As light relief from treating the fuel tank in my van, I’ve been working on the waggly bits for mineral engine. I still hope to have it available for test next weekend at Tolworth.
As I’ve found before, the design of this kit is superb. The cylinders fold up and are strengthen with some thin tube that the piston rods run in. The slide bars are etched and also fold. Holes are provided to line parts up. If there is a fault it’s that the cylinder wrappers are on the thick side and could do with annealing before you try and form them. I managed but would do things differently if I built another.
The crossheads are cast brass. Very clean too. You solder a brass piece to the back of each to finish them. This traps the rod so some tidy soldering is needed. I cheat a bit and coat anything I don’t want soldered with permanent pen. Solder hates dirt and this keeps it away from problem areas – mostly.
This whole arrangement is very fine. Although it is stronger than it appears I’ll still be glad once it’s firmly fixed to a locomotive.
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