All I got for Christmas was a lump of coal.....

....not quite. At the local model railway club Christmas break-up a couple of weeks ago I won a wagon kit in a swindle. The wagon is a AMRI Models NSWGR CHS Coal Hopper (for more details on the prototype see here ). While I don't currently model any NSW stock, I decided I will build this model now and decide later if I will paint it as a NSW wagon or paint it in VR wagon red to look a little like the JQX/JQF quarry wagon. If I do the later I could pass it off as a prototype coal wagon that the VR trialed for local coal traffic, such is the beauty of modeller's license!

Anyway here is where the model is currently. The bogie bolster's need to be moved inwards towards the centre of the wagon a bit as the outer wheels currently run the risk of fouling the shunter's steps when they are fitted:

An unusual item of rollingstock for my fleet. But there is always room for the unusual in a mixed freight train.