numbers are at the wrong end! I did two LMS D2161 Brake Third Corridor (Porthole) carriages. They’re both recycled 1980s Hornby Stanier models with just about everything replaced other than the roof/main shell and chassis (with replacement vents, Comet sides, scratchbuilt underframe with Comet components, Comet bogies, etc). I think they look okay. To go in the same formation, an LMS D2159 Corridor Composite (built on a former Airfix RTR donor) and an LMS D2119 Third Corridor (on Hornby, as above). An LMS D2162 First Corridor (Porthole) was next – full firsts were rare on the Somerset and Dorset. The only CWN I have found with one listed is in Winter 61/62 Pines Express service (thank you to Robert Carroll’s website) and that’s a BR Mk1. But that’s not to say an LMS one couldn’t have worked the line – there is a photo in Ivo Peters’ The Somerset & Dorset in the Fifties Vol 2 (plate 231) of a former LNER Full First in crimson and cream as the second carriage in the 11.40am (SO) Bournemouth – Derby on 22 August 1959. And an LMS D1807 Third Open (from a BSL/Phoenix kit) was completed to go with the Restaurant First shown a few pages back. This was a cheap eBay purchase – it was cheap because it was only the floor pan, sides, ends and roof. I further purchased Comet bogies and scratch built the underframe with Comet components and scratch built the interior from plastic card. I also built a Roxey Mouldings GWR A2-3 ‘Clifton Downs’ Trailer. Other than the roofs, I find Roxey kits quite exquisite and a pleasure to build. I built this George Norton Johnson 3500 tender to replace the original Triang one that came with this MR 3F (the loco was ‘upgraded’ to a Comet chassis and detailed/chopped about many years ago). I think it works quite well with the loco – the tender vents have to go though as this loco’s tender (or at least not in the images I have) didn’t have these. And I civilianised these vehicles from an Airfix RAF Recovery Set. A Thorneycroft Amazon chassis with Coles Mk7 crane and Bedford OX tractor, that I extended the chassis on and built a tray deck for. Bringing this post back around to wagons, the crane will be used to 'lift' containers off wagons at the Midsomer Norton goods yard as the crane (in the goods shed) wouldn't have been able to. Happy New Year to one and all, please take care and stay safe. Kind regards, Iain

I have found quite a few of the previous posts on ratios of different railway company stock being prevalent in a particular part of the country quite interesting – certainly not something I have spent much time considering previously. I showed the wagons I completed this year a few pages back - a very generic bunch of stock. I like doing wagons as background projects and time fillers with many of the individual tasks not taking very long at all - I can often break up building them into 10 or 15 minutes chunks of time. On the clutter of my work bench today there are three more wagons under construction: two BR ‘Conflat As’ and an LNER ‘Conflat S’. Don Rowland, in British Railway Wagons (p136), states ‘there was one container wagon for every fifteen wagons in 1967 compared with one for every sixty-five wagons twenty years previously’. If I think about this in proportion to what I might end up with as stock on my future layout and its intended timeline, I don’t think I’ll be building anymore conflats, as much as I like them! Probably need lots more mineral opens and box vans though. Kind regards, Iain

Thanks! Yes, you’re right about the marshalling - I just haven’t made the coupling for the Third Open yet. Kind regards, Iain

Thanks very much Chas!

I’m aware my knowledge and understanding of goods wagons on the railways is poor and was previously limited to cheaply bought or inherited 1970s RTR offerings, mostly Hornby or Lima. Over the last few years I’ve been buying new but ‘old stock’ unmade wagon kits from a variety of manufacturers (often through eBay or trawling model shops on my return visits to the UK) to better represent goods services for my ‘one day’ layout. The purchasing of kits has been supplemented by some good literature – I have the first three volumes of David Larkin’s The Acquired Wagons of British Railways and Don Rowland’s British Railways Wagons and Twilight of the Goods and Mike King’s (and others) An Illustrated History of Southern Wagons Vol 1. A few more will likely be sought out and added to my library. In the last year I have started to build some of the pile of kits and below are a selection. A Ratio GWR Bogie Bolster A, I think this model is based on a Taff Vale wagon but has numerous (significant) inaccuracies. I don’t really mind, it is what is, I have replaced the plastic trussing with brass wire, replaced the wheels and buffers with metal offerings and some of the moulded plastic detail has been shaved off and replaced with metal loops. Transfers are home produced and it has some weathering applied. I think it looks okay. Here are three Ratio box wagons representing Southern vans. They’re built as per the kits less screw or 3 link couplings, sprung buffers and added brake rodding. I’ve tried to represent some original differences such as the banding on the roofs and all the greys/browns and blacks used are slightly different to provide a break from the monotony of sameness. And another three, although the one in the middle is a modified Dapol 5 plank wagon which I think is similar to a GW original or it might be a LMS one or even a LNER one…who knows? I acknowledge I have a lot to learn but I’m content with what I’m achieving; I’ll do more through the next year. Kind regards, Iain