Scanning the New Con Rod from the 1970s and 1980s reveals a couple of things: people liked discussing the Thorpe Douglas, and any racing Douglas that was not obviously DT was claimed to have started life as "one of the four bikes built for the 1932 TT".
I think I have tracked the origin of the incorrect claim - see previous post - that the Thorpe Douglas "was one of the original 1932 T.T. jobs". Better, this claim leads us to an unlikely surviving bike that is both (a) "one of the original 1932 T.T. jobs" and (b) a near-perfect example of "grandfather's axe" where perhaps not a single part of the original machine is present in the present incarnation of the bike.
Stay with me on this one: it's a bit tricky but worth the journey.
In his "Past Times" column for Motor Cycle Weekly, 14 January 1978, (reproduced in NCR March 1981) Bob Currie wrote about the Thorpe Douglas, and its successful outings in the hands of Phil Seymour and Ginger Bridges. The article finishes with a confession by Bob that he is "hazy" on the origins of the machine, but thinks its history might involve Brooklands and Francis Beart. and invites comment.
(He's not right, but he's not completely wrong either. The machine he was thinking of was the the ex-Tommy Atkins supercharged bike, later purchased and raced by Beart. This machine did not evolve into the Thorpe Douglas, but spares from this machine, including genuine 1932 TT parts, did pass from Beart into the Thorpe.)
Bob received a reply to his request from Owen Sheridan, of Swords, Co. Dublin, Ireland, which he incorporated into a later column. According to Sheridan, there were two surviving 1932 TT bikes: one was the Thorpe Douglas, and the other belonged to him! The story he has for his own bike is a good one. In Bob Currie's words "The ex-Paddy Johnston model found its way to Ireland, where it was first owned by Harry Lindsay's father, and eventually passed on to Owen Sheridan." Sounds plausible?
The story goes on that, after the war, Sheridan rebuilt the bike incorporating all the same Bert Thorpe parts that went into the Thorpe Douglas - heads, pistons,barrels, con rods... Indeed Phil Seymour travelled to Ireland to deliver the unmachined castings to Sheridan, who then finished them "to Thorpe's instructions".
So far so good - we can imagine Paddy Johnston's 1932 TT mount with Thorpe-modified engine, ready to race in post-war Ireland.
In Bob Currie's words: "Owen raced what one might term the 494cc Sheridan-Thorpe Special as a solo in a number of Irish short-circuit events, but dropped it heavily at a Curraghs meeting when the gearbox seized. Says he: "Four gallons of dope, the model and myself went up in flames. The engine was saved by piling mounds of turf on it, but the rest - frame, wheels, etc. - just melted. If anyone has a spare frame (a dirt one would do) I could be back in business!"
I don't quite understand the last sentence, but let's go on. I'll return later.
In the following issue of NCR (May 1981) Jeff Clew writes to note that he too thought the Thorpe Douglas was the Beart machine, but "now that myth has been exploded". Interesting to replace one origin myth (Beart) with another (1932 TT)!
For the November 1981 NCR, Jeff Clew sends in correspondence to and from Owen Sheridan about the bike. Sheridan says "My model is the only surviving one of four models built for the I.O.M. Senior Race in 1932..." and goes on to detail the "full Bert Thorpe treatment" the bike received. He doesn't mention the crash (presumably in the early 1950s) that all but destroyed the cycle parts, but the correspondence is accompanied by the photo attached below.
Still thinking "Paddy Johnston 1932 TT bike with Thorpe engine upgrades"? Think again! The bike survives in this form - or did in 2013 when Ed Byrne of Dublin made this post:
https://www.douglasmotorcycles.net/index.php?topic=5132.0Presumably after the crash and fire the engine was rebuilt into newly-built (?) cycle parts, thus my confusion about the "If anyone has a spare frame..." comment to Bob Curry in 1978. Perhaps Owen meant that a spare frame might return it to something more "Douglasy"?
So, grand father's axe, eh? New head, new handle... perhaps the bottom end of the engine has a ghostly link to Paddy Johnston and the 1932 TT?
If the bike DID start life as one of the 1932 TT models - and we've only got Owen Sheridan's word on that - I doubt a bike could have a more complex and interesting history!
Cheers
Leon