The next job to tackle was the underfame detailing. I glued in a couple of cross beams made from strip wood and one longitudinal beam for fitting the brake rod support and the battery box. I made the truss rods from brass rod and tube and fashioned some dummy turnbuckles from plastic tube with the centre section cut out using my old Expo drill. Brake rodding  was made from plastic rod and plastikard, the brake cylinder is the top from a toothpaste tube. Although I have included this level of brake detailing I have decided not to fit brake shoes to the wheels on the grounds of a), it's too fiddly and b), they would be barely visible as the bogies sit well in board from the ends of the coach. I may decide to fit brake shoes at some time in the future if I feel that way inclined. The final bit of underfloor detail is the battery box. This is a working battery box which will contain 2 AA size batteries to power the coach lighting. I mounted the box on its side and added some plastic strip detailing in order to represent the real thing

I have decided to change the name of this blog so that I can describe the various workshop maintenance tasks on the TBLR as well as new construction projects.

The Drewry railcar is currently in the workshop as it has developed a gearbox problem and is not running very smoothly. It waits out of use while I decide its fate. I may just tinker with the gearing or completely rebuild the motor unit assembly.

Two partitions were made from basswood and also treated with sanding sealer. These were glued in place to create separate first, third and guard's compartments. Brass rivets were then super glued into the previously drilled holes. Some cast lamp irons (from the bits box) were glued on. Further exterior detailing was added as follows: door hinges for the outward opening guard's compartment (fine plastic rod), drip strips for the inward opening passenger doors (quarter round plastic strip sanded flat on the curved profile) and fitting brackets for the end steps made from flat strip with dummy rivets made from short sections of plastic rod. All the plastic strip is by Evergreen.
I intend to run the coach with the guard's section at the rear and at this end I have fitted a scale T&D chopper coupling from a John Campbell cattle wagon kit. Once the exterior details were fitted, the steps (included as part of the etch) were folded up into the correct position.
To mount the bogies I cut some wooden cross pieces, drilled in the centre to take some threaded rod, 2.5mm dia. just because I happened to have some. The rod was anchored with a nut and then the bogie mount (is it called a bolster?) was super glued in place over this with the rod protruding through. The assemblies were glued in place under the coach floor and the bogies were then fitted on to these and secured with nuts.
Due to the sharp curves on the TBLR I have fitted the coupling at the loco end to an extension arm supplied with the bogie kit. I extended the arm with a scrap of brass so that it protruded beyond the headstock and fitted an Accucraft chopper coupling to this, minus its mounting unit. This coupling follows the centre line of the track even on the sharpest curves. I have positioned this coupling as close to the headstock as possible so that a near scale appearance is achieved on straight track at least.