This kit (Slaters LMS 7 Plank Loco Coal Wagon) was another of my swaps with a gent at Telford. It was one of the older kits in the grey narrow boxes and when I got it home and had a look the brass etches were missing (compensated W Irons/brake levers etc.) By pure chance a meet up with Graham Beare (of this and other parishes) on the Saturday evening saw me presented with an Exactoscale underframe to try under some cattle wagons that I am building (very slowly). It wasn’t suitable for the cattle wagons it being either too deep or not deep enough, I can’t remember now. Graham being the kind soul that he is told me to keep it anyway in case it came in for something else and it did immediately.
Having rather enjoyed the bit’s of details that I added to the brake van I decided to attempt to add the interior details that Slaters don’t include in the the kits. There is only one photo of these wagons in the Essery’s LMS Wagons volume 1 which is photographed at the end of it’s life when condemned. That said the text does refer the reader to wagons of similar diagrams which looked the same externally. One of these is a photo of a wagon involved in an accident which by good fortune gives a view of the strapping inside.
I started by using an Olfa compass cutter to measure and mark out where the planking lines were on the inside. Once marked these were deepened using an Olfa cutter to cut the grooves proper.
Then a few happy hours were spent cutting and drilling various strips of plastikard and gluing them to the wagon sides and ends before assembly. Once they were glued to the insides I drilled through into the wagon side and then inserted short lengths of plastic rod and allowed them to dry thoroughly before sanding them back to stubs.
Flushed with the success of this I then decided to add the steel strip around the top of the wagon using a similar technique but on the top I cut the plastic rod of flush to give the impression of a countersunk screw. To this I then added the capping retaining clips seen on wagons – I again once glued in place I drilled the wagon sides and inserted short lengths of plastic rod before finally assembling the sides and ends.
