Ruabon Brook: layout stock...

This pair of wagons are re-worked models from my childhood. Like the Dapol (ex Airfix) 14xx, they are a thread of a connection through my modelling life, and it's good fun breathing new purpose into these examples...

The Bachmann Conflat is a circa 1994 model, bought as one of a pair (the other will be also worked over at some point). The moulding is Mainline I believe, and the chassis is a little chunky in places. The worst thing was the massive mounting pads for the tension lock couplings - these were sawn off and the couplings replaced with instanter couplings from Smiths, fitted into a slot cut into the buffer beam once the body was removed. It has also had the buffer heads smoothed and thinned, and mould lines removed before the chassis has been repainted, and the body lightly weathered, I'm particularly happy with the deck at this stage, although more work is planned when I fit a load.

The second wagon is older, a circa 1978 model that started life as GW example, before I repainted it in bauxite during my early teens. The chassis moulding is a lot finer than the Mainline example, and this has been re-wheeled, buffers just thinned and 3 link Smiths couplings fitted. I have based it on an example in the Foxline book of the Bala to Blanau Ffestiniog book, which shows a similar (although different diagram) wagon at Bala for loco coal. Ficticious numbering, but it looks the part, and weathered to match the example in the book. My plan is to fit a coal load before the chassis is weathered a touch further.

This pair of old models show that your old stock needn't be relegated to the bottom of the stock drawer - and with some careful work can be brought up to a reasonable standard, certainly good enough for a layout. If you'd like me to do the same for your own models, then please do get in touch. For now, a rake of Parkside stock and a gaggle of Panniers are calling for my attention. More soon...