Anyone worked at Firth Browns?

The central stores was at 38 gate,Peter. I can remember working on that crane and the one situated outside in the yard in front of the stores entrance.

I too had a crane drivers licence, but never took a test. Manipulator and fork lift licenses were also doled out to us, again without taking a test. The only one we had to do a short course on was changing a grinding wheel.

 

---------- Post added 31-12-2017 at 13:45 ----------

 

Someone mentioned the firms postmen in an earlier post. When they came into the apprentice training school we used to bark at them, until one of the threatened to smack us:-)

Hi melv,

The central stores you mention at 38 gate must be a different place to Central Warehouse where I worked at 37 gate. The name may be a little confusing as I thought at the time. Completed items were delivered to us from the shops and we then arranged to have them transported to customers. I remember offloading small items from light machine shops off Scammel Scarrabs up to heavy machined items weighing several tons each from railway wagons which came into the shop through a back door. We then prepared them for despatch and arranged transport by such as British Road Services and loaded onto their lorries.

Central Warehouse is the building with the tall chimney nearest the bottom on this 1947 pic. You may be able to make out Carwood Road to the right of it at the junction with Savile Street East.The chimney had been demolished by my time. The water/cooling tower you mention on post 710 is immediately left of the chimney on the pic. below. You'd have to register on the site to get a bigger pic. if you can't zoom on your computer....

https://britainfromabove.org.uk/en/image/EAW009656

Peter.

Thats a great shot of melting, light machine shops and at the bottom right is the gate for the forge maintenance shop, the canteens and FB Tools.

Thats a great shot of melting, light machine shops and at the bottom right is the gate for the forge maintenance shop, the canteens and FB Tools.

Yes, I've had pleasure from this pic for a while. It's great to see it all laid out and easy to orientate everything!

The crane tracks in Central Warehouse (mentioned in my post 722) were above the highest windows. It seemed to me to be a long way down to the shop floor when making my way across the mesh walkway to climb down into the cab!

I can see all the offices I worked in too.

Happy New Year to All!!

Peter.

Thankyou for the picture and the correction re the central warehouse and stores mix up, Peter.

Most of the cranes were high, especially those above the arc furnaces in the melting shop. Working on them was not for the faint hearted, as crane drivers on cranes on the same gantry would sometimes shunt you!

Thankyou for the picture and the correction re the central warehouse and stores mix up, Peter.

 

Most of the cranes were high, especially those above the arc furnaces in the melting shop. Working on them was not for the faint hearted, as crane drivers on cranes on the same gantry would sometimes shunt you!

Hi melv,

Whilst training on a crane in a scrap bay in Siemens Melting shop I had the opportunity to sit in one of the cranes above the electric arc furnaces. They were about to tap one and I was, understandably, asked to leave before the process began. Another high point, excuse the pun, was when the trainer, Jim, said he would take me to the highest crane at FB. I can't remember where it was located but it must have been in the melting shop. We set off on a narrow girder high up with no handrails which I had seen lads previously sweeping with nonchalance. I took about three steps and told him I had to turn around and go back.

Here's another look at the melting shop and the cranes in 1954.....

http://picturesheffield.com/frontend.php?action=zoomWindow&keywords=Ref_No_increment;EQUALS;y04493&prevUrl=

http://picturesheffield.com/frontend.php?keywords=Ref_No_increment;EQUALS;y04496&pos=173&action=zoom&id=92865

Peter.

Peter, your last post reminds of an incident in the early 70's when I was an apprentice working in the same dept as the riggers (heavy lifters).

A crane driver was walking on the gantry you mentioned to relieve his mate at shift change. Sadly he never made it. He'd apparently slipped or fallen on to the crane track. The first thing anybody knew of the accident was a leg falling to the floor.

The riggers were very upset when they came back, although they didn't have to retrieve the body.

Peter, your last post reminds of an incident in the early 70's when I was an apprentice working in the same dept as the riggers (heavy lifters).

A crane driver was walking on the gantry you mentioned to relieve his mate at shift change. Sadly he never made it. He'd apparently slipped or fallen on to the crane track. The first thing anybody knew of the accident was a leg falling to the floor.

The riggers were very upset when they came back, although they didn't have to retrieve the body.

That's a tragic story melv.

When I was in Progress and Planning at 36 gate aged 15 in 1959 I heard of someone getting crushed by a railway wagon and also of a painter who had fallen from high onto some machinery and lost his life.

When I was asked if I would take a crane driving course aged 22 in 1965, our crane driver in Central Warehouse invited me upstairs to see the workings on ours. As mentioned on a previous post it was high up near the top of the roof. I was standing on the access walkway and about half way across the shop looking towards the driver's cab and watching the crab in operation. Anyway the driver decided, without warning me, to move off down the shop. Not being ready for it I would have been thrown off, to my right, in front of the crab and straight down to the shop floor had I not managed to reach out and grab the rail on my left. I'm no way near as quick and agile now. I remember giving him a telling off but bet the poor man was as shocked as me . All eyes below were looking up. It's one of the nearest calls I've had in 74 years.

Peter.

---------- Post added 03-01-2018 at 17:47 ----------

Here's a pic taken just a little further along and a little closer to the one on post 722...

https://britainfromabove.org.uk/en/image/EAW009649

Peter.

Swowls will probably agree with me that crane drivers are not to be trusted!

After the accident in the melting shop safety on cranes was looked at. A permit system was set up. No one was allowed to work by themselves, a red flag had to hung from the cab and stop blocks fixed to the tracks. In some cases, percussion caps were also fixed. BTW, I've seen a crane driver ignore all of the above!

Swowls will probably agree with me that crane drivers are not to be trusted!

After the accident in the melting shop safety on cranes was looked at. A permit system was set up. No one was allowed to work by themselves, a red flag had to hung from the cab and stop blocks fixed to the tracks. In some cases, percussion caps were also fixed. BTW, I've seen a crane driver ignore all of the above!

Well melv, I was a Driving Instructor on cars for 12 years from 1990 and I soon learned that it was nigh on impossible to change some peoples' attitude. I knew the ones who would do as they liked when they obtained their full licence.

At the time I obtained my overhead crane licence (see pics below) it didn't seem right to be moved straight to the much heavier and higher Central Warehouse crane without any sort of supervision, or guidance on signals from slingers. Anyway, you learned by watching others, that's how it was back in 1964/5. However I did have experience slinging and also on the weigh scales.

The first time I offloaded two machined rings that weighed around 6 tons each from the confines of a metal high sided railway wagon was a bit daunting. A few weeks earlier, when our full time driver was in control of the crane offloading a railway wagon, a load slipped off the dogs with a hell of a resounding racket moments after the crane took the load off the battens. I wouldn't apportion any blame to the driver on that occasion. The foreman, Ron Parkin, shot out of the office to investigate but thankfully no one was injured, or worse. He closed the job down to give everyone chance to recover from the shock.

Click on each of these links and then click on each pic for a bigger one. The words ''Say something'' disappear after a couple of seconds....

Here's my overhead crane licence which I still have...

https://photos.app.goo.gl/1J2igiNviaJh5O0g2

https://photos.app.goo.gl/R8TKMoDXJJ9iLV5s1

For a bit of light relief.... I travelled to work on the last of the trams on Savile Street East in 1959/60 and then by buses until I had my own transport. Here I am with my forms of personal transport which I travelled to work on/in during the rest of my time at FB. The pics are shown in date order 1961,2,4 and 5.....

https://photos.app.goo.gl/lhQAvRims9rwbWc13

https://photos.app.goo.gl/HXJiQNYP4mmNAXYF3

https://photos.app.goo.gl/n6nPWW7pJCALfq5l2

https://photos.app.goo.gl/TSy5A6EuUjuPo2oo1

Peter.

Hi Melv, Peter

If I remember right there were two drivers killed on the casting bay cranes, one was hit on the track and the second guy actually took a nap sat on one of the end carriages and no one realized and another driver moved the crane and the sleeping guy fell into the trunnion wheels. Was not found until someone reported a bunch of rags wrapped around the wheels. Also while I was an apprentice at Norfolk Bar rolling mills, a guy was killed by the charger. He was in the cooling pits and the floor bound charger hit him at the back of the head and dragged him from one pit to the other, there was 4" clearance from floor to crane gantry. We were pulled out of lunch in the shop to jack up the charger and get him out. I believe it was Johnny Leach and myself that jacked up the charger. The Safety Officer at the time eventually arrived, and fainted. The other I remember was an electrician who was going to clean the switches for one of the E furnaces (like E3 maybe) He had "racked" the switch out and then did the short and earth test but he did not verify the meter AFTER the test and the switch was not correctly grounded. When he put his arm up the switch to clean the inside, it shot him across the switch room and killed him. Before my time there was a guy that got trapped in the tunnels of the pit furnaces where the tweeres were and got killed. Then way after I left Big Dave (??) an Engineer was killed when a furnace brickwork collapsed on him. I remember him as a real nice guy, a BIG guy and he happened to live at Aston near us.

Hi swowls, melv and All,

You have many tragic stories in your above post swowls.

My Dad worked at Firth Vickers and in the early 'fifties he told me of an electrician being killed when working on a forge press or hammer. Dad must have been shaken as he rarely spoke to me about such things.

On another occasion, Mr Carless, who lived across Adsetts Street from me, bought my mother's piano for his daughter Irene. I remember him wheeling it across the cobbled street by himself with no apparent effort. I thought it would be shaken to bits but it must have survived. This would be about 1952 when I was 8 going on 9. My point is that he worked, I recall, at Firth Browns and shortly after the afforementioned episode I was told that he had been crushed by a hot ingot and died.

In these days of automation we thankfully don't hear of these numbers of fatalities.

Peter.

---------- Post added 07-01-2018 at 17:54 ----------

Hi All,

I have always wondered what happened to the 1914/18 war memorial which was placed on the wall next to the Head Offices entrance on Savile Street East. It can be seen here in 1985 immediately to the right of the canopy and on the ground floor....

http://picturesheffield.com/frontend.php?action=zoomWindow&keywords=Ref_No_increment;EQUALS;s26727&prevUrl=

It can also be seen here in my photograph snapped in 1990 when the property was empty. Incidentally, the glass on the clock which was attached to the part of the property destined for demolision was smashed by that time. I suspect some idiot used it for target practice which was such a shame. Hundreds of workers, including me, would have checked the time by it every working day. I've wondered many times if that also survives, as does T W Wards clock, from their premises on Carlisle Road near The Wicker. It now resides at Kelham Island Industrial Museum. However I can't trace the FB one.....

https://photos.app.goo.gl/W5UIqvMUx4JwcVcu1

In this pic of the premises in 2005 the buildings to the left of the memorial had been demolished. The remaining premises are now named President Buildings. The memorial has been removed but the surround can be seen on the ground floor, facing the street, to the far left....

http://picturesheffield.com/frontend.php?action=zoomWindow&keywords=Ref_No_increment;EQUALS;c01487&prevUrl=

A bit of research revealed this which seems to indicate that the memorial is stiil around and in close vacinity to it's original location....

https://www.warmemorialsonline.org.uk/memorial/249465/

Hope you find this interesting.

Peter.

I'm pleased you have found the whereabouts of war memorial plaque Peter.I was one of the instigators of getting it saved and displayed. Also I liked your reference to the central stores. I used to love going there for the laugh.... the Two Ronnies could have styled their sketch " four candles" in the stores. When you went in the 3 or 4 men in brown smocks who were stood warming themselves all dispersed and then you had to wait to be served. The first question to a young lad was "have you got a chit?" ....that's a note from a supervisor/manager etc.One time I remember asking for some nuts, bolts and washers."What do you think we are lad, robots, one thing at a time!!!" Right....I asked for the bolts and the guy disappeared into the distant rack of shelves and reappeared several minutes later with them. Next....I asked for nuts for the bolts...I got a black look and off he went again, returning several minutes later with the nuts. I guess you know whats coming now....the washers! At this point I got asked if I was taking the p***!