Having recently completed three larger types - a Crab, Jubilee and Stanier Caprotti 5, all potential holiday excursion locos but not really true to prototype, my thoughts have shifted to the next project. I have two part built Class 2, 2-6-2 tanks, one Ivatt and a BR standard type. In real life, these were used on the regular push-pull passenger trains in the last years of operation, in the mid 1950's.
Both are in running condition but incomplete. A state they've been in for umpteen years whilst I've messed around with larger, generally inappropriate locos. . in terms of detail, so I've decided they really must be finished off before I start anything new.
Each is in a different state of completion but on balance, I decided to work on the BR standard version first. Work has now started - given a boost by being housebound by the recent snow and freezing weather.

The loco consists of a modified DJH body mounted on a Comet chassis. Initial work has been to finish off the chassis by adding the dummy driving axle springs and mountings, the brake gear, ash-pan and hopper operating gear and the sand pipes. The valve gear assembly and the two pony trucks were already completed, so only the body remains to finish off. The main issue with this item is that the kit is 2 mm too short in the cab area. Unfortunately, the loss of length (why do they make that sort of mistake?) is distributed in front of the cab windows, in the cab opening and also behind the cab opening. Correcting this accurately was just too over-facing, so I opted to cheat by simply stretching the cab opening to give the correct overall length. Of course, that means the cab roof no longer fits - Oh hum!

The photos below show the current state of the major component parts, as described above.

First, the chassis. Since the body kit is designed to include the front and rear sections of the main-frames, I opted to keep this arrangement, so the main chassis finishes at the front of the cylinders and under the cab, behind the steps and sand boxes. To permit assembly, the brake gear is split into two sections and is removable to give access to the pony truck pivots. There is a removable keeper plate which incorporates the dummy springs and sand pipes (the rear sand boxes are part of the body). I deliberately fitted the dummy springs inside-out as they are etched with a small number of very course leaves whereas the real things had 12 or 14 fine leaves which probably can't be seen in the gloom and at normal viewing distances, unlike the crude etched lines.

Next we have the body, which is in two parts - the footplate, tanks and cab section and the boiler. A certain amount of detailing has already been done, especially below the tank and cab sides, but these parts now represent all the work needed to finish the loco off. This includes the push-pull gear, front end pipework, lamp irons, tank fillers and restraining bars and that dratted cab roof.
First the footplate/tanks/cab assembly:

and the boiler:

Next we have the completed cylinder and valve gear assembly, which also includes the motor torque reaction links to stop the motor/gearbox trying to rotate round the axle. Also in this shot are the pony trucks:

The pony trucks were made from Brassmasters etches. However, on the 2-6-2 tanks, one of the trucks (the rear one on the standards, but generally the front one on the Ivatts) was of the swing link side control type rather than the spring side control type represented by the Brassmasters etch. This was done by modifications of some of the etched parts and some scratch built parts. The difference in appearance of the two is shown in the final photo:

Hope that lot is of some interest.
There will be a short break from this project to get the track cleaned on the layout, ready for a visit by a group of friends next week.

Dave.