Having made the chassis work, then next job was to cut a slot in the footplate for the injectors, comprehensively invalidating the Bachmann guarantee. In his conversion pack, Dave Alexander provides a helpful sheet with the dimensions, which were carefully marked out on the footplate. At the back of the slot, I drilled a line of holes, and then cut the slot using a combination of razor saw for the short edges and a piercing saw with a fine blade to cut through the metal in between the holes. The slot was then filed to size.. Throughout, the handrail and boiler were protected from slips by a double layer of plastic tape. This activity generated a lot of fine mazak dust -- just the job for abrading moving parts, so this was cleaned off very carefully. The photo shows the resulting slot, along with two pins for locating the air pumps. These were inserted into holes drilled in the remaining footplate. The photo below also shows small pieces of plastic rod used to beef up the sandbox filler lids, a replacement clack valve and pipework (I broke the plastic one), and a new capuchon from plastic tube added to the (drilled out) chimney.

At this point I decided that it did, in fact, make sense to do a proper job with the injectors and their associated pipework. On the shelf I have an unbuilt DJH/Model Loco 9F, kit along with some accessories and so I decided to use a pack of Comet lost wax castings. These are fantastic, and are sold with correct diameter copper wire, which is softer and much easier to bend than hard brass. The photo below shows the live steam and exhaust injectors soldered up, with the Bachmann pipework for comparison. A big improvement I think.

The next job was to fit the air pumps, and I purchased a pair of Lanarkshire models castings at Scalefour north. The photo below shows one of these (on the left) compared with the Dave Alexander casting on the right. Apologies for the poor quality of this photo. The main difference is that the Lanarkshire models castings include some valves on the side of the pump, which can be clearly seen in detailed photos (e.g. http://southpelawjunction.co.uk/wp/?page_id=2287).

The air pump pipework was bent up from hard brass wire, and representations of the valves from solder blobs and small bits of black plasticard drilled to fit. The photo below also shows the double layer of plastic insulation tape used to protect the handrail and boiler during drilling and filing operations.

Eventually everything was fitted, and tweaked to make sure there is no possibility of fouling or other problems. The clips for the air pump pipes along the boiler were made from small pieces of aluminium tape superglued on. This stuff is really excellent -- it is very thin, self adhesive, and just right for boiler bands.

The air reservoirs and associated pipework were then added on the other side of the engine, along with ATC box, reservoir, and wiring conduit. I have included a poor quality shot (apologies) of the locomotive and tender following an initial coat of paint. At least it gives a general idea of how it will look. As well as the engine, I have also moved the coal partition to convert the BR1B tender to BR1C tender. In this shot the tender is not coupled to the loco -- the gap will be much smaller, and will contain some pipework too. At one point I had fitted some Comet etched front steps, but these came off once I realised they were in the wrong place and completely fouled the pony truck.

Next up -- final details, a new number, a crew, and some weathering, and she should be ready for RailexNE in July!