Standard, Triumph & related car companies

Just as I recall the Canley Plant taken I'm guessing from around where BlockBusters is now. B L

Sorry Doug, not really relevant to stock control or the offices but I hope you don't mind me posting. I worked in 21 shop fitting headlinings, working on 2000's, 2.5 pi's and Dolomites, I worked there from 1974 till 1978, the bodies came into 21 shop, already painted, on a constant procession of artic lorries up and down the M6 from Halewood, they said it was the world's longest track. Also worked in rocket range and Herald paint and trim. They were happy days.

Hi all, slightly off thread but I think it's funny. A guy I knew many years ago worked at Standard Triumph (not sure what department). He spent a lot of his leisure time at the Forum Bowling alley and decided to rename the team that he bowled for. He decided the new name would be "The Dolomites" and sent away for suitably embroidered bowling shirts. I met him some weeks after the order had gone in and enquired where their posh new shirts were, only to be told that "for some reason them *****y idiots embroidered mountains on the back so I had to send them back" Poor chap was expecting cars for some reason. Perhaps he should have been a little more specific and not left it to the embroiderers?

Great story GVB. The Stags would have looked good!

Apologies if this film has been mentioned here before but I have just been sent a link to it and I've never seen it before. I worked at the Triumph factory at Canley (when it was Austin Rover) and for the company for 22 years till MG Rover finally closed at Longbridge. There's some glorious footage around Coventry when it was all sparkly and new and from the factory showing the design process LINK Steve.

That's brilliant Steve - thanks for sharing. My mate's going to love that with his Stag. My grandad was on the Stag/Spitfire lines. I suppose Cov must really have seemed very modern at the time. As a kid in the 70's it seemed that everyone had either a BL or Ford car.

Enjoyed watching it. Thanks. Les

I too enjoyed the film immensely and have never seen it even though our department Inspection Engineering is well featured in the sequences. Recognised Ray Denny, John Ryman operating the surface finish measurement Talysurf and Bob Treanor on the Talyrond machine measuring the roundness of a piston. Also shown was gauging equipment designed by the same department namely The Sigma machine produced by the measuring division of Alfred Herberts down at Letchworth. Also the Engine casting checking fixture known by us as a Doghouse Fixture as the block fitted inside it. Happy days at a good company.

I worked with a guy in 21 shop at Canley in the mid-70s who drove a Triumph Courier, he told me that when he ordered it from the dealership that he chose the most basic cheapest available. At work, he obtained through the tally clerks (no computers then) the date it is was due to roll down the production line. He took the day off and followed "his" Triumph Courier down the lines whilst informing the track workers that it was "his" vehicle. He got top trim, alloys, bigger engine etc etc for the price of a basic car. Apparently this practice, I was told, was not uncommon then.

I understand that one of the biggest decisions was not so much the specification of one's engine, but whether to accept delivery in or out of the crate. lol. At the Meriden Triumph, the guy in the stores would write SCRAP on an 'ordered' part and it would kick around for a while until the coast was clear. The guy in the spares rebuilt his Bonneville such that it was the best anybody could have bought, and he was the guy behind many a restoration project.

The end of an era although I preferred the original style Herald myself. The last Triumph Herald