Author Topic: Salisbury Transmission Ltd.  (Read 16652 times)

Ian Dalziel

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Re: Salisbury Transmission Ltd.
« Reply #22 on: July 04, 2019, 03:30:08 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.


I could have done with their help when the Salisbury axle packed up on my 1958 Morgan due to a very slow oil leak which I had not spotted. After an unsuccessful repair and unable to get a replacement, I bought a Ford Anglia axle from a scrapyard and a toolmaker at work made me some adapters so the Morgan wheels could be fitted.


It took me all day to swap the axle, but I managed it and the conversion was successful.
Let's make the best out of a bad situation.

Peg Monkey

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Re: Salisbury Transmission Ltd.
« Reply #23 on: July 04, 2019, 04:29:08 PM »
i acted as a Factory/ Office guide for Lucas Aero a few times.
Hi Spud, I did a further year at the UCE (1970-71)  following my apprenticeship years to take the City & Guilds Certificate in Quality Control and The Instutute of Engineering Inspection Part III during that year we were treated to a guided tour of Lucas Gt King St by a Quality Engineer.
Never really got the hang of using statistical probability as a mean of controlling quality, do you know what? There was this guy in my statistics class at the UCE  who messed about for the whole 2 hour lesson and he still had a better grasp of the subject than me, who had hung on the lecturer's every word!
Ah Well! That's life.
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 #24 on: July 04, 2019, 04:32:04 PM »

I could have done with their help when the Salisbury axle packed up on my 1958 Morgan ....
Great Car Ian, were they still using an ash chassis then?
Still got it?
Peg.
It's far better to look back on a rejection rather than a lost opportunity.

Ian Dalziel

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Re: Salisbury Transmission Ltd.
« Reply #25 on: July 04, 2019, 05:05:37 PM »
Great Car Ian, were they still using an ash chassis then?
Still got it?
Peg.


No Peg, A lot of people think that, but it is actually an ash coach-built frame bolted onto the steel chassis and as far as I know, they are still being built in the same way.
Let's make the best out of a bad situation.

Ian Dalziel

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Re: Salisbury Transmission Ltd.
« Reply #26 on: July 04, 2019, 06:08:19 PM »
Sorry, missed the last question. No, I only drove it for 2/3 years and then it stayed in the garage for another 5 years until a friend of a friend knocked on my door one evening in 1978 and offered me a price a couldn't refuse. I've had a lot of cars in my lifetime, mostly convertibles which would be worth a lot of money now but the Morgan was the only car I sold at a profit. I found the Morgan cold, noisy, draughty and uncomfortable because you felt every bump in the road. My wife loved it though.
Let's make the best out of a bad situation.

Peg Monkey

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Re: Salisbury Transmission Ltd.
« Reply #27 on: July 04, 2019, 10:36:09 PM »
All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy - so goes the saying, so I'm now in my 3rd Apprentice year and at Aston Tech - all day Thursday, finishing at 8.00pm, one of my clubbing mates (an apprentice almost at the end of his 5 years) collects me each Thursday and we head for grab a granny night at The Rank, he's a bit naughty really, engaged but still behaving  like Jack The Lad, anyway on one visit I'm getting on really well with this slim brunnette from West Bromwich and when I try to arrange another date, she says, I can't make it I only come to the Top Rank on Thursday eveningsIt turned out she was married and Thursdays was her girl's night out....Ah.
My mate had an Hilman Imp, what a dreadful car, rear engine, rear drive cars never work, (wot about Porche, VW Beetle, Fiat 500?, OK I'll give you those) anyway you don't steer an Imp it's more a case of trying to coax it in the direction you want to go, the steering was so light he put a 2x2 paving slab in the front compartment to keep the wheels on the ground.
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 #28 on: July 06, 2019, 11:17:48 AM »
I'm about 19, in the 3rd year of my apprenticeship and I'm just coming from the D.O. having just collected a drawing when in the distance along the corredor I can hardly believe my eyes - an adult size version of Barbie, a gorgeous blue-eyed blonde, about 18, I'd never seen before, so that meant she must have been a new starter, anyway we pass and exchange smiles. At that time there was serious competition amongst the girls at the company who could wear the shortest miniskirt and believe me Barbie led the race by miles. Our paths crossed over the course of the next few days, she was from the USA and inexplicably I didn't gather very much intelligence about her so I don't know if she was a student, temp whatever, anyway I thought I've got to make a play for her, I knew she was way out of my league and I'd be punching above my weight but I thought you never know.
I was leaving the factory entrance one day about 5.00pm and I turned the corner and who should be standing on the main reception steps: Barbie, looking like she was waiting for a lift, I thought no time like the present and approached her, we spoke briefly and then I asked her out and do you know what she said? NO.
My guess is she already had a boy friend, probably earning zillions of squid a year as a hedge-fund manager, planning to retire at 25 and that was his Iso Grifo parked in the company garage.
Life's a bitch and then you die (Stewart Granger 1913-93, movie star) - but, maybe, NOT for everyone.
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 #29 on: July 07, 2019, 10:31:23 PM »
I was in the second year of my apprenticeship (1966-67) when the Asst. Personnel Manager asked if I was willing to represent the company within the Birmingham Productivity Association, it wasn't too taxing - one afternoon a month at the BPA offices at 5 Ways, Edgbaston, the BPA had 3 committees the Main BPA, the Junior and the Apprentice, I served on the latter for the remaining years of my apprenticeship. Most matters were pretty routine but a Research Project entitled The Effectiveness of Apprenticeships caught the Asst. Personnel Manager's imagination and he wanted STL to take part, he decided on the methodology and  I spent a lot of time gathering opinions from the team of apprentices (25), analyzing the results and preparing the report, unfortunately it had a very cool reception by the BPA Junior Committee who said we had missed the mark, our project served only as a gathering of opinions on the Birfield/GKN Apprentice Scheme from it's own apprentices. 
Even now I wonder how you can formulate an informed opinion because really the Effectiveness of Apprenticeships can only be ascertained down stream when you look back at ex-apprentices to see what they have achieved and the contibution to the company where they work.
At the time some held the opinion workplace training schemes offered better value for money, it wasn't long after when NVQs started to appear.
I don't know if the results of the project were ever published, if they were I did not see a copy.
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 #30 on: July 09, 2019, 10:08:59 AM »
I've never been a fan of committees and meetings - I tend to lose focus and drift away, and when Barbie entered my world that didn't help at all, so I developed a strategy for survival, just in case I was caught napping, early on in the meeting I formulated a very impressive, but largely meaningless, question, that loosely related to the topic, then if I was called upon, unexpetedly, to make a contribution I answered the question with my question. there was, of course, no defense for falling asleep - to be avoided at all costs.
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 #31 on: July 12, 2019, 05:15:38 PM »
And then there were 4. STL took on 5 apprentices a year during the 60s as was the case in my intake, 3 of us were particulary close all through our 5 years attending the same courses first at Erdington Tech, then Aston Tech and finally North Birmingham Poly (which became the UCE), initially day release, but in our final years we opted for block release of 3 months, this not only meant we got the course done quicker but also no evenings.
On completion of our apprenticeships we all got permanent positions, Ray was a clubbing mate and it was thanks to him I was first introduced to the clubbing world, on one visit to Le Metro, Livery St (under Snow Hill Station's platform) he confessed to having the hots for one of the go-go dancers that regularly appeared on stage and somehow convinced me to get up on stage with him so he could dance with the girl of his dreams whilst I danced with the other dancer, inexplicably he got a date, they got on really well and got engaged. We stopped going out as mates at that time and unfortunately Ray became a bad time keeper and was warned on a number of occasions. He came in late again one day and I heard the boss say: Come in to my office, Ray and you might want to bring the union rep.
Had we still been apprentices that might have saved him but by then we had completed our training, not long after that he left and I never saw him again.
I'm guessing he over-did the clubbing scene with his go-go dancer girlfriend and just didn't make the early mornings, he liked clubbing and I suppose he may even have gone into club management, who knows he might even be up there with Stringfellow - now that would be ironic.
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 #32 on: July 12, 2019, 09:02:05 PM »
c1972: Many people were shy of approaching the foreman of the Tool & Gauge section (John Pye), he came across as a bit severe so it was with trepidation I viewed my forthcoming time with him, the section was part of the Inspection Dept and carried out a wide variety of precision measuring tasks including the checking of tools manufactured by outside companies, such products included pitch line chucks -precision work-holding devices which accurately held complex sprial bevel crown wheels for finish grinding. From the moment I joined his team he welcomed me with open arms with no reservations about sharing his considerable knowledge and it's true to say I learnt more in the few weeks I spent with him than at any other time during my apprenticeship. It was during my time with him I used his ancient copy of the Machinery's Handbook and it was because of that I chose to have one as the prize for passing my exams that year.
He seemed to me to be approaching retirement when I was 17, but then again everyone did over 35!

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


 

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