Life & Chaos at Bailey Automation

Bailey was the first company inspired - or insane - enough to employ me. Called Elsag Bailey at the time, in 1992, it had morphed into Bailey ICS when I left in '96. Bailey were into building control systems: kit ranging from cheap and cheerful to tens of millions of pounds. In a nutshell, control systems are exotic robots. I got to design systems and write software to control oil rigs, power stations, food additive plants and (to do my bit to help people age prematurely and die painfully) a cigarette factory.

For more on the ciggy factory click here.

There were some stunning nights out too, needless to say, but that is another tale for another day.

Other exploits at Bailey were a gig at a Scottish plant that transforms seaweed into gel that ends up in everything from ketchup to apples pies to ice cream. Working with the Scots was a laff. I even understood them eventually, well at least until before the first few wee drams disappeared down the hatch. Working night shift in a porta-cabin at Peterborough Power Station was unforgettable, not least because two of the engineers - Rick and Dave - were insane. One night, at 4am, Dave took us to the top of the stack. Clambering up that chimney on the frail-looking ladder was unnerving and exhilarating. Spectacular view from the top too.

Sadly Bailey has more recently been bought and - as far as I can tell from the reports I am receiving - asset stripped by a corporation called ABB. In their wisdom, ABB management moved the engineering work south where the house prices are astronomical and so my ex colleagues were effectively forced out of their jobs. And to think corporations like to tell you that their people are their most important asset.

Chris Ollivier runs the Bailey Community site, The Old Bailey, which will be of interest to ex-Bailey people. It is Microsoft-hosted, which explains why it is dog slow, worse, you might need a wretched "Microsoft passport" to gain access (do not give Microsoft your real details if you do not want spam and your information sold on to third parties). Having said all that, Chris has done an fine job. The Old Bailey (Opens in a new window)






You can contact me here. Alternatively, I'll see you at the next piss-up :)

Cheers,

Jim


Add your comment

From:	Shermern A	Subject:	Bailey Network 90 parts	2004-05-19 17:13:35

View the comments

help: how to add your comment

Page hits: 3797