My father bought a 1936 Standard Flying Nine in 1953. It had a side valve engine with an aluminium cylinder head and was a two door body. I always liked the chrome radiator it looked classy indeed the whole car was very attractive. One Saturday morning we were going into Coventry when there was an almighty bang and the car just seemed to jump after which it sounded like a machine gun. Father turned round and we went back home. Investigation found it was the rear axle so out came the diff unit. Unbelievably a nut from somewhere I can't remember where now had got trapped between the crown wheel and pinion and looked like a toffee was embedded there. We chiseled it off fortunately no damage had occurred so we put it all back together and a year or so later it took four of us to Cornwall. My father sold it in 1960 to a workmate as he bought a new car unfortunately around six months later the poor old Standard threw a rod through the crankcase and that was the sad end to it. Its always fondly remembered though as it took the family a lot of places during the 1950s.

Standard-Triumph was my last job in UK before we emigrated to Australia in 1973. TR6, Stag, Dolomite, Spitfire, GT6. We went back for a visit, mid 90s, all gone, just a grassy field.

Excellent, thank you very much.

Who gave the "green light' to that awful narration? I suppose that he could be forgiven as the 'talkies' were still a novelty then. I'm from Coventry and my father worked in a Standard factory - the one that became the Massey Ferguson factory on Banner Lane in 1959 (according to Gemini). My 'old school' was adjacent and I wonder how many boys went straight from school to work in the factory.

I got a Standard from the guy who lived two doors down the road for free in 1963. We got it running and drove it on our lane and in the fields a bit. When we moved I gave it to the guys next door who eventually took the body off it and made a truck body out of it. Too bad that they did that as it wasn't in bad shape. It wasn't as early as these more late 30's a two door saloon. I remember it had a two blade fan and flathead engine.

Thanks. Pity i can't get hold of an earlier generation copy. It would be good to see the factory in more detail. So many of the machines appear to be driven from overhead pullies. Also interesting to see they ran the engines in by driving them from test jigs. I believe that having to make the Herald on a chassis with bolt on panels when the body pressing contractor was bought by a competitor didnt help.

Interesting video. What a shame Triumph failed. It never lacked ambition.

hi, is the rotor twoo or fuor poles,,,,,, thanks

Brilliant video(s) - thank you so much. I've seen two videos and assume that there is a third but can't find it. Is there a third?

Thanks Kev. It needed a full electronic restoration. Absolutely full of leaky waxed paper capacitors. Also it uses the same circuit as the American Brush branded machine but with wildly different valve substitutions. Variable mu valve in the record output and playback amp stage with some very odd biasing. I changed the cathode resistor to improve lineatity. Might have missed the point but i dont think so. It also uses the screen grid of that valve as an anode for monitor output during record. All really quirky if you ask me but it seems to work surprisingly well. Tape transport is very crude too. Built to a budget but eye wateringly expensive when new.

Wow, that's a super-looking machine for sure! And plays very well still super stuff! Thanks, Kev.

That is absolutely brilliant. I have an antique working player piano, and I still don't understand half of what you said in your description! So is it possible to convert worn-out old players (bellows, valves, air pumps, etc) into one of these? Is that what you did? Have you shown this to QRS?..... you might need a patent 😂

Very clever :)

Excellent, very clever . First time I have seen one like this on am electronic keyboard. I enjoyed that thank you :)

Very nice :) Thanks for sharing

Infra red LEDs in the bar in front and phototransistors behind the tracker bar. MIDI conversion done by a an 8 bit PIC microprocessor. Phototransistor outputs are registered using D type flip flops and then read by the micro. Hysteresis is applied to the inputs to mimic inertia of pianola action. Theme, pedal, mode and patch inputs are also used to generatr MIDI. Tracking is analogue servo off phototransistors at the edge. Roll motor is simple voltage speed control. I am happy to share design and code.

How does it works? What type of sensors does it uses. I want to build something like this to transform rolls to MIDI

Wow, great device! May I know what optical device and electronic you are using to decode the roll holes? I'm working on a similar device trying to use fiber optics in the tracker bar holes leading to receiving diodes. Thank you!