The next train from Carmarthen to Paddington.....
Caerphilly Castle stood at the up platform of Carmarthen station waiting for the road, to return to Paddington with a rake of coaches on a special excursion.
A Triang Big Train escapee.
When acquired this was already painted in a sort of bauxite red and dirty black inside, a useful choice with its potential as an empty wagon.
I recently bought a packet of 3 tippex pens with roller tips. So excited was I to try them out that I couldn’t wait to take the first photo before adding the white diagonal stripes that denote which is the end with the opening doors for tipping out its load.
Needing to remove the large Lima style couplings, it was necessary to take off the body. This aligns with the chassis using 4 small lugs, one on each corner, and normally pops off easily. However, as is always the case, this took more effort as the body had been glued to the underframe. Fortunately, not too much glue otherwise even more cutting and prising (or other engineering techniques) would have been needed
Once the body was off, the large Lima-style couplings were removed. This was easily achieved by drilling out the hollow brass rivets. Then a small hole was then drilled centrally in each drawbar and 3 link couplings fitted.
I think a reasonable representation of a 16-ton mineral wagon results. And it makes me happy!
