Can anyone tell me if the PW 2383 F3 body was the same as the 2243 F3 body? They look the same to me and was wondering if Lionel just used the same body and changed the number boards.
Bruce
There were very many differences in details, not the least of which was a shift in the red color toward a red-orange hue. The caption under a 2383 in Joe Algozzini’s book, Lionel’s Postwar F3’s, says it all: “The last version of the Postwar Santa Fe F3 (2383 from 1958) featured black sideframes and filled-in portholes. This was a stripped-down model compared to the classy units from 1948.”
The 2383 and 2243 are decorated identically except for the numbers. This is why the 2243C B-unit is so popular and in demand - there was never a B unit marketed for the 2383 AA and the 2243C matches perfectly.
Sorry, I misread the original post as “2343”, not “2243”. Rob is right, they are the same–except for the slightly orange tint of the 2383. That doesn’t matter for the B unit, however.