QUOTE (DRK @ 31 Oct 2008, 13:16)
<{POST_SNAPBACK}>Thank you Keith I stand corrected, you are of course correct with the use of prefix and suffix..
The use of the suffix and its meaning has changed over the years from the Rovex days. A catalogue I have shows R355G in green. In the same catalogue we have R258G Princess Royal class loco as Princess Elizabeth in LMS livery (Maroon). So what did the 'G' suffix actually mean?
The use of symbols was used in some cases for magnadhesion, smoke, lights etc. The 'S' suffix appears to have been used to signify smoke unit fitted. It is now being used by Hornby to signify sound fitted. Out of interest I have just checked the on line Hornby catalogue and the suffix A & B is still used for some locos albeit very few. R2355A/B 0-6-0 class Q1 and R2325B LNER 0-6-0T class J83 are two examples.
Regards
Dave
I guess you're talking about the Triang-Hornby 16th edition catalogue, where Pricess Elizabeth first appeared in LMS livery as R258G. It also featured the Hall class loco Albert Hall in GWR livery as R759G, also for the first time. Previously Albert Hall had only been available in BR livery as R759. So my view is that in this case the G may have been intended to indicate a model in Grouping livery, i.e. LMS or GWR. In both cases the BR liveried versions were dropped from the catalogue, so there was no need to issue a new catalogue number when adding a suffix would do the trick. It didn't apply to the Flying Scotman as that was launched in both BR and LNER liveries at the same time as R850 and R855 respectively. Equally, other locos issued in Grouping liveries but with the BR versions continuing got new R numbers for the 'Big 4' liveried versions.
But the story doesn't end there. In the 17th edition, Princess Elizabeth was still in LMS livery, but had regained smoke and a "chuffing sound" tender and became R258NS (N = Noise?, and S = Smoke). Likewise R759 became R759N, still in GWR livery but also with a "chuffing" tender. They couldn't use S to indicate locos with the 'chuffing' sound as S was already used.
The next year, both Pricess Elizabeth and Albert Hall catalogue numbers changed again to become R258AS and R759A. In this case the A seems to reflect the change to nickel silvered tyred versions from the previous all-Mazak driving wheeled versions, as various other locos also gained A suffixes at the same time. Does A mean amended? Incidentally both 'Elizabeth' and 'Albert' still had "chuffing" tenders even though they lost the N suffix. The Britannia R259 never got an A suffix as it got its N/S tyres at the same time as it got its 'chuffing' tender, and so went from R259S to R259NS.
So in the past the suffixes stood for whatever the Margate management wanted them to stand for, which could be running number, or livery or smoke, or exhaust sound or finerscale wheel flanges, or whatever else was needed to indicate evolution of a model, be it loco, rolling stock, trains set or lineside acessory.
Triang never issued suffixes or new R numbers for models that gained Magnadhesion as that was a one time permanent change. Of course many models were issued with Magnadhesion from their first release, whilst others never had it. When locos were first issued with Smoke they did not get an S suffix at first as there was no choice, you took what was on offer or did without. The S suffix only appeared the following year when Triang reintroduced versions without Smoke, which used the existing R numbers whilst the Smoke versions did get the S suffix.
Incidentally I was never that impressed with the synchrosmoke verions, I always thought the original Seuthe units were much better.
Nowadays the S suffix has reappeared but to indicate locos fitted with DCC Sound chips and appears as XS, the X meaning DCC Fitted. Perhaps it ought to have been XN if the past precedent of using N for Noise had been followed.
Hope you found this interesting.
Keith.
