After some fiddly work and a lot of cursing I have completed the operating rods for the front sand boxes. The rods were bent up from 0.6mm dia brass rod which was then filed flat on two sides to give a finished thickness of 0.25mm. Pinned joints use 0.25mm brass rod. The cross member is 0.4mm rod. The triangular brackets were filed up from 1.5 x 1.5mm brass channel section. While I was at it, I also made some new lids for the sandboxes as the Bachmann ones were poorly fitted and could not be rescued.

The observant may notice that the front steps have disappeared. When drilling the footplate for the missing handrails it was apparent that the steps were wrongly located. They will be thinned down and fixed centrally under the handrails in due course.