Railwayman - Engineer - Diver: Memories of a Lifelong Railway Engineer

It is Sunday morning; Brian is standing on the railway line looking over a canal where once there was a bridge. Alongside him is a huge steam crane that snorts fire and smoke and shakes the ground as it picks up the first new beam. He has been planning this job for weeks - it is his responsibility - if he fails there will be thousands of commuters who will not get to work. The adrenaline is flowing. It is a Saturday night in the middle of winter in the Yorkshire fells. Brian is standing on the top of a motorised inspection platform that will carry him along the railway to examine a series of tunnels. The temperature is -7 degrees, the sky is clear, somewhere a fox screams. They set off into the night. It is 6 o'clock in the morning and Brian is standing on the deck of a tugboat on the River Thames under Blackfriars Bridge. In 30 minutes, the tidal flow will start to ease and he will enter the water and set off to examine the piers down to the riverbed where it is dark and cold. He has just 25 minutes of dive time before the tide turns and the flow becomes strong again. It is 3 years since Brian, Andy and Pino set up their company. Brian has just been told that they have won a contract to manage major improvement works to Leeds Station area. It will be their biggest ever job but they will need to recruit and train many new staff. Success will guarantee the future of the company, failure could blight it for years. The adrenaline is flowing.