Inspectors markings /|\ M xxx
 

One thing that I did “discovered” during my Royal Enfield WD/CO research is this:

Just like most (if not all) of the major British vehicle manufacturers that worked for the War Office, Royal Enfield had a "resident" inspector on the premises examining all engines prior to fitting them to a frame. After inspection, he used a special stamp signifying "approval" or "fit for purpose". This stamp was a broad arrow over a letter M over a number (the inspector’s number).

All the 1942 engines (WD/CO and WD/C) in my register have a number 285 under the /|\ M, from early 1943 until June 1944 the engines were under the supervision of inspector 244. From July 1944 until early 1945 it was inspector 426 his turn. Then inspector 11 stayed at the Enfield factory for a short period, and inspector 211 was there towards the end of the war. Throughout the war, inspector 211 was also responsible for all these spare engines.

But the motorcycles for the last WD/CO contract (C/S3357) also had a gearbox with an inspector’s stamp. These late war Albion gearboxes have all been checked by inspector number 419.

I also discovered that until the end of 1943, this inspector 419 was responsible for checking the production of the Wellbikes. A picture on Colin Stevens’ website is proof of that. Plus: on the Wellbikes, the stamp was applied to the frame, not the engine…

Now I was wondering, where can this stamp be found on other British-built vehicles (trucks, tillies, other motorcycles, …)? And: who checked which factory and when? If we can gather enough data, this can become a method to date a vehicle!

Thanks in advance for your help!
Cheers,
Jan :thup2:

Inspectors markings /|\ M xxx
 

This is the Wellbike frame marking...

Inspectors markings /|\ M xxx
 

... and this is the late war Albion gearbox. These motorcycles had two different inspector's markings: one on the engine and one on the gearbox!

I'd be fascinated to see if these stamps appear on other classes of vehicles. They have the potential to help spot re-stamped engines. I suspect though that worrying about this is rather a motorcyclist's pre-occupation (perhaps because they're so visible ?) Numbers which have been overstamped can of course mislead us in trying to fill in the gaps in information between known contracts.

My main focus is the first wartime Norton contract C.5109 which ran from October 1939 to March 1940 approximately and covered machines W1000 - W6999.

So far, I have photographed the following :-

http://img518.imageshack.us/img518/7...ngnoer3.th.jpg

W1231 is probably the oldest surviving Norton with matching numbers. It turned up in France and carries M^74

W1742 is also a matching numbers bike found in France and also M^74

http://img518.imageshack.us/img518/7...tailpx0.th.jpg

I have crankcases numbered W4187 - Also M^74

http://img518.imageshack.us/img518/9...4187pp6.th.jpg

There is certainly consistency here. I'll dig out some later numbers as well.