....so on to the chassis plates. The W was rebuilt from a 4-6-0 T to a 4-6-2T quite early on. The frame extensions were simply riveted on to the ends of the existing plates, and Mick designed a clever frame spacer to lock the two sections together. All the frame plates, original and extensions, are a lamination of two etches. The outer thin etches on the main, original, sections have to be orientated correctly. The thicker inner etches have a half-etched extension to the top portion. This needs to be innermost, i.e. the rear of the sandwich is the flat side and the outer side is the thin overlay. Care must be taken to align the two laminations exactly, and the soldering up and filing/emerying is a rather tedious process (in my view!)
The rear extensions are easy and quick to solder up but the outer overlay has a slot missing. This is shown in the pictures below but is easy to correct. After soldering the two laminations together, put extra solder in the outermost slot to hold the two pieces firmly. Drill either ends of the slot with a 0.5mm drill and cut out the slot with a piercing saw. I then used a 0.5mm drill as a slot drill (look away engineers) to define the slot properly. It works well if you are careful.
This shows the main sections of the chassis soldered up, below, and cleaned up, above.
The end slot is absent on the outer overlay,
but present on the thicker inner lamination.
Simply drill through from the inside with a 0.5mm drill and cut out the slot with a piercing saw.
Done, and only a 2 min job.
All the completed chassis sections. Note the inner faces of the thicker, inner lamination are flat at the rear.
Next some stretchers.......