Ship Nostalgia - Engine Building at William Doxford and Sons

Now that brings back memories of long ago - I served my aprenticeship in a shipyard and remember many of the ships with Doxford engines. And the monster machines in out fitting shop, some of the machines dated back to the 1890-1900's and were still chugging away. Now sadly all gone some 20 odd years ago along with some of the finest craftsmen of their day.
 
Thanks for posting, very impressive show. One thing I noticed, how clean the place is, given the amount of activity. Hard to keep my little space at home that nice.
 
llarson said:
One thing I noticed, how clean the place is, given the amount of activity. Hard to keep my little space at home that nice.
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Then obviously you don't have that well know industrial slave (otherwise known as the first year apprentice:))) to wield the broom, clean the machine, and do any other dirty job on the go - oh I was forgetting and make the tea:lmao:
 
All those luscious DSG and other first quality lathes lined up!!! The chips from some of those giant machines certainly would be formidable to get hit with in the eye.
 
Got a good laugh at your comment grayone, thanks, but here's the catch; having served a machinist apprenticeship qualifies me as a "factory trained sweeper".
 
During the early years of my time at sea I served on 5 ships with Doxford engines they were 4 cylinder opposed piston type of from 4000 to 6000 HP. These engines had one great advantage of being very well balanced, which was offset against half a dozen disadvantages. They were not easy engines to work with.
 
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