Little wagons

I thought it would be nice to have another van for Loctern Quay, so I was looking for a small van that looked different to the others, and preferably had some character. At the Doncaster Show I found a Dundas (ex Rodney Stenning) kit for the Corris Railway brake van. 

Now I don't need a brake van and the Corris van only had a door on one side, but the kit includes parts to have a door on both sides and to replace the windows with ventilators. I also omitted the side buffers and filled the holes, and fitted handles to the door and doorframe but not the corners of the van. 

Unusually the kit has whitemetal underframe sides, which give some useful low-down weight, though I may still add a little lead. I simply stuck them with Bostik, but added strips of plastic behind their ends to ensure they stay in place. The wheels are the new type supplied by Dundas, which having the correct back-to-back spacing and no separate tyres to come loose are an improvement on the previous wheels, but are solid disc rather than spoked. The holes in the floor are to allow solvent fumes to escape after fitting the roof. 

Both the floor and the roof are pieces of plasticard needing cutting to size, although the roof is pre-curved. This does mean a little extra work and care compared to a more modern kit, although the mouldings are clean and the parts fit together well making it a nice kit to build. I added microstrip to the tops of the sides as shown for the roof to glue to, to help prevent the roof being pulled down against the side here. 

I've also built a couple more of the 009 Society kits, another flat wagon and a steel sided wagon. I'll have to think of different/interesting loads for these. 

The little Corris-style van is a good size match for these small wagons. Next, the paint shop.