[harit]

Came across this photo of a Premier? on E-bay with a TRA registration.
Is this Tripura? Has this been discussed before?



Cheers harit

[Stanher]

Originally Posted by harit

Came across this photo of a Premier? on E-bay with a TRA registration.
Is this Tripura? Has this been discussed before?

That's a Premier President, going by the grille badge (because the earliest Padminis also had this type of grille but with the "normal" PAL badge that we've seen on all Padminis)
And yes, TRA is Tripura. Somebody had posted pics. of a junked Chevy? van with a TRA regn. in another thread long ago.
Lovely spot/fog lamp on the car btw!
And speaking of ebay, if tis relevant here, I just tried looking for the same photo but came across this old colour slide of 1960s Bombay showing an Austin A40 taxi and a Fiat 1100 listed:

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/1960s-BOM...gAAOSw9gRaJgAF

[travancore]

photo courtesy: CMC, Vellore




Cross-posting the Christian Medical College ambulance and staff van fleet.

Interesting "NA" (North Arcot District) registrations.

[KartikeyaL]

Here is a car sporting "1780 BH"

[travancore]

Originally Posted by KartikeyaL

Here is a car sporting "1780 BH"

Rs.5000/- in those days for a Standard looks like an awful lot of money! Maybe he was dreaming....

[sabinesnubbing]

Originally Posted by KartikeyaL

Here is a car sporting "1780 BH"

Kartikeyal,
That is a really strange registration. It does not fit any of the early British India known ways of creating registrations.
There is a BO nnn BH and a UP nnn BH. If BH were an unknown place not on my lists, it would be BH 1780. I am sure there are several codes I do not have but would not expect an unknown code to have reached 1780 by the time that car was registered. If it were a UK number it would be BH 1780

I am guessing late 10s or early 20s car?
Have you any slightest clue where it was taken?

Cheers
Cedric

[travancore]

Likely another "Madhya Bharat" registration, aka the Bristol 400. Location and date unknown.

[harit]

Change of vehicle registrations during the introduction of the New Motor vehicle Act 1939

We know that several towns / districts in Gujrat like Kutch, Navsari, Baroda etc. had their own series of registrations. These were areas which were mostly ruled by some Royalty and had some form of local administration. Apparently these areas did not fall under the Bombay Presidency as far as vehicle registrations were concerned. My guess is that this method of registration by local bodies for the towns / districts started very early in the 20th century and went on right up to 1939 / 1940 when the new MV act was introduced.

This could be borne out when looking at the attached photographs of the 1937 Hudson Terraplane. One photo shows the car with a registration plate clearly under Baroda, this car would have been reregistered 1937 or so. Later the same car bears a “BMW” series number plate which shows that it was re-registered under the new motor vehicle act of 1939 just as all vehicles in Bombay Presidency were. And this was the first new series which had mainly reregistered vehicles. Perhaps the new act provided for the administration to register all vehicles in areas which were overall under British control, it was no longer under local administrations of the Royals. It can be clearly seen that the Hudson and the bungalow in the background are the same.

We also know that earlier “X” and other series of registration were seen under the Bombay Presidency series even for cities like Ahmedabad. Perhaps only selected areas had their own plates.
Almost all the Maharaja’s vehicles had their own state plates, but those were only for the use by Royals, not the common folks.

Cheers harit

[KartikeyaL]

Here is W 1639, outside the Prince of Wales museum , Bombay C. 1931

[KartikeyaL]

Two pictures of P 1613 , Pondicherry ?

[travancore]

Originally Posted by KartikeyaL

Two pictures of P 1613 , Pondicherry ?

Attachment 1746395

Attachment 1746396

Likely "Punjab" pre-independence.

[KartikeyaL]

Cross posting " TRI 1146" from Trichinopoly

[karlosdeville]

A couple of very interesting pictures posted here

A 1930s Austin saloon bearing registration plate 127 AURANGABAD, and an early CZ 175? bike, bearing plate AURANGABAD 45. Note the Austin seems to have a BMx plate underneath as well.

I vaguely recall an image of an early 1930s Ford with registration 300 AURANGABAD or there abouts.

[KartikeyaL]

Originally Posted by sabinesnubbing

I will admit that I have today noticed a picture we have that is dated 1947 and has the registration BGU - marked as unknown. This does not appear in any list either but the photo was taken in West Bengal. Any thoughts on that one???

If we are lucky, we will figure this all out eventually.

Cheers
Cedric

Originally Posted by sabinesnubbing

Promod's comment that his 1933 BGM 10 came from east India, the existance of BGM 134 with Midnapore on the plate, the existance of BGU 577 photographed in West Bengal in 1947 and, not least, your concerns/objections, lead me to ask a historical-political-geographical type question.

Cheers
Cedric

Here is another car bearing BGU

[karlosdeville]

Amongst the Bombay registration series we have seen, have never come across a BME plate, other than a few stray cases of temporary/trade plates.



Here is a Hindustan Landmaster bearing a black plate with BME registration, though still probably a trade plate (this being a demonstration car). The picture dates to 1957.