Les_Gregory

I think there is one possible split, the published model wagon pictures I've seen so far all fall into the later, heavily internally reinforced at the top of the sides version, easily distinguished from the outside from earlier wagons by the row of rivets along the side about a foot down from the top. The original HOP AB and HOP32 AB had thinner sides at the top but strengthening cross members which gradually became bent and missing until most wagons had completely lost most or all of them, but the sides were still thinner, they had not been reinforced, so a earlier/later type split may be possible.

I bought a second hand 9F a little while ago and it ran very well. I've just got around to fitting a sound decoder and speaker, after reassembly I was occasionally getting a fleeting short at the same position of the motion but only when moving backwards, I found this thread and was delighted to have a pointer as to where to look for the problem, thank you! I couldn't be sure the flanges of the fourth driver were touching the edge of the firebox so rather than disassemble completely I ran a sharp knife down the edge of the firebox to cut a little metal off. Unfortunately it didn't solve the problem but it meant I was looking in the right area as it turned out to be the sanding pipes, which are made of a single piece of wire running across the loco and one of them was sometimes touching both flanges of the same wheel. A bit of bending sorted that out, so the problem was almost certainly caused by my handling of the loco. I thought I'd add this in case it helps someone else in the future.

Hello John, when you say BR period does that include blue (pre-TOPS in my case) i.e. white lettering ? Regards Les

January 1991 'Model Railways' had a table listing all the fleet numbers and the builders. Les