A little more progress on the Buffalo...
The cab has been soldered in place on the footplate and the roof added - this has a length of 5 amp fuse wire soldered in place along the back edge to represent the upstand (or angle) that was there. The cab handrails are fine guitar string (as they will be left as polished steel). The upper cab step was folded up from a strip of 0.004" nickel silver and sweated in place on the outside frame below the cab entrance.
The lamp sockets (rather than lamp irons) were filed up from some 1mm square brass rod that I'd thinned to about 0.030" square. A flat projection being filed to represent the fixing plate extending from the rear which was bolted to the footplate above the buffer beam. The vacuum pipes are simply represented with lengths of phosphor bronze wire, although the pipes running below the footplate along the outside frames are 0.3mm brass wire as that was straight to start with.
The buffer housings shown in the previous instalment were soldered to a piece of 0.004" nickel silver sheet, and then the sheet cut out and filed around the buffer housings to represent the square bases of the buffer housings (after the buffer shank hole was made good). The buffer head/shank was inserted into the housing and into the holes previously drilled in the buffer beam to maintain alignment as the whole was soldered in place.
Beneath the saddle tank, a piece of 0.020" brass has been cut out and folded up to form the lower part of the smokebox (and provide a location for the front body-to-chassis fixing bolt). I will be adding some plastic sheet to the underside of the motor back towards the cab to represent the bottom of the boiler and to hide motor and part of the worm. Further pieces of nickel sheet still need to be cut and fitted to represent the firebox sides and to hide the gearbox.
DG couplings have been soldered to the underside of the buffer beams, and finally the etched springs have been super-glued to the outer face of the splashers.
The next steps will be to form the cab floor and bunker assembly and to progress the saddle tank assembly which will include turning up the filler, dome and safety valve casings, and to form the front components of the smokebox.
Tonight I'll take her over to the Midland Area Group meeting where she can stretch her legs on St. Ruth rather than running back and forth along my 18" long test track.
Ian
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