Thanks for these links. Some great old stuff in there but thank the Lord for modern health and safety rules. I wonder how many fingers were lost and lives shortened by the working practices. Nearly every week in the Derby paper there are inquest reports on deaths caused by asbestos from employment in the railway works, foundries, mines and building trades and they are all from the 50's to the 70's.

Did you catch the part where one worker lighted his cigarette with a red hot rivet?

Haha, yes I did see that. What is the hook doing at 8'30"? Is that metal coming off the piece being lathed?

That is a continuous shaving coming off the cutting tool on the lathe. These can be hazardous and difficult to handle, sometimes wrapping-up around the spinning chuck. Modern cutting tools are often designed with chip breakers to avoid these continuous shavings.

Excellent - thanks for the glimpse back in time.

My grandfather worked on the LNER in the glory days of the British railway industry and I'm sure he would have been very familiar with that kind of environment. He told us of working a six-day week and how, as an apprentice, he would get up in the early hours to ready the locomotive for the fireman to begin raising steam at five or six in the morning. He progressed to fireman, then later to driver on the main London-Edinburgh line. His retirement watch is one of my most treasured possessions.

No problem. I really enjoy these old videos. There's another one that I think I may have seen on this site, but not sure about differential gears.

Differential Gear

You'll probably enjoy thread666-264001: How turbines used to be built - I think this was before you joined the site so you might not have seen them.

ScottyUK, thank you for that link to the old thread, and yes, that "German company" that you mentioned was Siemens.

John R. Baker, P.E.
Product 'Evangelist'
Product Engineering Software
Siemens PLM Software Inc.
Industry Sector
Cypress, CA
Siemens PLM:
UG/NX Museum:

To an Engineer, the glass is twice as big as it needs to be.

Hi John,

The place was in trouble around the time that NEI collapsed, and the business passed to Rolls-Royce in the late 1980s, and then to Siemens a few years later.

It didn't help either Parsons or their arch-rivals GEC that one of their mainstay customers, the CEGB, was itself being dismantled in the early 1990s and few if any domestic orders for large steam turbines were placed during that period. I watched one of the last big sets leave the works in 1985(ish), probably heading to Drax in Yorkshire although I didn't know it at the time.

I used to work for a British company headquartered in Peterborough, Baker Perkins Ltd, back in the 60's and 70's at their American division then located in Saginaw, Michigan. I left there in 1980 for my current position and have watched them go through many changes as well, but they've at least stayed British owned, although they are a much smaller company now than when I was working there but they still managed to start paying the pension they owed me, for my 14 years of service, when I turned 65 a while back.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baker_Perkins

There is also a very active Baker Perkins Historical Society in Peterborough. In addition to publishing a regulare newsletter mailed to past employees and other interested persons, they also maintain a website covering the history of the company as well as planning events and reunions in the Peterborough area.

http://www.bphs.net/

John R. Baker, P.E.
Product 'Evangelist'
Product Engineering Software
Siemens PLM Software Inc.
Industry Sector
Cypress, CA
Siemens PLM:
UG/NX Museum:

To an Engineer, the glass is twice as big as it needs to be.