Darren Fairley
article by: Ian Crowder
Introducing our Property Director: Responsible for
bridges, buildings and structures, as well as the formation above
and below the permanent way.
My Railway Business Card Says:
Property Director - aka 'illusive pimpernel' - as I always
seem to be away from the good stuff like the trains themselves, out
on the line somewhere with my head down a hole or slipping down an
embankment.
I first got interested in railways
because:
Unbeknown to me it was in the blood!
On My Fathers side, my great-grandfather had a healthy interest
in early machinery and during the when with the Royal Engineers
during the Boer War he was responsible for rebuilding sections of
railway in South Africa. My grandfather worked on the
Southern electrification programme after coming out of the Royal
Navy and it was he who bought me my first train set when I was just
four!
My father is a mechanic by trade and worked for an F1 team
(BRM), but when they went bust he ended up working for Mirrlees
Blackstone as engine tester. It always amazed me that he was
basically allowed to over-work, rev and stress an engine to see
when it blew up or failed in a big way. He was involved on
trials on Western Region HST's with Mirrlees for a short
experimental period, just at the time I started working for
BR. Little did I know that I would end up looking after the
depots he was working in!
On mother's side, my grandfather was an Officer in the Indian
Merchant Navy and therefore had another connection with big
engines. When my mother and family came to England, all my
uncles worked as porters or guards on the railway before going on
to other jobs.
For as long as can remember I always wanted to become a train
driver, but when I left school went straight into civil engineering
with BR, and I have stayed on the railway ever since. I have
just celebrating my 20th year on the 'big railway'.
A typical rundown of what I do on the railway
is:
John Balderstone (Bridges and Structures), Pat Green (Buildings
and Services) run the departments I'm responsible for very well so
I don't do a great deal of the hands-on repairs and work that these
guys and their teams can be justifiably proud of. What I do
on a day to day basis is support them to help us maintain our
existing assets and develop future aspirations, looking at long
term goals, problems or issues. And there is lots and lots of
paperwork!
A lot of my time is spent away from the railway dealing with
'politics' - be it local authorities and neighbours, including
concerns and complaints which may or may not be legitimate.
However the negative is always outweighed by the really positive
things such as recently obtaining from Network Rail passive
provision for running into Honeybourne station, which is very
exciting.
I was prompted to get involved with the Honeybourne Line
by what, or who - and when:
Having done the rounds of a large number of railways once I
passed my driving test, the spotless diesels on the GWR were like a
blue and yellow magnet!
The staff on the railway were much more proactive and friendly
than any other railway I had been associated with.
Also, Cheltenham is a safe haven from hay fever! It's
strange but true and so a weekend in the area is heaven at the
height of the summer.
By quirk of internal re-organisation on the 'day job' some time
ago, I found myself looking after all the commercial railway
property in England and Wales, and started looking for homes for
various relics of railway architecture. As it happened much
of this was GWR in origin and led to a number of dealings with
Andrew Goodman and Gary Owen which drew me into the wider operation
of our railway.
Via another re-organisation I then looked after National Depots
and Pollution Prevention on the network and offered to assist
Richard Drewitt on auditing the new loco pits and drainage on
GWR.
Clearly something was calling me back time and again, be it
through work or play, so I decided to officially combine both.
Ah!: Nearly forgot - my wife also has the same problem
with hay fever and it was indeed my good lady who suggested we have
our wedding reception on the railway. (There were other non-railway
options - but it was her final choice in the end - honest!!!)
We hired Elegant Excursions for the wedding meal and squeezed 60
guests into Winchcombe booking office for speeches etc. It
was fantastic and again a great credit to the railway that it all
went so smoothly.
When the post of Property Director came up I thought the
challenge would suit me down to the ground (I didn't realise 'the
ground' would keep moving!) and have never looked back.
The thing I like most about our railway is:
It has huge potential and is expanding day by day - it is
professionally run by an ever expanding good group of good
volunteers.
Steam guys pulling together with Diesel and vice-versa -
which can be rare these days and the railway has a wide attraction
across generations.
The people that I work with on the National network have good
things to say about our railway too! Working in York as well
as Swindon, I can confirm that our Eastern brethren do indeed speak
well of their recent experiences on the Honeybourne Line!
The thing I like least:
The fear and suspicion of external consultants and engineers;
coupled with the internal rumour mill and 'union meetings'
discussing each and every decision, but without feeding back
issues, problems or concerns.
We seem to accept specialist engineers on things like boilers
and mechanical systems but come to civil engineering and
earthworks; and whilst we have a huge number of professional
volunteers on the railway, as we grow we have to accept that
certain things call for external expertise and consultation to fix
them long-term.
As a Board we can't always share what is going on behind closed
doors to rectify problems or just to keep us going. What we
do publish can be misquoted or distorted so we have to be very
careful what is published and we try to keep all our members and
shareholders as well informed as possible.
I think the greatest achievement of our railway
is
Everything that has been achieved has been done with an all
volunteer workforce. It's incredible.
My Real job
In a nut-shell, having long been involved in 'civils', bridges
and structures, p-way and property, I now specialise in depots,
rolling-stock specification and maintenance facilities.
I'm one of only few remaining national Projects Managers in
Network Rail - most work has been split between the routes and most
tend to be 'held captive' to their region - so I'm very fortunate
in that respect.
As such my job takes me the length and breadth of the country
although most journeys seem get conveniently routed via Cheltenham
- even when going to Scotland!
I always read (newspapers and /or
magazines)
The Heritage Diesel and Electric 'Bible' Traction
Magazine; British Railways Modeller (bizarre given my
father worked for the other Bourne based BRM!) Hornby Model
Railways and a few others. With my other interest, I
read Ships Monthly (big dirty diesels there too!) and the
'real' Bible - does a 'train of camels' count as a connection?
The headline I would like most to see in the newspapers
about our railway is:
"GWR names new Winchcombe carriage shed after Lottery winner who
donated a 10th of their roll-over winnings to GWR.
Surplus used to extend to Honeybourne and mainline connection"
Ok so it's a bit of a mouthful and wouldn't be in The
Sun, now, would it? Their headline would be more like
"Spotters Slush-fund Shed"
My Favourite railway company / operator
is;
BR……now wait for it…….
Because:
Having worked for BR as a company I could work on the track,
trains, infrastructure and signalling all in one office.
Steam age technology alongside state of the art! - it's kind of
what I do now but I'm hanging on to the national role by the skin
of my teeth!
My Favourite locomotive class is:
Class 55 Deltic and then probably a little Sulzer.
Because:
Deltics were noisy and smokey but boy, did they go! They
impressed me the first time Dad took me spotting and I just never
lost interest in them. In fact, I like them so much I ignored
the last days of the little Sulzers and I really wish I had paid
more attention to those wonderful workhorses - hence another draw
to our line.
If I was lucky enough, I would invest a million windfall
on:
"Spotters Slush-fund Shed"
If I wasn't involved with the Honeybourne Line I would
probably:
Have a lot less grey hair!
In other spare time I also enjoy:
First and foremost spending quality time with my wife - who just
happens to also like shopping at Cheltenham. Win-win!
With the embankment collapse and other issues there isn't much
spare time at the moment, but I have got seriously into digital
control on my railway modelling, in particular sound chips.
That way I don't get embarrassingly caught trying to make the
sounds myself - well, not anymore!
My Greatest achievement is:
20 years unbroken service on the national railway - not easy
given in that time there have been about 25 re-organisations!
No Joke!
Work wise - I suppose the actual achievement would be a long run
of bridge replacement projects and being responsible for putting in
the last bridge built and constructed in-house by BR before
privatisation hit the manufacturing yard and then us. A
100mph line bridge out and new one in, within 36 hours and after
the test train, opened for service no delays.
In my personal life - wife No.2! She is wonderfully
supportive and has accidentally let slip that she wants to drive a
steam engine!!
My Biggest regret:
I will resist temptation and say wife No.1…..ops, that's done
it!
Work wise - I have been privileged to have been given the chance
to do most things on the railway but I have never blown anything up
- well, not on purpose!
I once sent some brickies to point some brickwork and a large
crack on a transformer room. I didn't know that the 25Kv
transformer was burning dry. Thankfully, after
they had finished and moved away from the building and had got back
into their van, the overheating transformer blew apart, taking with
it the building they had just repaired. The heavy steel doors
just missed their van near a main dual carriageway, and just 100
metres from the main line which was shut for about a week!
It was a very serious incident but I couldn't resist the Michael
Caine 'Italian Job' quip when I had to report to the Big Boss's
Boss - it didn't help much!
I would love to do a proper TNT demolition job.
What does my wife think about my involvement with the
railway:
Whilst not interested in the bridges and buildings, she would
love to drive Black Prince! She loves our railway
and the local scenery and joins me on the railway whenever she can,
providing I let her get on and enjoy it and not bore her with
techno-garble-speak.
In 10 years time I think the railway:
… will have progressed much further and faster than we have in
the last 10 years - but still at a pace that we can support.
I would love those wrong who say 'won't happen in my lifetime' to
trains running to Broadway, a mainline connection and some double
track!
No-one knows this about me, but:
Trainspotting has got me in bother quite a few times!
In BR I was disciplined for trainspotting a number of times (my
office at the time was by the side of Stratford Depot, East London
- and the Anglia main line). I got round it by being able to
prop the top-light window open above my head so that I didn't need
to get up and look out, just needed to see the reflection of the
trains in the window!
Worst was on a river bridge diving inspection job. Whilst
supervising the guys in the water, trying to get the number of a
Thumper unit coming along, I managed to fall off the bridge and
ended hanging on with one arm 60ft over the very muddy
embankment. In the end I swung myself back up before being
noticed. I didn't get the number of the thumper unit either
but in dislocated the same shoulder only a week later and let slip
the story when I had to phone in sick!