Work on the steamchest has temporarily stopped, awaiting some brass and bronze hex rod, so I thought the smokebox handrail might be a quick job for today.
Well, it wasn't. The knobs were a pain, with only one being 'normal', so could be turned, cross drilled and finished. Its opposite number doubled as a blower elbow, while the front one doubled as a lamp socket. Some fiddly silver soldering got them made up, and tails tapped 8ba allowed them to be screwed in place.
The handrail itself was bent up from 16swg nickel silver, a statement which rather quickly draws a veil over hours, really, hours, of bending and checking. It could have gone well and fitted first time, but it didn't. Each check required the rail to be fed through all three knobs and the whole smokebox assembly slotted into position to check where the ends would fall, relative to a couple of locating holes on the tank ends. It didn't go well, and was frankly not a pleasant way to spend so much time.
Sort of got there in the end, with the rail sitting parallel where it should, and fairly symmetrical around the front, but it definitely isn't perfect.
here's a shot showing the handrail and a semblance of the blower feed temporarily slotted onto it's elbow on the RHS.
A shot showing bits that will become invisible.
And I've just noticed I forgot to make and fit an elliptical mounting flange for the blower elbow, so the job is not finished after all.
At least the elbow can be unscrewed from smokebox and a shaped flange slotted on.. but not today.