It's been a little while since my last entry about the BR Standard Class 2 2-6-2 tank. This has now been painted and lined and is in the process of being weathered by my good friend David Clarke.

Whilst this is underway, I've been doing a few slightly different things, for me, anyway.
First, I've assembled a Lanakshire Models tender sprung chassis and fitted it to a Brassmasters outer frames and footplate unit to go under a Bachmann ex-LMS Fowler 3500 gallon tender, destined for a Crab.

Secondly, I've fitted injectors and associated pipework to a part built (by someone else) ex-LMS Stanier 8F. This is a Hornby body on a Comet chassis.

I also finished off and fitted the front pony truck, which has a sprung axle and fixed rubbing plates, as per the prototype.

Having completed this work, I decided to start my own next project which is a fully sprung Penbits chassis for the Bachmann EE Type 4 (Class 40) diesel. So far, I've assembled the two bogie frames, complete with the axle carriers, and the front truck frames. The kit is fairly complex but very well thought out and produced. Everything has fitted well with no adjustments except to get smooth movement of the bearings in their frame slots.
Of course, with two bogies to build, everything is doubled up compared with a steam loco chassis, so I'm trying to progress both, one step at a time, and trying not to mix up the bits between them!
Here are the two bogie frames and pony trucks, set out in their correct relative positions.

One of them has the bearing carriers located in the frame slots which, unusually, open to the top of the frame sides.

and the other without.

Dave.