The Ale Van Cometh

For some reason I've found an impetus to get going on some wagon projects that have long been in gestation.

Firstly, we have the aforementioned Ale Van - in this case a van seen in Don Rowland's book 'British Railways Wagons' which is a BR Meat van converted for Ale traffic by replacing the side vents with plain planks.

I of course like my beer so I thought it'd be nice to have one -

Many years ago I did model this in N Gauge using a Parkwood Kit and a PECO chassis, that though was sold long ago when Bachmann brought out their 12t BR vans, so a replacement using the Association kit has long been on the cards.

Sticking with the BR fitted theme is a 5-plank fitted High, this from a combination of a Parkwood kit and an association chassis -

 
It's worth noting that the bodies may appear a tad skew-whiff as they're not glued on yet. So the final 'unpainted' one is this plate wagon, based on a PECO body with an association chassis...

One of the other projects is a series of coal wagons using the 12 foot chassis suitable for Parkside kits, such as this where I replaced an old Parkside chassis with the association chassis - the reason being to both improve the running and the looks -

Now these are ready for the paint shop, there's more coming up, including a  Vanwide based on a combination of Parkwood and Association kit parts and more mineral wagons on the 12ft chassis and then some locos to finish off. So enough to keep me occupied for now.

April will see two Pennine Area Group meetings, the first one on the 9th, the second later in the month, possibly on the 30th.