Rear buffer beam

One criticism of the original design is that the rear buffer beam shown in the plans is nothing like that found on the full size locomotive.

The full size locomotive has a tall flat buffer beam similar to that shown in the drawing.

The position of the buffers is the same as on the plans relative to the bottom.

This allows a much taller angle to be used, hence the 6 rivets.

1501 Doesn't use that sort of bracket at all, it uses a casting with webs.

The drawing also shows the approximate position of the cosmetic rivets that can be added. These can be drilled part of the way through and 1/16" rivets bonded in with Loctite. NB:- The rivets can be very difficult to spray paint because they have a coating that repels the paint, preventing it bridging between the rivet and the buffer beam. It's important to completely clean off the rivets with abrasives before fitting them if this problem is to be avoided. Spraying too much paint in one coat should be avoided because it will show as a depressed ring around each rivet.

Use low tack masking tape to protect the black parts when spraying the red buffer beams. It's difficult to find masking tape that doesn't damage the surface. Frog tape or the standard Halfords brands don't work well. 3M brands and Tamiya have been suggested as possible alternatives. In any case, don't leave the tape on for any longer than absolutely necessary. It's also not a good idea to bake these in an oven because any solvents in the dummy rivet pockets will expand and cause bubbles in the paint. If you leave masking tape on and bake it, you will destroy the masked surface.

The two holes to the left of the square hole are possible attachement points for a vacuum pipe detail. Two additional holes can be added to hold the bracket for the valve seen at the bottom.

The rear most steps on the original plans show them in a different place to the full sizse locomotive and here is an alternative arrangement that's more true to scale. I understand that the original locomotives were built like the plans but were soon modified to the arrangement below.