David Andrews Princess Royal – The Beginnings of the Back Head

This week has mainly been about working on the backhead, one of my favourite parts of a build.

I started by making a driver’s heatshield. The size and shape was worked out from an oblique photo and referencing it to other items located in the cab.

David Andrews Princess Royal – Back Head Heat Shield
David Andrews Princess Royal – Back Head Heat Shield

Once I had the basic shape I took a short length of nickel rod and filed it to half round to create the edging strip. I did have it fixed in place but then when I fitted the Drivers brake valve in place and started to consider the other pipework I realized that there would need to be some relief above the fire door rails to allow pipes to pass behind the shield.

The other castings that you can see in the photos are some of the few David Andrews parts that I have. The ready made holes in the back plate itself are causing a few issues as most are over sized and the ones on the fire hole door needed their placement adjusting to get the levers that open and close it to sit correctly with the two mounting brackets adjacent to the bottom rail. 

The shelf on the other hand fitted perfectly .