Is this engine one of the first to be made and the lowest engine number still existing on a 3HW engine?,the contract number stamped on the engine C7162 is also for a 3SW contract and shows up on spares books,as far as I know no surviving 3HW parts book has surfaced under contract C7162,presumably the engine was made at the stop gap factory at Warwick.

The two photos below. Alhtough It has a lower engine number it is infact a later engine made as spare units,the S denotes a spare engine ,the plate riveted under the magneto platform is also on these spare unit engines.

A Triumph 3HW leading a 3SW at the stop gap factory at Warwick.

below,design staff and assembly area at Warwick.


below,design staff again,with complete 3HW machine on the left,part of a 3HW engine on the table,a twin cylinder head,a twin cylinder crank case half, and petrol tank, table behind has a twin exhaust system.

Interesting photographs Steve, thanks for sharing! Did you see the thread that I made on HMVF?

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Hi Steve, so would engine 40812 date from Dec 1941 do you think?

Bert Hopwood 'commandered' the wall lights from the boardroom of the Triumph factory after it was bombed (apparently he always liked them)..After retiring to Devon he put them up in the lounge of his bungalow...I doubt the new owners know that they have a bit of history on the wall!!...He also still owned the Rover P5 Coupe that BSA bought him as a company car when he was managing director there and gifted to him when he left..The logbook had just two owners, BSA Motorcycles and Bert Hopwood...Ian

Hi Mark, yes it's possible that 3HW 40812 could be from that month, I think that the 3HW was being made in small numbers at Warwick along side the 3SW & 5SW models, contract C7162 is also for 3SW models, parts books exist for the C7162 side valve contract, maybe a small number of OHV 3HWs were made under the same contract, but a separate spare parts book so far has not survived or surfaced,some of the instruction manuals for the 3SWs do have frame & engine numbers on the covers, if a similar instruction manual was produced for the C7162 3HWs that also could have frame and engine numbers but none has surfaced or survived that I know of.

Steve I see in O&M that there were 143 3H's under contract C7162. These look to be exactly the same as the 3SW but with a 3H engine (Triumph forks etc fitted) Same batch of frame numbers. I guess they ran out of 3SW engines and used up some pre war 3H engines. Then they used up some 5S engines. Ron

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Hi Ron, yes it could be one of those 143 and assembled at Warwick it's frame number could have been TL 30812 which would fit into that batch.