Variations On A Theme

The FR and WHR may be very different railways but one trait they most certainly share is that no locomotive or item of rolling stock stays the same for long, and the DZ wagons are no exception to this rule.

The wagons that arrived from South African were, it's fair to say, not in A1 condition. Volunteers spent many hours with angle grinders and paint brushes tarting them up and getting them fit to run, but at least one of them has now fallen into the clutches of Boston Lodge Works for a full overhaul.

And guess what! It doesn't look like the rest any more.

The biggest change is in the ends, which have been completely replaced with much chunkier sections which are also designed to be removable. The posts between the side doors are also different to the type of DZ I've already built in that they are of a T section rather a U section.

I felt I had little choice but to make a second design of wagon representing these alterations for use on Bron Hebog.

This meant starting again by making a new master from three individual door casts connected into one piece with the alternate post design.

Here it is mounted on styrene sheet ready to have a moulding box built up around it and buried in RTV compound.

The next step will be to make a master for the ends.