18-07-20 A Gearbox to Barnsley

Today we had a trip over to Barnsley area to discuss and start a job on the Fords gearbox which meant leaving around 0830ish. The box was loaded in the day before and our routing would take up Stockport - Denton - Snake Pass and finally to Burnley where the ex Thomas Cook Captain lived upon leaving the traffic was light all the way there with stunning scenery along the snake pass with its rolling hills and many reservoirs with the road snaking its way through the scenery.

The Captains house was quite a moderate size from the outside as the Porsche greeted us in the driveway alongside another vehicle as we knocked on the door. Inside is not too cluttered as we chatted for a few minutes in the kitchen before returning to the van to retrieve the gearbox box and bring it into the garage where the toys hide. Lots of fancy machines and CAD machines lurked inside as the door was opened. Also joining us was another ex Thomas Cook Captain this time was based at Newcastle for the flying.

 
The lads discussed various ways to do the job of milling down the gearbox to tolerances and processes/tooling and told stories about the past at Thomas Cook.

After a while he showed us the toys and explained what they did and such then showed off the CAD machine talking a lot about it

Its quite an impressive machine the way he explained how it works and what it does and the various cutting tools and such that are with it also explained the story of how he acquired it. Then it was back home in the rain yet again over the snake pass seeing more of the scenery as the cloud base was higher this time with a heavier flow of traffic and the roadworks again it was a nice trip over to that part of South Yorkshire and through the peak district