Cab Rear

The cab rear windows have had their etched bars cut and filed out and the whole thing filed smooth. Now it’s time to mark out the positions of the holes where I’m going to fit the replacements. Marking out that accurately will be a problem unless I employ some subterfuge. So a scan of the GA drawing cab rear, a printing out and then measuring to find out how much to reduce the image, then doing that, then reversing the image so we get the other cab side then you get this. And then I consulted some photos. In this build there was added a horizontal bar across the windows – presumably to give strength. This is not represented on either the GA drawing or the kit etch.

Printing this out on paper will get the markup for the holes and again on card for the former for the bars. The plan, once all the holes are drilled, is to form up all the bars for one side of the cab using the cardboard former then solder the lot (12 wire ends) at once. The theory is that there will be less chance of damage this way of doing things. We’ll wait and see.

At least that’s the plan – I’ve written this before starting, so we’ll see how it all goes.

Rehearsal

Bit of scrap brass, secured to a block of hardwood, marked out and then drilled after marking with a sharp (and I mean sharp – got the scars) scriber. Have to be very careful not to deform the brass in drilling as I’m using 36SWG (0.193mm) hard brass wire from Eileen’s. I was going to use 5A fuse wire as Brian Mitchell had done with (MRJ Compendium no 3) as and had bought some from Maplin’s (amazingly expensive compared with how I remember fuse wire when I was a lad) but John Darch (Killybegs) advised hard brass wire and advised me to look in the right place in the Eileen’s catalogue. You do get some darned good advice on RMweb!

Secure to a block of hardwood, I said. How is the next question. Tape seems to be the answer. That, or solder on some brass and screw that down. But then there’s the extra cleaning up after you’ve unsoldered it with the consequent potential for damage. Then use a Dremel in a drill press with some cutting compound on the metal and see how many 0.2mm drills you can break in the process.

Again – that’s the theory.

Practice

Tape, I said. Now in my extravagant planning I’ve carefully boxed all similar materials together. There’s a box called “metals” that contains all metals and their materials, such as brasso and cutting compound, there a box called “soldering”, a box called “carborundum paper”, a couple of boxes called “paints” – you get the picture. There’s also a box called “tape”, which has taken itself off on its holidays.

The box marked “tape” was eventually found at the bottom of the pile. So some insulating tape secured brass to block. Incidentally I’m lucky enough to have acquired some beech window frames that were taken out of use and destined for scrap, and sawn up they have a lot of uses.

But need to stop there. Last week I couldn’t see straight, witness the wrong holes (I blame the heavy cold, I was sneezing and generally making a mess of things) and this week I’ve been rediscovering the layout and workbench. It’s amazing how long it takes to clear up and classify my carp.

So now it’s correcting the holes I’ve misdrilled. It may mean cutting out a new cab back. Time to ponder.

But the tidying up has had a benefit. I’ve discovered the slides I took at Ashburton back in 1967 of the Members’ Day at the launch of the Dart Valley Railway. 4555 in steam, plus some of 4555 at Buckfastleigh a bit more than 25 years ago. Have to find a way of cleaning them up and scanning them.