The original install to the SD1 paintshop was by Carrier Engineering (not to be confused with Carrier air conditioning of America). They had been bought out by Haden Young in about 1970, who did not know anything about the industrial side of industry. I worked direct for Carriers for seven years before transferring to Hadens for two years. I then went to work for Otto Durr for the following six years where I trebled my take home pay compared to Haden Young (sounds good but still only about average wage for the time). I did come back to SD1 with Otto Durr early 1982 but did not go inside the paintshop although there were welders working in there, a bunch of lads that travelled every day from Gloucester/Cheltenham. I then moved onto the Ford plant at Halewood to weld up there stainless steel pre-treatment tunnel, miles of Argon arc welding, but thats another story!
Forgot about Carriers, I more than likely met you then.
Funny story , I was walking through SD1 paint shop ground floor on patrol must have been bank holiday shutdown , when suddenly a piece of neatly cut Concrete fell to the ground two foot in front of me showering me with dust and debris , with astonishment I looked up to see a face peering at me through a two foot hole in the ceiling/floor above and a voice said what are you doing down there , to which I replied Nearly getting killed as politely as I could .
I climbed up the flights of stairs to the first floor and found a group of Diamond drilling blokes cutting out holes to feed pipes through to the floor below , having stopped them working I pointed out that there working practices were very dangerous and that before they could continue to post Watchmen below to warn people.
They said that they had looked below before they drilled and it was all clear , and it was a holiday and there was nobody about , I checked on them throughout the day and they had taken my advice and posted a watcher, to have stopped them completely would have delayed months of planning and work and held up production at the end of the holiday.
So the next planning needed safeguards and risk assessment .
I went back to the station had a coffee and wished I still smoked .