It’s definitely an FP9, but the key spotting characteristic is the position of the front portholes. On the FP9, they sit much further back toward the center of the locomotive.
On the prototypes, the number of louvers is the same for both versions. On the FP7, all eight (four on each side) are between the portholes. On the FP9, there is a louver on each side in front of the forward porthole. Unfortunately, the louvers are missing from the Menards model, making the porthole position difference less obvious.
For those who missed the information, the real FP7 and FP9 locomotives were four feet longer than for F units, including the F7 and F9. Given that this Menards model is scaled accurately in terms of length and height for FP units, it’s clear that the product was initially inaccurately labeled as an F unit.
As for the origin of this Menards model, we can only speculate. It has become obvious that it has never been used in production before now. But is it from tooling that was sidelined by another manufacturer during its development stage? Only Menards and the tool owner knows.
