133. More on the Tank.
After days of trying to remove the wrinkles from the Bacofoil thin front tank former, I bit the bullet and buried the lot under Milliput. The front tank former was half etched giving some rivet detail which didn’t match any prototype pictures that I have. The etched rivets were too big, there weren’t nearly enough of them and the inner row followed the curvature of the smoke box below its widest point instead of dropping down vertically. There was a small cosmetic infill piece to cover the gap on the prototype giving this illusion. There isn’t much detail on the tank/smoke box front but when I place the smoke box door in position, it makes a tremendous difference. The addition of a couple of handrail knobs, the handrail wire, the smoke box door dart, a steam lance cock, lamp irons and the chimney which will draw your eyes away from the front will make all the difference.
A view from the front showing the balance pipe fitted in the previously attached flanges. This was made from a piece of 1.6mm nickel silver wire, which was the largest I had, and soldered in place.
The front of the tank does look flat and so it would having been being sanded flat with a piece of emery on plate glass. As mentioned in the previous caption, hopefully the front detail will alleviate this. Buffers, a 3 link coupling and a front lamp will also give additional detail. I cannot make out buffer plank numbers in my pictures and I have a suspicion that these were not regularly applied to absorbed locomotives, the GWR cast in the cab side plate sufficing. I have seen pictures of some absorbed locomotives with them but not Barry F’s. Perhaps some works applied them and not others.
As an aside, I’ve had this piece of plate glass for about 40 years and have lost count of the number of chassis that have been constructed on it! This model only just fitted on it so unless I acquire a larger piece, this will be the largest model I’ll build.
A rear 3/4 view showing the tank rear sitting snugly on the firebox. Some Milliput was applied here to make a flush finish to the rear of the tank. The motor is in position, but obviously not visible, and the top of the firebox is sufficiently clear of it. The balance pipe is again visible as are the “frames” between the splashers.
With the boiler/firebox removed and power leads clipped to the motor terminals, the chassis/footplate/cab assembly ran smoothly over a foot of my test track. I say a foot as this was limited by the length of the power leads.