RT Models Hudson Tipper - part 5.

I've been busy fitting the end details on these two wagons.

First the angled strengthening brackets were fitted, there are four of these per end;

 

I held the chassis lightly in the rubber jaws of my vice when soldering. There are tabs on the brackets which locate into slots on the end plates, however care is still needed to make sure everything sits square. This is where soldering comes into its own as the bracket can be tacked, checked, repositioned, checked, and so on until you're satisfied that everything is nice and square. The bracket on the left above is fully folded to shape, on the right hand bracket I've left the longest (angled) fold flat to make it easier to hold the bracket in tweezers. Only after I was finally satisfied with the position did I fold the angle over. I took several days over fitting the brackets rather than rush.

The next job was to fit the centre locating pins and the end stops;

 

All pretty easy really. To fit the end stops I tinned the top of the end plates, held the stops in place with tweezers, then applied heat from underneath, effectively sweating the joint.

All soldering again done with a 25W Antex and 188 degree solder. I thought that I might have to step-solder at some stage but so far that hasn't been necessary.

Still more work to do but I'm getting there;

 

Paul.