I believe that this entry in the BSA M20 keycards proves that some machines are listed by engine number.
email (option): robmiller11@yahoo.co.uk
This is how I see contract C3655.
Frame Engine Serial
3001 2001 C398435
3299 2299 C398733
3300 2300 C3914359
3460 2460 C3914519 *
4601 3601 C3915660
So if it does say "2460" on the card it must be the engine number "shirley".
The extra rebuild serial also seems to have a digit missing
email (option): robmiller11@yahoo.co.uk
Frame Engine Serial
3001 2001 C398435
3299 2299 C398733
3300 2300 C3914359
3460 2460 C3914519 *
4601 3601 C3915660
So if it does say "2460" on the card it must be the engine number "shirley".
The extra rebuild serial also seems to have a digit missing
...Unless he meant to write '3460' - There are examples where a single digit is wrong or two are transposed.
I think that you're right but we need to see patterns before generalising ! The trouble is that we can never be sure.
Right, I'll keep looking
email (option): robmiller11@yahoo.co.uk
Rob, you're way too deep in the Key cards!!!! stop that, or we'll have another kind of addicts to deal with!!
Anyway, looked at the C10 entry, and nothing readable there on the original, maybe X-ray will help here???
Let me know when you bought the equipment!!!
PS, have a parcel for you here, see you next sunday.
Lex
email (option): welbike@welbike.net
I think you might be right Lex, I may have to join the "KCA" Key Cards Anonamous.
See you next week. Rob.
email (option): robmiller11@yahoo.co.uk
This particular example is a bit odd though as it seems to have had a rebuild number allocated against it.
Maybe in this particular case, someone thought engine and frame numbers were identical ?
Rob, Rik,
I think the reason for this anomaly is quite obvious: this motorcycle comes from a 1939 contract, and it wasn't until 1940 that the War Department frame and engine numbers were matching. I guess that when the key cards were made, 99% of the remaining motorcycles must have been from the "matching numbers" era. The engine number is so much easier to find and to read, so I can imagine that some people may have noted the engine number instead of the frame number.
On the other hand, what if the matching numbers don't match anymore because of an Army workshop rebuild? Maybe the ex BAOR M20 motorcycles that have recently been discovered in the USA may reveal something here. Did the post war registration number refer to the "frame" number or the "engine" number? Or did these motorcycles still have matching numbers? In that case we still don't know...
Through my WD Royal Enfield Register, I have a lot of experience with reading and interpreting frame and engine numbers. Very often people send me an email with the numbers of their motorcycle, accompanied by some pictures of these numbers. But when I compare these numbers with what I see in the pictures, very often I have to conclude that two digits have been inverted (e.g. 1682 becomes 1862), or a faint 2 has been read as a 3 (e.g. 1682 becomes 1683). What happens now must have happened all these years ago as well!
I think we must see these key cards as a "guide", not as a "reference"!
Jan (the numbers nerd)
“And now it's your turn to get up off that couch and go into the deserts, go into the mountains, go under the lakes, rivers, and seas and search for history. You'll never find a more rewarding adventure!” (Clive Cussler)
email (option): wd.register@gmail.com
these cards were filled in by bored clerks or even a conscripted squaddie who couldnt be bother whether they were correct or not it nearly knocking off time on friday write anything to complete card before he goes off for the week end
Roger, not quite true! and Major Colin would turn in his grave as he would be able to read this! he kept great pride in his work at the disposals office, and his staff was very competent, but they had to rely on information gathered by squaddies, as you say, and that's probably where it went wrong most of the time.
Cheers,
Lex
email (option): welbike@welbike.net