Capitol Records Distribution Corporation announced in 1968 the purchase of land in Winchester, Virginia for a new record and tape production plant. The Winchester plant began construction in 1968 and began production in 1969. The plant initially had a workforce of 250. This plant complemented the other existing manufacturing facilities of Capitol in Scranton, Jacksonville and Los Angeles. In 1969 Capitol Records Pressing Plant, Scranton began phasing out their vinyl manufacturing in favor of the new Winchester plant.
Capitol Records announced in late 1987 that it would end tape duplicating production in the US, in favor of offshore manufacturing. This included Winchester by early 1988, putting more than 500 employees out of work when they closed the plant.
The runout marking is an etched "Winchester rifle": · ─◁, or ─◁ (with or without the "bullet").
Winchester pressings have a 1 25/64" (1.390625" or 35.3 mm) diameter pressing ring. Side A has another, smaller ring, next to the spindle hole, of 11/32" (0.34375" or 8.7 mm) diameter, while Side B's smaller ring was 17/32" (0.53125" or 13.5 mm). Some copies had 13,5 mm ring on Side A and 8,7 mm ring on Side B.
Additional and complementary identifiers for Warner Bros. releases that were pressed by Capitol had the following codes on the lacquers:
(The "W" in the 2nd position indicates "Warner")
- WW - for Winchester Plant
- JW - for Capitol Records Pressing Plant, Jacksonville
- LW - for Capitol Records Pressing Plant, Los Angeles (Not to be confused with Longwear Plating LW)
