All

Just a quick one today are there 2 toolings of these wagons late 90s and then a China tooling? What are the differences between them

Thanks

As far as I am aware, the original MEA was tooled in Poole in the year 2000, but assembled by Bachmann staff at Barwell in 2001 following the closure of the Farish operation in Poole on 23 December 2000.

In 2002 the tooling went to China for subsequent production.

The only differences would be in quality of livery application and quite possibly the UK made ones may have had Pizza cutter wheels, if produced in Poole, although in the transition period, many had low profile wheels if produced at Barwell.

The UK produced ones (2001) also had six digit Bachmann catalogue numbers: 373-500 to 373-502

The China production 46T MEA catalogue numbers (2002 - 2015) were 373-575 to 373-577 and the 21T MFA (2003 - 2012) were 373-875 to 373-878

HTH
Bob

Quote from: Bob G on February 19, 2018, 01:54:28 PM
The only differences would be in quality of livery application and quite possibly the UK made ones may have had Pizza cutter wheels, if produced in Poole

I had all types at one time, all had the same blackened wheels