Lost and Found

Quite a lot of activity for this issue. First, some success!

TC2277 (SX 5836)

This early 1947 TC was featured in ‘Lost & Found’ in the April 2015 issue. Current owner, David Whitely has recently e-mailed to let me know that now, three years later, he has been contacted by a lady whose late uncle owned the car in the 1980s. She said that she has a lot of information and bills from the 1960s and also the old log book that was found by the executors. David is naturally delighted!

TA1888 (LFC 329)

The current owner is interested in finding the history of his car, which he has owned for over 45 years. An enquiry made with the Oxfordshire History Centre has provided the date of first registration (15th October 1946) and that the car was registered by Laytons of Oxford (Motors) Limited of New Road OXFORD. The colour was green (it is now red).

Interestingly, although the date of build was 15th October 1937, it must have remained unsold before the War and was not registered until after the War. This is the only explanation I can come up with.

The certified extract from the records is on an A4 page, which gives details of registration numbers LFC 321 to LFC 330. Of these, only the TA appears to have definitely survived. LFC 323, which was originally on a Royal Enfield 350 cc motor cycle, is now on a 2014 Ford Diesel 2198 cc. The bike may have survived with a different registration number given after the transfer, but equally, it may have been scrapped.

TA1478 (BWN 568)

This TA is largely in bits and has been like this in the same ownership for at least 40 years. WN is an old Swansea registration and it looks as though the Kithead Trust probably has the record card for the vehicle http://kitheadtrust.org.uk

It seems likely that BWN 568 would have started out life in the Swansea area and with this information, albeit sparse, the owner is wondering if anybody can recall anything about the car (via the editor, please).

TC2140 (FWW 938)

TC2140 has recently come back from the US and I have been assisting the owner (through the MG Octagon Car Club) with an application for an age-related registration mark. Whilst the application was being processed by DVLA, enquiry was made of the West Yorkshire Archive Service http://www.wyjs.org.uk/archive-services as WW is an old Yorkshire West Riding registration mark. Fortunately, the archive service was able to come up with both the chassis number and registration mark which was sufficient to reclaim FWW 938.

The West Yorkshire Archive Service holds the records for the former Licensing Authorities of Bradford, Halifax, Huddersfield, Leeds, Wakefield and Yorkshire West Riding. The Service appears to have more comprehensive records from the aforementioned Authorities than many of their peers and I have found them to be very helpful.

A recent exchange of e-mails revealed the following information about the various holdings:

Register of Vehicle Registrations

These registers typically list the registration mark and give the date when the registration number was allocated to a person or company.

Index Cards

Index Cards were made out for each vehicle registered and they record the movement of vehicle files to other authorities or to Swansea or the central licence repository at Llandau. Some also record the destruction of files when vehicles were scrapped, the cancellation of registration marks, and the transfer of marks to other vehicles. The information on vehicles given by the cards is copious in some cases and negligible in others.

Vehicle Files

Bound registers of vehicles were superseded in 1921 by individual files for each vehicle. These normally record full details of vehicles, with changes of owners etc. Files were normally destroyed after the vehicles in question were scrapped, and a great many more files were destroyed in the late 1970s as part of the centralisation of records on the Department of Transport’s computer in Swansea. As part of the same exercise, files were transferred to the Department’s central licence repository at Llandau. Those which were subsequently still found to be ‘live’ were transferred to the computer, the rest were destroyed.

BKW 798 (TC????)

I’ve had an enquiry from Christopher Walsh in Palermo, Sicily, Southern Italy about a chassis he’s trying to identify.

At present he’s having difficulty in identifying the chassis number, which looks as though it has been ground off, so I’ve sent him a copy of Keith Beningfield’s article (in TTT2, Issue 46) about using a substance called Fry’s Reagent,a mixture comprised of Hydrochloric acid, Copper (II) Chloride, and water, used by metallurgists or forensic scientists for etching ferrous metals,most commonly for the visual recovery of ground-off stamped serial numbers on cast iron, steel, engine or firearms parts.

The registration mark is assumed to be that of the car as Christopher has one of the plates, but this may not necessarily be the case as it seems to be a ‘bitsa’ with a B270 body type plate and an Austin engine of unknown vintage!

I have offered (and Christopher has accepted) to request a search of the Bradford registrations by the West Yorkshire Archive Service and it will be interesting to learn what they come up with.

TA1008 (AJB 71)

The daughter of the late Graham Ash sent me this photo of Graham’s first MG.

The car has been in the US for some time and now sports a V8 engine! The current owner might like to see how it looked in Graham’s ownership.

Graham’s daughter would like to make contact with the current owner of a VA Tourer owned by Graham. The car went to Australia around in 2008.

I can recall persuading Graham to sell it, as it was pretty apparent even back then, that with a TA in pieces to rebuild, that he would never finish the VA. As matters have turned out, the TA (TA2445 registration mark DAD 337) is still in pieces, so even though the VA was sold reluctantly, it was the right decision.

If this catches the eye of one of our many Australian members with knowledge of the VA, the editor would love to hear of any news.

TC0278

Bob Little has quite a lot of information on this car, which he rescued off the streets (a complete wreck) in Georgetown, Washington DC. Bob restored the car in the 1970s and has details of the TC’s UK and US history, including original colour and import date.

If the current owner would care to get in touch with the editor at jj(at)ttypes.org {please substitute @ for (at)} I will put him or her in touch with Bob.

TC6945

Sherman Kaplan has owned this TC since 1982. He purchased it in boxes from a dealer in San Diego, California.He has no idea of any of its history so any information would be helpful. Replies via the editor please at jj(at)ttypes.org {please substitute @ for (at)}.

1952 TD (Chassis number unknown)

Mike Goode is trying to help his dad find out if his uncle Jack Wilner’s 1952 MG TD still exists. Mike accepts that without a chassis number or license plate number, the chances of tracing the car are pretty slim. The only document that Mike has is this State of Illinois passenger car identification card. He adds that the TD was restored by his father and his uncle Jack and the car was painted at Earl Scheib in Chicago in a metallic blue, finished with a white top from J.C. Whitney. The car was sold to the owner or an employee of a gasoline station in the Ravenswood neighbourhood in Chicago.

JYH 520 (TC????)

Chris Blood is trying to find out any history attached to this car. YH is a former London County Council registration and all their records were destroyed. However, the photo below might yield a clue? (both these lads are now 72).