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rewdco

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Everything posted by rewdco

  1. The Middlesex C.C. registrations (RMH, JMK, RMK, PMK, ...) were all issued to the War Department, prior to early September 1939 (war declaration). After that date military vehicles no longer had civilian registrations. Unfortunately the Middlesex C.C. registration ledgers haven't survived. The Home Office did use civilian registration numbers for its vehicles during the war. I think GGU 519 is one of these.
  2. As this lorry has gone through a "Class 1 rebuild" (H17xxxxx census number), you may find a data plate somewhere in the engine bay or in the cabin, giving more information about this rebuild. See also this thread, bottom of page 1:
  3. Five years ago I’ve made a CAD drawing of the typical Royal Enfield style census numbers, so that Axholme could produce them as low tack stencils. (https://hmvf.co.uk/topic/41549-royal-enfield-census-numbers-low-tack-stencils-now-available-from-axholmesigns/). Since then I’ve seen many Royal Enfields with census numbers in the correct style, mission accomplished… 😊 But a couple of weeks ago I was talking to an Ariel W/NG owner who asked me if I could do the same thing with the typical Ariel stencil font (not to be confused with ARIAL.TTF, and also not to be confused with STENCIL.FNT which are both post war American fonts). So that’s exactly what I did. In the attached pictures you can see some war time examples, and a screenshot of all the numbers. Axholme sells them in 1" high or 1 1/4. In my opinion they should be 1”, about the same height as the Ariel logo just below the census number. (https://www.axholmesigns.co.uk/motor-bike). Hope these stencils will be useful!
  4. If you want to clean that data plate without causing further damage, I would put it in vinegar for 24 hours. Rinse in water with a spoonful of washing soda to neutralise the acid, dry with a hair drier and preserve with some WD40. Any other treatment will cause further damage…
  5. Enfield spare engines can easily be identified by the fact that they do have a "true engine number" (the V-number in case of a Flea, or the number just below the magneto on a WD/C or a WD/CO), but no "duplicated frame number". For as far as I know, "all" the Flea spare engines had this dataplate, "normal" engines never have. I've got several WD/C and WD/CO spare engines in my Register, all inspected by M211. Looks as if he was in charge of the surplus to contract spare parts department. WD/C: WD/CO: WD/RE:
  6. THE ENFIELD CYCLE Co Ltd Art N° Series N°
  7. Inspector 419 moved around a bit, as he's also checked some early WM20s and the late war Kitson Pease gearboxes (Albion gearboxes made under license by Kitson Pease in London, there had been a lot of quality problems so they got an official inspector).
  8. This is the footage that Ron was talking about: On 1.55 you can see him putting his 419 stamp on the headstock.
  9. As Ron says: this is a spare engine. Easy to recognise: engine number without a duplicated frame number, M211 is the typical inspector's number for the spare engines (WD/C, WD/CO and WD/RE), and the ID plate.
  10. I've just made a few more changes to the Terry Universal and the Mansfield Universal saddle descriptions.
  11. rewdco

    BAR-NONE

    Pretends to be a Morgan 3 wheeler...? 😁
  12. Engine number 68961 (or 68981, difficult to see). As Ron said, contract S/6680 was supposed to be a contract for 8.000 bikes (frame numbers 53418 - 61417 and "matching" engine numbers 63418 - 71417). But the war was "over" when only 5200 bikes had been built, the rest of the contract (frame numbers 58618 - 61417 and "matching" engine numbers 68618 - 71417) was cancelled. This cancellation happened to other motorcycle manufacturers as well. I'm not a Triumph specialist, so I would like to compare with the situation at Royal Enfields. They were building the 5.000 WD/COs for contract S/3357, but for the same reason, after having made 1.500 of the 5.000 bikes, the contract was cancelled. At that time Enfield still had enough parts in stock to build most of the remaining 3.500 bikes! And that's what they did, they made a batch of 2.834 "civilianised" "post war Model CO" motor cycles, which were all sold on the export market. The home market had to make do with refurbished ex WD bikes. This was the "export or die" period... Now... Could Triumph have done something similar I wonder? I guess that when the contract was suddenly cancelled, they also must have had a considerable stock of parts. Did they put them together and sell them on the export market as well? This could explain why your bike turned up in India. Just a thought... The frame number is a mystery to me...
  13. Fantastic job, love it! Looking forward to seeing pictures with the tank on the trailer.
  14. Fantastic thread! Love it!
  15. X3 on the drum side, X4 on the other side... Not so special...?
  16. I'm not a Triumph specialist, and I'm not a post war specialist either. But I do know that before and during the war, Royal Enfield often used Terry saddles (both companies were Redditch based, so they were almost neighbours). I've just checked the post war Royal Enfield Model G parts lists (1946 up to 1953, see scan below), and they all show the Terry Universal. I can imagine that the "Universal" saddles became standard after the war (until the arrival of the dual seats)? In that case your Triumph would have had a Lycett Universal? Just my twopennies...
  17. rewdco

    Triumph 3SW ?

    I second that Ron. But "export" sounds a lot better than "economy" doesn't it...? 😂
  18. rewdco

    Triumph 3SW ?

    Just found this Belgian price list on an auction site. They call the SE version "Export" or "Tourist". Maybe not relevant at all... 😐
  19. rewdco

    Triumph 3SW ?

    I think I can see some other numbers on the engine, or are my eyes deceiving me? Could this be (the remains of) the engine number I wonder? They are close to where we would expect an engine number, see example below:
  20. rewdco

    Triumph 3SW ?

    Small history lesson: On September 1st 1939, Hitler invades Poland. As a reaction, England declares war against Germany on September 3rd 1939. The following months (September 1939 – May 1940) are known as “the phoney war”. On Sept 11th 1939, the British Expeditionary Force (four divisions, 158.000 men) left for France, to defend the borders with Belgium and Germany against a possible German invasion. But until May 1940, when Hitler invaded Holland, Belgium and France, there was not a lot of fighting activity. Both camps were using this period to expand their armies… A lot of civilian bikes that were in showrooms etc. were pressed into service while still in their “civvy” trim. They were quite often hand painted all over, with whatever paint that was available at the camp where they were taken to. Norman Vanhouse, who was a despatch rider in the British Expeditionary Forces in France and thus an eyewitness, describes in an article in The Classic Motorcycle (October 1989) how the impressed motorcycles were painted: “... every bike was a drab, dark green spectre of botched painting, self-inflicted whilst parked by the glorious Loire. Tins of paint and brushes had been produced from the lorries in the convoy and each man was charged with painting his own bike. We even entered into the spirit of the occasion by daubing handfuls of roadside dust on the wet paint to achieve more effective camouflage…” The picture below shows an impressed civilian machine (in this case a Norton from Claude Rye’s shop) being collected by the Army (The MotorCycle, December 14th 1939). This is the page from the “Chilwell List” with the late 1939 - early 1940 impressed motorcycle contracts: XXX The fact that WD numbers 40000 to 46000 were “not taken up” contradicts the fact that on this Triumph we can clearly see census number C42589, stamped on the crankcases (typical for that period). Well, it was a hectic period, mistakes must have been made… Here’s a close one: another impressed civilian Triumph with census number C47377, "somewhere in France” in November 1939: On May 10th 1940, Hitler invades Belgium and Holland. By May 14th 1940, the German tanks had crossed the river Meuse and had opened up a fifty-mile gap in the Allied front. Six days later they reached the Channel. When he heard the news, Winston Churchill, who had just become prime minister, ordered the implementation of Operation Dynamo: a plan to evacuate the British Expeditionary Forces troops and their equipment, along with the remnants of the French army, from the French port of Dunkirk. Between 27th May and 4th June, a total of nearly 700 ships brought 338.226 people back to Britain. All heavy equipment was abandoned and left in France. Ellis' official history “The War in France & Flanders 1939 – 1940” gives the following statistics: Vehicles shipped to France: 68.618 Lost: 63.879 Brought back: 4.739 Motorcycles: 21.081 Lost: 20.548 Brought back: 533 This impressed civilian Triumph made it back to Blighty: But this one was captured by the Germans, and started a new life “under new ownership”: And that’s exactly what must have happened to your bike Russ...
  21. rewdco

    BAR-NONE

    More pictures from Egypt...
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