Paint Shop for the Wee Ben

HR Small Ben frames with inside motion and balance weights.

While stripping down the Wee Ben ready for the Paint Shop I realised that the motion plate was in the wrong place and that the balance weights were back to front. This came about when I chanced upon a drawing of a projected enlarged Small Ben in Cormack and Stevenson's "Highland Railway Locomotives 2". I've had this book on my shelves for ages but never looked at these drawings of engines that were never built before. Anyway, there it was...a drawing that included enough detail of the inside motion to show me that I'd got it wrong. So I put it right and I think it looks better now with the balance weights the right way round. The frames of course are not prototypical in the area of the bogie wheel arch, they are cut away to allow the wheels clearance, which was not the case with the real thing, the frames should curve down to support the motion plate. When the pistons are mounted in the slide bars the motion will be complete. You can see the earlier erroneous version of the inside motion under the Blog sub heading for the Small Ben which contains more construction details and photos.

HR Wee Ben; details of boiler mountings and spectacle plate.

I comissioned an etch for the stepped circular lookout surrounds and I think they improve matters; I have a few left if anyone wants a set. The engine is to be HR No.8 Ben Klibreck. Ben Kilbreck, as it's now known, is a remote mountain in the far North which I climbed a few years back with my wife and the dogs when we were chasing the Munros. I'm pretty sure that No.8 carried an early style brass number plate with the lettering and numbers incised and inlaid in black. As you can see I've mounted the number plate on the cab side already, I'll mask it with tape when I spray the engine.