From Chassis to Coal Wagon

This project was more of a 'new-build' rather than a restoration. I had an old Märklin O gauge chassis with a missing coupling, and wondered if I could create my own, unique wagon out of it, thereby respecting the age and appearance of the chassis.

Märklin logo stamped on the chassis

Initially I thought of creating a tanker wagon, using a boiler from an old steam engine. But somehow the proportions didn't match too well, so I abandoned the idea and decided to use another steam engine part instead, namely the unit which holds the fuel to heat the boiler. The fuel unit fitted perfectly, and looked at least as old as the chassis (if not older!)

The steam engine fuel unit minus the lid

I began by installing the missing coupling and new buffers which I had ordered online from a specialist in spare parts for toy trains. The chassis never had buffers to begin with, but I thought they would make it look smarter! So I drilled four holes in the chassis and installed the buffers, which actually work, like the ones on real trains.

Chassis before and after the installation of the coupling and buffers

Next step was to install the freight container on top of the chassis, which was done pretty easy. The two parts look so much alike that they seem to belong together from the start! I suppressed the idea of adding extra details to the container, because I wanted to leave its natural, 'naked' beauty intact.

So now I had a completed freight wagon, except for the look of those buffers, they were too shiny and new! Not that I thought they looked ugly or anything, but I wanted them to look as old as the wagon itself. Well, that was a quick fix too, and, after some 'weathering', the wagon looked like this:

By the way, the coal is real. Not sure if it's "clean coal" as some would call it, but it surely looks beautiful to me! See you on the next project!

"From Chassis to Coal Wagon". Date of Completion: January 2018.

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