Author Topic: Salisbury Transmission Ltd.  (Read 16636 times)

Ian Dalziel

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Re: Salisbury Transmission Ltd.
« Reply #11 on: June 24, 2019, 04:44:13 PM »
In 1969, I attended an interview for the post of Personnel Officer at Moss Gear, Tyburn, who, I believe were the main competitors of Salisbury Transmissions. The interview went well and I was informed that the job was mine subject to the General Manager's approval. The following week, I reported for the second interview and was told that the General Manager was in a union meeting and would see me when it was finished. An hour and a half later, without any apology, he started the interview, obviously in a bad mood and not having perused my CV. He picked out one item which mentioned that I had established a sports and social club at my previous company and muttered that he would not be interested in that and finished the interview after 10 minutes.


Having had no reply after two weeks, I telephoned and was told that I had not got the job. However, he did me a favour because, two weeks later, I landed a great job with a drop forging company in Cradley Heath working with lovely black country folk and the Tyburn factory closed soon afterwards.


For those who are wondering what this diatribe has to do with Salisbury Transmissions, the answer is that I originally incorrectly thought my interview was with them, and then, not wanting to libel what was probably a perfectly good company, I tried to delete this message but was unable to, so I modified it instead.
Let's make the best out of a bad situation.

Peg Monkey

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Re: Salisbury Transmission Ltd.
« Reply #12 on: June 25, 2019, 06:14:36 AM »
I guess I was in the last year of my apprenticeship (1970) when one day as I was walking through the Jig & Tool Drawing office I heard a shout - a full mug of tea had been spilt into the top drawer of a plan filing cabinet containing 100's of large drawings, mercifully the change to plastic sheets from paper had taken place a while before so the drawings were saved by carefully dabbing off the spillage, previous to that drawings were done on paper, those being repeatedly used were traced onto linen using ink to increase their life.
The drawings lay flat in the drawers and retrieval wasn't too bad but re-filing was a pig, then vertical filing cabinets came in where the drawings hung on steel rods and were much easier to withdraw and re-file, now of course it's all CAD.
I remember the union of the data DATA, (Draughtsman's and Allied Technicians's Association) producing a report on the threat computers posed to draughting profession - you can't hold back progress how ever hard you try. :-\
Peg.
It's far better to look back on a rejection rather than a lost opportunity.

Peg Monkey

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Re: Salisbury Transmission Ltd.
« Reply #13 on: June 25, 2019, 04:31:10 PM »
I estimate it was around 1967 when Salisbury acquired it's factory site on Old Bromford Lane, the building had been previously occupied by Birfield Machine Tools (The Birfield Apprentice School, Hardy Spicer Site, had a milling machine made by Birfield Machine Tools), prior to that I understand the building was occupied by Faccino's Biscuits, but thus far I've found no recorded history of that time. If I remember correctly planning restrictions prevented machining processes and running a nightshift, so the plant was used for assembly work and staff accommodation.
I was into the 2nd/3rd year of my apprenticeship and working in the Maintenance Dept when the new factory was being re-fitted for Salisbury's occupation, I remember being assigned to the pipe-fitter in the team and we were asked by the Works Engineer to sort out the compressed-air line in the roof, working on a ladder would have been too hazardous, so.................. :-[
Peg.

It's far better to look back on a rejection rather than a lost opportunity.

Peg Monkey

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Re: Salisbury Transmission Ltd.
« Reply #14 on: June 26, 2019, 05:19:35 PM »
STL products during my tenure: 1965-74: The company made a range of front and rear axles, spiral bevel gear sets and differentials for a wide range of on and off-road vehicles, main customers: Rover and Jaguar but many other automotive companies, sadly some long gone, including: Jensen, Bristol, Ford, J C Bamford, Reliant and many others.
OK, wots a differential and why do we need one? Caution! My product knowledge and technology has been eroded by the sands of time, but here goes - A differential, in it's simplest form, is a cast iron cage containing 4 small inter-meshing bevel gears, it's contained within the main axle casing and it allows the vehicle's road wheels, on the same axle, to travel at a different speed, as is required when negotiating corners and bends.
The design of the standard diff, adequate for most cars, has an inherant flaw - lose traction on one wheel (like in deep snow) and the vehicle goes nowhere. The rich who  can afford an up-market car benefit, probably without knowing it, as likely as not a limited slip differential will be fitted in their car, this is more sophisticated than the standard diff as it contains a multi-plated clutch at it's heart, this helps to limit wheelspin.
Peg
P.S. There's every chance there is an STL product in Del Trotter's Reliant Regal Van..........

P.P.S. Forgot to mention - I once witnessed an RTA when a Reliant flipped on it's side, no-one hurt - more details: http://www.birminghamforum.co.uk/index.php?topic=14299.msg693231#msg693231
It's far better to look back on a rejection rather than a lost opportunity.

Peg Monkey

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Re: Salisbury Transmission Ltd.
« Reply #15 on: June 27, 2019, 08:34:32 PM »
A few minutes walk from Reception up Birch Rd in the direction of Wyrley Rd and you arrived at the Salisbury Garage on the lefthand side, a good sized workshop accommodating about 10 cars, the personnel consisted of a foreman and two axle fitters and their main role was to fit axles to test cars. I suppose I spent about 2 weeks there as part of my tour of the factory sometime in 1967. The most exotic car I got to see in there was the Italian beast of a sportscar an Iso Grifo, convertable, body gleaming white, white leather upolstery, cockpit like a jet fighter and tyres the width of oil drums. The cars were only in production 1963-74 and had spine-chilling performance, most cars had a 5.4L V8 Chevrolet engine but a few were 7L. All the directors took the car out for a test drive.
Peg.
Link: Wikipedia Iso Grifo: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iso_Grifo
It's far better to look back on a rejection rather than a lost opportunity.

Peg Monkey

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Re: Salisbury Transmission Ltd.
« Reply #16 on: June 29, 2019, 01:57:32 PM »
I don't know what type of axle was fitted to the E Type, it could have been a beam axle  or, as is more likely, an axle unit which is fitted into a subframe and allows all-round independant suspension, eitherway Salisbury would have supplied, I don't know if Salisbury parts were ever fitted to an Iso Grifo, if they had, it would have been a small account, lifetime build numbers:
E Type: 14,577
Iso Grifo: 400
So, if you won the lottery which one would you choose? To help you decide see head to head comparison below, still in a dillema? Easy, if your win was a good one - buy one of each, you wouldn't waste your money on a collector's car? Food for thought:
In 1993 my budget would only stretch to a used Sierra, gave details to my friendly used car dealer (Regal Garage, Queslett Rd, Kingstanding) took him a couple of weeks to find one all the time I eyeballed a fully restored yellow E Type Jaguar Coupe he had for sale on his forecourt, it certainly hadn't sold after a couple of weeks - inexplicable. I never asked him what it went for, the asking price was £15,000, you'd be lucky to get a rusting hulk of a bodyshell for that now.
Peg.
P.S.Like to know what an Iso Grifo looks like?, link https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iso_Grifo
It's far better to look back on a rejection rather than a lost opportunity.

Peg Monkey

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Re: Salisbury Transmission Ltd.
« Reply #17 on: June 29, 2019, 02:24:45 PM »
Forgot to mention which I would choose if offered one or the other for free - The Iso Grifo, then sell it for £352,000, buy an E Type for £230,000 and bank £122,000.
If only............ :-\
Peg.
It's far better to look back on a rejection rather than a lost opportunity.

Peg Monkey

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Re: Salisbury Transmission Ltd.
« Reply #18 on: June 30, 2019, 10:51:55 PM »
The Axle Fitting Team was right up there with F1 Mechanics, a team of 2 could remove a standard beam axle, fit a new one, including bleeding the brakes, in not much more than 10 minutes. O0
Peg.

It's far better to look back on a rejection rather than a lost opportunity.

Peg Monkey

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Re: Salisbury Transmission Ltd.
« Reply #19 on: July 02, 2019, 11:06:35 PM »
It was sometime in 1969 that Salisbury's Old Bromford Lane factory was fully operational, including the resettlement of staff from the Witton factory, and a scheduled minibus service was introduced to allow staff to move freely between the two sites (the service was extended when the Tyburn Rd Factory was taken over). The staff departments moved from Witton to Old Bromford Lane included Accounts, Design Drawing Office, Jig & Tool Drawing Office, Planning and Plant Layout but the plan was only partly successful, because the main manufacturing facilty was still at Witton, it didn't work when those departments central to the manufacturing proccess were some distance away, so many staff (Jig & Tool Drawing Office, Planning and Plant layout) were moved back to Witton 1970-71.
Peg.   
It's far better to look back on a rejection rather than a lost opportunity.

Peg Monkey

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Re: Salisbury Transmission Ltd.
« Reply #20 on: July 04, 2019, 12:59:41 PM »
I will always be grateful for Birfield/GKN's generosity for funding my apprenticeship, not only were course and exam fees met in full you also got a prize for passing your exams, one prize in particular stands out for passing my exams in 1967, I was given a prize allowance of £6 and with the money I purchased The Engineer's Bible The MACHINERY'S HANDBOOK, mine is the 17th edition, the current edition is the 29th and is still available as a hardback, List price?: £109.95.
Peg.
It's far better to look back on a rejection rather than a lost opportunity.

Spud

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Re: Salisbury Transmission Ltd.
« Reply #21 on: July 04, 2019, 01:23:34 PM »
i acted as a Factory/ Office guide for Lucas Aero a few times. I accompanied the MOD around US Navy and Rolls Royce all on Quality Audits. Rolls could be difficult with loaded questions they caught me out once but I was ready for them the next time. For some reason best known to the powers that be we had a Quality Audit by a team from within the the Lucas Group. It was headed by a bloke named Gordon Bennett [His real name]he tore the place apart. We once failed a Rolls Royce Audit. We being their biggest supplier the yoghurt really hit the fan. Heaven and earth was moved and we passed the follow up Audit with flying colours. Every employee was awarded a Parker Pen I still have mine. I often wonder if the Rolls Audit was a bit of a wake up call perhaps.
I did a few Quality Audits for Lucas with Various Suppliers but it was not  really my cup of tea but an interesting exercise
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