Having got the back sorted I turned my attention to the front of the tender and the next on my list was the intermediate buffers. The parts list has them as whitemetal casting but I cannot find them so I decided to make my own as I have done for other tenders. However looking through the Wild Swan 8F book, showed that at least some of the Stanier tenders had intermediate buffers that were different from the usual round type.
This is a snip from the tender front photo on page 90
They are interesting enough for me to have a bash at making some.
Stanier Intermediate BufferStanier Intermediate BuffersJLRT Stanier Tender Front
Here we are with them fitted. I have no idea whether the tender fitted to 8425 had this type of intermediate buffer fitted and almost zero chance of finding a photo to confirm or deny their existence, so I can enjoy them being a little different from the other Stanier tenders that I have built.
It was at this point that the difference between the upper lamp iron and the replacement lower ones started to bug me. It gnawed at me for a few days, before I succumbed to making a replacement for that too.
Replacement Dual lamp IronReplacement Dual lamp Iron
Some time ago I made some Dual lamp irons for the loco.
Milled Lamp Irons
I should have made some for the tender at the same time but I hadn’t decided to swap the tender at that point so saw no need for them. Then when I did need them I had completely forgotten how I made them.
So some trial and error over the last couple of weeks has given me these which still need some hand filing to finish them off
Rear Lamp ironsReady for hand finishing.
Then came the problem of the upper lamp iron for the rear of the tender. It has been a bit elusive but I did eventually find photos of one and then worked out a way to mill it.
After squaring the end of some stock up last night I milled out the main shape today.
Again it needs cutting of and hand filing to final shape.
After a couple of failed attempts I managed to get some red painting onto the tapered fire extinguisher. Which in my view at least has improved it no end.
Over the last few show demos I have been slowly building a pair of Connoisseur LNER Single Bolster wagons. At Embsay Hunslet event last weekend I got to the point of soldering on the axle guards in anticipation of getting them up on their wheels when a minor disaster struck.
Prior to I had popped the bearings in the holes to ensure that the holes were deep enough but what I hadn’t noticed was that the holes themselves were not at right angles to the axle guards.
In my ignorance I soldered a pair of axle guards onto one side of each wagon but when I slipped the axles in ready to solder the other side on I found that the axles were sat at a jaunty axle. It was at this point that I realised that I didn’t have the right sized drill bit with me to attempt to straighten the hole
When I got home I had the thought that a suitable sized burr might be better than a drill bit to straighten the hole so I bought a set of burrs via Amazon and planned to use the 2.5mm to do the job. They were not expensive £8 for the set but I figure they will be good enough to work on whitemetal.
Once I fitted the burr in my Proxxon Mini Pillar drill I realised that with the axle guards fitted to the wagon body the chuck would hit the body stopping me from being able to drill in the correct place. At this point I had two choices I could either remove the axle guards to drill them out or make an arbor to hold the burr further away from the chuck. I chose the latter route as being the easiest.
I made an arbor from a piece of 6mm rod recycled from an empty toner cartridge. Drilling a 3.25 mm hole in one end and cross drilling and tapping M3 for a couple of grub screws
Then using a couple of bits of coffee stirrer to support the casting level I set up to realign the holes.
Set up jig
Using the depth stop on the mini pillar drill I was able to straighten and make the holes slightly deeper without drilling through the face of the axleboxes
