After a Railway career which began August 1972 I have decided to call it a day

Supervisor Signal Engineering located at Yoker IECC in Glasgow, responsible for checking work output, staff competence surveillance and safety inspections on the 21 Technicians located at the depot, in addition I carry out asset inspection to determine and prioritise our minor renewal programme to ensure high performance of all Signalling equipment on the busy North Clyde Suburban Rail Network

Following a period in the private sector as a Service Supervisor with Strathclyde Mechanical Handling (Fork truck & materials handling company) I was offered the chance to return to the Rail Industry as a Trainer/Assessor in my old Training Centre at Slateford which was now operated by First Engineering

Appointed to the position of S&T Instructor within the Training Centre at Slateford, part of a team 7 instructors delivering a wide range of training from Mechanical Signal Installation to Relay Based Interlockings, importantly most of my time in this post was taken up with the initial SMTH Training programme which given the number of staff that required this training within a tight timescale we operated a day shift and a late shift pattern to double utilise the facility on a daily basis, I remained in this position until in the run up to privatisation the business unit decided to close Slateford Training Centre as well as others that were part of the Central Services Division of BRB and with no suitable positions available I left the Rail Industry for a few years

Following the Clapham Rail disaster on 12th December 1988 and the subsequent report carried out by Anthony Hidden QC serious short comings were discovered within the industry and in particular S&T installation practice's, in an attempt to address this issue the BRB ordered a rethink on how we managed Signalling projects and many new positions arose within this group with me taking up the position of Signalling Works Standards and Training Engineer Scotland reporting to the Signal Works Quality Engineer. The main purpose of this position was to review current installation practice along with others and look at the training needs of installation staff

Following a re-organisation within the Glasgow North Division several depots were closed and new ones opened with me taking up the position of Senior Technician in a 3 man dedicated Signal Faults Team located at Larbert, section boundaries were pretty much the same as they were in my previous post at Greenhill but with seperate Fault and Maintenance Teams

Appointed to Senior Technician post at Greenhill this section includes the busy Edinburgh to Glasgow line from Lenzie to Linlithgow the Grahamston Branch and the line from Greenfoot to Dunblane, responsible for maintenance and fault rectification on all S&T equipment within these boundaries, the depot closed in May 1989

Following closure of the S&T Depot at Aviemore I moved to Keith midway between Aberdeen and Inverness to take over the section between Forres and Inverurie, notably this section has a mix of Key Token, Tokenless Block and Absolute Block with mainly Semaphore Signalling but with Colour Light Distant Signals and a Telegraph Pole Route between Signal Boxes

Appointed to the position of Senior Technician at the Aviemore Depot responsible for carrying out routine S&T Maintenance and Faulting work on the section of the Highland Line between Blair Atholl and Culloden untill closure of the Depot

Returned from USA and restarted my railway career as a Technician at the recently created S&T depot at Aviemore following the Highland Lines stage 2 upgrade project which entailed reinstatement of crossing loops at Kincraig, Slochd and Moy along with closure of Carr Bridge and Tomatin Signal boxes with their crossing loops transferred to the new NX panel within Aviemore North Signalbox

Moved over to the new works side of the S&T Dept taking over an 8 man installation squad based at Edinburgh Waverley, notable achievements during this time were installing the new Signalling equipment on the East Coast diversion following the collapse of the Penmansheil Tunnel which sadly claimed the lives of 2 contractors staff, during the Civil Engineering prep work I lead the installation of a Temporary Signal Box at Cobbinshaw between Mid Calder Jct and Carstairs to increase the line capacity to cater for the diverted services from the ECML to the WCML, in October I left the UK to live in Idaho in the USA

Senior Technician GPR responsible for providing cover for Signal Fault/Maintenance staff on leave, sickness, training etc at all the depots on the old Glasgow North Division but mainly Dumbarton, Hyndland, Bellgrove, Cowlairs, Greenhill and Stirling. During this time I was seconded to Aviemore between June and December 1978 to lead a Team of 8 men working on the Highland Line stage 2 improvement project to increase the line capacity for increased freight traffic to Inverness and Invergordon

Appointed to position of Technician at Greenhill Depot on the busy Edinburgh to Glasgow route, responsible for assisting the shift Senior Technician with all assigned maintenance as well as attending to Signalling failures

Start of my Railway career working in a variety of locations to gain a wide knowledge of all types of Railway Signalling