LSWR is only one letter different from LNWR after all …

I am constructing an LSWR tank engine in Gauge 3 because basically it is the only locomotive available for this scale at a reasonable cost with the necessary attributes: a good scale representation of the original, electrical propulsion but with radio control, and a scale model of an engine which is not too large.

Fortunately, the Gauge 3 society has produced a model kit which fills these categories/criteria.  A scale model of an 0-6-0 tank engine which was used for shunting and light traffic.  Here are some pictures of the kit as I start to make the body of the lodomotive:

The frames I have started on already (see the entry “Miscellaneous, incl. Rashmi’s wedding”, but now I am starting on the main part of the engine – the boiler, water tanks cab and coal bunker.  The kit is largely in brass sheet, about half a millimeter thick.  As with the steel-sheet frames, I am trying to use silver-soldering for the major joints, thinking that later construction will be made easier if I use (lower temperature) “soft soldering”.

So far it has all gone well.