Robotstar5

Thanks for the informative posts on rolling mills Arthur. I did my apprenticeship at the Birmid (Smethwick) in the 70's so know well what it was like to work in a foundry. We only did iron casting but usually produced a load of ingots of "pig iron" at the end of shift ready to go back into the furnace the following day.

Looks great, thanks for posting the photo's.

The same as a few others, I started spotting in the early 70's spending most Saturdays at Birmingham New Street when platform tickets cost 4p, the highlight would be a Western on the 10.25 to Paddington out of platform 1. I would travel out to Bescot to see how far round the shed I could get before being chucked out. Saved pocket money for trips further afield to Crewe, Derby etc. went to London a few times but never saw any of the "tourist sights" only Hither Green, Stratford & Old Oak Common where I saw a line of Blue Pullmans and Hymeks waiting to be scrapped. Joined a local model railway club where I was in the minority being a "dirty diesel" lover.

It was Alpine pop on the lorry we had round Smethwick

- Range Rover a "Four-In-One" car: "A luxury car" "A performance car" "An estate car" "A cross country car" From the 1970 launch literature, my reasoning was the first 3 would appeal to a company director, also the proximity of Solihull to location of BCB?

You can thank Honda for that, when Rover built Honda badged cars they decided to adopt the Honda quality standards across all the model ranges. Back to period vehicles, what about Land Rovers? Seies II, IIA and III would all have been around at the time, company bosses may have been driving round in Range Rovers. By the way, I'm a "green oval" fan

Just found this excellent thread, I worked at the Birmid foundry in Smethwick during the 70's so know the area well. If the layout needed a soundtrack, it would be the steam hammers at SDF (Smethwick Drop Forgings). Keep up the good work.