Rescue.

At the Ally Pally show, I bought this Roco VTG Ferrywagon from Ellis Clark Trains, along with another wagon. I went and got a cuppa and sat down, took it out of the box and found the chassis was severely bowed. Not expecting a positive response, I took it back, but no, the gentleman I bought it from remembered me and when I showed him the problem, refunded my money without quibble. I promptly bought another item with the money, he put the van in the bin, thought for a minute and then said I might as well have it as it would only get chucked away, "see what you can do with it"!

Needless to say, I can heartily recommend Ellis Clark Trains!

I took the wagon apart after a few days, and found the problem was due to the weight, which is a casting fitted in the centre of the floor, having cracked, swollen and distorted, pulling the chassis put of shape. Mazak rot, probably.

The weight came away easily, breaking into two halves, but the chassis was still bowed. After a bit of pondering, I decided to try straightening it up under the hot tap,  using finger pressure. This worked for the central section, but the ends, which had bowed upwards, were still banana shaped.

 Another ponder, and I found a length of styrene girder about ½" high, cut it into four pieces, and welded them to the floor, using toolmakers cramps to hold the whole plot straight. I also added weight to the centre, couldn't find the lead sheet, so I used the bodies of three ceramic terminal blocks, fixed in with hot glue.

The solvent having set overnight, I removed the cramps and all was as near as dammit straight, and fitted nicely into the body.

The small pack of details, tie down points, brake wheels, etc. and a pair of Profi Couplings were fitted and the vehicle test run, all nice and smooth.

The vehicle fits the genre of the layout nicely, and also provides a comparison between UK and Continental loading gauges. Certainly worth a couple of hours or so of work to save it from the bin!

The photo above shows the difference in width and height between the UK loading gauge of the Ferrywagon and the Continental size of the Fleischmann "Railship" van, which admittedly is built to the maximum the loading gauge will permit. It's been enjoyable making something that would have been thrown away into a viable model.