Whilst waiting for the final bogie parts, I've decided to start on all the little detail jobs that need doing on the 37 - 8 sandboxes for the sanding gear to fit on and the pipework between the fuel tanks. You will remember my attempt at sanding gear on an earlier entry - I've subsequently discovered that MMP do a class 37 sanding gear set, so I bought one of those instead. The thought of making another 4 assemblies filled me with dread!

The main parts of the sandboxes were cut from 0.33mm brass, cut into a strip 3mm wide, by 11mm long. The edges of the cut strips were coloured with permanent marker to help see the marks for forming. The parts at the top of the picture are the strips bent to shape.

Lines were scribed at 4mm and 7mm, working from one edge. These were used as guides for pressure to be applied using a Stanley knife blade, which marked where the bend should be and scored to make folding easier.

Once folded up, sides cut from 0.127mm brass, to the approximate shape, were soldered onto the formed strips. These were then trimmed to shape as closely as possible using sharp scissors, then filed to the exact shape. In this pic, the three stages of the process can be seen, working right to left.

These now need to be drilled in the centre, for the sandpipe assemblies to be soldered in, before mounting them on the chassis of the loco. I'll wait until the bogies are in before mounting them.

I've also knocked up a representation of the pipework between the fuel tanks, out of 1.2mm brass and 0.7mm nickel silver wire, with the larger pipe being 1.8mm dia microbore tube. The pipe fittings, such as flanges and unions, are made from styrene sections.

I've been assured that I should receive the new design of bogie parts tomorrow, so the next update should be the first completed bogie, with any luck!