It must have been 1968 when I made this hybrid bogie tool/mess/brake van. It is still used on the breakdown train and includes plywood box van sides and part of Liliput styrene carriage sides. Some of the detail cannot bear close scrutiny anymore, but it has character and I won't withdraw it from the line. All that has been changed from the early days is the bogies, which I think are Lima specimens. At least they have good couplings fitted on them. Where the prototype is to be found I cannot be sure, but the rolling stock foreman claims I rustled it up in Timbuctoo.

Left: another very old works vehicle is the ash wagon, no. 12. This is an original Egger low-sided open, put on a Minitrix chassis with extended couplings. Many years ago I filled it with plaster which was subsequently finished in a grey grainy surface. It does the rounds between Rae Bridge, Inverlochan and Dunalistair to collect the ash from the ash pits. Recently it was fitted with better brake gear and safety chains, and weathered. To the right is the newest works vehicle, the weedkiller wagon no. 82. This has a tank from the same Heljan Mack truck that yielded the cab for the 'Ant' runabout vehicle. The three taps of the tank are just outside one of the buffer beams. All are connected together so the operator can open and close them from the side of the vehicle without being splashed by the liquid. It was fitted on an Arnold chassis, detailed with handrails, brake gear and safety chains, and lettered with a computer print before being weathered.

No. 14 on the left is easily the shortest wheelbase vehicle in C&DR service. This is the mobile tar tank, complete with heater, stovepipe and a bucket of coal. It was built at sea back in 1974, using a card box on an Egger tipper truck chassis, and was never changed since. The stovepipe is rather overscale and made of a brass ballpoint filling. Next to no. 14 is the maintenance crane and its idler wagon. The crane was originally built, like the tar tank, at sea in 1974, and later reconstructed on a new chassis. The model is loosely based on the steam engine of the last steam-operated pile driver I saw in action in this country, about 1971. Interesting was that the pile driver used a narrow gauge railway to transport the concrete piles from the unloading point to the pile driving rig. The main difference to a pile driver engine is that the crane has a low post and swivelling derrick attached to the boiler. 40 years on, I notice the model still lacks support arms to be swung out when a job is to be done! Perhaps then we can increase the safe working load to something more useful than the single 1 ton it has now... The idler wagon is a much shortened Tri-ang TT ballast wagon on an Arnold chassis.

Craig & Mertonford no. 1 is one of the original open wagons used by P.D.Hancock in the 1950s and a much treasured gift. According to his book 'Narrow Gauge Adventure' he converted a batch of cast zinc alloy toy wagons, obtained from a firm named Richard Kohnstam Ltd, to narrow gauge use, painting them all in the livery shown here. Inside is a card base with a permanent way load on it. This wagon is often put to work in the normal goods service and makes a nice contrast to the weathered grey of my other stock.

The snowplough was built by Mick Thornton, together with his own for the Mull & Iona Railway. A very detailed model based on a standard gauge NER snowplough, and a most interesting and indeed, treasured gift. Just look at the bright steel of the plough blade, and the lift-up flap that on the real thing was used for normal conveyance. Perhaps there were buffers and drawgear underneath on the NER? The steps up the rear end, the hatch on the roof and the two lamps suspended from an iron bar are characteristic details. This is a useful piece of hardware when the winter snows come to Inverlochan Moor (see photo below).

Left: the works train on its way in the Gorge behind the 0-6-0 diesel. Right: another of Mick's models is this overhead maintenance truck for the Creag Dhubh Mountain Railway, based on the Snaefell Mountain Railway one. For some reason it is propelled to Rae Bridge works. Perhaps a loose tyre to be seen to?

The Garratt and Mick's snowplough battering the six-foot drifts on Inverlochan Moor in the heavy snowfall of December, 2010... Actually this photo was taken by laying a piece of flexible track in real snow outside and photographing models on the track, which predictably had sunk out of sight.