"F" Second Bogies

Small “F” Series : Second Bogies (1881)

The second batch of bogie carriages were supplied in 1881, again by Brown, Marshalls & Co., and later became known as the “Small Fs” owing to a lower roof profile than the later vehicles. 9’ 6” tall on wooden underframes, they had the frames concealed by the lower panelling of the bodies in common with other early stock such as the Empress Vans and Small Luggages.

When the post-war red and cream livery was adopted starting in 1946, to match the later stock with exposed solebars a black stripe was painted along the bottom of the carriage bodies, though when this livery was reinstated in 1999-2000 this was absent until 2013 making for an unusual appearance in trains of mixed rakes.

With a number of design differences between them, notably panelling between compartments, varying class designations, guards compartments’ and slab sides (straight sided as opposed to the later batches which had tapered sides), of note were F.7 and F.8 which were supplied by the Ashbury Carriage & Wagon Co., but to a very similar design.

Three of this particular batch remain in regular traffic today, F.9, F.10 and F.11, all of which have been fully restored in more recent times. Click the links on the left hand side below to find out more on each member of this initial series of bogie carriages (see also F.19-F.20 and F.21-F.26):-