As I needed to stay in the house to look after the children this evening, there was no chance to work on the layout.  Instead I got on with the Manor chassis.

First it was modified to get it to fit the Mitchell body, before soldering up the frames using my Chassis^2 jig.

The Markits wheels were then test fitted, which brings me on to the first problem.  At £36 set you would think that the wheels would actually fit on the axles, I am having more issues getting these on square than I do with Gibsons despite being twice the price.  The only good thing is that they are a lot easier to remove and refit.

With the wheels fitted and given a test run (which has identified a slight tight spot that needs further attention) I test fitted again onto the body this time with the wheels fitted.  Unfortunately this time there were issues, big issues!  the wheels were fouling on the body, the motion bracket, firebox front and firebox rear were the most obvious and were attacked with a cutting disk in the dremmel.  This got wheel 1 and 2 running freely, but the rear axle was still proving difficult so more of the cab underfloor was removed.  this helped, but it still isn't fully free (at this point I gave up for the night.)

The problem is partially that I built the solbar years ago for a P4 loco and wouldn't have paid attention to any notes saying remove xyz for OO.  I will dig out the instructions tomorrow and have a check and see what I missed.  Then chop out some more material until it works!