AOWY Open Wagons

 

Ever since seeing a photo of a AOWY loaded with 20ft shipping containers in the consist of an interstate goods I have wanted to add a few to the wagon fleet. 

Built during the 1940's and 1950's the AOWY open wagon had steel underframes and pressed steel ends. The sides consisted of four wooden doors, 5 planks high. The posts between the doors are removable. The steel door fittings have a raised edge and steel stops are fitted to the side of the frame. There are two different styles of centresill, solid or open. In 1982 there were still 95 AOWY wagons in service.    

The wagons have been scratchbuilt out of styrene sheet and shapes. 20 thou v groove (glued back to back) for the sides with 40 thou v groove for the floor.

Channel (262) has been used for the bracing between the side doors. Styrene sheet with rivets has been cut and used for the side reinforcing.  Plan and photos are from AMRM (Feb 85). 

I made the door stops out of left over brass etching from Steam Era Model's kits. I've used Orient Express roller bearing bogies obtained at their stand at Sandown Exhibition.

The wagons had steel end with pressings at angles for rigidity. The steel ends and pressings were produced by ruling three parallel lines on a 40 thou sheet of styrene,

A file was then used to file the sheet on a angle back to the first line. The sheet was then scribed on the third line to produce a strip with one tampered side. The other side was filed to the same angle as the first. The strip was then cut to length and the ends filled to a angle. The strips were then glued to the ends. 

I applied the two different styles of SAR shunters steps. These were cut from brass.

The grey AOWY's are AOWY 31 which had one door replaced with a plain sheet, and AOWY 92Y, which in the AMRM article had a photo of it within Ballarat yard in March 1983. The other two will be painted in Australian National green and gold. When I went to apply the decals I realised that I didn't have any of the S boards. I'll wait until I get these before weathering the wagons.

With the Victorian Railways experiencing a shortage of container wagons, AOWY31 has immediately been put into revenue service being included in the consist of Melbourne - Adelaide Express Goods loaded with shipping containers.

C507 and S305 haul a Melbourne- Adelaide Express Goods through Ballarat with a AOWY loaded with shipping containers in the consist.