Thanks Jan, Rob and Ron,
Right, Aha! I have to digest this for a moment.
To extend this puzzle: I just got a note from the AOMCC archivist saying that the sequence is in the engine number, Arghhh.
I asked him for a copy of the ledgers :thinking_face:
To be continued

Well since the engine numbers run in sequence of the frame numbers, I guess it's the same difference. I'll check the engine numbers against the census numbers from Jan's list later, to see if it gives the same result.

Ron

email (option): ronpier@talk21.com

OK I just checked all five of those engine numbers against the census numbers and none of them line up. So to me it means that the engines were fitted at random and the census numbers were allocated in sequence of the frame numbers.......I'm happy with that. Ron

email (option): ronpier@talk21.com

For this WNG project,
If I take it from the engine number the census number ends with a 6 .
From the frame number the census number ends with a 9.

Hello All, it gets rather confusing now. I recieved a answer from both the AOMCC membership secretary and the AOMCC archivist that the Ariel works did not apply the census numbers at the factory but that those numbers where done by whoever recieved them.
Apart from 'small' deliveries to the Royal Navy who requested that the works applied the numbers.
That stands opposed to what I read here about the factory applying the numbers at the Works.
Are there any period pictures taken at the factory that shows WNG models with the census numbers applied?
Or if there are pictures, are those maybe made at the Army depots?
The picture above with the page from a ledger, it does look different to the ledgers I have seen from the Ariel factory.
Even the riders are mentioned, from which department comes this ledger ?

The problem is that apparently nobody ever did some serious research on the WD Ariel models. Definitely not in the same way as I have researched the WD Royal Enfields, and others have done the WD BSA and WD Norton. So... Census number styles before 1942 are a bit "chaotic", but period photographs from 1942 onwards show very distinctive styles for the census numbers on the different makes. I have made DXF drawings of the Royal Enfield census number style, low tack stencils are available from Axholme. The typical "styles" for the other makes can be seen below:



As can be seen above and below, Ariel had a very distinctive "stencil" style. The fact that this was unique to Ariel, and the fact that every factory had its own unique style, proves that the census numbers were applied at the factory (at least from 1942 onwards). The paper that I added to a previous post proves that the census number can be calculated for each contract (again: at least from 1942 onwards).

email (option): wd.register@gmail.com