Wadkin Super 500

I bought this Wadkin over a year ago, it had a lot of surface rust which in places on the bed had pitted below the machined surface, but not enough to warrant the surface being milled.

Wadkin seem to have dropped there traditional Tag's so it only shows a Machine Number S500 8/334 or maybe it says 81334, which could mean 1981 machine 334 (not sure)

Attached some pics of me cleaning it up.

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Here is the tag from my Wadkin Super 500.

S500 80301 are stamped into it.

Maybe Vann can tell us what the number means as far as dates go.

Quite surprising the differences between the 2 machines.

Where did your machine originate from?



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Originally Posted by localele

Here is the tag from my Wadkin Super 500.

S500 80301 are stamped into it.

Maybe Vann can tell us what the number means as far as dates go.

Quite surprising the differences between the 2 machines.

Where did your machine originate from?



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So if I am correct then your machine would be older than mine, it would make yours 1980 and number 301 of that year, (301 being the total number of all types of machines that Wadkin still made, not just the Super 500).

I bought mine from near Newcastle NSW, it's a great machine and apart from the clean up everything still runs true.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by localele

...Maybe Vann can tell us what the number means as far as dates go...

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Or not :B.

My historic knowledge is with classic Wadkin machines built at the Green Lane works in Leicester, and interest begins to wane with the new machines introduced in the late 1950s (after the Bursgreen merger).

As you can see on those tags, these machines are products of Wadkin-Bursgreen era and were manufactured at the former Bursgreen Colne factory. The former Bursgreen factories used a different numbering system.

It is highly likely, but not definite, that the first two digits are the year of manufacture (1980 and 1981 respectively), and I would guess that the last three digits are the serial number for S-500s.

That does not mean that these are the 301st and 334th S-500s built. We know for sure that Green Lane started most models at 105. But we don't know what Wadkin-Bursgreen practice was. Another possibility is that S-400s, for example, may have started at 001, S-500's at 201, and S-600s at 401. Green Lane did something similar with their RD buzzers with 12" and 16" models using different number series (eg 12" RDs ordered in 1939 were numbered 202 to 237, while 16" RDs ordered the same year were numbered 417 to 452).

Unfortunately when Wadkin-Bursgreen Durham (the last of the former Bursgreen factories) closed, the staff were less than happy and most of their records went in the skip, with very little reaching Green Lane. They were especially unhappy because Durham was to be kept open and Green Lane closed, but a last minute decision reversed that.

Cheers, Vann.

I've heard stories of the houghton le spring workers being really at production moving to green lane. They had the process dialled in and as efficient as it could be. A few workers relocated to leicester and it was a shambles, and lots of money was wasted. All because of some shirt and tie guy thinking he knew better.