|
Post by mossie on Jan 22, 2014 9:39:10 GMT
To tidy up some loose ends, here is another shot in the sequence in replacing the bucket and chain hot elevator. This shows the chain, once all joined up, being placed round the bottom sprocket. And here is the mixerman hard at work, he is watching the weigh dial outside his window. This is weighing off the constituents of the next batch. In just the same way as one would weigh off constituents for a cake A last steamy shot When I walked in to the office of the first blacktop outfit I had absolutely no idea about the construction industry at all. In the interview is when I trotted out my "The nav school was equivalent to a university degree, we were told" The lady receptionist proved to be the boss's wife and surprised me by joining the interview after a short while. She took a liking to me and in the first few months I did all sorts of odd jobs, including having to do the typing while they waited to employ a new girl Friday. I had been there about 3 months when we bought our first house and she came in to me one morning with the mail she wanted typing. One letter was from the mortgage company asking for a reference for me, my wages etc. She said "Here, Peter, you had better answer this" Different days. I hear my washing machine shouting that it has finished so I had better go and sort it out.
|
|
|
Post by tod2 on Jan 22, 2014 12:26:10 GMT
Htmb - you have virtually described the 'mad house' we seem to work in! Sometimes the only ante-dote after work is champagne - glasses of it! The more pressure during the day....the more champagne Yes Mossie - escaping to gather ones thoughts is not easy at times during a working day but very necessary if you are to make important decisions. Nowadays we simply come in at 6am and work in the silence of the morning. Makes a very long day but at home time you have the satisfaction that you actually accomplished something! What does your son do for a living?
|
|
|
Post by Deleted on Jan 22, 2014 12:30:52 GMT
I would want to wear a hat like that too if I were a mixerman.
|
|
|
Post by mossie on Jan 22, 2014 15:42:22 GMT
Ah, Kerouac, I knew that hat would just suit you. Don't be too jealous, it was a monotonous, but very responsible job. I have two sons, the elder very sensibly noted the stress his father laboured under, and became a bean counter. The younger, who digitised these pictures, is some sort of electronics whizz-kid. He says he designs power supplies which has me all confused, if I need power to anything I just plug it in and switch on
|
|
|
Post by tod2 on Jan 22, 2014 17:34:12 GMT
Sorry Mossie....you've lost me. 'Bean counter'?? Obviously a saying we down here in 'darkest' haven't heard
|
|
|
Post by mossie on Jan 22, 2014 20:15:02 GMT
Sorry Tod. For bean counter read accountant.
|
|
|
Post by htmb on Jan 22, 2014 21:02:34 GMT
Besides looking at the photos of equipment, I have enjoyed seeing the hairstyles in your photos, Mossie!
|
|
|
Post by mossie on Jan 23, 2014 16:12:37 GMT
Ah yes, the hair Most of these photos come from the '70s and '80s when big hair was all the rage, possibly barbers were charging too much. Re an earlier query, gangs on the road could vary in size from 4 on a hand laying job, say a driveway or footpath. But ranging from 6 to 12 on machine laid work dependant on the job and items of plant involved, a basic machine gang would have a driver, a screwsman (operating the levelling devices at each side to ensure the correct depths and profiles were achieved, a roller driver, a tractor driver, 2 rakehands and one or two labourers plus the foreman, who would relace one of the labourers in a small job. If a chipping machine was needed then another 2 or 3, a driver and one or two laboureres perhaps spotting up missed bits etc. The asphalt plant ran with 4 to 6 depending on how busy it was, 4 was tight but 6 a bit of a luxury. A foreman, who could double as weighbridge operator/clerk, weighing the trucks in and out and writing out the tickets which the lorry driver carried to show his load and on which payment depended, a mixerman, a tractor driver to feed the beast and an odd job man to tidy up, change tanks or whatever. 2 or 3 would be able to take over as mixerman or tractor driver so breaks could be worked through. Generally the road jobs could consume mixed material faster than the plant could turn it out and the transport could also be a limiting factor. It needed considerable experience to schedule the lorries and determine how many to send to each site. As the plant could be required to produce 5 or 6 different mixes in a day, getting a smooth sequence of material through the plant was an art.
|
|
|
Post by bixaorellana on Jan 30, 2014 4:02:37 GMT
Mossie, I enjoyed this so much that I had to send it to a Canadian friend who retired from a career on the Canadian roads. Here's what he wrote back:
Thanks for that. Brought back memories that tended to send shivers. The steam and smoke on the road behind the paver was always there. Nothing like a good 30 C day working along side the 160 C asphalt, breathing the smoke. Imagine this. End of season and it had snowed and rained the night before. We had a 3 KM stretch that had been dug out on the main highway and it had to be filled in before seasonal shut down. The dug section was 2" deep by 12 ft wide by 3 kms long and was full of water. It will never hold they said if we paved it with hot asphalt. There will never be a bond between the old and the new, but we could not leave it open that way for the winter. The plant was running and equipment was there so I went ahead (against the head office very strong warning) and told them to continue. The volume of water being pushed out in front of the equipment was unbelievable and the steam was so bad one could not see anything. Traffic was backed up for a very long distance. Long story short, it held and as far as I know, is still there. One of many stories and decisions that could have easily ended my career. No wonder I'm bald!!
|
|
|
Post by mossie on Jan 30, 2014 14:42:27 GMT
Thanks Bixa, we very often lived on a knife edge.
I well remember a resurfacing job on the M1 motorway where we had the usual 6am opening to traffic deadline. I had enough material stored in the storage bin at the plant to finish the job and my gang was steadily laying, heading for the end. About 2.30am it started to rain steadily and the Council man in charge was getting uneasy and wanting to stop because conditions were not good enough. I walked with him beside the machine, trying to keep him happy and telling him it would be on his shoulders if the road was still closed when the London bound rush hour traffic should be let loose. I just kept him walking as the stuff went down and we got steadily soaked. But we finished OK and it was all as good as gold, just as I had assured him it would be, with my fingers strongly crossed.
|
|
|
Post by Deleted on Jan 31, 2014 13:11:57 GMT
When I see them doing paving work in Paris, the job I want is to be the guy holding the hose to wet down the hot asphalt. They could probably ask any 10 year old kid to do it free, but somebody actually gets paid to do this.
|
|
|
Post by tod2 on Jan 31, 2014 16:25:24 GMT
Can I be terribly contrary.....I would choose Great Britain over Canada any day. It's a big ( somewhat backward technology-wise continent). Pretty in some places but a long stretch of nothing mostly). Sorry Canadians, that is what I experienced...
|
|
|
Post by Deleted on Jan 31, 2014 18:30:59 GMT
tod, my brother, (who lives in the UK), didn't take to Canada either, even though he was surrounded by the majestic Rockies and the beautiful lakes of Okahangan and and the Pacific Ocean in Vancouver and it was mid-summer. His reason being 'it was too vast'.
And yet, that is one of the things that really attracted me to this country. I don't like being around a million people, holed up in a two up and two down house, in a street that looks like a million others. Everyone on top of each other.
All to their own.
Funnily enough I met a man in a hardware store the other day. He was from England (he had worked as a fire-man there). He left and has been in Canada for 2 years now. He told me how much he loved it and how he'd never in a thousand years go back. He said and I quote: 'It's not a normal way to live, humans being were meant to live with space around them and not like sardines in a can'. Quite a few British families in my area, who have immigrated to Canada, they all say the about the sort of thing. Many people in Britain (I hear record amounts) are leaving or trying find a way to get out and live elsewhere.
I think you have to live in a country for some time, and not just be passing though, to see the reality. Anywhere we visit, is always interesting and fascinating. But most places I visit I wouldn't dream of living in long term. And lets not forget if you have money, then you can choose to live in posh areas, with space and no one bothering you. But most people in Britain don't live that way. And how to get away from the gray, rainy skies nearly 12 months a year?
Tod, just curious would you swap living in SA for England? I saw a show the other day about a couple who were going to SA to live (the husband had been transferred by his company to Cape Town). I saw the pics of Cape Town and thought how beautiful, by the Ocean. The couple were quite well off, so they didn't have to be anywhere near the Shanty towns etc. Money makes a hell of a difference to our experiences of living in a place. Would I want to visit or live in SA? Visit - of course. Live there? No way.
|
|
|
Post by Deleted on Feb 1, 2014 7:05:41 GMT
I think that for just about every person craving wide open spaces, there is a country person craving city life. And that's a good thing, as long as they finally make the necessary change. Since I was in the second category, I am perfectly happy in Paris.
|
|