Life, as ever, gets in the way of the serious stuff. This time it was, in rough chrinological order, a new job, a trip to Korea, a subsequent move to Düsseldorf, and marriage. However, things have now settled down a bit, and I have got back to modelling, although, alas, I had to get rid of the nice workbench I had made.

Since my last post, the brakevan had progressed to the point depicted in the photo, when I was forced to stop due to the lack of handrail wire and an appropriate tube for the chimney.

I have ordered the wire from Wizard together witha few other bits for the next project, which will be the 2021 pannier I ordered over a year ago.

The kit went together well, I thought, and my soldering was, for the most part, not as messy as I feared, and my newly aquired glass fiber pen can probably sort out the worst of it.

The fret supplied in the kit is very similar, but not identical, to the one assumed by the instructions, and as far as I can see some pieces are missing. Luckily my wife has donated some nickel silver sheets left over from her uni days to the project, so I should be able to make some replacements for the missing components.

I am still missing the buffers, which will need ordering from mjt at some point. The ones supplied in the kit are nice turned brass items, but a bit generic for my liking.

Hopefully, the brake van will finally come together over the next few days/weeks.