A moderately productive weekend, most of the LH side done, despite being washed several times and unlike Levis from my youth, it hasn't shrunk.
Whilst NS is lovely to work with it's a right bear to photograph.
It's slightly better close up.
The reversing lever shaft bearings were a bit of a trifle to get in place and the pixies were in overnight during the CAD work to add an extra hole in the outer overlay, which shouldn't and won't be on the next rendition. A small rebate bearing shaped will be on the inside of the next frames to make locating said parts easier. There's just enough flex in the frames to pop the shaft out but that'll go when the inside motion bracket goes (still researching that component) in.
The brake hangers came out well, made up of three pieces which if you follow the plan (which I rarely do) go together rather easily.
Up front the middle cylinder bolt flanges were added, simple strips punched and soldered into place as is the base of the bogie stretcher, motion bracket is a laminate with simple fold around flange, join the dots and follow the yellow brick road sort of stuff.
The bogie splashers were then dropped in, the rear one having a face plate which I think is going to present problems if left at fine scale width. I tested the frames with some donor wheels and the front has a massive overhang on a 6' curve, which is probably why the 1:1 engines had oval buffers.
Moving the face plate out further runs the risk of impacting the cross head, though that might be possible as the slide bars are scale width and the frames for O Fine. Technically the face plate could come out another 1.0mm each side. Question is will it look at odds with the rest of the area, next chassis will have two strips, one as is and one wider.
Next up will be the cylinder cover fronts, I'm opting for one with covers as the 3D parts are not ready yet, the overly large hols centred and the right size so expect no issue fitting the casting when they arrive, though the middle cylinder front will need it's hole opening out on the next chassis, no idea why I ever imagined I'd needed a small hole in there when both the outsides are large.
Footplate brackets all sorted as well, Nick has added an extra bracket that I didn't add to the original etch, simply because I had no proof at the time that it was there, the drawings are singularly and collectively useless in this aspect.
However some scrap yard photos of similar NER engines show some with some sort of additional flange on there; so I'll add them to the next run reasoning it's easier to take it off at the bend if you have it, than it is to add it if it's not there.
MD