Done for now.

Couplings and buffers on, I'm going to stop work on the wooden ballast wagon at this point. I could give it a coat of paint, but that would hide the lovely wooden body and you'd not be able to tell it from a plastic kit model.

One day, when I have a layout for the model to run on, I'll finish the job, but for now, I like it how it is. Am I the only one who likes looking at a well-built brass model without paint?

It might seem silly to have splurged cash on saving a £1 refuge from a second-hand stall, but I've terrific satisfaction from doing it, which is the point of the hobby I suppose.

Now, what do do with the leftover van body. One for another day...

Wooden wagon brakes

One of the benefits of working in any particular scale for a while is you build up a stock of bits and pieces that come in handy for future projects. I remember my early 3mm scale days when projects would stall for lack of supplies and how frustrating this was.

O gauge is better for me. Rootling around in a drawer, I found some nearly right brake gear that could be modified to do the job. It's mostly Slater's bits I think with a cross shaft made from scrap tube. This has to be cut in half for the wobbly solebar compensation to work.

The W-Irons are bigger than they should be for this wagon, which throws the angles of the push rods off a bit. This is going to be a "layout wagon" I'm afraid, but to be fair, that's the sort of thing I can use.

Wobbly solebar

Here's a novel feature. When I looked closely at the solebars of this wooden model, the top edge of one wasn't flat and there is a bolt set into the face, sticking out the back.

A little bit of thinking and I recalled reading an old magazine where the idea of a rocking solebar was suggested as a way of compensating the chassis. It doesn't move much, only a millimetre at the extreme ends, but enough to deal with track irregularities.

The builder obviously had second thoughts as there were a set of rocking W-iron cradles in the box. That seems no fun, so I messed around with some brass bits to make a pivot point and found a suitable sized nut.

With the whitemetal axleboxes from the old banana van fitted (they are a bit long for a ballast wagon, but I'm not buying more), the wagon sits nicely flat and it runs well.

There is still a mystery - what were the bits of wood with a brass rod running between them intended to do?

Wooden wagon rescue

Show me a box on a second-hand stall containing a 7mm scale wagon priced at a pound, and it's probably coming home with me.

That's especially true when the wagon is a beautifully scratch-built model made of wood. Someone has expendended a terrific amount of time and skill on this model. Presumably, they have then died and when the stash of models was cleared, this one ended up in a little cardboard box among a load of other stuff. People were so interested, it was still there on Sunday at a busy show.

I'm a sucker for this sort of thing and feel I have to rescue the model. I can't see all that effort thrown away.

What you see though, is what I got for my quid. I needed more parts to finish the project. 

Walking around the show, I managed to buy some wheels and buffers, but axleboxes eluded me. Not to worry, the second-hand stall also featured some tatty stock and for 4 quid, I bagged a banana van with one set of wheels and a dented roof.

Total cost - £30. To save a £1 model. You probably think I'm mad.