AQBY flat wagon

The Australian National AQBY were a short flat wagon built on recycled underframes from cattle and sheep wagons. They had container anchors but retained stanchions so could be used for both general flat wagon loads as well as shipping containers. The container anchors were offset allowing the deck to be used to load the shipping container with a forklift.  There were both steel and timber decked wagons. 

I decided to model one of the wagons with a steel deck (I think all of the timber deck wagons had been withdrawn by the 1980's) . The wagon was built on the underframe of an old caboose found in the junk box with styrene sheet used for the deck and the side sills. T angle was used for the stanchions with scraps of styrene sheet for support brackets. 

I note sure how many ABQY's were still around in 1983-84. In the December 1984 issue of Newsrail, I did find reference to one being included in the consist of Pittong goods to behind T413 (see photo by Frank Strik). On the layout it will alternate between running in the consist of interstate goods, kaolin traffic from Pittong on the Skipton line and car parts traffic from Bendix Mintex at Redan.

I've modelled this with the stanchions up so when its not carrying a shipping container it can be loaded with pipes or a load of steel rods. The one yellow bogie is just to add some variety to the wagon fleet. The Green and Gold AQBY was completed a few years ago.