Sunday. The dog is walked, the dishwasher is emptied, the week's shirts are ironed, ashes out of the stove, laundry hung up, chores done. Back to business. Regarding the dog walk, it felt like spring was just around the corner this morning. Cool breeze, but you could feel the warmth of the sun on your shoulders for the first time. Ground gradually drying out as well. Summer's on the way.

Don't fit parts 29, 30 yet unless you want the wheels captive for ever. I'm aiming to keep the wheels removable until late in the build.

Looks like brakes are next. Nice to have a template for the brake shoes. Pencil lead it up before stacking and soldering the shoes. About 10mm long wires are ok. Make the three brake block wires slightly different lengths so you can thread the holes one at a time, and slightly chamfer the wire ends with a file. One thing about soldering brass wire; it sometimes seems to have a solder resistant coating on it so clean it with some wet & dry before you cut off the short lengths you need. Pre tin the parts on the etch ,trying not to get the holes blocked with solder, then all you need to do is heat up the pinned stack while pressing them together and the job's done. A little paste flux around the pins helps them to take solder. Keep solder off the template, you won't enjoy trying to unsolder it! Here's a caution that I missed; the lower hole in each brake block should be empty, it isn't pinned to anything. Check prototype photos. Take that wire out before soldering. I didn't figure this out until later on, and unfortunately it'll have to stay there now. That will irritate...

You need to make an RH and LH assembly, but so far as I can tell they're the same unless you use part 35 on the back face, then they become handed. I'm not fitting a 34 or 35 on the back face in order to increase clearance to wheels. Saves me filing it off later when I need a bit more wheel clearance! In which case they are handed. Take care, it's so easy to make two of the same hand!

"The brake shoes should all be fitted via lengths of 0.8mm wire through parts 36 & parts 41 (which were fitted to parts 2a & 2b earlier)." They were? No they weren't! Must have missed the 41s. See? Aren't you pleased you can still remove the wheels?
The diagram shows the clevis on part 41 projecting out of the flange side of the cross channels 2. That doesn't seem right. A check with the chassis drawing for the LMS D2109 steel mineral (a predecessor for the BR 1/108) shows the clevis projecting on the wheel side, which makes more sense. There are plenty of differences between the D2109 and 1/108, but I'm guessing that's the same.

Suspend the brake shoes from 41 with a short length of 0.8mm wire. Taper the end before you cut it off. With the wheels fitted turn the chassis the right way up, load it to the intended weight (125g) and move the brake shoes into position. Use a small blob of blutack to hold the shoes at the right distance from the wheels. Solder the pivots from above to secure the brakes.

Brake linkage cranks 48, there's a mystery. The centre hole in them is about 1.5 mm. The brake cross shaft on which they sit is 1mm. That can't be right? There's also another mystery in the kit, a length of 1/16" brass tube. It's there in the contents list, but I can't find a mention of it in the instructions. I'm guessing that the parts 48 are laminated on this which then forms a collar to slide over the cross shaft. It would look more like the prototype that way. Here goes...

Tin the 48s on the fret. Don't gum up the holes with solder. Chamfer the end of the tube and gently reduce the diameter for a few mm at the end by filing or emery, just enough to allow the 48s to push on. A gentle push fit helps hold them in place together while you solder them to the end of the tube. Clean up with a file while still on the tube. Open out the centre of the tube with a 1.0mm drill to just beyond the 48s. Clear through the small holes with a 0.5mm drill. Cut the part off the tube about 0.5mm beyond the 48s and clean up the tube ends. It'll now slide neatly on the brake cross shaft ready to be positioned for the brake push rods. Another photo...

I'll call it done for today and tidy up the workbench a little.

7.5 hours today. Total 47 hours, a week's work with some overtime, and we have a rolling chassis with working suspension and the start of the brake gear. That's another learning; there's a lot more work in 7mm, although that might be because I've chosen to jump in at the deep end.
-----------------------
A digression. Thinking back to the introduction to this blog, my Dad was a railway modeller and I suppose that's where I caught the bug. He was a die hard LNER enthusiast and I imagine him as a schoolboy, growing up in London between the wars, spending time at 'the cross', on the platform ends, watching the greatest free show on earth. He was an ardent supporter of everything Gresley and mention of the hated Thompson in the house was blasphemy. Inexplicable vitriol. I never understood that as a kid, but I read about the Thompson revolution years later. Back in the mid 60's modelling was different, as a look at copies of the Railway Modeller of the day will reveal. Dad was 00, and he had an extensive collection of stock that he ran at his model railway club, Church Gresley ironically!

Often he'd clear the table after lunch on a Sunday, take his toolbox out from under the sideboard and get on with the latest project. I'd sit at the end of the table watching everything. Railway modelling as a spectator sport! I'd sit patiently through what seemed like endless faffing around waiting for something I'd consider real action. Back in the day that might involve an Isinglass blueprint, a ruler and a razor saw for a brutal conversion of a Triang B12 to an approximation of a D49. It might be repainting a Trix A4 into green livery. A4s, A3s, B12/3s, J39s, teak coaches from printed paper sides, a K3, but never a B1. There was a test track that was a few lengths of straight track on a plank of wood with buffer stops at each end. Watching locos on test with the old Hammant & Morgan controller was a highlight. Occasionally I'd be allowed to work the controller under stern direction not to hit the buffer stops. Once, briefly there appeared a...diesel. Bit odd that. I think it belonged to a friend or fellow club member. It was a Deltic in two tone green. The successor to Gresley's pacifics. What caught the eye (apart from it being a diesel of course) was that it was 'weathered'. I'd never seen a dirty locomotive or piece of rolling stock before. It just wasn't done. This Deltic had been weathered by somebody getting mucky grey brown paint on fingers and putting a barrage of dirty fingerprints all over it. That was weathering 1964 style.

I remember the occasional trip to the Church Gresley club house at the weekend. Exciting and a bit intimidating with all those serious looking grown ups. Earnest blokes in shirt and tie or knitted pullover. GWR badges on tweedy lapels. Some with specs or beards. I'll always remember the smell of the place, damp, insulation board and stale fag smoke. Lots of talking went on, but as a kid I'd come to see the trains. Disappointingly they were less frequent than on the real railway. I always wanted Dad to build a layout at home. He had a number of layout planning books, notably those purple 'Plans for Small Layouts' type books by CJ Freezer, published by Peco. I spent hours reading them, scheming and daydreaming. I still have them. A start was once made on a garage layout. A big oval around the walls. Chipboard supported on angle brackets. there was going to be a station at one end and a big bridge on a removable section by the doors at the other end. Or that's how I imagined it. Never did see a plan. No track was ever laid. As time went by the layout became just a series of shelves for garage clutter. Under the big shelf at the station end there lived the largest spiders in England. Me and my brother never dared to go underneath, although we might poke the webs with a stick from a safe distance. The remains of the layout shelf are still there at Mum's house, like the trackbed of a Beechinged line about which Betjeman might have written.