On the origin of commission numbers and other things

[Don H.]

Some of you may know John Macartney -- he's active on one of the Triumph forums in the US, although not here. John worked for S-T in the 1960s and 1970s in Export Sales and has a unique perspective on the cars and their build process. This is primarily because building cars for overseas markets brought those in export in much closer contact with factory operations and procedures than those who worked in the UK sales departments. UK sales only had to deal with UK spec cars whereas export were required to have a substantial knowledge of territorial specifications and how and where various assembly operations and post-build spec changes were accommodated within the overall manufacturing process.

 

John's father also worked for the company from 1921 until 1960 in Engineering, Service and Production, and John of course gained a lot of knowledge from him.

 

In a recent thread on the US-based "Triumphs List", John weighed in on the subject of full-synchro gearboxes on TR3Bs, noting "it's true that TR3Bs left the factory all with full-synchro transmissions."

 

In response to an individual questioning the higher number of his gearbox v his commission number (a question that comes periodically, as we all know) John stated, "Regarding the numbering of major components - viz engine, gearbox, axle and body, it is entirely usual and normal to find they're all out of kilter with one another. The commission number denotes the car and the major component numbers are subordinate and independent. That's why 'matching numbers' statements in sale ads for Standard Triumph vehicles is such an oxymoron; usually none of the numbers ever matched!"

 

One of the more interesting comments John made concerned the origin of commission numbers, and made me think about them in a way that's perfectly logical but hadn't come to mind before. It seems useful to report his comments here for the record: "Finally, the commission number had nothing to do with the numerical order in which the cars were built. The adjective comes from the older use of English meaning 'to commission' (to order or set a process in motion). Therefore the numerical sequencing comes about as a result of the UK Domestic or Export Sales Departments placing a vehicle build order on the Production Control Department. It has nothing to do with the sequencing order of the manufacturing process. The build process of any car was controlled by continuous externally sourced component availability to make up the 'skidded' truck onto which the fully painted, trimmed and wired body was lowered."

 

 

PS: You should hear John comment about vehicle lighting differences between all the export markets back in the day. Yikes -- what a mess of complex regulations!

Edited March 17, 2016 by Don H.

[stuart]

Actually "Matching numbers" would normally mean that they matched the Heritage certificate i.e. what the car left the factory with rather than that they all had the same numbers.As to lighting regs for different countries a good look through the parts books for TR4/4a/5/6 will make interesting reading on how many different types of lamps were specified.

Start.

Edited March 17, 2016 by stuart

[Eddie Cairns]

Exactly the situation Morgan are in at the moment with the three wheel cars being exported to various countries as they are treated in a lot of cases as motorcycles but in a most of the cases out with the EC, the lighting has to be rehashed to meet various other countires regulations.