92020 1959-09-20 Wellingborough
No.92020 at Wellingborough on 20th September 1959 with the Crosti boiler still in place and the smoke deflector half-way down the boiler barrel. It was placed in store in May 1959 and remained there until March 1961 when it went to Crewe Works for conversion, returning on 7th June. Ten of the newly built 1955 Standard 9F ' s numbered from 92020 depicted here in this fine photograph to 92029 were fitted from new with an Italian design of Franco Crosti boiler enabling them to use inferior quality coal in the post war years when coal supplies had still not returned to normal . All ten such engines were coupled to the B.R. 1 B . design of tender , and all were allocated from new to Wellingborough but footplatemen found the ingress of smoke into the cabs unpleasant to say the least ,whilst shed staff were not able to gain easy access to parts requiring regular maintenance . Consequently all ten were modified to the more convential design starting with 92026 in September of 1959 , a programme which took three years to complete . In this 1961 image 92020 , now minus its Franco Crosti boiler , still shows a number of differences from the conventional 9F design , with both the Clack water feed Valves being on this same side of the boiler , whilst the front end and smokebox door in particular are still vastly different in design