Another ‘spoilt’ Rapido OAA: Redland conversion in N…
They come in threes and this is the second. First a coal conversion and now roof tiles, and the beginning of an appreciation of this humble air braked open wagon… It was a regular blog reader, Alex, who suggested the prototype! I had only loosely been aware of the wagon, just 5 were converted like this for Redland traffic in the Speedlink network, RailExpress and Paul Bartlett have a little prototype information if you’re interested. Spotting differences include the side ratchet winches (scratchbuilt in styrene, I must be mad) below the doors (and a hole for the straps I’ve not been able to recreate) and the taller extended ends (which I have). The Rapido wagon was given a bath of IPA which removed the markings and grey paint but wouldn’t touch the red! Rather than wrestle with this or damage the moulding I left it - and went on to carve slots in each side door for the ratchets. These are two slivers of styrene rod of different thicknesses - and there are twenty in total! The ends a...
