Some real progress today -& then a 'let down' at the end!

A few chapters back I discussed the problem of the brake rigging - not enough room between the inner & outer frames - and then I spotted that (on the prototype) the hangers are bolted to the outside frames.

So today, having competed the tank top (coal backplate, side rails) and the rear detailing (lamp irons, grab rails & buffer bases) it was time to start 'bodging'.

Basically all I did was to transfer the hanger centres from the drawing to the frames, drill the relevant holes, dis-assemble the brake gear and re-assemble the hangers on the outer frames. This left the problem of the associated pull-rods, because the inner sub frame needs to be removable... The answer was to hang them from the sub-frame with vertical lengths of wire immediately behind the hangers. Okay, as the photo below shows, I got the length of the 'drop' slightly too short - but I can fix that when I get some more 0.3mm wire! That's not the problem...

The tender definitely noses down... Not sure why - I just hope it's not the hornblocks set too high... I've checked the rear buffer hieght with a Bill Bedford gauge and it;s spot-on. Might just be that the suspension arm needs a tweek. Ah well, thats a job for another day.

TTFN

Ian