pault
Elder Statesman
Posts: 1,496
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Post by pault on Jan 12, 2019 21:40:48 GMT
I guess my engineering career started at a young age. I used to take things apart because they were “not working properly”, unfortunately I usually couldn’t put them back together, a trait my son inherited. I got my first “steam engine” aged about 9, when I got the Mamod traction engine I desperately wanted for Christmas. This was in the times where it was acceptable to give a small boy a bottle of methylated spirits, a box of matches and a steam engine and send him outside to play. What could possibly go wrong, well nothing did, everything survived.
Leaving school at 16 I landed a Mechanical Engineering, Craft Apprenticeship, with a company which built packaging machinery for the Drugs and Cosmetic industries. The first year was spent at an apprentice training school making all the usual tools and tool box whilst being shown video nasties about the various ways we could maim and kill ourselves. The next 3 years were spent in the factory moving around the sections in a structured way, building individual machines or whole packing lines. Eventually I ended up as a service engineer repairing, modifying and installing machines and lines. This took me all over the UK and to various places abroad, including Hungry. In the mid 80’s this was still very much part of the Communist Eastern Block and was a real eye opener. A tough job in Istanbul left me feeling totally unsupported by the company and made me decide to leave.
I then got a job working for the MOD at what was known locally as the tank factory (Royal Armament Research & Development Establishment , working in the Automotive Labs. This involved building test rigs for the laboratory testing of “stuff” to do with vehicles. This involved things like test rigs for engines, gearboxes, suspension as well as testing individual parts. As part of Options for Change it was decided to close the labs but I was lucky enough to move to what was known as The Instrumentation and Data Analysis Section. The work here was to measure things like shock, vibration, pressure, temperature, strain, movement and provide reports. The work was varied and could be very challenging. Imagine measuring and recording things like the wheel movement of a tank moving flat out across country or the pressure inside the cylinder of a diesel engine related to crank angle. After a while we merged with a couple of other departments which involved us with more vehicle trails like finding the C of G of vehicle with a tilt platform, winch trials Braking and performance trials. I also ended up looking after and running the “Dyno Car” which was a modified Scammell S26 heavy haulage unit. The idea was that it would be towed by the vehicle being tested and would be braked so that the trial vehicle could be tested through its full power range. Most of the trials were interesting and fun, but some were not. On one job we set up our equipment for various tasks and were then used as observers while the soldiers did their stuff. A night in a trench looking for people creeping up on you or a whole Saturday sitting in a bush in the rain watching people in green running around are not fun in any way. That said 6 trips to Canada made up for that.
Sadly after 11 years it was clear that the Establishment was on borrowed time and I took redundancy.
I spent a year playing trains but then needed a job, and got one in a factory that made pumps as Production Trouble Shooter, which was interesting but lacked something.
An opportunity came up to buy a one man band machine shop business which I did. Most of the work was either related to the local garages or peoples toys, again mainly automotive based. Whilst a lot of it was relatively simple stuff I did make parts for an ROV, a replica Avroplane (which I think is in Duxford Museum) a Rotrex supercharger kit for Jaguar V8s, parts for the Hogs Back Beer Engine Bike and a whole host of other things. Sadly the recession and the car scrappage scheme hurt the business. The car scrappage scheme took 400,000 older cars off the roads. These were looked after in many cases by small independent garages. The scraping of those cars hurt a lot of small businesses, mine included. I decided to wind up the business.
That lead me to The R,H&DR were I am involved in all sorts of engineering. Overall I’ve had a lot of fun so far, I have just managed to get bigger and better toys
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jma1009
Elder Statesman
Posts: 5,901
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Post by jma1009 on Jan 13, 2019 1:34:05 GMT
None of my jobs has been of any relevance to my model engineering activities, except a brief 4 month period as manager of a commercial miniature railway. I had a very stressful career as a Solicitor dealing with lots of high profile cases. An opportunity arose in 2002 to join the 'Valley Lines' (Cardiff Railway Co.) in 2002 and work very old fashioned slam door stock with class 37 diesel locos on the Rhymney Line. I was basically getting paid to play trains and it was hugely enjoyable under our General Manager the late Tom Clift who turned a blind eye to our antics to speed up the schedule. We would do every thing for Tom; if he (via his staff) devised all sorts of extra 'turns' on Rugby days or when the FA quarter and semi finals and finals were held in Cardiff when Wembley was being rebuilt we all volunteered for the extra diagrams if it was a class 37 LHCS as it would be with Tom! I remember when we did the last run of the 37s with the LHCS. I had acquired a stock of detonators to put down. Typical of Tom, he joined us for the last run of the 37s and gave me a bag of detonators to put down! He had paid for wreaths to be put on the 37 locos which were very carefully placed on each of the last runs up until the final run from Rhymney which I had spent some time previously to get - exchanging a week of restdays - for same. I also did the last run by Driver Tom Jackson on the day he retired after 50 years with Tom driving a class 37 with a rake of Mk2s on our busiest train off Rhymney to Cardiff. It was on the BBC Wales News later on. We had such fun running a 'crack' service with very old locos and carriages. We would do the evening commuter runs from Cardiff to Rhymney as fast as possible with the 37s and Mk2s. All the signalmen were in on the game as was Tom Clift, and with a good driver we would get to Rhymney 10-15 minutes ahead of schedule over a 25 mile run uphill and 13 station stops! I had appeared before Masters of the Chancery Division of the RCJ The Strand, and numerous other cases at the RCJ The Strand, but nothing compared with the fun we had with those old class 37s and LHCS on the Rhymney Line when Tom Clift was in charge. I subsequently faced 3 disciplinaries under Arriva for running trains early from Cardiff to Rhymney on what we considered to be our most important trains - by then replaced by 150s and Pacers. Tom Clift would never have done this - he would just have given us a wink and a smile! www.youtube.com/watch?v=zYK9nvPsIRI&list=FLT3T2QDw1FECb6O07Jfr1DQ&index=22&t=0swww.youtube.com/watch?v=m0lX-zkq9E0&list=FLT3T2QDw1FECb6O07Jfr1DQ&index=14&t=0s(I am actually the Guard in both of the above clips) Cheers, Julian
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Post by Jo on Jan 13, 2019 9:53:53 GMT
Mine all started with an Electronic Apprenticeship for GEC Marconi. We had 2 days in the first year where they taught us to use a lathe. Five years later an a visit to a friends' father's house I discovered he had a lathe ! (Two weeks later I had one as well )
Back to work: after my electronics qualifications I was taught control engineering, which in turn led to 15 years as a Software Engineer before I grew up and changed to Systems Engineering and found myself working with Universities to define defence problems for them and to look at possible solutions and to pull through their research into our defence systems. Researchers think differently from engineers so to understand their point of view I did a PhD part-time but Uni's are mean and won't let you finish in less than three years part-time (I suspect that was all to do with getting us to pay the fees ) so I gained my PhD part-time 3 years and one day after starting
The last 10 years of "Work" was as an Enterprise architect solving many of the "features" resulting from the way the UK MoD's fund their procurement of defence systems.
Over those years I have worked on the development of Spacecraft, Fast Jets, Combat Systems, Radars, Sonars and the likes of Formula 1 racing cars.... but the last few years, thanks to the financial crash and the unknowns of Brexit , no one is investing in the interesting new stuff so I was finding work boring But I mustn't complain last July I took very, very early retirement under favourable conditions, brought myself a mobility vehicle "Minx" and moved into my workshop to make swarf - its horrible but someone's got to do it
Jo
P.S. My "mobility vehicle" is a brand new MX-5, its supposed to encourage me to not spend all my time in my workshop and to be a bit more sociable
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Post by simplyloco on Jan 14, 2019 14:49:36 GMT
An adjunct to 'Interesting Careers' could be 'Interesting Pictures from my Interesting Career'! Here is one of my few remaining 'work' pictures: taken for a publicity release when I was at Vickers Defence - nee Royal Ordnance Leeds. I'd just got back from a year in Qatar so I could afford a shiny new Aquascrotum mohair suit! John challenger tanks by inkaboat, on Flickr
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JonL
Elder Statesman
WWSME (Wiltshire)
Posts: 2,907
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Post by JonL on Jan 14, 2019 16:03:11 GMT
You look like you are peering to see where the shot landed!
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Post by Jo on Jan 14, 2019 17:10:15 GMT
That reminds me when we were due to be "taking measurements on a live firing range". Our health and safety people always wanted to be involved whenever we went on the customer site to make sure we had the appropriate safety equipment and to make sure we wore it so that we were "covered by the company insurance" as they would never under any circumstances accept the customer's insurance cover. So we had great pleasure on that occasion in asking them what the safety equipment requirements were and when would they provide it by. For some reason on that occasion they thought the customer's supplied equipment would be more than adequate as would their insurance be. It was a shame as I always liked being forced to have yet more home workshop safety shoes & safety glasses etc whenever we went off site Jo
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terryhowlett
Active Member
Actually retired (almost as planned) in late 2019.
Posts: 47
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Post by terryhowlett on Jan 16, 2019 17:46:56 GMT
Great picture John. That looks like a Challenger 1 MBT, so must be quite a while back. We get a lot of it's younger stablemate, Challenger 2's down here. Mechanical beasts indeed. :-)
Terry
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Post by simplyloco on Jan 16, 2019 18:01:46 GMT
Great picture John. That looks like a Challenger 1 MBT, so must be quite a while back. We get a lot of it's younger stablemate, Challenger 2's down here. Mechanical beasts indeed. :-) Terry hi Terry 1987! John
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Midland
Elder Statesman
Posts: 1,870
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Post by Midland on Jan 17, 2019 10:38:10 GMT
I think a long essay on how wonderful I am is a little redundant so in keeping with glamour boy and his 'little' tank a la Lieutenant Gruber here is god's gift to the maritime world, Junior Cadet RCN unowho!!!! People J by David Goyder, on Flickr and just to show I did get promoted, I am between the two verticle antenna coming alongside for replenishment IMG_1159 by David Goyder, on Flickr Cheers David
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Post by ettingtonliam on Jan 17, 2019 12:46:09 GMT
That reminds me when we were due to be "taking measurements on a live firing range". Our health and safety people always wanted to be involved whenever we went on the customer site to make sure we had the appropriate safety equipment and to make sure we wore it so that we were "covered by the company insurance" as they would never under any circumstances accept the customer's insurance cover. So we had great pleasure on that occasion in asking them what the safety equipment requirements were and when would they provide it by. For some reason on that occasion they thought the customer's supplied equipment would be more than adequate as would their insurance be. It was a shame as I always liked being forced to have yet more home workshop safety shoes & safety glasses etc whenever we went off site Jo A company I worked for wanted me to go and supervise the construction of 50km of access roads in an old established artillery training ground near Catterick. Having read some statistics regarding the number of shells which didn't go off, especially the older ones, when landing in soft ground, I enquired what my site transport would be (armoured Humvee or similar?) On being told it was to be a Ford Sierra, I gracefully declined the appointment.
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Post by 92220 on Jan 17, 2019 16:59:55 GMT
I had a bit of a brush with the army in the early days too. This isn't actual work, but back in the late 1970s I was a member of the Cheltenham Motor club. I was involved in checking out the route of our national car rally, across Salisbury Plain. We had to do our route checking on one particular day because the army agreed to halt all use of the Plain for that day. When we got there that morning were a bit worried because we had heard gunfire, though it did sound very distant. Anyway, we had to get on with checking about 10 miles of army tracks across the plain that would be used for the rally at the weekend. We had been on Salisbury Plain all day and hadn't seen any sign of the army and we got to the last stretch of the rally route at mid afternoon. I was driving down this track across the Plain at around 60mph, between roof high banks on either side, checking the last rally track. All of a sudden a bloody great tank shot across the track about 20 feet in front of us!! It must have been going flat out because it jumped the track from bank to bank. Luckily we had almost completed the checks so we got out of there fast!!!
Bob.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 17, 2019 19:15:11 GMT
I have one or two pictures around from work, not many on the PC though, this is the first one that I found, this is the model unit for the film 'RA One' (IIRC 2011) which is a Bollywood action hero type of film.. the model is of the front face of Mumbai railway station, IIRC it's 1/3rd scale. In the film, this building collapses after an Indian broad-gauge loco crashes through it, we built that too... you can find the action sequence in Leigh Took's showreel here. www.mattesandminiatures.co.uk/showreel?fbclid=IwAR0xQlZ9R5kJAXGQrs-I5EH6B_uWfdh_PKGV5YpR2AvQOrm9VWNm4UgOeeQ Leigh is the supervisor who i'm standing to my right in the photo. for those who don't know me personally, I'm in the white T-shirt, a little slimmer today although not by much after Xmas... Pete
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barlowworks
Statesman
Now finished my other projects, Britannia here I come
Posts: 874
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Post by barlowworks on Jan 17, 2019 20:53:39 GMT
I have one or two pictures around from work, not many on the PC though, this is the first one that I found, this is the model unit for the film 'RA One' (IIRC 2011) which is a Bollywood action hero type of film.. the model is of the front face of Mumbai railway station, IIRC it's 1/3rd scale. In the film, this building collapses after an Indian broad-gauge loco crashes through it, we built that too... you can find the action sequence in Leigh Took's showreel here. www.mattesandminiatures.co.uk/showreel?fbclid=IwAR0xQlZ9R5kJAXGQrs-I5EH6B_uWfdh_PKGV5YpR2AvQOrm9VWNm4UgOeeQ Leigh is the supervisor who i'm standing to my right in the photo. for those who don't know me personally, I'm in the white T-shirt, a little slimmer today although not by much after Xmas... Pete Some outstanding work there sir. And then someone either blows it up or sets fire to it. Mike
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Post by Deleted on Jan 17, 2019 21:30:34 GMT
haha.. yep, that's film life for you, Mike.. I should point out that the showreel is Leigh's and thus there are some films there that I wasn't involved with. Leigh runs a small independent VFX company that I have worked for on and off since 1996. Most of my time was working directly for production on big films, thus only involved in about 4 or 5 films in his clip. The clips from Angel and Demons I was involved with, in fact, I'm in the film as an extra, I'm being helped up to my feet just behind Tom Hanks after the helicopter explodes, you'd have to freeze frame to pick me out though.... Pete
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steam4ian
Elder Statesman
One good turn deserves another
Posts: 2,069
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Post by steam4ian on Jan 18, 2019 5:46:40 GMT
My paternal grandmother gave me a Renown steam engine complete with pump and windmill for my 1st birthday; she was not flush with funds so it was a big gift for her. I was an asthmatic child and to get me out of the cramped dusty flat my parents would take me to the parklands near North Adelaide to watch the trains go by on a Sunday evening; in those days there were a number of passenger trains, steam hauled, leaving for country destinations. I was hooked. A few years later my parents bought what became the family home on a street which faced onto a busy railway line, my dream location. As I progressed through school I developed an interest in things electronic and ultimately got my Ham ticket. Trains were still a passion but that was discouraged by my parents as time wasting. I made a false start as a radio apprentice with Philips until my father dragged me back to finish school with the intention of going to University. At uni I did much better than at school and in first year landed both a scholarship with BHP, the a big steel company, and a cadetship with the Water Authority, I mention the latter because years down the track they had a profound influence on my career. I took the BHP scholarship which paid much less but was unbonded. At uni our course included a workshop practice subject learning to use lathes mills etc. My first few weeks with BHP included time in the F&T Apprentice training shop which I both enjoyed and excelled. Some fruitful years at the Whyalla steel works followed until my wife and I went to a bible college thinking we would become missionaries. We didn't become missionaries but I did land a plum job with a then fledgling oil and gas outfit in Adealide. (some weeks after being awarded that job the Water Authority offered me a position). The O&G firm grew very rapidly and I was carried up the escalator of experience. Ultimately the money ran out and I got bored with fighting over the then small parcels of cash for projects so I joined a consulting firm specialising in building services. I learned a lot from them very quickly and also learned that they did not pay well. A job came available with another consulting firm which did a very broad range of projects. I stayed with them for a number of years until a downturn saw my number come up. During this time my wife and I were leading a church so they was not much spare time. Two days after retrenchment I had my business name registered. A chance meeting had me subcontracting to an outfit which was undertaking a review of the major pumping stations owned by the Water Authority. These used high voltage motors and switchgear which had become my speciality. A strange string of events saw me in the Water Authority office as their acting chief electrical engineer (They got what they wanted). This same time saw me designing up wind-farm connections and EHV sub-stations. My wife and I closed the church leaving me some free time. I looked at picking up electronics and radio but the thrill had gone out of it; I could no longer see where the smoke was coming from. It did lead me to buying a small Chinese lathe. One thing has led to another and we are now retired and living in a country town 2 hours drive from Adelaide. I have a workshop still under construction with a larger lathe and decent mill plus other junk. The town has a great miniature railway with a small but busy band of members. I still have the Renown steam engine and it still runs after I made a new crankshaft, the other had worn through.
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JonL
Elder Statesman
WWSME (Wiltshire)
Posts: 2,907
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Post by JonL on Apr 5, 2019 14:49:00 GMT
Just finished my first week in a new role, I now maintain flight simulators!
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Post by silverfox on Apr 5, 2019 15:13:07 GMT
I was a leather wringer-out for a one armed window cleaner
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Post by andyhigham on Apr 5, 2019 16:28:46 GMT
I have always had a fascination for all things mechanical and electrical. When I was pre school age my mum worked part time as a teacher at the hospital, my dad took her to work after dinner (dinner is at around noon for real people), on the way back we used to stop and watch the steam engines pulling trains into and out of Trinity St station from Orlando Bridge Before I left primary school I could strip and rebuild a Villiers 2 stroke engine. My dad helped me to make a crystal radio, I had to learn how to solder in order to build it. I served my time at Wadsworth Lifts in Bolton and built control panels. I was there until 1986 when Otis -spit- took them over and closed them down. I then worked for a small electrical company, Sigma Electrical, again building and installing control panels. In around 2010 the boss was having health problems and decided to retire, closing the company. he agreed for me to take the drawings etc and as a result my company Sigma Projects was born. One thing that has been a constant in my life, Motor bikes, I ride them on the road, I have competed in road racing and trials and now compete in sprint, drag racing and speed record racing. For my 60th birthday I bought a 200BHP 200MPH bike
My current stable consists of :- 2003 Aprilia RSV 1000 Mille 1955 BSA B31 built to 500cc Gold Star spec 2019 Kawasaki ZZR1400 1935 OK Supreme 250 1936 OK Supreme 250 (basket case) Scratch built sprint bike using a GM 500cc speedway engine Modified Jawa 500cc grasstrack bike (I will be racing this on Pendine sands) 1962 Greeves 200cc (one of my race bikes) 1967 Greeves 360cc (mid restoration) 1962 Greeves with 1967 360cc engine (long term project) 1984 Suzuki GSX1100EFE (mid restoration)
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jem
Elder Statesman
Posts: 1,064
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Post by jem on Apr 5, 2019 17:11:22 GMT
Hi Nobbysideways,
Can we have a go please
best wishes
Jem
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JonL
Elder Statesman
WWSME (Wiltshire)
Posts: 2,907
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Post by JonL on Apr 5, 2019 17:56:51 GMT
Hi Nobbysideways, Can we have a go please best wishes Jem Apparently the Government are keen that we let their pilots use it first... spoilsports
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