Dear all,
The seller of the Scot on ebay vis ;
has sent most of the original photographs used on ebay however at a higher resolution, so with a little help from Photoshop, I've been able to pick off most of the details that place it fairly and squarely in the "produced by David Rattray" bracket. These I've added to a page on the website at ;
http://www.flying-scot.co.uk/
a few of the pointers, that identify it as a typical Scot 'path' frame from 1950...
- The narrow round section fork legs, with 'cyclo' plate dropouts, topped off with the shape of the side of the fork crown - cut as per the companies spec. for a track fork.
- The seat stay top eyes are finished in a concave oval cap. 1950 was the first year they used wrapround stays, and the style used on the earlier frames are identical to this. Clearly there was some crossover as the newer style was applied to all frames.
- Ekla lugs, again typical of the post-war Rattray's style before the onset of Prugnat and Nervex with everything...
- Curved brake bridge & undrilled. Identical to all post 1949 Scot's. The lack of the diamond shaped plates on the seat stays indicate it as pre-1952.
- The frame numbers - The position on the frame changed in 1951, to under the bracket shell, however the shape and style of the stamping, the structure of the number, and the repeat number on the rear of the fork crown are as Rattrays marked the Scot's in 1950. The number itself, being correct for the year - the 492nd frame of 1950.
- The headtube badge holes look to be in the correct place, though I guess only measuring up would prove otherwise.
of interest, the markings on the cranks he says are 'FB' - you can't see the crank arms clearly enough, but they do look like FB. The Edward Williams marking he later describes in the auction I guess must relate to the chainring, unless of course someone knows better and Williams produced FB cranks ! - 'AK' from Hilary's code list indicating 1948.
I'm no Scot expert, only an enthusiastic collector, and all this info has to be viewed together as a whole package. Given however that someone like Brian would be well able to fix that top tube ding, it's certainly a good buy for someone - Walt, how about a left and right-hand drive fixed Scot ? and hopefully cheaper than getting one shipped from the UK. Oh and I nearly forgot - there's two small marks on the paint on the rear of the fork blades indicating a prior ? stuck stem removal job...
Bob Reid Stonehaven Scotland.
http://www.flying-scot.co.uk (mapped)