I found a lovely photograph of a B1 shunting at Clare on the Transport Treasury website.

https://www.transporttreasury.com/p968962872/h9A4C364E#h9fccc231

This got me thinking that I really needed to have one for my model. I started investigating the options and found that Hattons had a second hand one available with a slightly damaged box and a wobbly drive wheel for an attractive price. I'd spotted that Dave Bradwell produces a chassis kit which, having built his J39 chassis this was rather appealing. The Bachmann model, Bradwell chassis and Gibson wheels were all ordered and delivered and the fun commenced.

The frames went together well though there was quite a bit of cusp to file off and opening up the slots in the frames needed a bit of work with some scrap etch to get them clear.

Next up was the cylinders and these went together quite easily. The test was that a piece of wire should line through the cylinder with the centre driving axle.

I had a High Level RoadRunner+ in my stash which assembled easily and fits nicely in the chassis. The '+' bit finds between the hornguides with just a little side play.

Following another couple of good modeling sessions I got the wheels prepared and fitted with the GW wheel press. The coupling rods had already been made up so putting the whole lot together was the moment of truth. To say I was pleased when the chassis rolled and didn't bind would be an understatement. I only opened the coupling rod holes up to fit the crank pin bushes. I would have expected to add a bit more clearance (ok, slop) to make it work smoothly but I didn't need to.

Next up in the front bogie...

David