C8 at work ?

[David_Hayward (RIP)]

The C8 has the distinction with the F60H of being the CMP series that ended production soonest, discounting the F8A? I am working on British regos at the moment and this is the sum total of known [to me] C8 serials:

1940 MODEL YEAR:
0842000509
0842000511
0842000525
0842000542
0842000579
0842002577
0842002789
IN AUSTRALIA 08420xxxxxx: ENGINE # TRA2,802,220
08420xxxxxx ENGINE #TRA2,802,530
084205608 ENGINE # TRA2,814,228 [in Canada]

1941 MODEL YEAR:
8420x2 # 12 CAB 1842008354 ENGINE # ZR3,692,055 Z 4544183 S.M. 2029
1842008526
1842008570
8420x2 1842018573 ENGINE # ZR3,715,534 Z 4548484 S.M. 2029
[1]84[201]2042 Z 4544971 S.M. 2029
1842012403
1842012558
8420x2 1842014886 IN AUSTRALIA ENGINE # ZR3,703,271 S.M. 2029
1842016302
1842016388
1842017266
1842017323
1842017431
1842017463
1842017497
1842018573 ENGINE # ZR3,716,534
1842018649
1842018744

1942 MODEL YEAR:
2842001192 ENGINE # WR3,765,985
2842001330 ENGINE # WR3,766,091
2842001378
2842001395
2842001427
2842001497

PRODUCTION TERMINATED LATE 1941

Note that # 2842001497 and some of its predecessors were demobbed in the UK in 1946. I would have thought that these would have been 'obsolete' long before then and amongst the first CMPs to be sold off but apparently not.

I am conjecting that the C8A series started when the C8 production ended. Prototype C8A # 284450006 was 'built' officially in February 1942 although this is a misnomer as its chassis dates to late 1941 MY. The earliest known C8A chassis to date is # 2844501681. There is then a big gap of several hundred until # 2844508837. I hate 'gaps' as I always gest suspicious about errors in transcription etc. and thus the more demob serials I can find the better the picture we get as sometimes these 'gaps' get filled and sometimes it can be proven that there was an error somewhere. It's too much like a jigsaw!