CNS&M 459: Part 5

Well after about an hour and a quarters work I got this part back into shape.

I was recently asked how do I hold all the bits together to stop them falling apart. The simple answer is to use a jig. In this case a very simple jig that uses dress pins stuck into the board I solder on to hold everything in place. To get the coupler plate in the right place I used a coffee stirrer to keep the distance I wanted between the front solebar and the coupler plate.

As you can see here bits have fallen off. Do not panic, bits will fall off. Just take your time and re-solder them back-on later with spot solder joints. Unfortunately, one of the little stanchions that holds the cut lever in place pinged off never to be seen again. Drat. Also broke one of the grab irons, but as that is a simple piece of bent wire, it's not hard to replace.

Meanwhile, I ran the all the rest of the finished parts through the paint shop. Here is the main body painted red, and I will now mask the nose, window frames, and doors and paint her green.

Et voilà...

Of course I've still to finish off the other frame assembly and paint it. So a bit of a half-finished botch up really, but I was on a roll.

So now to fabricating a replacement for the missing stanchion that holds the cut lever assembly on the front of the frame. There are three of these, so I'm going to use one of the remaining two as a template. First I soldered the spare on to a piece of scrap brass that was the right thickness, cleaned it up a bit, and then drilled the hole through.

Next I cut around it to get the rough shape, but leaving enough to hold the work with.

Okay, all I've got to do now is clean off the excess solder, reassemble the cut lever assembly onto the sub-frame and this part of the project is done & dusted.

I have to be honest, and admit that on Monday I had lost my Mojo over this. I spent most of the day distracting myself with other stuff, like going out for a meal and seeing the new Ridley Scot movie Prometheus, which was a welcome change. On Tuesday I was able to get back in the saddle and work on both this locomotive and #452. The point is, that patience and perseverance are what you need when doing something like this, and if you have enough of both then you can achieve whatever you set your mind to.