Sandman

Department stock on railways always throws up some interesting wagons that are modified for a specific duty. This particular wagon is a HD loco sand wagon based on the Tommy Bent I wagon. These particular I wagons were converted from Tommys to IC Tippler wagons by removing the side doors and welding a sheet of steel in place. They were converted to sand wagons by adding a hopper and discharge pipes.

The wagon has been made up using a Steam Era Models Tommy Bent I wagon and a VR Casts conversion kit which includes new sides and the hopper. Probably one of the easiest kit bashes to do with the extra bits:

While it does come with decals to suit the HD sand wagon, I decided to substitute the 'Dried Locomotive Sand Only' signage with some BGB ones from my decal box. It is likely my wagon will cover more mileage than the prototype which didn't travel often.