With not much happening over the last few days I will try to be brief. I had originally planned to fit out the cab before moving forward, but I felt that getting the lines, boxes and circles working together to look like the outline shape of an F5 would contribute more. Building a beatifully fitted cab inside an anomaly seemed a waste of time.

So, onward toward the front of the loco. First, the tank tops. You may recall this project came, phoenix-like, from the remains of a previous attempt to build this kit that fell to the wayside as other things came and went. Initially, I took a blowtorch to the superstructure to separate the 'salvage' from the rest. One casualty was the tank tops, a single piece in the kit, and erroneously so. The bolier sits, as one would expect, between the tanks, so the effect we are after is just that; the boiler curving away below the tank, leaving a gap at the top, above the centerline, as one would expect with basic geometry.

So, tank tops added, we turn to the boiler. The brass tube supplied in the kit is fine - if you like wrestling with heat sinks - but see below. Dismantling the loco, as above, left me with a badly cut, scarred and ugly piece of brass that had to go. The question was: do I use another similar tube, or roll a new one? A quick look at Guy Williams' book (the first, for I am that old..) got me rolling away in short order and thus a new boiler and smokebox appeared. Many words of wisdom on rolling boilers appear on this site, too.

Next to be addressed was the issue of the valve chest/smokebox support. In the kit the smokebox support is intended to sit between the frame extensions, leaving a gap that is acknowledged in the instructions. I took the approach that the valve chest top should be there and the smokebox sit atop that. Thus we have the assembly as seen in the picture. The smokebox saddle had to be cut down by a few millimeters (3 I think) before being installed. Prior to installation was the removal of the boiler inside the tanks to create a space for the motor. Once all is assembled it is surprising how little space there is inside for such a long locomotive now we have a full cab as well.

So, here is progress to date:

The smokebox door is just sitting there for effect...as it comes in the kit it includes the front of the smokebox saddle, but when trying to fit it to the brass tube supplied it sat proud, producing the wrong 'face' to the loco (the use of photographs cannot be understated as I learned many years ago that a kit is only a set of parts, not a total solution). The supplied tube wall is 1mm thick, which is way too heavy for this. Coupled with fabricating the valve chest, I removed the saddle front and slid the door into the boiler happily. The boiler is rolled from 10thou nickel silver with futher wrappers of 15 and 10 thou, the latter rivetted accordingly as I had also destroyed the kit supplied wrapper. Much of the new fabrication is also nicklel silver, as I prefer working with this as opposed to brass. Fabricating the valve chest top also enabled me to form a better 'piano' front than that of the kit. So far, so good...

Best,
Marcus