And so begins another entry in the Peco/Branchlines Talyllyn saga.

At the end of my last blog post I was struggling with the chassis. Having got the basic box and (finally!) got the axles to fit through the bearings, I put the kit aside as work and uni took over my life. A week off work sick, however, meant that I suddenly had rather more "free" time, so out came the kits and I thought I'd have another look. Right, so I've got the axles smoothly in one set of bearings, I think. Time to test that theory by fitting the wheels to that axle - Whoops!

One of the crankpins snapped while attempting to fit the second wheel to the axle... And one of the *tiny* brass coupling rod bushes (I think that's the correct term?) got swallowed by the carpet monster. *sigh*

At this point, rather than throw the whole thing out of the window, I decide to fire an email off to Branchlines to enquire about the availability of spare wheelsets and crankpin bushes. Seeing as I'm struggling with the chassis, it might be an idea to start on something a little simpler, right? Out comes the body kit...

Apart from the slightly strange feeling of *everything* being overscale (I'm used to working in 009, rather than 0-16.5), the kit seems to go together relatively well. It's my first whitemetal kit, too, so I was expecting at least some flash and imperfect fits, but fortunately there were no K's style horrors here. Over the course of an evening, the main superstructure came together (regularly being checked against the chassis to ensure it would fit) and I've now reached a point where the kit is starting to look vaguely locomotive-shaped. At this point I'm still undecided on whether or not to actually build the cab. I know that on the prototype, my options are no cab and no trailing pony wheels (for two years of the loco's life) or cab and pony wheels, but it's my loco and I like the cabless look. I shall have to think about it. Meanwhile, here are some posed pictures (with the chassis parts balanced on coins, and a 009 loco to give an idea of scale).

Oh, and no, that dome's not been fixed on yet...