When the pre-production models of the Bachmann Blue Pullman appeared, I thought that the Tri-ang model held up pretty well in terms of the basic body shape and detailing. One area where the Bachmann model particularly impressed me, though, was the detailing around the power bogies, with the brake pull rods very finely modelled.

My model uses Chris Leigh castings for the bogie frames, which are fine in themselves but omit any representation of the brake gear:

Note how there not only isn't any brake gear, but nothing at all in the void between the bogie frames.

Once the model was painted, the black frames didn't look too bad but I still felt that the brake gear was an important element which was missing:

I therefore decided to see if I could add a representation of the brake gear using some low-tech bodging! There are six power bogies in the train (although on the real thing only the inner four actually had traction motors!)  the work needed to be achievable without being too time-consuming or fiddly.

After some thought I came up with a simple scheme to detail each bogie using various bits of plastic card. The brake pull rods are 1mm square section, cut to 22mm lengths and bonded directly to the bogie frames using cyano. Once in place, they're very firmly attached. The cross members are 1mm plastic rod, cut so that they are a snug fit between the pull rods, followed by solvent and cyano. Before fitting in two place, two brake hangers are attached to each cross rod - these are just rectangles of 0.5mm plastic card with a 1mm hole drilled in their ends. Once this whole lot had set firmly, the last step was to add small triangular bits onto the brake hangers to represent the brake shoes themselves. Finally, on the front and rear power bogies only, I added a representation of guard irons - another detail which stands out on the Bachmann model.

Once painted, the additional details add a bit more presence to the power bogies:

Hope this has been of interest and thanks for reading.