Sun Chariot

As well as the compromised expansion link set up, the cylinder drain cocks might be correct for the current Flying Scotsman guise but totally wrong for the LNER / BR period Bob

Hello Arthur I had a feeling you had scratch built the valvegear bits, they look excellent. I particuarly like the bigend brass casing I just wish they were available on the market. I choose the masochist option and used the existing expansion link lost wax castings that came with the kits My method was to file back the inner sides of the expansion link castings enough to provide enough room to fit a scratch built central support made from a scrap bit of etch. With the radius rod then fitted onto the new SB central support and able slide up an down within it they were then slid into the reworked expansion link casting and carefully soldered into place Its a realy pity that no one has produced an etch for the the expansion link. The ones that Martin Finney included in his LNER Pacific valve gear etches now Finney7 were superb Regarding the Smokebox casting my DJH A2 and A1 had the same problem and both were rectified using the same method as you described. They all look the part when complete Regards Bob

Arthur I agree with Jazz 60147 looks great expecially the three piece expansion link ..... was that scratch built or purchased. If the latter where from Ive completed a DJH A1, A2 and A3 and in each case converted the supplied lostwax expansion casting into a three piece thereby allowing the valvegrear to be manually set mid , forward or reverse. It was a real pain in the B converting those castings. I still have another DJH pacific to build but not looking forward to converting another expansion link casting Just in case anyone is wondering about the dome position , on its last overhaul 60116s A1 boiler was replaced with an ex A2 boiler variant and in this case the banjo dome is positioned further forward Regards Bob

Sorry but while expansion link looks to have been improved The radius rod which should fit through the expansion link to indicate mid / reverse or forward gear appears to pass behind it Hmmmm

Update that shows the A3s looking impressive, though the tenders appear to be sitting too high on their wheelsets