New Feet for Old Vans 2 - the FM

 DB 

As mentioned, my classic old FM van was also sitting on clunky 40 year old fat-tyred bogies, complete with stuck on bits of bolts that represented the springs. 

These and their mounting pads were prised off revealing the unseen work of 'art-meets-engineering-meets-illusion' that makes this crusty old model. 

You may see the underframe tanks made from resistors (back in the old days that's what pre-surface-mount resistors looked like), the liberal use of balsa (side sills and roof guts) and still a fair bit of that old dark grey brittle Plastruct styrene (which was the bees knees before the white stuff came along). 

Those obvious square holes were filled with new floor pieces levelled up to the bottom of the bolster sills. A hole was drilled, and Kato Kinki bogies installed with a washer and chunky screw each. This was a much easier job than the 30 foot van.

As with the shorter van, there is a knuckle coupler on one end and a Rapido on the other for operational flexibility.

While the van was in surgery, some glue mess and scratches on the roof was painted over and the end handrails given a touch up. 

This doesn't look that impressive in these pictures, but looks fine from the recently intituted five-metre viewing distance that will be mandated for observing veteran models out of respect for the aged. 

 
At least it rolls down the track nicely now, rather than being dragged.