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Vehicle Registration Numbers

Alf

Gone but not forgotten. R.I.P.
All I can find as now is it dates between 1904/64 in Bimingham

Also OG is found in Worcester

I'm still looking, I lost a great search engine which could tell you where its from and where it is now or if it had ever been registered


N.B. This post was in response to the original question posed by ChrisM which has been transferred to another thread dealing with the broader history of Birmingham Registration numbers. The question was:

Does anyone know of an online resource which will provide information on the approximate dates of Birmingham vehicle registrations? In particular, for what period was a particular prefix used; and then roughly what was the issue of the various sequences of numbers associated with it?

(It’s OG 6698 in which I am mainly interested).


Thanks for any advice. Chris
 
Thanks, Alf, I live in hope!

The vehicle which bore this registration was a mid-1930s Riley saloon. I want to use it to narrow down the date of a picture in which it is seen. If at least I know the car's original registration date I know that the picture cannot have been taken before a certain date.

Chris
 
the OG XXXX would suggest a car registered in Birmingham as

OF Birmingham Birmingham
OG Birmingham Birmingham
OH Birmingham Birmingham
OI Belfast

however numbers ran from OA 1000 to OA 9999,and then continued to OB 1000 to OB 9999 and so on at the rate that new cars were registered in that area some would only issue a few a year whilst Birmingham could be issuing 1000's a month.
Best chance is to try to find a similar numbered vehicle with a known date.
I have details of a bus OF 6071 entered service 1930.
Riley produced saloon models all through the 30's
It's a difficult one!!!

Colin
 
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By the mid 1930s Birmingham was using 3 letter reg nos, I worked on a pre war Morris 10 bread van for Bradfords reg no Bow 14 and I have a picture of a 1937 Wolseley reg no DON 642. There is another problem when trying to iD cars from their number, in the early days dealers and fleet owners were able to buy the numbers in batches and could take as long as they liked to use the batch, ten years and more in some cases.
Also there were cars registered late, imported or re registered. Here's one with an OG number,:) .E.


https://www.lbvcr.com/view_car_image2007.cfm/id/1917
 
For what it's worth, I have a record of buses being registered in the OG series only in 1930, (to be precise, numbered OG 209 and 369 to 443). The single letter O was first used in about 1912, followed by OA and OB in 1913, OK in 1922, OL in 1923, OM in 1924-25, ON in 1925-26, OP in 1926, OX in 1927, VP in 1928, OF in 1929,OV in 1931, OJ in 1933, and finally OC in 1934. That was with two letters and four numbers. Then came three letters with three numbers, starting with AOB on the buses, but I seem to remember there were other vehicles with AOA registrations.
Hoping this answers your query a bit more.
Peter
 
Thanks, Colin, Eric and Peter, for your helpful suggestions and information.

This is the car in question. It’s certainly a Birmingham registered vehicle although it is standing a very long way from home, at a kerbside on a summer's day in pre-war Berlin. This image is part of an interesting, bigger picture with some other Brummagem associations and it might be worth a post here when I have pieced together more of the background information.

Another route is to establish the years of production of the particular model and that will probably be my next port of call.

Chris
 
For what it's worth, I have a record of buses being registered in the OG series only in 1930, (to be precise, numbered OG 209 and 369 to 443). The single letter O was first used in about 1912, followed by OA and OB in 1913, OK in 1922, OL in 1923, OM in 1924-25, ON in 1925-26, OP in 1926, OX in 1927, VP in 1928, OF in 1929,OV in 1931, OJ in 1933, and finally OC in 1934. That was with two letters and four numbers. Then came three letters with three numbers, starting with AOB on the buses, but I seem to remember there were other vehicles with AOA registrations.
Hoping this answers your query a bit more.
Peter

The answer from Peter has actually directly answered your query; the OG 6698 plate would have been issued to the car in 1930. [Technically it's possible it was late 1929 or early 1931, since the marks don't start and end in line with year ends]!

The original 'two letter' registration marks ran in order from xx 1 to xx 9999, even if the two letter xx values didn't! As Peter quotes, Birmingham were using OF numbers in 1929; when they reached OF 9999 they would have asked for a new two letter code. Since he has bus records indicating OG marks in 1930, all other OG numbers would have been from that date too. [Note that by 1931 they had moved onto OV, rather than what you'd have expected, OH].

Regards - Julian
 
Thank you for those useful comments, Julian.

They tie in well with other aspects of the photograph - and of the bigger image of which it is a part. In particular the car itself is likely to have been a Riley Monaco. (Are you happy with that conclusion, Eric?) This model was first announced at the 1930 Motor Show which I assume was even then an autumn event. So that registration cannot have been before the end of 1930 or, in accordance with your information, later than very early in 1931.

I have done quite a bit of other research into the larger picture, which has personal and historical interest for me, and have concluded from all the evidence collected that the photograph was taken during the summer of 1932 on the Charlottenstrasse in central Berlin - the end of an era for Germany and for Europe as a whole.

Because of the Birmingham connection I shall probably post the complete photograph and the other information in this forum in due course.

Thanks again.

Chris
 
Can anyone help with this registration no, where was it likely to have been registered :cool:

U-2184
on old bike as seen in picture.
Note the attractive but unsafe wicker sidecar
 
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