Re previous Deltic posts full of doom and gloom I did have some fun as well. We had one great guy, a welder, who was an anarchist. He actually wasn’t and didn’t know anything about anarchy but he did have a Mohican haircut and went to ‘Oiy’ music dances. He thought it was great to wear a tee-shirt that read ‘only insecure bastards want security’ which is as reactionary and anti-anarchist as you can get.
He was always good for a laugh though and one of the things he would do was throw a sponge ball about the workshop, usually catching someone unawares. It was about 6” dia, very soft and absolutely filthy. I hid it one day and painted it black then wrote BOMB on it in white. It was nearly bonfire night so a sparkler was easily obtained which I stuck in it, lit and tossed to our anarchist. I’d like to say that it was the funniest thing to have happened in Deltic for 200 years but heck, Deltic was only about 10 years old.
Poor sod always seemed to have a bad time at weekends, as thugs’d ambush him on his way home from the pub. He’d come into work on a Monday morning with a black eye regularly. Why the idiots want to attack a guy because his hair is spiked up I just don’t know.
About Me
- Crazy Fitter
- I never wanted to be a fitter and I didn’t even know what a fitter was or did, until it was too late. The story of how I came to be one can be seen on my website: www.calvertonfitter.com After 45 years in industry working on such diverse things as aeroplanes and textile machinery I thought it would be a good idea to start a blog and to share some of the things that I've seen and done. Some of the posts are funny and some are sad. Some are political and some are about racism. Hopefully you will find them all interesting, and even entertaining!
Showing posts with label Deltic Engineering. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Deltic Engineering. Show all posts
Friday, 24 October 2008
Monday, 20 October 2008
Deltic Again
Its Monday and the big countdown starts for me. Next Monday I should be back at work after 10 weeks absent with my new knee. I don’t know whether I’m looking forward to it or dreading it. Both in like measure.
Still on the subject of Deltic Engineering, (see previous posts), we had a young guy, about 28yo I think, who was appointed the installation and service engineer and he had the job of going to Poland to install the machinery I was writing about.
His first trip lasted nearly two months and when he came back the main subject of conversation wasn’t the machinery but the girl he had acquired. Apparently he had persuaded her to leave her boyfriend and move into the hotel with him.
A short while later he had to return for about three weeks and he came back with the same story. A couple of months went by and he had to return for a week and that is where things went pear shape. (No she wasn’t pregnant). The girl told him she had gone back to her old boyfriend so goodbye. He now got upset and got drunk big time. He went unconscious in the taxi taking him back to his hotel and the driver seems to have robbed him of his passport and money and dropped him off at the hospital. He awoke in a straightjacket in a rubber room and lost 3 days work as a result.
The Polish company were naturally upset by this and of course refused to pay his hotel bill for the three days and other incidental expenses.
Back in Manchester he didn’t even get a bollacking and was treated as a hero, booze and women you see. (Or perhaps you don’t?). He had his fiancé to return to as well. Crazy bastard.
While all this was happening our electrician had to go to South Wales to attend a breakdown and failed to fix the problem. He set off back to Manchester without letting the company know and without phoning us, the first we knew was when an irate manager was phoning us to find out what was happening. We tried to phone him on the company mobile he had been lent, this is 1998 and not everyone owned one then, but it was turned off. When he returned he was in so much trouble he was nearly sacked and when he claimed he didn’t know a mobile had to be turned on (crazy?) it was nearly the last straw. Compare that to the treatment of our man in Poland and its no wonder Deltic was such an unhappy place to work. I think it sent me crazy.
Still on the subject of Deltic Engineering, (see previous posts), we had a young guy, about 28yo I think, who was appointed the installation and service engineer and he had the job of going to Poland to install the machinery I was writing about.
His first trip lasted nearly two months and when he came back the main subject of conversation wasn’t the machinery but the girl he had acquired. Apparently he had persuaded her to leave her boyfriend and move into the hotel with him.
A short while later he had to return for about three weeks and he came back with the same story. A couple of months went by and he had to return for a week and that is where things went pear shape. (No she wasn’t pregnant). The girl told him she had gone back to her old boyfriend so goodbye. He now got upset and got drunk big time. He went unconscious in the taxi taking him back to his hotel and the driver seems to have robbed him of his passport and money and dropped him off at the hospital. He awoke in a straightjacket in a rubber room and lost 3 days work as a result.
The Polish company were naturally upset by this and of course refused to pay his hotel bill for the three days and other incidental expenses.
Back in Manchester he didn’t even get a bollacking and was treated as a hero, booze and women you see. (Or perhaps you don’t?). He had his fiancé to return to as well. Crazy bastard.
While all this was happening our electrician had to go to South Wales to attend a breakdown and failed to fix the problem. He set off back to Manchester without letting the company know and without phoning us, the first we knew was when an irate manager was phoning us to find out what was happening. We tried to phone him on the company mobile he had been lent, this is 1998 and not everyone owned one then, but it was turned off. When he returned he was in so much trouble he was nearly sacked and when he claimed he didn’t know a mobile had to be turned on (crazy?) it was nearly the last straw. Compare that to the treatment of our man in Poland and its no wonder Deltic was such an unhappy place to work. I think it sent me crazy.
Wednesday, 15 October 2008
Deltic Again
Re my last post: I’ve found I still can’t connect to the internet and this time I’ve sent an email for help to D-link. I’m connected at the moment with one of those old-fashioned wire things hanging out the back. Very last century.
Back to Deltic as per previous post. After working there a couple of weeks I was able to show my daughter round and I saw consternation on faces as they realised that my wife wasn’t white. In fact the bosses jaw nearly hit his chin and he had to catch his pipe. This is 1998 not 1898 remember. After the MD were a Factory Manager and a Change Manager who hated each other with venom that was hard to credit especially as it spilled over onto the factory floor where they slagged each other off to anyone who would listen. What sort of change management is that? He was also a longstanding friend of the MD. These two guys also tried to outdo each other in the field of who could be the most racist with constant innuendo and sideways looks at me.
The MD was little better. He had to go to Morocco on one occasion and stated he wished he could meet the customer in the airport and come straight back. When I asked why, seemed a great opportunity to me, he said, ‘Full of arabs’. Smirks all round. When he got back he explained that it was dirty and there were broken windows that weren’t repaired and concluded that ‘Life didn’t have a value’. Crazy bastards.. Then Jews were mentioned and a comment was, ‘Now that lot should be on the moon’. Jesus H Christ, where was I working?
The Factory Manager had a brother who ran an engineering company in Ashton-U-Lyne and also did house clearances which he sold on from his shop in town. The manager took great delight in telling me of a black guy who walked into the shop and said ‘Hello Bill’. The reply was, ‘hello nigger’, to which the guy walked out. Well he would wouldn’t he?
How I worked there for 2 years I don’t know. I’ve got some funny stuff to say about working for Deltic as well but right now I’ve got a bad taste in my mouth so I’ll save it for another post.
Back to Deltic as per previous post. After working there a couple of weeks I was able to show my daughter round and I saw consternation on faces as they realised that my wife wasn’t white. In fact the bosses jaw nearly hit his chin and he had to catch his pipe. This is 1998 not 1898 remember. After the MD were a Factory Manager and a Change Manager who hated each other with venom that was hard to credit especially as it spilled over onto the factory floor where they slagged each other off to anyone who would listen. What sort of change management is that? He was also a longstanding friend of the MD. These two guys also tried to outdo each other in the field of who could be the most racist with constant innuendo and sideways looks at me.
The MD was little better. He had to go to Morocco on one occasion and stated he wished he could meet the customer in the airport and come straight back. When I asked why, seemed a great opportunity to me, he said, ‘Full of arabs’. Smirks all round. When he got back he explained that it was dirty and there were broken windows that weren’t repaired and concluded that ‘Life didn’t have a value’. Crazy bastards.. Then Jews were mentioned and a comment was, ‘Now that lot should be on the moon’. Jesus H Christ, where was I working?
The Factory Manager had a brother who ran an engineering company in Ashton-U-Lyne and also did house clearances which he sold on from his shop in town. The manager took great delight in telling me of a black guy who walked into the shop and said ‘Hello Bill’. The reply was, ‘hello nigger’, to which the guy walked out. Well he would wouldn’t he?
How I worked there for 2 years I don’t know. I’ve got some funny stuff to say about working for Deltic as well but right now I’ve got a bad taste in my mouth so I’ll save it for another post.
Monday, 6 October 2008
Working for Deltic
In the 2 years up to the millennium I worked as a team leader at Deltic Engineering in Manchester. We made machinery that produced car silencers and I was able to install some of it in Italy and India. I remember on one occasion building a machine for a company in Poland, which had entered into a partnership with an Italian Company, and the Italians arrived one day to have a look at progress. I understood that the Italians were the dog and the Poles were the tail.
One particular bit of equipment wasn’t working properly and the Italians arrived just as I was about to hit it hard with a sledgehammer. I waited until they were hidden by other machines before I did the deed and it had the necessary effect. When I demo’d it, it worked perfectly, for the first time, and when they left I couldn’t get it running again for a week. Phew!
Another problem was that we discovered it woul dn’t make the longest size silencer as it was too near the ground so we had to put 100mm packings under it. When it finally arrived in Poland and installed, the Italian guy was there and looked very puzzled, claiming it wasn’t that high in the factory and the mechanism was a bit awkward to get at. Fortunately our installation engineer went for the Oscar and persuaded him it was always like that and had to be for the longer lengths. Crazy or what? More post about Deltic later.
Bloody hell. Was forced out of bed at 6.30 this morning to look for the de-icer for my wife. Errr…for her car windscreen I think I mean. Its that time of year isn’t it, a long slippery slide to Xmas.
One particular bit of equipment wasn’t working properly and the Italians arrived just as I was about to hit it hard with a sledgehammer. I waited until they were hidden by other machines before I did the deed and it had the necessary effect. When I demo’d it, it worked perfectly, for the first time, and when they left I couldn’t get it running again for a week. Phew!
Another problem was that we discovered it woul dn’t make the longest size silencer as it was too near the ground so we had to put 100mm packings under it. When it finally arrived in Poland and installed, the Italian guy was there and looked very puzzled, claiming it wasn’t that high in the factory and the mechanism was a bit awkward to get at. Fortunately our installation engineer went for the Oscar and persuaded him it was always like that and had to be for the longer lengths. Crazy or what? More post about Deltic later.
Bloody hell. Was forced out of bed at 6.30 this morning to look for the de-icer for my wife. Errr…for her car windscreen I think I mean. Its that time of year isn’t it, a long slippery slide to Xmas.
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