Hi Villan, I never worked at Longbridge myself, but the old man did, I ask him if he ever met your mates.
There was a tale that in its heyday in the 70's someone did actually phone the main switchboard and ask 'can I speak to our Fred, he works on the track' - there were 20 thousand plus working there at the time.!!
Just as an aside - Saw George Papavgeris last night at Bromsgrove, he sang a beautiful song about the last nail maker in Bromsgrove, Charlie Troth, got the idea from our local 90 year old historian Bill Kings. Maybe we should get George on to it.