A major personal issue has kept me away from the bench for a few weeks apart from a few intermittent sessions. I will reveal the issue when I know if/how it’s going to be resolved.

During those sessions I have managed to move the reversing support rod so that it now passes through the hole in the frames. Once I have finally set the ride height, I may need to make further adjustment.

Nick Dunhill kindly supplied me with a few replacement parts at Barnsley show and I have managed to refit a slightly shorter combination lever.

It seems that I am not the only one to have had the same issue. So while I need to do something about it, at least I know that it’s not as a result of something that I might have done wrong earlier in the build. 

The last couple of weeks have been steadily working towards getting the outside motion working as smoothly as the inside motion. It has fought me much of the way.

Some of the issues have been of my making, mostly due to my clumsiness in dropping bits on the floor which subsequently disappeared into the black hole in the workshop floor.

As I was working my way through the motion and I got to the motion bracket, I discovered that he support rod for the reversing mechanism wouldn’t go through the chassis due to it hitting the middle wheel set.

Initially, I wondered if the cast wheels were slightly oversized but they aren’t and a bit of further investigation got me to the support brackets which are too long when compared to the GA drawings in the Wild Swan book. I wonder if other people who have built the DA kit have experienced the same issue?

First run of the chassis with the inside motion fitted. Actually it’s the second run I had it running initially last night but realised that I had one of the insulated wheels on the wrong side so I had to strip the rod off and swap it over.

Still working my way through getting the chassis running and I now have the inside motion running forwards at least.

As an aside I have reversed the front crankpin bushes to look more like the prototype and to give additional clearance for the motion. I was wondering about how to tighten the reversed bushes and remembered the late David Smith talking about making peg spanners as he called them. I chose a similar route but instead of pegs I used the same approach as the 4mm scale Romford screwdriver (I still have one in my modelling toolbox).

For those who haven’t a clue what I am talking about this is a Romford screwdriver

This is the leading crankpin bush that I am talking about

This is the custom big boy’s ‘Romford’ Screwdriver that I made to tighten them. The business end is 3/16 silver steel and the end was shaped with a 3mm end mill with the rod held in a square collet block so that I could keep flipping it over to take the same amount off each side.

If I wish to use this method of securing the coupling rods to the front wheels again in the future I will probably need to make another one with a smaller diameter to fit reversed Slaters bushes. The crankpins on this build are 8BA so bigger than most builders make them (the wheels were already tapped 8BA for the crankpins when I received them with the kit). Continuing my current ‘Dremel’ tool theme I used a ball burr in the mill to make the grip. Previously I have used the ball burr in a similar manner to an end mill by cutting into the top of the work piece. This time I did it differently and side milled it. This gave a much better finish and was easier to do. I milled the grooves before turning the taper.

I got around the problem last night by modifying a 12BA screw and soldering the etched covers on, making a small bush from tube threaded 12BA and a small spacer. Once I get them assembled, I may not need the spacer but if I don’t they will go in the spares box.

I still need to add oil corks to the eccentric rods.

Recently there has been much work but not a lot to show for it. I returned to the chassis in an attempt to get that running before carrying on with the body and cab. much of the time has been spent fine tuning the fit of the gearbox so that it doesn’t rub and getting the rear axle to pass through the gearbox and be a tight fit but still be removable for painting etc. This is more interesting because of the wheels being fixed to the axle stubs and the gearbox having ball races which want to grab onto the axle.

I also had a rather frustrating time trying to make a pin for the outer end of the return crank which attaches the eccentric rod. I had tapped the small end of the return crank 12ba and the plan was to make a small shouldered pin threaded 12BA with a large flat head that I could attach an etched cover to.

This gives an idea of the desired pin with the etched covers below

The observant amongst you will note that the threads look very undernourished on the pin. This was possibly my fifth or sixth attempt and I kept putting it down to my having the pin too thin, too thick etc. as each time the thread came out too small for 12BA. Eventually I examined my 12ba die under some magnification and realised that one of the three cutting edges is out of line with the rest and is what I am sure was causing all the failures.

I can’t actually recall if I have used the 12BA die at all (I use the 12 BA tap set regularly but generally for fitting bought hardware) and if I have I would have only used it on brass or nickel so I very much doubt that I have deformed it. It has been consigned to the bin and a new one ordered from Chronos. in the meantime I will probably modify a a couple of 12BA set screws to get on with the job but when the new die arrives I will have to make another to prove once and for all that it’s not something that I am doing wrong.

More detailing of the cab has ensued since my last update. The reverser is a mixture of David Andrews and Ragstone castings. 

The David Andrews Seats are reasonable castings but I was struggling to work out how best to fit them. They look like the idea is that the two pegs fit into holes but I didn’t really want to be drilling holes in the cab side sheets for them. With the pegs removed there is very little to secure them so I made some replacements with a rear strip to solder to the cab side.

What is unclear is whether they fold up or down. At the minute They just drop down but if they fold up I can make a couple of stays to hold them when folded down.

Here is it is with most of the bling refitted – just resting in place it will be soldered in from the back later.

I say “most of”, because the production locos from 6203 onwards had a double regulator handle and I have only just got around to making it.

In between other things I found time to prime and top coat the back head today.

I also managed to get the bling back on but ran out of time and energy to take photos so they will have to wait until tomorrow.

That’s about it unless I think of anything else. I am struggling as to what was fitted the 1930’s and what was fitted later. The Wild Swann supplement has a photo of Princess Elizabeth as built and there is a lot less on the back head than is shown in the GA in part one.

All the parts are removeable until I have painted the main casting. 

The back head is well on it’s way now but when I got so far I realised that the only hand wheels I had were the teched nickel silver ones that came with the kit. Nickel of course looks different when you are trying to represent brass so I thought I would have a go at turning some.

I did one to work out how, but the four holes came out all over the place. Once I had a method that worked I made the three that I needed. They actually looked the part when fitted to the back head but what was missing were the handles.

At this size I couldn’t see any sensible way to add them to the ones that I had made so I had a rethink.
I modified the technique and made rings to solder to the face of the etches and then added half round rod for the handle. This is the best of both worlds. the right shape and three dimensional.

Out of the castings that I have from the various sources the one that is missing is a sight glass lubricator which sits at the upper left above the brake valve.