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A3- car numbers - JonE - 12-05-2022
Just doing some research into this period but finding it difficult establishing a datum for chassis and car number. (The register does not record whether there is a buff book or continuation book.)
Has anyone got a particularly reliable linked chassis and car number from buff or continuation book, or other evidence like extreme originality! Perhaps pm me...
thanks Jon
RE: A3- car numbers - JonE - 12-05-2022
Progress. There are 4 widely spaced linked car numbers and chassis numbers documented in Wyatt within A3-.
Cross referencing any of these results in no obvious linear, ascending linkage as might be expected in later series like A8 and A9.
Which is pretty much what I'm finding from the register entries.
This would suggest that their organisation in the factory improved from 1926/7 to 1929, and that the chassis:car number was akin to chassis:body numbers later on, where they just picked a body from a pile of 20 or thirty and didn't worry about sequence.
Would be really interested in other views.
RE: A3- car numbers - Mike Costigan - 12-05-2022
The Works Director, Charles Englebach, completely reworked the production line in late 1925 / early 1926 (1925 production was around 7,000 Sevens, the 1926 figure doubled to 14,000). It's quite possible the method by which the finished car was identified and the way the components came to together altered significantly at this time). I believe prior to the changes the identity of the finished car was by the chassis number, but certainly after that time the finished car was officially identified by the Car Number (what we would now call the Commission Number or VIN Number) and any other numbers, such as chassis numbers, are merely the identity of the individual component.
Remember the Seven was only part of the Longbridge production - in 1927 there were around 24,000 Sevens built out of a total factory figure of over 40,000 vehicles.
RE: A3- car numbers - JonE - 13-05-2022
Very interesting, but it does seem odd that they were so chassis focused, then deviated from any form of linked chassis order... and then by the A8 and A9 ledger period return to absolute linkage of chassis to car number?
Galling that the early ledgers have been lost. Or perhaps they have been hiding and will emerge for the centenary.
RE: A3- car numbers - David Cochrane - 13-05-2022
The A1- and A2- series of Car numbers followed the Chassis numbers e.g. Car No. A1.8369 had Chassis No. 8369 and Car No. A2.135 has Chassis No. 10135. This system does not apply for A3- Car numbers - see list below:
A3- Car Nos.jpg (Size: 131.36 KB / Downloads: 236)
RE: A3- car numbers - JonE - 14-05-2022
That's good you have found same. So I wonder why they altered the system back?
RE: A3- car numbers - Mike Costigan - 14-05-2022
That all seems very logical, David, but what happened at the A1 - A2 changeover?
If A1-9999 is chassis number 9999, and A2-1 is chassis number 10001... what happened to chassis 10000? There surely wasn't a Car Number A2-0!
RE: A3- car numbers - David Cochrane - 14-05-2022
The changeover from the A1 series to the A2 series was delayed:
A1.9899 : 9899
A1.10064 : 10064
A1.10097 : 10097
A2.135 : 10135
A2.139 : 10139
So Chassis No. 10000 was probably Car No. A1.10000.
RE: A3- car numbers - Mike Costigan - 15-05-2022
I can just imagine the scene: some poor bloke on the factory floor busy trying to stamp five digits into a space just big enough for four... and then someone pipes up "Didn't you know, we're supposed to start all over again with a new sequence!"
"Well, bugger, I've done a hundred of them now, you'll just have to use those!"
RE: A3- car numbers - Tony Griffiths - 17-05-2022
On many machine older tools it was common to start serial numbers at 101 or 10001 so, possibly, 1000 may never have existed.