I also managed to progress the N10 a little further this week.
The first job was to drill out the Westinghouse casting. I have a couple of really nice brass castings in the stash which I believe are Alan Gibson but I’m not 100% sure. On the back of the mounting brackets there were a couple of spigots so I drilled a couple of corresponding holes in one side of a clothes peg and pressed the spigots into it giving me a secure grip when gripped in the drill press vice using another piece of clothes peg on the other side with a small parallel laid on it’s side to support them.
I drilled through the cast nuts on the right hand side then drilled a hole for the pipe that leads from the governor in the left hand side. While I ad the drill press out I also drilled the governor that I made for the last pipe and fitting.
lastly for now I assembled as much of it as I could prior ro fitting. In order to fit it to the etched mounting plate I cut and filed of the spigots on the mounting brackets and secured the casting to the bracket with 298 degree solder. Next I fitted the governor and the pipe that leads into the smokebox which is a little long at the minute and isn’t soldered in until I have it all mounted on the footplate.
On Thursday before leaving for Guildex on Friday I stuck the smokebox door onto the 8F. I had planned to do it earlier in the week but realised that the handrail wasn’t parallel to the hinge straps. I removed the handrail and moved one of the holes slightly before resoldering the handrail knobs back in. I also took the opportunity to add a small turned washer to the back of the smoke box door locking handles. I had neglected this detail when I added the handles at some time in the past.
This is my rather Heath Robinson set up for holding the loco body vertically so that the epoxy didn’t allow it to slide out of position.
Those who dropped by the Technical stand on Sunday at Guildex were able to view both the 8F and the N10 in their current state, as I had them on the Sunday Display of members models.
