A trip out to Harrogate show on BH Monday allowed me to get the T stanchions fitted and as a bonus, I also got the brake rigging finished on both wagons so just bolsters, buffer heads and couplings to sort now.
I even gave them a good scrub, although now they are dry, I obviously made a better job of one than the other.
After discovering the out of square holes and correcting them at Redcar show I was able to get both wagons up on their wheels and the single sided brakes fitted.
Further progress was made on Saturday while supporting the Stainmore Railway Railwayana event with the buffers and the main brake cross shaft fitted. I had some spare Slaters cast buffer stocks so I replaced the whitemetal castings provided in the kit. I also managed to do something that I haven’t done for some time and that is melt a couple of white metal T stanchions for the ends while tinning them with 100 degree solder. I was busy talking to a gent and wasn’t concentrating.
I am making some replacements from some coarse scale rail that I have to hand. The profile makes a great starting point for T section.
Back in June last year (Here) after some discussion on the Guild forum about tapping guides I made one but since then I haven’t had a circumstance where I might actually use it.
Yesterday while doing a little job I needed to tap a 12ba thread in two sides of U shaped pieces. By gripping them (they are rather small and fiddly) in an engineers clamp I was able to rest the guide on the flat side of the clamp and use my shop made tap spinners to tap the holes. One tap spinner holds the taper tap, while the second has the bottom tap.
