Bachmann Seacow YGH Hoppers Departmental Olive Green (38-130B) - are there 2 versions?

[AMac]

Hi, I have been looking at purchasing a few of the Dept Olive Green Seacows by Bachmann and noticed there appear to be 2 photos showing the decals/markings in slightly different places. See the screen shots below (one image is higher resolution); you can see the warning hazard sign on different sides of the end U channel ribbing and other info including wagon type and YGH code are in different spots with less/more info. Are these 2 different types or is it just the 2 sides of a model? If there are 2 types is one better than the other? 

 

As a sub question, why are these seacows but have "SEALION" written on the side? Are they ex Sealion and converted to Seacow? I'm trying to start a layout based on late 70's very early 80's  on /around the WCML.

 

By the way I picked up on an excellent thread on this site about the make up of a ballast train including seacows/sealions, sharks (never heard of them before!) dogfish and grampus wagons. This thread also introduced me to the different braking systems with what goes with each other and the formations - still getting my head around this!

 

Any help appreciated.

[giz]

The first photo looks like it is a 38-130A, sometimes Bachmann use a photo of a previous release in their catalogue when announcing a new variant of an existing model and it looks like this is what happened.

The first Sealions (1970s) were built dual braked, a batch was also built air brake only (but vacuum piped) and called Seacows. The later Seacow (1980s), as produced by Hornby, was also air brake only.

TOPS codes for Sealions were YGH (dual brakes with AFI) and YGX (dual brakes). Seacows were YGB (air brake, vacuum piped).

Edited April 9, 2021 by giz
TOPS codes added

[hmrspaul]

Beware that Hornby Seacows, correctly have a different bogie, they aren't the same wagon. 

 

Hornby type https://paulbartlett.zenfolio.com/seacow

 

Bachmann type https://paulbartlett.zenfolio.com/brsealion

 

And don't worry about colour shade, BR didn't. 

 

You need the bookazine by Key publishing on departmental wagons - see separate topic on here. 

 

Paul

[AMac]

Hi giz,

 

many thanks for the info. Yes, I was wondering about the YGH code.  

Cheers,

Alastair

[AMac]

Hi Paul, thanks for the link to the photos. I take it these are your photos? Fantastic to have that resource made available!

 

To my eyes it looks like the 38-130B's are also a Sealion?  Seems to agree with the coding as per giz's post. 

 

Good tip on the bookazine as well - I found the page on this site. I might just get that bookazine.

 

Cheers,
Alastair

[Dungrange]

1 hour ago, hmrspaul said:

Beware that Hornby Seacows, correctly have a different bogie, they aren't the same wagon. 

 

Hornby type https://paulbartlett.zenfolio.com/seacow

 

Bachmann type https://paulbartlett.zenfolio.com/brsealion

 

Probably worth highlighting that Hornby produce models of both versions.  The one linked to is the welded body type introduced in 1981, which Hornby produced all new tooling for back in the early 2000s.  However, they've also subsequently reissued the former Lima model under the Hornby brand, which represented the older riveted version as represented by Bachmann.  I don't think the bogies were correct on the Lima model, but I think Hornby corrected these when they reissued the model under the Hornby brand.