S&DJR 31ft Rail Wagon - Ray Winston Kit

This was a great experience, a complete leap into the dark. The S&DJR's one and only rail wagon. Though to be fair, the Midland had 30 almost identical ones. The kit was going cheap and the seller said there were no instructions. I thought this would be fun, trying to work it all out. And it was. So I started building with only the picture on the box to go by. The body construction is a bit odd in that the whole floor is double width and folds back on itself to get the thickness at the edges. Fortunately I have 180W stained glass window soldering iron, laminating the two together took a lot of heat. And some language. I've not seen this before and it took a while to work out how it was supposed to work. The sides and ends I worked out and the load ribs seemed like they had to go where they did. I'd just finished the wagon and in response to a forum question about buffers (none were provided) a nice bod e-mailed a set of instructions and the prototype picture above. Amazingly I'd got it all right - a bit of a relief. I fitted Hobby Holidays working leaf springs and axle guards using Slaters axle boxes. Originally, as per the photo of the wagon in brass, I fitted the spring hangars to the sole bars as is usual, but it really didn't look right. When the prototype photo arrived it was obvious that this wagon was different. The axle boxes stuck out far too much and the very limited brake gear didn't line up with the wheels. So I took it all off (that's a big plus of brass kits) and made some supports inside the sole bars and attached the springs to these. Bingo. I couldn't find transfers, only some general S&DJR general freight that didn't include 'Engineers Department'. The wagon was sold and is now trundling round a layout in the West Country.