Lots of work on small parts going on. First, the PRR-style strap pilot had to go. I wanted to keep the pilot beam, though, so I cut off everything below it, did the same with a Precision Scale pilot, and JB Welded the two together.
One of the peculiarities with this loco is that the pilot and cylinders were originally too high, probably to provide more clearance for the pilot wheels to swing on tight curves. In my first post you can see the centerline of the crossheads is way too high above the wheel centers. They did this with the tongue on the back of the pilot assembly, visible on the top photo, which jacked the whole thing up. I want to lower the pilot and cylinders, so I cut off the tongue. On a future post you'll see how it all fits together.
A side-effect of doing this was that I now need more space between the saddle and the smokebox (the distance was unprototypically short, anyway). I cut off the collar, and will build up a new one with styrene.
No more Belpaire. Next is to build up the gouges with JB Weld and sand it to a nice smooth finish. You can also see that I've removed part of the running boards, and and working on the stack - more on that later.
