The good old Airfix cattle van.  When I was a kid my dad built one of these so I decided Brettell lane should probably have one too. I deleted the opening doors (it was easier to replace the top ones completely than modify what was in the kit) and detailed the underframe with Mainly Trains, Bill Bedford and Rumney models parts.

As with all Airfix kits of the time the roof was pretty clunky so that was replaced with a new one from 30thou plasticard and microstrip.

Ive no idea when this kit was first sold but even with modern eyes this looks like it was bit of a bargain!

Moving on to a more recent kit.  The Chivers model for an LMS long low thats been in my stash for a few years now.

Also from Chivers, and also from my stash, I’ve finished off another LMS twin bolster.   Chivers kits seem to have quite chunky underframe mouldings and while this isn’t noticeable on most of their kits I’ve built it was kind of more obvious on the first twin bolster I built (on the left).  Potentially the use of sprung suspension adding to the problem I felt the underframe looked too wide and the w irons were too far from the wheels, giving a kind of 00 look to the wagon.  On the new one (and the long low pictured above) I thinned the w irons to about half thickness and I’m happier now. It might very well that its only something I notice though!

A ‘historic’ photo of the Barclay tank shuffling a steel train.