Tinkering with wagons

WAGON projects have been piling up in the studio recently including the need to replace buffers on Hornby ‘Rudd’ ballast wagons; solving a minor derailment problem with the Olivia’s Trains TEA cryogenic tank wagons and converting the new Dapol ‘Turbot’ to ‘EM’ gauge.

Each one takes anything from 10 minutes to an hour to complete, so they are lined up on the work bench ready for an evening of fiddling around with wheels, bearings and buffers. Before making a start, the workbench is cleaned and a fresh piece of wall lining paper placed on it with tools and a cutting mat, providing a clean working area.

‘EM’ conversions

Two new wagons arrived for use on my ‘EM’ gauge layout recently, both of which needing more attention than a simple wheel swap.

Converting ready to run wagons to ‘EM’ and ‘P4’ (referred to as ‘closer to scale’) is not always as straightforward as one would have the