Progress continues but perhaps rather more haphazardly than I would wish.

The loco now has its handrails and its lamp brackets. I’ve made a start on detailing the tender and there are a couple of photos to show the progress there.

For 'Portchullin Tatty', and others like him who would like to see the brake daw-gear then I must relate that all my scratch-built locos follow a basic set of demands. I want to be able to drop any axle, be it driving wheels or carrying wheels. To meet that need it is necessary for the brake draw-gear to be easily removed from the loco. I achieve this now-a-days by firmly fixing the brake hangers with the brake shoes to the main-frames. In a previous picture you can see small holes at the bottom of each brake hanger. When the draw-gear is fitted it is a simple spring-clip-fix into those holes, the flexiness of the hangers allowing easy fit or un-fit.

The engine crew deserve to have storage space for their butties etc and the following picture shows the start of the staff cupboard and coal shovelling hole. There is still some tidying up to do but even then I don’t aim for much detail, after all, very little of this will be seen during operation.

In this pic the cupboard, footplate, sand boxes and brake stand are in position but my photographic skills make every thing seem out of square. That’s not the case in reallity I assure you!