Put a Smile on Your Face

I had originally thought I might replace the boiler front, or smokebox door.  However, my desire to use as many original parts as possible won the day and I began to work on the factory installed part.  I carefully trimmed away the cast wiring conduit for the former headlight.  A paper punch provided the right diameter styrene circle to fill the opening left by the headlight.  I had a brass number plate casting in my parts box. 

Finally, I used a brass wire and three brass stanchions to make the handrail.  That solved a problem I wasn't sure how to deal with, at first.  The face had three "dimples".  They looked like injector pin marks from the casting process, but it made no sense that they'd be on that side of the casting.  Usually such things are designed to be hidden on the back or inside surface.  I realized they were most likely spots where, on a different model using the same face, a trio of stanchions would be used for a handrail.  So, that's what I did.  Problem solved.