Railway signalling from the perspective of a Reading Signal Engineer

In the year that has been selected to mark 200 years of railways, I think it is appropriate  to take a bit of a retrospective view.  It is true railway signalling evolved by accident and I intend to mention some of the more significant accidents that provoked change. I have always been interested in history and am the author of "A Chronology of Railway Signalling 1825-2018" that documents the evolution.

Given that the talk is for the IET, l'll be concentrating more on the electrical than the mechanical engineering elements of the profession.

Because of the location of the talk, I will look particularly at some implementations within a geographical area centred upon Reading.

I started my career in Reading in 1981 and will perhaps complete my 44th year before retiring.  Have generally worked between London and Bristol, but as a former tester have undertaken site work in most areas of England and parts of Wales and Scotland and Ireland, but rarely further afield.  However as an Honorary Fellow of the IRSE, I do know a fair sprinkling of signal engineers spread over much of the world.  I consider myself a "bit of a Jack of all trades"; most comfortable with the technologies used from the 1970s to around 2020, just about still managing to keep up with more recent developments and can generally "get by" for the minor alterations that we need to do nowadays involving technology dating back to the 1870s.

Speaker

Peter Woodbridge

This event is taking place in the Van Emden Theatre