This quarter has seen us getting to grips with some of the "big shiny bits" on the locomotive. Just before Christmas we had fitted the remaining coupling rods, and in the New Year we took delivery of the completed cab which had been fabricated and painted at Ropley on the Mid-Hants Railway.

To re-fit the cab, it was necessary to shunt "Owsden Hall" first, then our locomotive, into the open air to give the delivery lorry's crane room for manoeuvre. This was a testing time for the coupling rods to ensure there was no binding, and there were some heart-stopping moments before it was realized that stones lodged under the wheels were preventing the diesel shunter from withdrawing its heavy load into the yard. When the stones had been dealt with (ground down to dust!), the loco ran sweetly to and fro, and we were happy that all is well with the rods and bearings. Meanwhile the cab was lowered on to the loco frames, and after some heaving to get it lined up with the bolt holes on the loco, we were able to secure it in place. Apart from fitting the window frames and installing electrical wiring  in the conduit runs to connect switches and lights, the cab is now complete.

Within the cab we have replaced the floor boards, and have been putting fittings back in place ahead of our pipe-fitter's return to do more work, so the boiler back-head is now looking quite complete with all its cladding painted and in place. Also, the reverser control and drive shaft have been re-fitted so we can see how well the boiler crinoline strips line up. As anticipated, there is a slight height discrepancy which will result in some cutting out and re-welding of the strip to compensate.

With the cab back in place we have been able to assess how well it aligns with the boiler and the boiler crinolines. The cladding on the boiler barrel has to fit underneath the cab with sufficient clearance to allow the boiler to move as it warms up. The boiler is bolted to the locomotive chassis at the smokebox end and expands backwards, becoming approximately ¾" longer when up to temperature. The crinolines, although made to the drawings, appear to stand off from the sides of the firebox a little, and the supporting stools will have to be trimmed back to fit. It's as well that we are finding these discrepancies now, rather than after the fire-box cladding sheets have been made.

Apart from the finished cab, we have also received the connecting rods at Toddington. The outside rods were last seen as rough forgings lying around the yard, but now they have been fully machined as part of a batch of rods being produced for Southern Locomotives for their numerous Bulleid Pacifics, an arrangement which has saved us a great deal of money. The rods await a lot of work to remove small machining marks on their surfaces, partly to improve their appearance but mainly to remove points where stress cracks or corrosion could form. The inside connecting rod is an original (from 35029), and has received its surface polishing treatment already. They all require their bearings to be machined before fitting, but we now have a complete set of rods for the locomotive.

After the marathon effort involved in completing the cab windows, the never-ending job of machining pipe-fittings has resumed. An order has been placed for all the copper piping we anticipate needing to complete the locomotive; a faint glimmer of light at the end of the long tunnel, perhaps?