I'm not quite getting to the point where I wish I'd gone down the etched chassis route, but I'm beginning to wonder...

So, I sorted the keeper plate issue by chucking it away and replacing with a new one fabricated from double sided copperclad. The benefit being the pick ups could be soldered to the underside. Gaps cut obviously for isolation.

I chiselled out a route for the pick up wires in the upper keeper plate and countersunk the hole through. Wires are 7/0.2mm.

The whole thing reassembled with the bogie temporarily fitted. I think some form of spring is going to be needed, but it happily ran up and down the test track before I removed the idler gear.

The slide bars have been fitted and held with cyano. Here is (as predicted) where we start to have a problem. The additional crank throw of the Gibson wheels does indeed cause a problem, which I initially thought was limited to the crosshead in the slide bar. You can see if here pretty much in its full forward position, yet the crank pin on the wheel is not yet at 9 o'clock. There's a definite movement in the cylinders, though I'm not sure if that's being transferred from the piston, or it's actually catching something inside. I'll take the cylinders off again and see where we go.

Somewhat trying, but the end result I'm sure will be worth it. I've put the body on to see how it's going and it's already starting to look the part.

I've also cut out a replacement tender drawbar from copperclad and will use this with the transferred Hornby bits. No photo of that though.