Gents,
I am now the proud owner of a 1942 WNG courtesy of Dave Owens recent offering on the forum.
It was despatched from the works on 17th September 1942 to the Royal Navy and has an Ariel service repair engine BH692 which, according to the clubs dating cert, is from April 1939 (which seems a bit early to me as the info in the book on British Forces Motorcycles by Orchard and Madden shows the first batch of WNG's being despatched in mid to late 1940 )?
Does anyone know what the M205 stamp refers to ??
It's a runner and I have a 1939 VH to finish off restoring this year so just intend to run the WNG 'as is' for now. No doubt I will be back here to take advantage of the wealth of knowledge you chaps have on all things WNG when I start to fiddle with it.
Regarding the WD arrow marking with the M and 205 below it: did a bit of digging on the HMVF site and apparently it's a Ministry of Supply inspectors acceptance stamp. Each inspector had his own number and each big factory supplying motorcycles had their own in house ministry approved inspector.There were also roving inspectors.
I wonder how many of the WNG engines fitted to members bikes have such a number, maybe you chaps couls have a look at your when you get a chance.
BH692 does not have a despatch date in the book, but appears to have gone out sometime between April and June 1940, to judge from adjacent entries. Quite a number of engines were listed as "Service Repairs" about his time.
The answer is that this is an engine requisitioned by the Government following the Dunkirk evacuations in May 1940. The Government scoured the country looking for suitable bikes at this time, retrieving a number of machines which survive today from dealers where they had sat in the showroom window for some months. Editor John Mitchell's 4G is one of these. Equally, they scoured the factories which is why they took BH692 as a spare. Presumably, the mystery stamping is from whoever scoured the factory, before such people were sent out to fight or alternatively put into productive roles in industry.
Paul Jameson
35 LG (project), 37 RH500, 52 ex ISDT KHA, 54 KH(A), 75 Healey 1000/4.
Former Machine Registrar & Archivist, General Secretary and Single Spares Organiser (over a 25 year period).
Now Archivist (but not Machine Registrar), Gauges and Clocks Spares Organiser.
*jelous
