More progress has been made this week and the loco and tender brakes are now complete.

The loco brakes were a bit more interesting in that I didn’t have to re-drill the mounting holes. However the brake hanger etches have a square hole in one end and a round one in the other so using some 1mm square bar, some tube and some 0.9mm rod I made up some mounting brackets

These fitted nicely except for the rear pair which wouldn’t fit between the rear wheelsets without touching. Not to be deterred I rounded the end of a couple of pieces of 1mm square bar and fitted that instead. I also had to shorten the brake cross beams by approximately 1.5mm either side so that the brake hangers didn’t splay out beyond the wheels.

The red bits are electrical sleeve, there to retain the brake hangers until I am confident that I can solder them up.

Lack of modelling mojo not withstanding I have managed to progress this a little in between life getting in the way.

First, I modified all the etched hangers in the kit to accept the brake 3D printed shoes

Then having stripped all the previously built brake gear down into components parts as needed, I started to fit the new shoes/hangers to the tender first. I quickly discovered that I will need to re-drill/position the brake hangers for the shoes to fit snugly to the wheel treads.