Despite many distractions recently I have made slow progress on the Coronation.
One of the easier wins over the weekend was to epoxy the balance weights on – the instructions have you do this much earlier in the build but I seem to have a tendency to do them as late as possible and I am not sure why.
DJH Streamlined Coronation – Balance weights fitted
Then on to the fun bits, I wanted to make the valve gear removable for painting so some mods were needed
This is what the front of the frames looked like with slots where the cylinders fed through to attach to the top of the frame spacer.
DJH Streamlined Coronation Tender – Loco Chassis Brakes and minor details fitted
This was what they look like after a visit from my piercing saw.
DJH Streamlined Coronation – Cut outs to make motion removable
Then I needed to make some spacers to attach the two cylinders together
DJH Streamlined Coronation – Spacers to make cylinders removable
Doing this meant that the 2mm diameter screws provided were not long enough so I retapped the holes 8BA and added some longer 8 ba screws. to hold them on.
next I soldered the slide bars to the motion bracket frame and started to assemble the valve gear
DJH Streamlined Coronation – Assembled motion
DJH provide 14ba screws/nut to assemble the valve gear which I have used but I have also done a belt and braces approach by tapping all the holes 14ba too which allows the nut to be locked on. Most of them also needed to be filed back for clearance purposes.
DJH Streamlined Coronation – Assembled motion
Last night I fitted the motor into the basic chassis and ran it for a while with the connecting rods attached. It was a good sign that nothing decided to unscrew itself while it ran (which can be a sign of something amiss).
Hopefully tonight will see the valve gear fitted and tested before stripping it back down ready for Warren to paint.