Nitty-Gritty - but Witty

“Bring some spanners and give me a hand as I take you round the 22, 38 and 54 RB erecting shops!"

Interested in British manufacturing history? Engineering? If you want a feel for life in Ruston-Bucyrus, the famous Lincoln-based excavator makers, in the early 1960s, there's a new book from a surprising quarter, namely South Wales.

"Building the Iron - A Lincoln Factory Apprentice Remembers" is the memoir of Geoff Lewis, nowadays aged 81 and back in his home country.

As a boy Geoff was fascinated to watch RB diggers helping to rebuild his bomb-blasted home town of Swansea. Friendly drivers would let him into their cabs to watch them manage the gears, clutches and drag shovels. Geoff was smitten.

Somehow, aged 16, he persuaded his parents to let him take an apprenticeship in faraway Lincoln. What then unfolds is, as he says, a story of post war industrial Britain and a way of life which no longer exists.

"Machine tools used to manufacture parts were hand controlled by skilled operators using micrometres for measurement, doing hand calculations using paper, pen or pencil. Sometimes the pencil would be hi-tech with a rubber at the other end for deleting!

“No digital readouts. Handheld calculators were yet to be invented. No mobile telephones and no internet. This was what they called hands-on engineering with teams of men constantly on their feet unlike like so many jobs today." 

If you never thought you could romanticise about an excavator, try this inspiration:                "Surely one of the cleverest machines ever invented, the universal excavator was crammed with endless mechanisms that made them work: lever and latch for dirt to dispatch, bell cranks that rang while the gears all sang, and brake bands that squealed as the ropes outward reeled.

“The poetry of it all was enough to turn any aspiring young engineer’s head. Found in all sorts of places, within the town or outside in a country field, mechanical diggers were unique because they were all motion, accomplishing constantly progressing purpose until their task was completed, and then moved on to the next location.

“ If you were lucky enough to befriend the man sitting behind the levers, and you usually were, you’d climb on board to stand behind as all the bits and pieces turned, rattled, squealed and clunked, with clutch yokes and cams slamming in and out as you tuned in to enjoy the ambience and have the ‘craic’ when waiting for the next lorry to arrive….

“These were the glory days of their reign; their passing was somewhat reminiscent of the steam engine being superseded by diesel and electric railway locomotives with a similar culture of anguish and mourning.”

Geoff takes you bay by bay around the Bucyrus works. If you had a relative who worked there, read it to see if they get name-checked.

There’s social history too in his 189 pages. He lived at a dozen addresses in five years in Lincoln and gives insights into what life was like. He joined the legions of cycling workers pedalling to engineering jobs and, at weekends, saw the city teeming with anglers heading off for match-fishing. And yes, he did see The Hollies when they appeared at the Drill Hall.

If this is for you order here for £17.90 inc p and p at Geoff's Diggery Nook page.

Our own interest in the great Ruston story comes from our involvement with the world's oldest working excavator, a steam navvy, made by RB predecessor company Ruston Proctor & Co in 1909. Learn of its hazardous survival in our video "The Ruston in the Blue Lagoon." Get the DVD here or stream here The bonus item on the DVD is "The Lincoln Trams" (17 minutes). That can be streamed here