5 years as a Technician apprentice Vickers Weybridge. Fantastic time, best job ever.

Responsibility at 18 machining VC10 engine beams- imagine a cock up on one of those!!

Aralditing a 2/6 coin to the floor and watching passer bys trying to lift it.

“Driving” a Vc10 out to the engine test pad.

bob

Carefully working away rebuilding gearboxes only to get massive shocks as someone had wired all the benches together and attached the magneto on the oxy trolley so when someone needed to light the torch OUCH!

The firm I worked for where next to a canal with a pub the other side. I was given a £1 note and told to fetch a bucket of steam, off I went bucket in hand straight into the pub purchased half pint which I drank and left dipping the bucket in the canal keeping a little in bucket. On my return gave the fitter who had given me the £1 his change he looked at me and asked where was his steam in the bucket I replied he then said there’s only water in the bucket to which I replied don’t you know steam condenses back to water I then made my escape.

There are other stories but more for around the pub table.

H

Thanks David

Started at Stuart & Lloyds which became BSC Bilston

H

Hi, I was supposed to start an apprenticeship in a Blacksmiths shop, but the boss who owned the firm, never drew up any apprenticeship papers, even after two years. The Blacksmith though was a good mentor and taught me well, but encouraged me to get a better job, plus that fact that many of my school mates were getting much more money for other engineering jobs than I was, and so I moved on to become a junior maintenance plant fitter with a 400% wage increase from day one, and being able to keep my day release to college, although they didn’t actually do apprenticeships, but proper training was give by many who knew their job well, and within a few years became a respected fitter, and I was also training new school leavers. Worked in that job, which had a variety of plant upgrades, for 35 years, until the new owners from the continent, wanted our department to go over to the contractors. There were only one younger fitter and myself, who were employed by the company by then, but we had the choice of going with the contractors, or take a handsomely paid voluntary redundancy, we both took the money and ran, and we have both ended up with a very good final salary pension to boot. I never did get any of these horror stories about apprentices, and was always treated with respect, but there used to be a good few back stabbers among some of the older boys, but they all retired within about ten years or so, although I knew I was a ~~~ker by one person, but I knew everyone else was one as well, and so did everyone else, the only one who wasn’t one, was this person’s brother.

Regards Nick.

Engineering Grade Apprentice with Rolls-Royce Oil Engine Division at the Sentinel works in Shrewsbury.

A variety of experiences come to mind.

Tea Break in the Apprentice Training School, (EVERYONE, no matter what grade, Craft, Drawing Office, Engineering or Graduate) spent the first 12 months there, to learn the basics.) regulated by an illuminated sign, and buzzer. You did NOT put your tea cup on the surface table, or you spent hours with oil and emery removinbg the stain!

Our Turning instructor, a very exoerienced Sentinel man, (Like the other Instructors) and a chain smoker, told how he had made a large rectangular brass cigarette lighter, on nights, during the the war. Although a Capstan operator, had milled it by fixing to the toolpost, with an end mill in the chuck!

He had a 6″ steel rule, which was obviously worn (Stirred tea, rounded end used as screwdriver, removed strippable coating from tools and even, sometimes, for measuring) I had a job, turning a shoulder back to a dimension. Alf put his knarled thumb and rule against the job. “You’ve got about another ten thou to go” Checked with Depth Mic, 0.008″!

A Norton cylindrical grinder, where the controls all operated opposite to all the other grinders. Had a nasty habit of working nicely between stops until you were lulled into a false sense of security.  Then over ran the stops to take large chunks out of the tailstock!

Forgot to switch on the hydraukic pump on the Lamdis plunge grinder, when setting up to dress the wheel. Ruined the diamond dresser and the wheel, but we learned how to balance and fit a grinding wheel.

A fellow Apprentice ignored the warning not use a key with a slitting saw.  Was walking past his machine when it shattered and bits of metal rained down from the roof!

The Fitting Instructor used to walk onto the Turning section to reprimand Apprentices doing anything that he considerd wrong. The Milling Instructor said “He did that with me. Just the once!”

The Grinding Instructor had a short fuse.  One morning he was late arriving. On the way to work someone had cut him up, in his car.  He had chased them to Whitchurch, about 12 miles away!

As Apprentices on Erecting Line and Despatch Inspection, the Erecting Line shop steward objected to “My men’s work being inspected by an unqualified man” (A Drawing Office Apprentice who had not yet obtained ONC) Two of us, who had, were put to work in his place. Normally, small adjustments (Clearances on throttle levers, linkages, Jubilee clip orientation), etc were corrected by the Inspector.

Our Foreman was not happy! Nor were the line operators when we wrote up DOZENS of correction labels on every engine. After two weeks, they asked for the original lad to be returned!

Being taught to arc weld, and having the work piece dancing around the work table when the electrode stuck to it, instead of striking the arc!

Cutting edge technology, the Atlantic Table. It contolled machining by co ordinates (Set by punching holes in a large card).  We got quite good at filling in the holes when we punched one in the wrong place!!

At least we were spared bieng sent to the stores “For a long weight”

Armed with a clip board, or a piece of paper, we could wander all over the works, without being queried as to what we doing.

Those of us assigned as Visitor Guides, used to show “The Oil Engine Film”. During rewinding, instead of doing the job properly, we would run the projector in reverse, to see hedges leap up as a tank reversed through them, or stones making a last desparate leap to get onto the bed of a Euclid dump truck, before the bed was lowered!

Taking visitors into the Erecting Shop where locos were built, and standing them to one side as a big (6″ long x 1″ daimeter) red hot rivet was flung the length of the shop before being fitted to the buffer beam.

Showing the visitors, the Cri Dan machines; with long curls of blue swarf coming off as a machine on final test cut a ten inch long 1″ BSW thread in a less than a minute.

Probaly, now, HSE wouldn’t allow such things to happen!

Howard

In 1968 aged 15 I obtained an electrical fitter’s craft apprenticeship with British Rail at Immingham MPD which meant spending the first year at the apprentice training school in Doncaster works. The instruction was first class and the training course consisted of building from scratch a small electric motor together with the transformer to power it. In the turning section we made the shaft and bearings, in sheet metal section we stamped out the transformer cores, the wood section produced the base and we wound the transformer and armature in the electrical section.

Along side this we spent four days in the training shop and one day in the classroom so you could say we spent four days learning how you did it and one day learning why you did it because we learnt electrical theory and mechanics together. I remember realising for the first time in my education that mathematics were actually useful and had a practical application after years of studying the subject in complete isolation at school with no hint as to what use it might have.

However,  being only 15 years old and away from home for the first time and coming from an unskilled family which could offer no support together with being placed in accommodation run by a strict traditional landlady took its toll on what would be called today mental health but in those days was just ignored, I gave up the apprenticeship.  This is a decision I reqret to this very day,  even as I am writing this.

However, life is what you make it and I eventually got a semi skilled job in the telecoms industry with the then GEC. As luck would have it, the local college was having difficulty filling a C&G course with Post Office Telephones apprentices and let it be known that they would allow contractors to apply. I took up the offer and gained a basic qualification. This was at just the time the technology was beginning to change and the company had to provide some intensive training in order to provide itself with the necessary skills and because I had shown willingness to learn, and had also progressed up the grading structure, I got put in with the technical trainees on all the new technology courses. I eventually attained the grade of Senior Commissioning Engineer which sounds grander than it probably was but got me to places around the world I never expected to see and also got me a reasonable income and a good pension.

I can’t really complain because life came good for me in the end but I can’t help wondering how things would have turned out if I had had a little bit more support as an adolescent and completed the BR apprenticeship. As a nod to those days the Colchester lathe I have is exactly the same model that I was given to use on that first day of my apprenticeship. It just had to be!

Left school after o-levels to take up a marine engineering apprenticeship (strictly speaking a cadetship, similar but more water involved) with Esso. Went to college, I suppose these days would be called a block release course, part theory part practical.

Poplar Technical College in the East End of London with a fine view over West India Dock. Studied such delights as naval architecture which was not the easiest of things without a good grip of maths (not my strong point) but the machine shop was good and got taught the basics of lathe, mill and bench work.

Part of the college was hands on experience aboard the Training Ship Glen Strathallan. This was basically an old steam trawler, triple expansion engine and oil fired boilers. Learned the basics of engine management and such delights as how to employ a Dobie McInnes indicator to calculate engine power. Spent a week on a decidedly non-luxury cruise around the Thames estuary.

The little ship is now long gone sunk in the Channel near Plymouth, not my fault I hasten to add, and is used for diving training. The engine was removed and is part of the Science Museum collection but no longer on display. It was in the main hall and definitely felt a bit dinasaur-ish seeing it there. It is no longer on display.

As part of the initial training spent some time at Harland & Wolff in Belfast. An interesting few weeks  spent getting in the way, left pretty much to our own devices as the real workers were too busy to spend time on us. Saw a ship launch, amazing how many tons of old chain get dragged to slow things down.

First real ship was the Esso Glasgow, a smallish coastal tanker carrying refined fuel, naptha, light oil etc. got to visit a lot of places around the UK and Europe. Even a couple of trips up the Manchester Ship Canal. A bit unusual in that the main engine was turbo-electric. Basically steam turbine driving a large generator which in turn ran the engine through a very archaic looking control panel. Didn’t like to go astern too quickly from going ahead, used to shake everything up.  Was broken for scrap in Bilbao in 1971.

An interesting few years but left to something completely different after being posted to the Esso Northumbria which was still being fitted out in Swan Hunters yard on Tyneside. I got the job of filing all the manuals and drawing for the ship. Had a room full of filing cabinets and plan chests on board. Amazing how much paperwork for 310,000 tons of ship (well perhaps not), I guess these days everything would be on one small computer.

More on Glen Strathallan
More on Esso Glasgow

John

Yes I think that was universally true about the lack of deep interest in the job for many apprentices, and tradesmen. There were those like ourselves who 50 years later are still restoring bikes and cars and playing with lathes and welders and things and making model engines or whatever in our sheds. Then there were those who were just kind of plodders. Old boys who retired after 40 years at the “works” pretty much doing the same job they were doing as a 20 year old beginning tradesman, and had no mechanical interests or hobbies outside of work whatsoever. It was just a job to them. The old boys I learned the most from were those who went home after work and restored old cars and motorbikes or built model locos etc. True fanatics!

I think we were the lucky ones. I had a midlife career change into an unrelated white collar field but always had old motorbikes in the shed at home and now in retirement have built the dream workshop with lathe and welders and every tool I need, something I had been wishing for since age of 16 but was always such a gypsy it never happened until recent years.

As a student at Gt Yarmouth Tech I was doing about 7 O levels including Workshop Theory and practice, the exam piece was a 3 legged gear puller. The thread for the forcing screw was tapped in the head but the screw was to be screw cut on a lathe 3/8″ BSF. Having roughed out the thread on the lathe I used the appliance of science ! I went out and bought a 3/8″ split die and die stock and used this to get a near perfect fit. Some poor fellows had screws that wobbled their way down. I was almost disqualified when they found that I had taken my piece home to work on it. Having unlimited time to get it right the rest of the tool was of a good standard and it was this that saved me, I got a good grade !

I spent one summer aged 17 working on the Golden Galleon, a converted Motor Launch that took 160passengers for a trip up Breydon Water and the river Yare. She had a pair of straight 6 GM 2 stroke diesels, and still had the telegraphs, NOT bridge control ! So for 2 hours I would sit in an old armchair between these 2 screaming jimmies, eyes glued to the engine room telegraphs awaiting commands to operate the throttles and gear levers whilst the skipper did battle with the 100s of broads cruisers driven like cars!

Then there was the Probe,(I’m 18)a wooden ww2 mine sweeper For those who know Lake Lothing bridge at Oulton Broad, she laid as a rotting hulk for years seaward side. We left Yarmouth harbour one beautiful summer evening to sail to I think Block 48, the site of the wreck of the rig Sea Gem. Before we had left I had commented to the engineer that the Gardener 180 seemed to be knocking badly, only to find that one of the air compressors had No big end shells ! We arrive on station and I turn in, only to be woken by the mate an hour later, could I go and help the engineer ? The Gardener had thrown a rod in spectacular fashion ! A generator and bilge pump gone ! We spent the day getting the big 6 Lister going, night came and I turned in, 24hrs to the minute the mate woke me, could I go and help the engineer ! It didn’t take long for me to spot a large crack in the block – It had seized ! Second generator, bilge pump and air compressor GONE ! At this point I need to point out that following the tragedy of the Sea Gem all N Sea rigs had to have a standby vessel to effect a rescue if need be. That was our purpose ! We for our part were now without power, anchored to the sea bed, and as is the way with wooden vessels taking on water. The fridges were gone, as was the oil fired galley stove ! We ate what we could cooking by breaking up the furniture as fire wood for the stove and 24 hours a day we took it in turns in the engineroom working a hand pump to keep us afloat ! BONUS POINT, the fishing was good ! This went on for a week until our luck ran out, BP was moving the rig Sea Quest and we were in the way – ever more irate calls on the radio (battery powered) to move resulted in a German tug coming to see what was wrong, lifting our anchor and towing us out of the way and leaving us to our own devices ! The main engine was air start ( even if we had any ) and direct drive, but the water level had reached the flywheel,  It was another 3 days before the companys only other vessel came to tow us back to Gt Yarmouth. The steering failed (possibly due to no power) and so the tiller was used rigged with block and tackle, command from the bridge by whistle. Arriving back, the port & haven commisioner would not let us enter except under tow of the harbour tug. None of us got paid !

That Christmas I held the position of second engineer on the Lady Briget, an oil rig tender. Took me 3 days to find my sea legs. Why was I there ? The fellow who should have been there was in hospital after the HUGE steel ball on a crane cable on the rig had come off and crushed his foot having first hit the deck. 2 beautiful 500Hp Lister Blackstone engines. I got told off by the mate for whistling, might whistle up a storm, may be he was right ! As we were returning to Hartlepool we were passed outbound by the Hector Gannet with a deck cargo of drill pipe, it was a bit choppy, blowing storm F10. As we entered port the Hector Gannet was astern of us AND EMPTY ! As she had climbed up the side of a steep wave the entire cargo has slid off the stern ! We were paid off in cash, I bought my first welder on the way home and a few weeks later was refunded my pension contribution to the merchant navy officers fund when they realised I was an 18 year old student !

SAFETY IN THE NORTH SEA in 1968 ?

I then became a late entry apprentice at Coventry Gauge and Tool, but those tales are for another day ! Noel.

Technical Apprenticeship with the Dowty Group, based at Dowty Rotol, Staverton.

Working in Experimental Engineering on the Ram Air Turbine for Concorde and the Harrier. The Lift fans for the Hover Train, plus the early version of carbon fibre propulsion fans. Better days.

Regards

Gray,

We had 2/1 (old money) a week deducted from our pay to pay for some tools, a nice small wooden tool box and laundering of overalls. As a mechanical engineer I have never had to use the box or the tools but outside work they have been invaluable. The box has been rebuilt once. The tools included a 0-1″ micrometer, thread and radius gauges, small callipers etc, all M&W.

As mechanical engineering apprentices, during workshop training, we never had to produce apprentice test pieces (unlike Hopper) but were used to make bits for the factory. These included rather grotty mop buckets and rather nice oil cans (far better than those available today).

JA