Ballast Wagon Brass Bits

The second test etch has arrived from Narrow Planet for the brass parts required to complete the ballast wagon kit and there's good news.

The re-designed brake cylinder cover piece is a perfect fit this time. It is a piece of shaped brass which is folded twice to create the inverted U shape you can see in the picture below. There is one in the right hand corner at either end of the wagon.

I have also fitted the large and small hand wheels which you can also see in the photo above.

The big one controls the ballast chute doors on the real wagon and the small ones on the frame work the handbrakes.

The other revised components that had to be checked were the pinions which are positioned under the main frame of the wagon and which are there, on the real thing, to engage with racks on the ballast doors to raise and lower them.

We were trying to get more definition on the teeth this time around and I think we succeeded. 

If you click on the picture you should be able to get a closer look and judge for yourself.

That you can see any details at all on components which are so tiny is a  real tribute to the quality of the design work of Steve at Narrow Planet.

There are just a couple more tiny tweaks still required and with luck the third test etch will be the final one and we can sign off the first run of production etches.

Time to get casting...