-SG- We have previously enthused about this 1930 works Norton publicity photo - regrettably rather heavily retouched. The machine bears registration number OF9502. The fact that this same registration number appeared on a very different works machine later in the year is slightly beside the point: I am looking specifically at its first incarnation! From the late twenties onwards, not that many of the actual works machines are shown in the despatch books - seemingly only when the odd machine was sold or loaned to one of the Norton dealers in UK or agents abroad. OF9502 is one of the exceptions and it appears in the records with the following details:
Engine Number 482XX. Frame Number 402XX. Magneto Number 755A. Gearbox Number NS104. Forks Webb 650 (these were the successors to the earlier TT Webbs). '1930 CS1 TT Type. OF9502.' The actual despatch details show: On Loan to J H Simpson 12/5/30. Returned and loaned to Wijngaarden Holland 26/6/31. Returned and sent to J M Sugg Derby 17/8/31.
This all seems straightforward until it is recalled that the machine sent to J M Sugg was actually the re-incarnation of OF9502 in its two stay framed form (see also Titch Allen's Norton Story part 16, September 1972) and judging by the dates shown, it seems fairly likely that it was this machine which was also lent to Norton's Dutch agents. So what actually happened to the original version of the bike is anyone's guess! It could be, of course, that OF9502 Mark II was given the frame number of OF9502 Mark I. In one of the few letters I exchanged with the late Chris Harrison about the bike, he said the engine was such a tight fit in the two stay frame that the inlet tappet adjuster and lock nut had been ground down to stop them hitting the frame ... was it a 350 frame, perhaps?