Containing the rice

In my goods rollingstock fleet I have wagon to carry general goods in vans or open wagons, cattle wagons to cart livestock, special vans to carry explosives and of course somewhere for the guard to ride in comfort at the rear of the train. What is missing is a container train. This is the way goods have been carted on trains for the last 50 years, starting with the small LCL (Less than Container Load) type...er...containers that could be loaded on flat wagons fitted with container locks. Later on the 20ft container became the standard for most goods on trains.

To fill this void, I've decided it would be nice to have a container train of about 10-15 wagons. Once again Steam Era Models provide an excellent kit to build a VR container train. The FQX/VQCX container flat wagon is capable of being loaded with up to 3 20ft containers depending on how you position the container locks on the deck. It is even possible to set it up to take a 40ft container plus a 20ft container.

Anyway enough wafting, here is the first wagon. It is currently minus container locks as I need to buy some containers to set them up correctly (most likely using Walthers containers on the first one):

This would have to be one of the easiest kits to build. The bulk of the wagon is one moulding, and only required the headstocks, sides, storage lockers and brake gear added. Much easier than the cousin of this wagon, the SFX/VFLX bulkhead wagon witch has storage troughs in the deck and requires lot of squares of styrene cut to cover the bottom of these troughs.