Castings Fred Dibnah's Made in Britain

Fred Dibnah and his steersman, Alf Molyneux,

have now reached the Scottish Borders on their epic steam-powered tour

to discover Britain's industrial past.

They're on their way from West Cumbria

to Bo'ness on the Firth of Forth.

We're now in Scotland and we're heading for a foundry

to find out more about the casting process and foundry-men.

Castings are a very important part of a traction engine, the cylinder block, the cylinder end covers

and, of course, the pistons are all made from cast iron.

Like, even the hub caps over the wheels are made from cast iron.

The business at the front where the steering gear is, is made from cast iron.

The running repairs they made in Cumbria appear to have been a success

and the engine is now running well, which is a good thing

as they've still got more than 50 miles to go today.

You know, there's some quite long journeys involved in it that'll be pretty uneventful

really other than waving to people as they pass by, like.

And then there's always the unplanned for, you know, things that happen.

Like, you get invited in to people's houses and things like that,

which can be quite dangerous.

You end up pouring whisky down your throat and all that sort of thing.

Happened to me before that, you know.

"Oh, just bring it round to our house so we can take a picture of it in front of the house!"

Ended up at a party, you know. Weddings, we've done weddings, you know.

Can go up to ten miles, you won't fall off the engine.

Or get arrested by one of them funny men in the blue suits. Yes, one of them masons.

I think Glasgow was the second city of the Empire. Yeah.

Glasgow was one massive foundry, there's foundries everywhere.

Best engineers in t'world come from round here, didn't they?

Yeah. Yeah.

This is our petition for our mine.

Yeah? I'll sign that.

Thank you very much.

My father was a miner - Machrihanish.

I did a talk, but everybody were that pissed nobody understood what I were talking about.

With the engine's belly-tank full up with water, they're ready for the road again.

HORN BLARES

We're now in Falkirk, which, of course,

was the place where the industrial revolution in Scotland all started.

And here, a great iron foundry called the Carron Ironworks that were opened in 1760.

After 30 years, he'd employed a thousand men

and became the biggest iron-smelting plant in the whole of Europe.

It was here that James Watts' first castings for his earliest engines were manufactured.

Although there's not much of it left now,

this area was the cradle of the steam revolution

where Watt built some of the first steam engines.

And Watt wasn't the only pioneering engineer working in these parts.

This boat behind me is a three-quarter size, um, copy

of the world's first steam-powered vessel.

You know, and it were designed by an engineer called William Symington.

It's called the Charlotte Dundas.

And the engine for it was built at the Carron Ironworks where Symington was the chief engineer.

And it were actually designed to pull barges on a canal, which it did quite successfully.

The horizontal engine in it were far in front of its time.

In 1803, it pulled two barges laden with 70 tonnes

along a 20-mile stretch of the Forth and Clyde Canal.

At three and a half miles an hour, you know,

which is faster than what we're doing with the traction engine.

Hmm. Built by the McKenzie Ship and Boatyard, eh?

The canal owners were very concerned about the wash from the engine and the paddles,

and it never really went into service.

What a shame, you know, it's so long ago, 1803.

He fell in the canal and drowned, did you know?

Here, where the Charlotte Dundas is moored on the canal,

there's a modern wonder of engineering,

you know, the Falkirk Wheel.

The world's one and only revolving boat lift.

And it's so simple, you know.

Makes you wonder why nobody ever thought of it before.

It was officially opened by the Queen in 2002.

And it did away with eleven locks

that covered a height of 115ft from the top canal to this canal down here.

At each revolution, it moves 600 tonnes of water

and the machinery involved are ten hydraulic motors,

and they're unbelievably efficient, you know.

They say that there's the same amount of energy used each revolution

as there is in boiling two kettles of water.

I'd better go and relieve my mate, Alf, now who's been faithfully looking after the engine.

I'm off for a cheese buttie.

Pull in, Fred, now.

Pull in a bit. We're, um, we're just trying to harden.

There's a big hill, what, if we were on the level we'd be OK with the water level in the boiler

as it is, but we've got to go down this hill, which could uncover the crown of the firebox,

melting the fusible plug,

which means we could be here all night instead of having a pint in about half an hour, you know.

Well, that's where we're going to, where that flame is burning on the horizon.

It's that operation we did up in Cumbria on it

when we planed that five-sixteenths off the edge of the steam port.

Made a hell of a difference.

So they need to find some water - quickly.

Right at the last minute, help is at hand.

And there's nothing like getting it straight from the men from the Water Board.

Oh, aye. It'll be coming out of the funnels? I think I need a drink.

Thanks very much, chaps.

An engine like this is a rare sight around here, but in the early 1900s

there were tens of thousands of them steaming around Britain's roads.

They've had a good long run today,

so how's Fred feeling about the performance of the engine now?

Well, it's getting better, it's running now.

We've had some good spells of maybe 14 miles an hour and speeds like that.

If you keep 200lb on the clock.

And it seems to accelerate up hills now,

which it wouldn't do, would it? When we were in Cumbria, you know.

There's nothing dropped off it, you know, that's the main thing.

We'll wrap it up and go for a pint, I think, usual style.

But a traction engine's not like a car

and before they can go to the pub at the end of the day

there's always plenty of work to do.

Tonight, there's a few nuts that need tightening.

I'll wind it back so it's in a better position.

Wait a minute.

Staying at railway workshops, is a very handy place to break down at, you know.

We're not really broke down, I mean.

We could've tightened them up, but they'd have just come loose again.

While we're at it, we might as well do it properly, and um...

It's just my luck to drop this nut now down onto the top of the red-hot firebox.

Right, now then, a big spanner...

Sorting out the coal and water is Alf's department.

That's still a bit tight.

Yeah, if we can find a washer of a suitable thickness we're on, really.

Now we need...Alex and his washer department.

You know, if we can find a washer of the right thickness, of which there's a half a bucketful just arrived.

Ah... Ah, that looks the part maybe, right.

We'll leave it at that.

Will you tighten that up against...? Cos the two are close together.

They can't go any further, can they, because of the split pins? No.

I'm ready for finishing now.

But...um, he's got to do his repairs.

We're preparing for tomorrow, basically.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

We've got a bit of coal, we want quite a bit more yet.

We've some polishing to do.

And, um, sheet it up and then it starts again tomorrow.

It's nice and bright.

We'll light the fire and muck it all up again,

and then back to square one when we've finished running.

Are you enjoying it? Yeah, yeah, I am. Yeah, we've met some cracking people up here, haven't we?

Anyway, I'll have to get on with my work. Yeah.

Did it come loose?

ENGINE PEEPS Oh!

Make myself deaf, I don't know.

This is the foundry we've been heading for.

The Ballantine and Bo'ness Iron Company and it's been here since 1820 and employs over 100 people.

This is it. Here they cast everything from pillar boxes to lamp standards

to beautiful iron railings,

and, you know, for places as far away as London and maybe all over the world, you know.

But, you know, looking around at the quality of workmanship

and the ornamental stuff, there can't be many places as good as what this place is, believe me.

If you come through this way, lads.

Yeah. Through you come, through you come.

Ah, there's some lovely tackle in here, isn't there?

Yes, it's really, really nice.

This is one of our pattern stores here, Fred.

As you can see, we can match up any head with any bar

and these days that's sort of big business for us... Yeah.

..the restoration work in parks and what have you.

I don't think we've counted, but I think we've over 100,000 patterns

within the foundry, so it's a lot.

Quite a lot, yeah. Yeah.

But many of these patterns will date back to, you know, when the foundry first started.

You still have those patterns?

Absolutely, we never, ever throw any pattern away.

No, never do.

A lot of people don't realise that every one of these had to be made out of wood, before it were...

Yes, absolutely. ..made out of aluminium or cast iron.

You know there's some skilled work, isn't there? Yeah.

In you go, boys, in you go. Ah, this is, um...the pattern shop?

This is the pattern shop, lads, aye.

Yeah, life starts here.

Yeah. We're one of the last general jobbing foundries that's left

and um, we're sent all sorts of things, like postcards, and drawings

and they come into the pattern shop and the lads,

like Alan, William and Brian and the boys, they sort of turn it into reality.

And then from here it goes down to the shop to be cast.

It's nice to see, cast iron coming back, sort of fighting back against all the plastic.

Oh, aye. It's very durable stuff, isn't it? It don't rot away like steel. Indeed, indeed.

Right, Alf, mind your feet as you come down. Yeah, yeah.

So this, Fred, is the next stage from the pattern shop.

Once the pattern is made they come down here into the moulding shop.

I'm sure you recognise this is a bollard, a street bollard - street furniture,

that's another big thing that we do. And Ricky here is closing the box up.

They're cores, aren't they? That's right.

And you see the dark core, so the metal goes round about it.

We can't stop production, Fred, we've got to let them go. Aye, aye. No, no.

They're just blowing all the extra dust out, so there's no' any residue there.

But, aye, so we do the street furniture.

We do big lamp posts here.

This is our heavy end, so-called because the larger, heavier castings are made in here.

And you can see the size of the boxes, they're big.

When we move onto the next stage you'll see a lot of the smaller castings, smaller things.

That's OK, mate.

That's that, Fred, I think we should move on to the next moulding shop.

Yeah. You dinnae want to fight with this boy! I tell you.

So this is the main moulding shop we're going through to now. Yeah.

This is the main moulding shop.

His jacket seems to have been set on fire a few times!

There's three tonne of metal in the furnace.

It all arrives at once and each different shop gets a tonne.

And they sort of have different turns of where the metal is just to make sure, you know.

They all get an equal chance of going home a wee bit early, that's about the size of it.

That's it coming now, this'll be...ductile iron or spheroidal graphite,

but I cannae say that with my teeth. What're you laughing at? What's wrong with my teeth?!

The metal goes into the ladle. Yeah.

And that's the magnesium that's making it as bright as you see it there, lads. Yeah.

And that'll bring all the impurities up to the top.

You cannae have that going into the casting because the impurities would be in the casting.

That's them just topping the ladle up there. Yeah.

There we go.

So getting the wheel on

for pouring and tilting it when it comes into the shop here.

Oh, right. And he's got his wee stirrer there...

So this is the molten metal coming through into the moulding shop now.

It's a bit like a pint of Guinness there, Fred, all the impurities come up to the top.

As you see the furnace-man has a thing like Neptune's fork

and he takes all the slag off the top so that we're left with the pure metal there.

That's the green sand mould in the plant there...

It's still done in the traditional way with the hand ladles, as you see.

You've got to be pretty strong to carry one of them about there.

I think one of the lads was saying there's 56lbs in it.

And I mean it's not as though you're just doing one, is it? Yes. You've got all them holes to fill up.

You've got to be a real man. You think you'd be up for it these days?

Until me present state of health I'd have been all right with that, yeah.

Ah, I tell you, you're more of a man than me, mate. I wouldnae be able for that.

Brian, are you getting older or is that getting heavier?

It's getting heavier.

In the end, he's going to look like Arnold Schwarzenegger. Yeah, yeah.

It's what I said, he'll be a big strong lad.

You wouldn't let him give you a slap. Has he to put them on as well? Yes. And see the height...

And see the height he's got to lift them? Yeah. It's a man's job.

The pattern will be in the box there.

The box is in two parts.

The pattern is placed in there, pulled out,

you put the core in, close the box up,

clamp it down, and then the metal is poured through the blow holes there.

It really is, it's just really to make sure you get a continuous flow of good-quality metal.

What's the idea of, like, the three pouring holes?

Well, it's just to make sure that you get an equal flow through the moulding box, Fred,

that's about the size of it.

But it's certainly an age-old process

and we'll be here for a long, long time.

Well, this area's very famous for the foundry, isn't it?

It really is, central Scotland.

Way back to 1803, you know, Carron Ironworks.

That's right. We've been here since about 1820 - the company was started here.

I think it was established in about 1856 and it has been in the Ballantine family now.

And, yeah, Mr Ballantine is still, you know, the son and heir.

And good news for us, he has a young son, so hopefully he'll come along and join us.

He's at university at the minute but... The other good thing about Mr Ballantine is

when he was coming into the shop at first

his father made him come here and do this.

He made him do the moulding, he worked in the pattern shop,

and he worked in the fitting shops. So he'd have a real insight into the job itself.

How it's all done.

Sadly, you know, we're getting less and less and we're one of the last few standing now.

Just recently, two of the largest foundries in Scotland just closed down there.

And you've got to feel for the men and the skills that are left on the street now, Fred.

But...we soldier on.

How long does it take one of them young moulders

to learn that traditionally, so he can be left on his own?

It's really a five-year apprenticeship.

There's a lot of father and son combinations in here, so they'll learn the skills from their dad.

Every moulder's responsible for his own ladle.

At the end of the day, you'll need to chap that out, back to the metal, and then re-line it,

get it dried off. We've got little individual driers, and then it's ready for the next day again.

In 1950, there were more than 200 foundries like this in central Scotland.

Now this is one of the only ones left.

Back at the railway, it's time to get prepared for the next stage of the journey.

Come on then, it's time we were away. Right, we're off.

Are you ready?

Yep. Wagons roll!

They're going to be heading back south to England, but before they leave this part of Scotland,

Fred wants to have a look at the Forth bridges

and see if they can drive the engine over the road bridge.

They're not sure whether traction engines are allowed across the bridge.

That's a good view of the bridge now.

Well, we've made it. Get off me wheel.

Oh, right... Sorry.

There they are, eh? Two together - one built this century and one last century.

Which is the rail bridge?

The red un'. Oh, right. That they never stop painting.

There's a train going over. Looks like a blooming model.

Yeah, yeah, they...

When they built that one there were,

I think, 57 men were killed building it, the rail bridge. The rail bridge?

1890. There were only a few,

there were only a couple killed on t'other one.

But...

..two of Scotland's greatest landmarks. Looks impressive.

Oh, aye, yeah, yeah.

It is when you're on top. I've been on the rail bridge.

You know, on the ironwork, like. Yeah.

Well, if you're going up the ironwork today I'm not coming with you.

Are you not? No. When it was built - the rail bridge

it was the longest in Europe for a spell, weren't it?

I don't know about that. It was.

Instead of it being built out of wrought iron

it were one of the earliest structures built out of steel. Of steel, yeah.

I had a book once with magnificent drawings and pictures in and I lent it somebody and it never come back.

Of the whole construction of it all, you know as it went on from day to day. It were a right good book, that.

But I ain't got it no more.

How far across is it, do you know?

No idea. It's a long way. It looks it from here.

Yeah, yeah. I wonder if they'll let us go over with this.

There might be some sort of speed job, you know, you might have to be able to do 20mph,

or something like that which we can't do, can we?

There's one thing about it we'll not have to pay a toll because these'll not be on their notice boards.

No, no, that's right. Yeah, I didn't think about that, yeah.

But are they going to let them across?

A bit windy!

CAR TOOTS

We've just come over your bridge, Alastair, and it didn't collapse.

That's good to know. Did you have any problems getting up the slope?

Yeah, well, it's, the engine isn't really running as good

as it should be doing, but it made it all right.

How old is it now the bridge?

Well, the bridge opened in 1964 so we're...

Getting on a bit. ..our 40th anniversary.

Do you have much maintenance? Well, we've got a big problem.

Not only do we have to maintain this structure because it's 40 years old... Yeah.

..but it was designed in the '50s when the heaviest... Ah, lighter...

..commercial vehicle was only 24 tonne.

And now the European standard is 44. Yeah, yeah, mmm, mmm.

Added to that, last year we carried 24 million vehicles.

Bloomin' heck, that's a lot, isn't it? When it opened in '64...

Can they not put stronger ropes on, you know?

It's not the ropes that are the problem. No.

The towers are now reaching their limit, the main cable is reaching its limit.

Yeah, yeah. I see what you mean.

In fact we recently put a new tower inside that tower.

And the wall thickness of that new steel is about an inch and a half.

So you have a column taking an extra 6,000 tonne off the existing tower.

In fact, we've put so much load into the new tower

that the existing bridge had been relieved of its weight and actually went up an inch and a half.

Blooming heck, yeah, yeah, yeah. So it was a big operation.

Yeah, yeah.

I noticed one or two bits

where it was a bit up and downy, the road surface, you know.

What you've got to remember, is it's blowing up quite a gale now,

but if the wind got up to 100mph, the centre span would move out 23? feet

in the direction of that wind. Yeah. That's a long way.

So every 60ft across the deck you've got a movement joint

and that's where you get the clatter as you go across the bridge.

Well, you wouldn't think that, would you? 23 foot.

23 foot in 100mph wind. So it's left hand down a bit as you're heading to Fife.

What size winds have you recorded over there?

We've put it off the scale about 102.

Oh, so you've had them kind of...? Oh, yeah, we're pretty far north.

Did you close? We close at 85, to all vehicles.

Because after that you're starting to get light heads coming off and that's a bit dangerous.

And standing where you are you would actually see the bridge starting to oscillate.

Somebody explained that. That's amazing that.

How high are they, them towers?

You're 508 feet above the river if you're standing on the top of these towers.

Yeah. I've never been up a chimney that big, you know.

What's the highest chimney you've been up then? Oh...

300? 300 foot. 300 feet. Yeah. That was without a lift?

We attempted to knock a concrete one down that were 450ft high,

but the bloody thing fell down a day early, you know.

That's the first traction engine ever to have driven across the Forth Bridge under its own steam.

Subtitles by BBC Broadcast 2005