David Andrews Princess Royal – Replacement Drawbar

These are the drawbar options as supplied. I have a confession to make at this stage. I couldn’t find them and had asked a couple of fellow modellers who have the same kit for dimensions. As it happens one was able to supply part numbers and the other the key dimensions.

Then as is often the way, I opened a box where I keep useful bits (actually looking for a piece of plug pin to see if it would be suitable to make a draw bar from) and there on top of all the bits and pieces was the square of etch containing the two missing drawbars.

DA Princess Drawbar – As supplied

While I completely understand why they would be supplied as etches I wanted to see if I could make something more 3 dimensional.

I made a complete hash of my first attempt due to getting the machining operations in the wrong order. I had started by milling and drilling which left the part too weak when I attempted to turn the dog bone section.

Broken Drawbar

This was at the end of the turning operation on the second attempt.

DA Princess Replacement Drawbar turning complete
DA Princess Replacement Drawbar
DA Princess Replacement Drawbar

This is the end result greatly enlarged of course. The insulated bushes were made from knitting needles. Sadly the only one I had of the right thickness was green. I did think that I had a suitable grey one but having turned one and subsequently dropped it, it landed with a decidedly metallic click. Further investigation revealed that it was in fact aluminium not plastic so not much cop for insulated bushes…