THIRTY YEARS IN RAILWAY ENGINEERING

In 1978 I went to work for Thomas Hill (Rotherham) Limited, then a locomotive manufacturer and part of Rolls-Royce Motors, a specialist in the manufacture of industrial locomotives for petro-chem, quarrying, steel and the Ministry 0f Defence useage.

YORKSHIRE ENGINE CO.

In 1988 I left and set up my own business, the Yorkshire Engine Company Limited, and until 2001 developed new products and solutions in industrial locomotives. At a time when Britain had all but given up locomotive manufacture and was importing all its locomotive requirements, I even got as far as exporting a fully-remanufactured locomotive to the Ford Motor plant at Genk in Belgium, a contract won through the Ford Koln office and against an indigenous competitor.

Yet in Autumn, 2001 I was compelled to close the business, due to what the bank later admitted was their “unfortunate mistake”.

RMS LOCOTEC

From 2001 until late 2007 I worked for RMS Locotec (the Wakefield-based rail engineering and operating business), recruited for the significant advances I had made in industrial locomotive design and control.

WHEEL IMPORTER

I then had a spell working with an importer of wheels, axles and monobloc wheels, further extending my areas of experience in flanged wheel transport.

PETE BRIDDON  - INDUSTRIAL RAILWAY SPECIALIST

Since going independent in mid 2009 I have been applying my skills in repowering industrial locomotives, carrying out testing on complex pneumatic air frames and carrying out on-site locomotive modification work.

These few pages can only give you a snapshot of the many and varied projects that I have been involved with, the trials and tribulations out of which better, safer and more cost effective solutions have been found to common railway operating problems.