Nut fitting

I've been ploughing on with the C15 locomotive and just realised that I'd managed to forget to fit the nuts that grab the bolts to hold the body and chassis together.

This isn't a problem at the back end. The hole in the footplate is clearly accessible so a quick smear of flux and solder were enough to sort this out. I even managed to line up the hole in the brass and the centre of the nut first time.

At the front though - who put the boiler in the way ?

Anyway, I tried to hold the nut in place with tweezers and that didn't work. Then I tried a clip and that didn't work either.

Finally I took a risk. The bolt was liberally coated with permanent marker and then some oil. It was screwed into the nut and pulled down. I went in quickly with a big soldering iron and blobbed solder around it. And it worked. The result isn't a neat joint but the nut is secure and best of all the bolt unscrews. If I'd soldered it in I'd have been in real trouble !