Something I'd not noticed before whilst trawling for class 30/31 roof photos- there appear to be two different styles of roof panelling.
The main difference is in the area above the engine, where the four opening roof hatches are. On some examples the central roof 'catwalk' (six strips of metal ribbing fixed to the roof) is an integral part of that section of roof, whereas on others the catwalk area seems to be removable, with attendant slight differences in the ribbing positions.
I consulted all the class 31 plans/drawings I know of and none show two styles; in fact I don't think any of the drawings is right in many respects; none of them show for instance that the roof reaches forward into the cab dome on one end. One of them portrays the boiler exhaust port as being round.
What I need to know is whether the roof differs in detail on a '31/0' (D5500-19) to the main production batches. I'm also not sure if the difference mentioned above on the production examples is a modification in later life, or whether they were built like it. Typically I can neither find a good enough roof shot of a 31/0 early on in life, nor a good shot of preserved D5500. You can find pics looking from above but the loco is always too far away to make out the details. Ah well, I'll have to keep on searching. I've still got a stack of diesel books to go through, some of the Bradford Bartons had good detail shots so I might be lucky there.
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