It gives me great pleasure to think that there are others like me who can find interest and a sense of value in the preservation of our engineering heritage. I find it all too easy to fall into grumpy old man mode when I think of all the works of all types now long gone...

Pickles, I guess there may be a time and a place for everything, I am glad I was born where and when I was which provided me with a sense of place and a sense of purpose over my 50 working years having only been employed by two companies, yet with a variation in type of work and in locations that opened my eyes to so very much.. As for the giant cranes, there are a few up and down the river, one in the city centre that was used to load locally manufactured steam trains on to ships for transportation all over the world, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Finnieston_Crane Another halfway down river in Clydebank, known as the Titan Crane that served the berth where vessels such as HMS Hood and the "Queens" were built and fitted out...https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Titan_Clydebank

Gordon, I guess the engineer and the cat were well used to the thrum of those huge engines while running tests.. Elf`n safety...? I remember as a yoof, working in your fine city in the court building at the end of Union Street and being up an extension ladder from a parapet to the centre of the face of the tower clock on that iconic building, a BIG spanner in one hand and a hammer in the other, both attached to my belt by light rope, and used to loosen the rather large nut holding the hands of the clock in place..... interesting times indeed.

Britmog, I used to fire up a rather large air start Blackstone engine that acted as an electrical standby for a couple of huge radars mounted at ground level, it was a very impressive bit of kit with it`s black enamelled side plates and chrome domed nuts. hand operated oil pump to pre- pressurise the lube system before pushing the button and bringing the monster back to life. The Blackstone like others had dual oil filters, to allow filter changes while the engine was running, no risk management or single point failures..we had back up systems to the back up systems...changed days.

Rob T, that was a brand new engine being run on test in the works where it was created and from the pic ID it seems to be the three hundred and ninety fourth engine to have been built there..as Pickles typed some were stripped right down and shipped out prior to finding their home in some fine ship, like so many before. On the other hand given the almost riverside location of the works, some were moved out whole a process oft involving Pickfords as Pickles noted, there were railway lines from the works across the road to the dockside less than a hundred yards distant... For a few years I used a cut off of that line as an anvil in my garage.

End of the line..

http://www.inverclydeshipbuilding.c...ering-companies/kincaids/the-last-engine

There stands a burger bar in the approximate area of the works and some modern flats.... Not many jobs for the young men in that area these days or for the last 30 or more years...a great pity.