With the buffer beams and solebars in place, I then moved on to fitting the W irons, these are pinned in place with rivets and glued with 2 part epoxy. Using epoxy resin for this enabled me to position the W irons while the glue set to ensure that they were at right angles to the floor. The epoxy also acts as a filler between the solebar and W irons to fill any gap that may occur if the solebars are not exactly at right angles to the floor.

Next I cleaned up the axlebox castings, drilled them out to take Slater's brass wheel bearings and assembled them. A small coil spring was then glued to the top of each axlebox using cyano adhesive. The wheels (Slater's ref. S9116) were then temporarily fitted to ensure they ran freely.

The brake gear parts provided in the kit are the same as those supplied with the open Pickering cattle wagon kit. This brake gear is common to most T&D goods wagons but not these Midland cattle wagons. However there are no detailed drawings available for the brake gear on these wagons and John opted to use the existing brake gear as it is common to most T&D wagons. Once it is painted black and the wagon is the right way up one hardly notices anyway. Looking at the only clear photo I have found showing any underframe detail for these wagons, the main differences are that the brake handle is to the left rather than the right, when viewed side on and the brake activation rod is dead centre not offset to one end and the activation rod support brackets are an inverted V shape. To give a bit of authenticity I simply reversed the brake gear layout so that the brake handle is on the left and I moved the activation rod nearer the centre of the wagon floor but not dead centre, to avoid the brake rodding fouling the vacuum cylinder.

The dummy springs were glued to the solebars and the brake assemblies were made up from the various cast metal parts. To get the brakes to line up correctly the wheels need to be temporarily put in place. Once I had the brakes correctly aligned, the parts were glued with cyano. The completed brake assemblies were then glued to the floor and 1.5mm brass rod was used to provide the linkages. The operating rod for the handbrake has to be fabricated from a piece of brass scrap.

Wagon No. 68 is completed to this stage, No. 67 has the W irons in place and I am about to carry out the underframe detailing on this one.

Things have been quiet in the workshop since the Roundhouse Millie was completed in September '12. Two small jobs were undertaken in the autumn, one was a repaint and refresh of the fisherman and his boat. The other job was making a fixed distant signal (see the Structures page).

The first project for 2013 is the construction of two Tralee and Dingle Railway, covered cattle wagons. These are John Campbell kits and were purchased in July 2011.

The kits consist of laser etched plywood for the bodywork, etched brass parts for the strapping detail and some other fittings, the remainder of the detail parts are white metal castings. The W irons for the axleguards are made from etched nickel silver.

The body sides are built up in 3 layers, two identical pieces are glued back to back to represent the planking on the inside and outside of the wagon. A third piece of ply is then applied to the outside representing the external framing of the wagon body. Both sides and both ends are assembled in this way and then they are glued together at the corners around the floor.

Once the bodies are complete the strapping and door hinges are carefully removed from the etched sheet with the help of a cutting disc in a hobby drill and are applied to the body using cyano glue. The instructions provided with the kit on a CD also include step by step photos of the construction, which is very useful. I also have a drawing of this type of wagon which provides a quick and easy reference guide to show where the various bits go.

Final detailing of the body includes the addition of the rails above the side openings (brass rod), some dummy hinges on the door fittings, I used short pieces of 1.2mm plastic rod and door handles (fabricated from a paper clip).

The instructions state that the roof should be fitted at this stage but as I want to leave the interior in its natural wood state, I feel it is easier to mask the interior prior to spray painting, if the roof is left off. I will fit the roofs once the bodywork and underframes are painted.

The next step is to glue the buffer beams and solebars to the underside of the floor. I pre-drilled the W iron fixing holes in the solebars before glueing these in place.