We built Columbia’s first B-trains designed by Sam Fujimura, Art Copes was the head Engineer. I was welding inside that refueler when I heard a lot of shouting and when I poked my head out of the manhole I could see the shop roof was on fire, I scrambled out of the Tank and headed for the north exit, no one else was around. I went to the south end of the shop to see the paint shop on fire and a logging truck with its tires on fire, Columbia had a sprinkler system but somebody had turned it off for maintenance. Once it was turned on the fire was quickly put out. Welding on the Refueler made be a better welder and I was trusted to weld on anything after that. unknown to me, George Sullivan a journeyman and who was also the welding inspector took samples of my butt welds from cut off sections of the Refueler and had them checked, all were 100%, back then only qualified ticked welder could weld the shells and any tanks built for Shell Oil then had to be x-rayed. I was working on a truck tank that was complete and had installed two cabinets on either side, the Tank was upside down so had to be turned right side up, we did this by using the crane with lifting straps, George was helping me, he set the straps and I ran the crane, George set the straps wrong and I didn’t notice or check as he was a Journeyman and I thought he knew what he was doing, when I lifted the tank it swung wildly and hit the another tank beside it, the truck tank had a big dent between the voids, George took a couple of aspirins and went home leaving me to face the music. I didn’t say anything but if I had been fired I would have said what had happened. We pulled out the dent and put bondo on the tank then painted it, the tank was shipped out to a customer but never made it, it was not secured properly and fell of the truck totaling the tank, it was jinxed. I was made a Journeyman in 1974 thanks to Pete’s training, to be a Journeyman then you had to be an expert in one field and know 90% of the jobs in the plant, I could weld shells and heads, in time I could use the head making machine and the head flanger, I could build manifolds from scratch, skin hot oil tankers. Pipe and weld the schedule 5 aluminum pipe and stl pipe, welding that thin pipe with the mig gun was not easy Columbia had no tig welding machines then, it took you longer to test the pipe for leaks that to fit and weld the pipe. There were no turners then so the upper 5th, landing gear and running gear Sill all had to be fit and welded with the tank upside down. All holes were cut on the shell with a air sabre saw, hole saws or in the case of manholes a skill saw. We had an hydraulic punch to punch 4" holes in the baffles and flange the manholes in baffles. In 1970 the first time I used it I screwed up, I didn't check to see if the punch was screwed on the ram tight tight, I bent the punch on the ram threads, Pete told me he will take the blame as I might of been fired. In the early days all the heads and stiffners were only tacked in the welded shell before any welding was done on the heads. The thought was in those days that the tank might twist if you welding one head at a time, Pete didn’t like this as it meant he had to find something else to do while I was welding inside for a few hours. one day after we stuffed a head and fit the stiffeners Pete says to me “weld it up” , After I welded everything Pete checked the tank closely “no twist” he says so we installed another head and stiffners and I welded them ,no twist, Pete went to Armando and told him so after that we welded the heads right after installation, this made it easier for the welders as we didn’t have to weld in a confined space for so long, only holes were the manholes, drain holes were cut after, so it was smoky inside even with the air sucker working nobody was issued or wore respirators. Another Pete innovation was the prints called for baffles to be installed opposite the front for no apparent reason, Pete thought they should all face flange to the rear if possible, this made it faster to install the heads and baffles, Engineering agreed and after that most heads and baffles flanges faced the rear. When I was teamed up with Pete he wanted to be the best, there were other welders and fitter teams at Columbia and when Pete thought they were getting close to our production we would pick up the pace, so I learned to be a fast welder. His work ethic rubbed off on me, without Pete I don’t know how good a worker I would have been, Columbia was my first full time job. The Van Raden Brothers had bought Columbia trailers in the Early 70’s after selling their interest in Peerless. The steel shop built some very interesting trailers because of them, One was a huge turbine hauler built for the Russian company who built the turbine meant for the BC Mica dam, we had an embarrassing situation after the trailer was built when the trailer was on a private road way up north and broke, it had to be shipped back for repair, turned out there was no welding procedures for the welders to use they just welded as they saw fit, large gaps were filled with round bar and welded over. This made me mad as hell because a fellow I ran into knew about the fiasco and laughed about it. I told him I never worked on it.
