The 439 tank has progressed nicely, if slowly, but then a holiday in Fort William did intrude.

Although not in the Killin area the holiday provided plenty of opportunity to sample the C&O, whilst the family lazed on the beach at Benderloch (in glorious sunshine! ) I cycled up the coast toward Ballacullish; some of the route follows the old Ballacullish line. I was pleased to discover the old station building (and water tower) at Creagan was in the process of being refurbished by the Holiday Park it now resides in http://www.appinholidayhomes.com/. I’ve always felt this station and the adjacent Creran Viaduct would make a great model.

A visit to Ballacullish gave the opportunity to photo the solitary CR distant signal (I had passed it on numerous occasions just never took the chance to stop). Given that a couple of MSE etches are sitting the gloat box ready for construction it seemed sensible to do some research!

Apologies for the odd view, I took plenty of detailed photos but only general shot……from the back.

No trip to Fort William would be complete without a photo of the class 67 fresh from the Sleeper service on the “other” West Highland Railway .

Finally a view of the Ben from just round the corner from where we are staying. I’m quite proud of this shot given it was on a camera phone.

Anyway, interlude over on with the plot……

The body is progressing nicely although a couple of compromises in the etch are evident, the smoke box front plate doesn’t cover the front wheel splashers as per the prototype, I'm not sure how to deal with this, an easy way would be solder two small lengths of brass either side of the smoke box plate to make up the true width and try to fill in the gaps. I suspect though in the long run this will be as much hassle as trying to fabricate a new plate .

There are also some bits not provided for on the etch. It is a “Scratch Aid” so I’m not being critical here.

Firstly the Valve Cover needs to be fabricated:-

Additionally there is no subsidiary wheel splasher for the front drive wheel. Given the complex shape of these two items I think shaping them out of plasticard will be best option.

A few other bits need to be made, Cab doors, boiler back plate and the replacement buffer beams.

The Chassis has been opened out to accept the bushes; a large amount of brass had to be taken out to accommodate these.

Once the Wheels were mounted it was obvious that they were forced too far apart, the back to back measured over 10mm . Given the Chassis spine is 7mm the bushes where clearly the culprits. A pleasant evening’s filing to reduce the height of the bushes back to nearly to frame followed at which point the wheels were mounted in a temporary muff.

The next job will be to chop out the top brass sections of the etched chassis and solder the sides to a copperclad board to enable the two sides to be isolated as per the split pick up system.

Anyway progress to date:-

Apologies for posting an uncleaned up photo, I ran out of Fibreglass brush refills (why can you never find the spares brushes when you need them?). The picture flatters to deceive as the Boiler is resting on the wheels not the chassis so some fettling is clearly required .