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The major work has now been finished, and it is assembly time, start with the boiler, which has already had the stepboards fitted and glued to it. Fit the domes and bell (off the original loco) in position. The domes are fixed with a machine screw each that is tightened via the access holes in the bottom of the boiler – these holes should be hidden as they are in the gap in the underside of the boiler cladding piece. Ensure that the sand dome has the operating lever on the engineer’s side. Check that the domes are well seated down, if necessary it may be better to glue these with a clear epoxy resin glue in position. For the pipes from the sand dome I used some 2mm wire, bend it to shape, so that they drop down at the front edge of the stepboards, and they are fixed at the rear of the cylinders close against the side of the chassis, and the bottom end just shows below the slidebar assembly in due course. They are fiddly ‘so & so’s’ to get right so expect to take some time with them, they curve in two directions at once, and are both different! The bell is glued in position; you have removed the air operating cylinder (from the engineers side) and fitted a new pivot for it) make sure the operating lever if on the fireman’s side.
Fit the handrail stanchions, from the original Bachmann 4 6 0, and from where ever you stored then all that time ago. When they are all fitted the original handrails can be measured for their new length and then stored for later. Fit the operating lever, on the engineers side, for the sand dome – this is a tiny piece of plasticard strip, which faces slightly forward, on the end of it add a couple of plasticard strips leading rearwards, then between these strips add a tiny piece of tube in a horizontal position, this is where the operating rod which is made from .75mm (.030) wire will be fitted to. Do not make the operating rod yet as it goes through the cab front.
Fit the water feed globe valves in position, and also on the fireman’s side a pipe that goes into the lower regions of the smokebox that is I think a blower pipe. Where all these pipes are fed into their location I add a small nut to indicate the fixing gland.
With the boiler/domes/stepboard unit now joined the cab (minus its roof) can be ‘trial’ fitted. I have painted the interior of mine with a rough and uneven single coat of wood color, to cover the white of the plasticard. You do not need a carefully applied and opaque color, what you are doing is giving it a grained look; there will be surprisingly little that can be seen when the cab roof is on.
Inside the cab interior corners I have glued 4 pieces of the grey SHS square tube, these are for 4 screws to be fitted to hold the cab down, they need holes drilled through the stepboard, the rear one are just in front of the rear and undercab support brackets, and the cab should slide down into the gap between the boiler cladding and firebox. Screw the cab down but only with a couple of screws and it is time for the following to be done. On the front of the cab, mark the following – where the handrails touch the cab: where the operating wire for the sand dome touches the cab: where the cord from the bell touches the cab on the fireman’s side; all these need a hole drilled through the cab front wall.
Now remove the cab, as you will gain some working area; the slide on firebox is fitted (but not fixed). You can now see where the pipes on the firebox sides would (allegedly) go through the cab front, the following pipes are involved - to the air pump, the water feed pipes, the blower pipe.
All these pipes can be cut to length after bending and fitting them, do not forget the little ones on the bottom part of the air pump that disappear through the inner edge of the stepboard to the chassis; the little gold (brass) gadget between the cab and pump is made from bits of tube to the drawing. When all have been made remove them and paint them the colours required, and then re-fit. As the cab end of these pipes are rather vulnerable I have fitted underneath the pipes and on top of the rearmost boiler band tiny pieces of plastic that hold the pipe ends still; painted black they cannot be easily seen.
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