As I discovered I had run out of crank pins a pause has been forced in 2811's progress. So I decided to have a renewed crack at the Nucast Armstrong Standard Goods.

Russell's locomotives of the GWR gives 2 nice pictures of 788 in pre 1906 livery - all glorious lining and indian red frames etc. Also 788 has a belpaire firebox which might give an extra mm to hide the motor and gearbox, always a problem with wasp waisted Victorian or Edwardian locos!

The original Nucast kit had a massive, yet narrow gauge (ie OO) brass chassis, milled from a single block of metal, that I'm hoping the new Model Railway Museum project at Ashford will accept as an exhibit in due course. The replacement chassis has been constructed using Alan Gibson milled brass mainframes and MJT hornblocks to make a compensated chassis. The rear axle is fixed (I'm still not to happy with the idea of floating/compensated driving axle - although this is exactly what the Finney kits and High Level Dean Goods chassis do, so I'll have to get over my constructional fears at some point).

Prior to yesterday evening, I had soldered up the running plate...

And the boiler (although the smoke box was still loose) and tender too (although the tender picture refuses to load in line and appears as a thumbnail at the end)

So yesterday as the SHMRC I got busy with the cab, and then fixed it and the boiler/smoke box etc to the running plate

The intention - when I next get a moment (I'm hoping the postman will deliver the crankpins for the 28xx today, to that will got back to the top of the list if they do arrive) - is to move onto the chassis and fit the wheels and motor for testing, and check the fit of the body, before looking at making the tender leading and middle axle float and thus transfer the tenders rather appreciable weight onto the draw bar - oh and somehow fit a large speaker for a sound chip in the tender too.... Anyone know a supplier for those natty 4 way connectors that Hornby and Bachman use to provide electrical connections between loco and tender? I might need some...