A brief hiatus, mainly due to domestic issues. Nothing serious, just enough to make me really not want to spend time at the bench. Anyhoo…
I finally made a start in the headstock detailing. As seems to be the fashion with this kit, it's a proper multimedia riot. Plastic headstocks, cast brass multipart buffers, etched details, and some very small bits of wire. It do look the part, though. In this piccie, you can see the brake end buffers, fitted with their working collars.
Underneath, it looks even more complicated! I'll explain the basic construction later, but Slater's have worked out a way to spring buffer heads both ways, to let them compress as well as be drawn forward to let the collars slip on and then have enough tension to hold said collars in place. Very neat, if fiddly and time consuming.
Here, I am compressing the buffer. The large spring deals with buffing forces.
Here, I am pulling the buffer head outwards, and you may just make out a smaller spring inside the larger spring, on the tail of the buffer head.
Here are the workings. The brass parts all need to nest inside each other and be a sliding fit. Being castings, it takes a while to file and fettle them so they work as expected. So, the head slides into the square ram, which fits inside the body. You will note, I've fitted a small wire hook to the body, which is where the chain attached to the collar goes, and the collar itself will hang when not in use.
I still have to resolve couplings, so I rather think some of the further detailing may have to wait for a response from the client. Being close to Christmas, and my client being one of the blessed not in thrall to the internet, snailmail will be slow. I could always phone him, I suppose. Anyway, only the outer ends of the rake will be fully detailed, which leads me to a question I may put to the WT megabrain.
I have four coaches in this set. I suspect I might find the answers in the reference material, but with the following vehicles, what would be a usual formation? The vehicles in question are Brake Composite, two Brake Thirds and a Composite. My guess, believing that Southern Region were fond of three coach sets, is
Brake Third+
Composite+
Brake Third with the
Brake Composite being attached as needed.
I am sure the client explained it to me some time ago, but I probably failed to note it down. Some book work is needed, then, to ascertain suitable running numbers and likely set numbers. All good fun! Perhaps I will start on some bodywork tomorrow.