That old chestnut. Seagull or Marston? - OP597

[andrewhogg]

The closest I thought I'd ever come to owning a Marston was when a beautifully restored SD came up for sale on Ebay. I imported this from UK to NZ.

Like most highs in life the law of diminishing returns applies.

Coincidentally the opportunity to own a Marston came up recently in the form of an OP - OP597. Knowing these opportunities don't come up often, (especially in this part
of the world), I decided to jump at the chance of owning it and I hope to take delivery of it very shortly.

After doing a bit digging and reading through posts on this forum, I soon realized an OP is often classified as a 'transitional' engine. That is neither a Seagull not a Marston but a bit of both.

A bit more digging seems to suggest the earlier OP's are more towards the Marston end and later OP's more toward the British Seagull end of the spectrum. Part of the justification being that the earlier OPs branded on the tank as Seagull Marston and the later OPs branded as British Seagull.

Again from my best guess from ploughing through the literature I'm guessing around a 1938 / 1939 model OP (based on series starting at 100 and being able to manufacture roughly 200 models per year). Which would make it a British Seagull decal on the tank.
?
Question.

Is it a Marston? Is it a Marston Seagull, or a British Seagull? What's the closest I can get away with in terms of being able to have it described as a Marston? Would it have been made in Sunbeam factory, or Wolverhampton or Poole? What year could it?

I note a couple of observations which seem to be reiterated by those in the know.

1) It qualifies but be able to go on the Marston register.
2) Marston or not, it's an early rare engine which was designed by Marston.

TIA to Charles L and other like minded clones of him.

P.S I'd like to get my SD, FV and FVP on registers also if I can.



[

[Oyster 49]

That looks like a decent engine. Enjoy
You are right, the British Seagull company took over during the run of production, and at some point the branding on the tank changed to British Seagull. I think it was during 1937, but can't remember, there is a copy of the articles of incorporation or similar of the new company. Not sure where the engines were being made by that time, Charles P will know as he has researched it extensively. Your OP is still a Marston, as there was little or no change apart from the logo on the tank.
You will find many parts are the similar to your SD, I've even found some parts on my OG common to the SD apart from the material. It's all the DNA that resulted in the post war 102 models.

There is a F/FV/FVP/LS register, Jeremy did a huge amount of work on that a few years ago, and it's on the SOS website I believe.