Brian Maddison was born in Peterborough and at the age of 17 joined British Railways (BR) as a trainee civil engineer. Later, he moved to London Kings Cross and then to Leicester where he met and married his wife.
In 1971, Brian was transferred to Nottingham and moved to Bingham where he still lives today. By the time BR was privatised in 1995, Brian had become a Chartered Civil Engineer based back in Peterborough and was responsible for all structures on the main line between London and Yorkshire.
Whilst with BR, he trained to be a diver so he could join their team in examining the underwater parts of the railway infrastructure.
Privatisation changed things and along with two colleagues, they set up our own company, Bridgeway Consulting to continue the work of good railway engineering.
Even now Brian is retired, the company is still based in Nottingham and continues to thrive.
The book covers his career in a mainly chronological order but there are chapters on his particular interests such as, steam breakdown cranes and diving as well as major bridge works and the building of one of the few new stations opened during the 1970’s.
It is not overly technical and includes anecdotes of things that went wrong as well as the successes. It is a reflection on the way of life of a railway engineer of the time and includes many photographs.
The book is available online from Amazon books and Waterstones. It is on sale in Bingham at the “Rose and May” café in the Old Post office yard, off Long Acre. All proceeds are being donated to the “Railway Children” charity.