GTO Printers Blog

A New Press Arrives at the Masterton Printing Company

Wednesday, May 16th, 2012

In 1966, the first year of my apprenticeship at the MPC, the old press (I think it might have been a Mehlie cylinder, maybe someone can tell me) was removed to make way for a brand new Heidelberg cylinder press, a rather large one! It arrived in half a dozen wooden crates along with an engineer who was to assemble it. It was a two week job unpacking it in the paper storeroom, which was along the back alley separate from the print shop, then moving it into the print shop, and assembling and testing it. For some reason I decided to take my instamatic camera to work one day and took these photos.

It looks like most of the staff lent a hand with the pushing and pulling along the alley to get the various sections into their assigned place. I'm sure we were all happy to take a break from work to lend a hand. I see the comps are there too, the foreman, and even Charlie the despatch man offering advice. There's Lyall, Dave the foreman, Kevin, Barry, Athol, Henry, Jack Hunter the boss, Cliff, Donald, and a couple of others whom I can't remember the names!

That press made the MPC a fully Heidelberg shop, until we got a Multi 1250 around 1970, our first taste of offset printing.

I have fond memories of my days and my workmates at the Printing company. Days when letterpress ruled the printing world.