Rails to Black Rock

The Chassis is now up and running after a few frustrating hours working out why it was growling rather than purring. It turned out that the rather expensive grease used in the gearbox was causing friction rather than reducing it; once replaced with a tiny drop of oil the chassis ran smoothly.

Thoughts then turned to the body. The first task was to build a new footplate and running plate. This is needed to use the etch for the larger cab and to allow for the tank being 6" longer; in the model this equates to an additional 3mm. All in all a lot of work for a small change to the length of the loco!. The footplate was made of two layers of  brass sweated together, this proved to be quite tricky and required a powerful soldering iron to get the layers to bond properly. The result, after a great deal of filing is a very sturdy footplate which matches the rest of the etch very well.

The replacement longer tank was then made in brass. The two end profiles were made using the original as a pattern. The ends were tacked to the main tank sheet and this was gradually rolled to profile. The end result is strong and has plenty of space for ballast

The tank was finally offered up to the rest of the body. The whole assembly has noticeably different proportions to Prince or Palmerston.