Well the rest of the kit arrived at the start of February,
however a house move put construction on hold for a while.
Now that is out of the way I can keep on going.
Next on the agenda is the fitting of the ashpan and the grate.
The grate is a lovely cast item which is suppose to loosely fit
in the base of the firebox. All very well in theory, but the
bottom row of studs foul the grate and stop it fom dropping
into the ashpan when needed. This necessiated the removal of
some of the grate. I think some more may need to come off
but there will be time for that once the boiler has been sorted
out.
It's not actually clear from the drawings or description how the
ashpan and drop mechanism is supposed to go together. There is
a set of holes drilled in what appears to be the wrong place.
The instructions also say to fit the ash defelector which I
believe is to protect the pony truck mechanism from the ash.
but there is not picture or description on how that is
supposed to be fitted as it seems to foul both the pony truck
and the blowdown valve. Methinks an email to Maxitrak is in
order to clear the mystery up.
The other item which could be attached at this point is the
petticoat. This needed a couple of cutouts in the sides to
clear the main steam pipe and steam pipes to the clinders.
When that is done, the plates are marked for the holes and
the whole lot is bolted in place.
