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used to start the No 2 rear engine. However, look as I would, no details were given on how this rear starter worked. To make matters worse, when I referred to the parts lists, only the complete starter was referred to and again there were no detail drawings. So I was left to work it out for myself.

After waiting for an hour and a half the Service Manager returned saying he would be expecting his students in about half an hour. In the meantime he would show me to their classroom and see if he could get me a cup of coffee.

The classroom had about twenty desks and chairs roughly arranged facing a front desk, which was offered to me. My host left me to settle in and while he was away I searched around the room for props which might help me with my forthcoming school. There were a number of items, a torque converter, a gearbox or two and among these bits and pieces still more of these Air Starter motors st of which sported a reject label

At the back of the class I was lucky to find another Air Starter, but this time the starter was in pieces. In addition to this there was also a well-drawn sketch of the motor in section with notes written in German indicating what the parts were and their function! This, of course, was supposition for I could not understand the German words. However with the parts opened up together with the drawings, I soon had an idea how the motor could work and gathered it was a ‘Vane type’, as used in hydraulic pumps and motors.

By now the students were slowly coming into the class room. Clearly they had come from the workshop and had just removed their overalls. I detected from their faces they had been disturbed from their work, most still wiping their hands and looking around at me in a bored sort of way. Their expressions conveyed to me I was in for a heavy week! I had no knowledge of the German language but from the looks I was getting it was clear they had taken a unanimous vote of dislike to me. I could read in their eyes, “Who is this upstart, this Englishman who thinks he can teach us all about our Scrapers, these Scrapers we have been servicing for over fifteen years!”

After such an auspicious beginning we were ready to start! After being introduced to my interpreter we were ready to commence. I began by getting the Service Manager to distribute my schoolbooks, one for each of the students. Some then, in turn, picked them up, flicked through them a little, looked at each other and then threw the books back on their desk. They followed this by giving me an arrogant look conveying their utter contempt.

I asked the Interpreter to explain my teaching methods explaining to the students that I would be showing the illustrations in their books on my overhead projector. I would then explain the illustrations through the interpreter and it was for them to write, in their own language, the details I would be giving. In this way their own notes would be available as a reference in the future and this it was hoped would help them to understand the machine.

As the lesson progressed it was clear my students were not interested in nor were they giving me much attention. Unless I did something to captivate them, this situation would continue for the rest of the week. In an effort to stir them up I asked the interpreter to tell the class I would explain the Scrapper in depth, fully explaining the engine, gearboxes, electrical and braking systems. However, I continued, I did not intend to waste time on simple things like the ‘air starter’, as they all knew how this simple unit worked.

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