4.21 /// From Station to Signal Boxes: My Journey in the Rail Industry...

What do you do when faced with the emotional turmoil of a loved one's health crisis while balancing a demanding career? This week's episode of Infinite Prattle takes you on a heartfelt journey as I record from the Stena line ferry amidst a week of intense personal and professional events. I open up about the harrowing experience of my mother's recent heart attack and supporting her in Ireland, all while grappling with work. Through this raw and unpolished recording, you'll hear about the unexpected pockets of joy found in days out in Belfast and live band music in Carrickfergus, providing a much-needed respite from the stress.

The main topic of this episode however, is a reflective and celebratory tone, as I recount a remarkable 20-year career with Network Rail and nearly 23 years in the railway industry. From the early days of working on Crewe Station, to transfer to a signal box and then navigating the complexities of a Mobile Operations Manager role, eventually becoming a Project Operations Interface Specialist, the journey has been nothing short of transformative. 
Personal anecdotes highlight the impact of this career on my life, including recent rekindling my musical passion and aspirations of starting a business and penning a book. This episode is a testament to the unpredictable, yet rewarding nature of a long-term career in the railway industry, filled with stories of resilience, growth, and future dreams.

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Chapters

• 0:00 Personal Reflections on Railway Career
• 14:56 20 Years on the Railway

Transcript

Stephen: 0:00

Hello, welcome to Infinite Prattle. This week is about an event that happened to me this week. That wasn't very well scripted Because I don't script. It's your first time here, you'll learn that very quickly. Anyway, join me to learn about what that's all about. You're listening to Infinite Prattle With your host, stephen. Thanks for joining me for unscripted, unedited everything. Hello, thank you very much for joining me today. Hope you're well.

Stephen: 0:42

I'm recording this today, so it sounds a little bit different, because I'm recording on my handheld dictaphone, to which I forgot half the accessories, so I'm having to hold it. I mean, got the stand with me or anything. I've had to makeshift, make a pop filter. Yeah, so I'm doing well. And this background noise because I'm actually recording this from the Stenner ferry from Belfast to Liverpool First time recording something on location like this. So it's kind of cool, like in a public space, that is. I've done it from hotel rooms, but normally with a more functional set up, not handheld, and kind of botched it today. So I apologise if the audio is a bit crap, but if you're the first time joining us, then welcome. If it's not your first time, then you kind of don't expect anything different from me by this point probably, but anyway I'll get on to the main thing that the podcast is about today.

Stephen: 1:39

But I've been a bit in sixes and sevens this week, so hence the reason I've forgotten some of the stuff and the reason that I was in Ireland. So last week my mum had a heart attack, so I came over to Ireland with my brother to make sure she was alright, visit her in hospital and luckily tests all came out good as good as they can be, I suppose, when you've had a heart attack and she's back at home now. My brother's staying there for another week, but unfortunately I've got to get back for work and it's been quite tiring this week. You know the stress of that and the worry, and I've obviously had to still do my day job as well. So a little bit of juggling. This week I plan to bring my stuff for podcasting and record it at some point at my mum's house and that didn't happen.

Stephen: 2:36

I chose yesterday to do something more fun Not that podcasting isn't fun, but I mean, like you know, other than sitting in front of a computer, which I've been doing most of the week and I decided to go to Belfast yesterday have a mooch round, and then we saw some of the bands playing in Carrickfergus. They do a reenactment of King Billy arriving at shore, which I still missed because I didn't get back from Belfast quick enough and it started earlier than usual. They're normally always delayed and I still missed that part. But I saw some of the bands and it was a nice experience. It was a lovely, glorious sunny day and then we had a curry and after I'd done all that I thought you know, I'll record on the ferry. It might be quite fun to record in a public space, yeah, but I'll take a picture and share my current microphone setup. I hope it's coming across okay. It sounds okay-ish, but I don't know. But I'm talking a little bit softer, obviously, because I'm in a public space, so I just want to make sure I'm not going to disturb other people with my infinite prattle, I suppose.

Stephen: 3:51

Anyway, the other thing that's happened this week, which is big news, but not as big as my mum having a heart attack, although that has turned out so far okay. It's not nice leaving her, though I wish I had stayed for another week, but I'm going back for my wife in just under four weeks, so that'll be cool. Anyway, the big thing that happened this week is. You may have seen the post on the Instagram. If you haven't, then go and look at Infinite Prattle is what I am on all socials bit of a plug there and I try and post stuff about relevant to the podcast, if I can. I sometimes forget. So if I do, give me a nudge, because sometimes I'll say I'll post a picture of that and I forget, so give me a nudge if I do forget ever because I am a bit of shit. Anyway, yeah, so this week I celebrated on Friday it'll be 20 years.

Stephen: 4:52

Well, officially 20 years working for Network Rail, which is the company I currently work for, and nearly 23 years in total working on the railway. Nearly 23 years in total working on the railway. So a bit of a milestone in the network rail career, coming towards a milestone in just my railway career in total really. So yeah, I just wanted to share kind of how I got into the rail industry and some of the jobs I've had and just general stuff really and just kind of let you know a bit more about what I do as a day job. You kind of know I do this as a sideline and I've got a bit of an audio business that I started a few months ago. So this is what I do as a day job.

Stephen: 5:35

I work for Network Rail and I started on the 7th of June 2004, which for me still doesn't feel too long ago. It feels really really like a couple of years ago. Really I can't believe it's 20. And even when I reflect onto my whole like railway career in total, I still feel like it's not a massive, massive like time ago, because I started like the end of 2001, when I was still at college, as a part-time member of staff. You know just kind of what we call that zero-hour contracts in the UK, so you're not really contracted to any fixed hours, they just call you as and when. So I used to do that. I used to do it after college weekends and it paid really well.

Stephen: 6:32

My dad worked for Virgin Trains at the time and he basically said you know, there's this job coming up. I think I've read an excerpt from the book that I'm writing about how he basically told me about the job but said that I wasn't getting an easy ride etc. And he told the interviewers that I knew as well to really give me a bit of a hard time. They did kind of group interviews and then towards the end of the day, if you were successful, you got an individual interview. And by the time the end of the day came I was quite tired, tired and I was thinking I've got to hope I've not let my dad down and done everything I need to do. And when I got into the interview room the girls just laughed at me, the two managers, and they said we're really sorry, you know, you kind of got the job when you walked in today. As long as you went through the day in the process, you'd have got the job anyway. And I was kind of like happy about that, the fact that they it wasn't based on my dad, neither they, they they kind of well, I suppose they did. They based it on what my dad's character was like and, knowing probably what he'd installed in me and probably knew that I'd be scared of my dad, er, if I didn't do a good job, erm. But yeah, they kind of like beasted me all day for naught really. But I was proud of myself because I literally put in maximum effort, as Deadpool would say, all day, and I still feel that they would have given me the job even if I'd have been unconnected to any part of the railway and I did that job for a while to any part of the railway and I did that job for a while.

Stephen: 8:08

I ended up joining Virgin full-time when I left college because again in another podcast I spoke about my want to join the Army and the fact that I wasn't able to Go back and have a look at that episode. If I remember, I'll tag it in the description. I probably won't know, but I think it's season 2, it might be one of the extra speak because new listeners you may notice this is called Infinite Prattle but it used to be called Stephen Speak. So yeah, I know I rebranded in series 4, probably a really bad mistake. But there you go, yeah.

Stephen: 8:46

So I was kind of in a bit of limbo with work because I kind of fell into the job at Virgin, because I was already working there and I had a job come up and it was kind of mine if I wanted it. I was obviously gutted about not going in the army but literally had no clue what else I was going to do with my life. So I joined full-time in the summer probably it was the June, probably 2002, and I worked there for another two years. It was probably a bit later than that. Actually, it was probably September 2002 when I joined full-time I can't remember, it was something like that and I worked there until June 2004, in which time I had switched to Network Rail and the kind of reason was that I was very proactive when I was at Virgin, trying to learn everything. I could work different stations.

Stephen: 9:40

I worked Manchester Piccadilly in the first-class lounge when that got moved, when they redid all the roof and worked the Commonwealth Games, helping the athletes on and off trains and getting them to buses and ferrying them to the stadium, which was amazing met loads of really lovely, really lovely people and, um, yeah, I decided to come back to Crewe and work full-time. Actually, they offered me a job in Manchester, but I didn't. I didn't want to travel I more than anything and then I just wasn't getting the promotion. I was struggling to get promotion. I felt like I was being bypassed. I felt almost I'd made myself too useful in the role I was in and they didn't want to have to replace me. And that sounds big-headed of me, but anyone that listens to this podcast knows that I might seem confident, but when it comes to stuff like that, I'm not. I just try my best. So, yeah, I was getting a bit disillusioned.

Stephen: 10:37

And then I applied to be a train driver after a couple of interviews where, oh, you were really, really good. However, and then there was one interview I went for where they just replaced they'd done like a, like a reorg, but they just employed everyone that was still doing that job. They just changed the job name. So I was a bit disappointed, but they said that if there was another job I would have definitely got it. They were very impressed. So I took that away and thought brilliant, but it's still not the same as getting the job, and who knows what would have happened if I got that management role. Like I could have been maybe a high flyer in the train operating company world, and that's not how the cards fell.

Stephen: 11:15

And after applying for a driver's job at 20 and then getting through some of the process, I was then told I was too young and they didn't really check my age, which is very silly, but apparently you have to be 21 at the start of the process to drive a train and even though I was going to be 21, like 6 months later or 5 months later, they couldn't accept my application. So that really pissed me off, if I'm honest with you, and I was super disillusioned after that, and even though I really liked my job don't get me wrong, I liked my job, but I felt like I wanted a bit more. And part of my role was announcing the trains, and they did that from the signal boxing crew and I got to know a lot of the signalers and what they did. And one of the managers came in and he basically said why don't you become a signaler? And it's something I never considered. I don't know whether it was because I thought I was too young or inexperienced or not clever enough, I'm not sure. I don't know whether it would come down to intelligence, I'm not sure. But yeah, he basically said well, there's a job coming up, I'll bring you an application for him. And he said fill it in or don't kind of thing. But I think you'd make a good signaler. So I did. He is now the root director of NeuroGrail and I am now a project operations interface specialist for NeuroGrail. So in 20 years I've probably had oh, how many roles have I had? Probably about six or seven, which isn't too many changes. Some people change their job every year or every two years. But a lot of them were in a similar sort of role. So I ended up going to signalling school, which anyone that ever applies for NoteGrel. You have to go to signalling school to train, learn all the rules of signalling trains. Then you get put in a signal box and then you learn that signal box and then, once you've all passed out and you've completed all your rules tests, that's it, you're a fully fledged signaller. And I think a lot of people maybe think that signalling is quite modern nowadays. But my very first signal box was still using what's called the absolute block method of signaling, which is using block bell code signaling to signal trains and wooden block instruments, which is a Victorian mode of signaling, and yeah, it was quite an eye opener.

Stephen: 13:46

Moving to Nett, no Grill, having that much responsibility, because that's the sort of job that when everything's going fine, you know you're on a quite good wage and you're your own boss people leave you alone. My first signal box I worked alone, I had a nice little quiet line and yeah, you think to yourself well, this is a bit of a cushy number, you know, got to do shifts, but you know it's not too bad. But then you kind of get used to that kind of pattern. You do get kind of a bit weird about signal boxes. But you earn your money when things go wrong because you are the person that everyone goes to, you're the protector of the line you know, you're the person that has to decide when to or not to run a train. So it's quite a lot of responsibility. It does make you a bit peculiar. You do get because you spend so much time there. It's kind of like a home from home. So if someone moves something or does something differently to you, you do feel a bit angry about it. Let's say you do kind of feel that why have they moved that bin? Why have they put the paperwork over there? And I never thought it would be like that.

Stephen: 14:56

But it only took a couple of months of working on my own to start bitching in my head about people not putting things back. And when I'd come in the signal box I'd move things around to how I wanted it. Quite funny. I suppose it's the signal box, I'd move things around to how I wanted it. Quite fun. I suppose it's the same with people working in offices how you arrange your desk etc. It's probably a similar thing.

Stephen: 15:18

But yeah, I worked there for a couple of years, then got a promotion to a that was a grade 2 signal box at the time and they were all graded and I moved on to a grade 4, which was at South Goods, which is on the crew independent lines. A lot of people don't realise there's a separate train track that runs adjacent to crew station. And then I got an upgrade to the next signal box along, which was a grade 6, and that was sorting sidings north, my favourite signal box, one of the most risky signal boxes because they do a lot of shunting there so it's quite easy to derail a train etc. But yeah, it was such a good experience for me. And then within a few years really four years, maybe three and a half years I ended up getting a job in Crew Power Box, which is the big one that controls all of all the crew station, and I was there for about four and a half years. And then I became a mobile operations manager, which are the people that go on the track and attend incidents, point failures etc and, unfortunately, fatalities. So I've seen some quite horrendous things.

Stephen: 16:33

And then I decided to become the signal box manager and I did that in two different locations until I got the opportunity to come across to the job I do now as a secondment, just a tried-out kind of thing, cover the role for a bit I kind of try before you buy for six months and I did that and then I moved full time to the position, which was over two years ago now and I can't believe. Well, it was about 18 months when I went full time and that has flown and I've learned so much more. I think, coming into the role with like 18 years experience, or close to 17 and a half years or so, of Network Rail, you think you know quite a lot and I quickly realised that I still only knew the tip of the iceberg to so many different things. So the job I do now, which has got a bit of a pretentious name, but it does reflect what I do quite well, so project operations, interface specialists, so all the jobs I've had have been within operations, which is basically like frontline stuff, you know, keeping the trains going. Stignalers obviously do that. They pull off the signals and set the routes. Moms do that because they, you know, help repair the railway when things have gone wrong, and then managers of the signallers help the signallers keep their competencies. So quite a vital role.

Stephen: 18:01

And then this role I'm doing now is basically from the other side of the fence, where I work now in projects as an expert in operations, in interfacing with other people. So when the engineers and the project managers and whoever need information or they're looking at something within the railway and asking whether will this work or how can we do this or how can we improve it or stuff like that, it's kind of my role to be kind of like that Kind of go-to person as kind of a touch point to say, right, we want to move this signal, what does it mean for trains, what does it mean for signalers? Or we want to change this interface for the signalers, what does that mean? And I have to kind of explain what that would mean really. And then we'd also speak to the route and speak to the people that are doing it to make sure that I've got it right and what they kind of would want. So I kind of work in like a a floaty kind of role between all different interfaces on the railway and and and yeah, and a specialist, obviously a specialist in ops and the interfacing, so yeah, so that's that's what I do now, and I didn't think I would stay on the railway for 20 years.

Stephen: 19:25

I really thought it was going to be a stop gap until I decided what else I was going to do. I always thought I'd be a musician and maybe I could have been. But when you get a full time job and it kind of all came together at the same time I got the job on no Crail my parents divorced the same month and forced me out to get my own house. Now, if I'd been living alone still or living at home, should I say, and not alone maybe I would have kept up more of my musical stuff, because I did.

Stephen: 20:01

When I moved out, the first couple of years of living alone, I was still having to music, busking a lot and never been in a band, though, until now. But then when I got more and more probably you know responsible jobs, I kind of waned away from the dream of being a musician. But that's coming back again. Being in two bands and discovering the spark of music is coming back to me now. So, yeah, I'm hoping that that dream is not completely a dead duck. But who knows, who knows what comes around the corner. I'm going to start busking again and say I've got a couple of bands going on. So, yeah, who knows, who knows and who knows what the next 20 years will bring. You know, I've got my own business now.

Stephen: 20:56

Some people have approached me for work, so that's exciting, but I still love the railway. I learn something every day, genuinely do. There's always something that someone tells you stories and I say I'm writing a book about my experiences, good and bad. Yeah, thank you for listening. I hope that wasn't too rambly and I would recommend the Railways of Cray if anyone out there that is looking for a role. You know, like any industry has its ups and downs, but you know, in general it's a cracking industry and very diverse and there's probably a place for you somewhere. There's a guy in this lounge who's fell asleep and he's snoring really loudly for the past like five minutes and I'm hoping that's not come across in the recording, but it'll make it interesting for everyone. All right, I'm going to leave it there. Thank you very much for listening to Infinite Brattle. My name's been Stephen and I will speak to you soon. Thanks for listening to Infinite Brattle With your host, host Stephen. Follow me on social networks at Infinite Prattle and don't forget to subscribe. Thanks very much.