Long time readers of this blog will remember a little over a year ago the original BP97 bogie appeared on our shores from Brave Scotland. MMW were the consulting engineers on the project and they did a sterling job with the prototype which was duly dispatched to DandruffVille for assembly.
The general consensus was that the bogie as provided was a tad too difficult to assemble with excessive etching "scolloping" marring the finish.
After last weekends visit into the hinterlands, I wandered home with an envelope containing all manner of etched goodness, including the MK II version of the BP97 bogie. Now, for The Forks I'll need a fair few of these puppies to go under the S, T, Z, U and UGA wagons planned on the roster so I decided to take a personal interest.
So this is what I've got:
The big news here is that its now in 0.3mm Nickel Silver as opposed to brass, and it definitely shows. The etching is crisp and straight with none of the "scalloping" in the earlier model. The Nickel is slightly stiffer as well and should be able to hold fold directions better than the brass, which from all reports was a bit "loose".
So how did I get on? Well....not too flash, actually......I had the beginnings of a cold and I couldn't find my tweezers...and to cap it all off once the iron had warmed up I found the bearing holes weren't big enough to accept the 2mm association bearings. So rather than trying to butcher my way through while I wasn't feeling my best, I wisely put it back in its envelope and went back to running the KiwiRail radio system.
A visit to Cabbage is on the cards, I feel, to make use of his much better stocked tool box, which includes a tiny set of exquisite broaches. Just the thing for getting bearings to behave.
Hopefully things can continue again later on in the week.
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