Signalling
and particularly those working on UK projects or where UK signalling practice is used. All companies, whether suppliers or railway administrations, have to manage their affairs in a business-like fashion otherwise they go out of business. The recruitment and retention of staff is an expensive, long-term issue, and the all too frequent peaks and troughs of railway investment require employers to have steely nerves at times to hang on to skilled engineers when there is a dip. Sometimes, they cannot do this, so movement of employees between employers can be the outcome, and again, a common method of demonstrating competence can be a help both to the employer and the employee. It is commonly thought that there will be great difficulty in updating signal engineers and technicians to deal with changes in technology as well as culture. Is this the case? I venture it is not necessarily so, providing proper steps are taken to address the issue. Our first President, A T Blackall, used these prophetic words in an address in 1910, which surely are as relevant today as they were then:-
‘By the expression of signalling we mean the whole of the methods and means by which the movement of traffic is controlled. The successful signal engineer must have
at his command all the many schemes and devices and systems and appliances which the experience of many years of development has provided him; but all these he must regard merely as tools, to be made use of or discarded as the necessities of the moment demand, in fulfilment of the essential purpose of the art of signalling. Thus, for example, and the conception is not a remote one, if the conditions in a given case could be met most satisfactorily by a signalling system in which there were no semaphores or other visible signals, and no block system, there should be no hesitation in adopting it, and the fact that the ancient features had been scrapped, and the ancient methods discarded, would in no way remove such a scheme from within the definition of a signalling system.’
Embracing ever-changing technology Signal engineers and technicians have had to adapt to deal with many changes of technology from mechanical operation of lineside signals through to radio based in- cab signalling systems, and they will need to continue to do that. At the same time they have had to adapt to changing forms of industry structure and organisation - something which may be more difficult to achieve at times. Who can foretell what will happen in the next fifty years? Signal engineering is not the only engineering discipline that has to deal with complex
systems which are in front line service, in some instances in places that are more than one hundred years old in concept, and in reality, in others that came out of the research laboratory three years ago. But I suggest it probably has the biggest technological ‘bridge’ to deal with. How many Commodore PET computers from the late 1970’s are still in front line service, whereas, for example, the early 1970’s installed signalling systems which control the northern part of the West Coast Main Line will not be replaced for some years yet, to say nothing of some of the pre-war mechanical signal boxes. So the challenge for all signal engineers and technicians is to embrace the ever-changing technology to be used to achieve the four goals of safety, efficiency, reliability and cost- effectiveness of signalling systems. The challenge for railway companies and suppliers is to help facilitate that, and the challenge for the IRSE is to be able to bridge any gap between individuals and companies to support the continual learning necessary for the profession to continue to move forward.
•
Colin Porter is chief executive of the Institution of Railway Signal Engineers.
www.irse.org
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