Arbitrary number on 1954 Domi 88 crankcase

Hi Howard,

Thanks for the response. What, pray tell, is a shop number? I'm unfamiliar with the term.

What I do know is that the machine was shipped new to Robb (?) in Cape Town around the end of May 1954. When I acquired the machine, it still had the original 1954 tax disk in the licence holder - along with a few from later years...... But it's been off the road for decades.

BTW - I'm in Cape Town as well, so the thing hasn't travelled very far in all it's years.

Previously Phil Hannam wrote:

T14434 is definitely the shop number for this engine. It defines the number of actual engines built for a particular model. Sometimes this is also known as a batch number. It informs that your engine is the 14,434th engine built by the engine shop. T stands for twin cylinder engine and appears on most part numbers for the model 7 bike.

The factory was churning out around 50 model 7 bikes each week. So between 1949 and 1954 total production would roughlybe 5 x 50 x 52 = 13,000 or more. 14434 is nice and close to this number.

Hi Phil,

Ta. You refer to the Model 7. I presume that by twin the engine "T" number would relate to both this and the Model 88?

"Other" Bruce

Previously Bruce Mitchell wrote:

Previously howard_robinson wrote:

Hello Bruce - It looks like a Shop Number to me. Why don't you give the details to Dave Catton (Records Officer Twins) to look up in his data base ?

I asked Dave Catton about the similar number on my 1954 88 crankcases. His reply: "The other No. T9737 is the shop No. This is given to the engine to identify the person who built it but we have no means of identifying who this is, it was just for the factory to know."

Bruce

Hi Bruce,

Do you have a factory record for your 88? According to NOC my number dates from 26th May '54.

So yours would be a much earlier date of assembly then if it is 4697 units prior to mine - I wonder how many Norton made each month? There must be a record somewhere?

Interesting stuff though, indeed!

"Other" Bruce