Robin Nelson

Internationally acclaimed railwayman and consultant

Robin Nelson, Railwayman. Born: 20 March, 1938 in Falkirk. Died: 10 August, 2018 in Ayr, aged 80.

Alove of the railways was ingrained in Robin Nelson from boyhood: living by the tracks at Falkirk High which provided the transport for his journey to school, a growing fascination with trains was almost inevitable.

As a youngster he could often be found in the local signal box, shunting in the yard on a Saturday or ditching his train seat for a lift home from school on the engine’s footplate. Holidays were an opportunity for visits to Edinburgh’s Haymarket and Glasgow’s Cowlairs Locomotive Works where he learned to drive steam engines.

Unlike most schoolboy hobbies, his interest in the railways did not fade as he matured and after obtaining degrees in both mechanical and electrical engineering, he joined BR as a professional railwayman, going on to earn acclaim internationally as a senior executive in Railtrack and president of the Institution of Railway Signal Engineers.

His was an enduring passion that infused almost every aspect of his life – from family foreign holidays to voluntary work on heritage railway carriages used by the Royal Family and movie stars Nicole Kidman and Colin Firth during filming of The Railway Man.

Robert Cullen Nelson, known as Robin, was born in Falkirk, where he was dux of Falkirk Primary School. He began his rail commute when he went on to George Watson’s College in Edinburgh. From there he became a student at Glasgow University, gaining his two BSC degrees, before starting his career as a graduate trainee in 1960.

Subsequently appointed district signal inspector at Dumfries, he set up home in a railway house there with his new wife Jessie and, after a further move to Linlithgow, their family expanded with the births of sons Robin and Richard. As his career progressed Nelson became resident engineer on the Glasgow Suburban Electrification team and when, in the late 1960s, major modernisation of the West Coast Mail Line (WCML) began, he was promoted to project officer at Glasgow Central Station.

His next step up was to divisional signalling and telecommunication (S&T) engineer and a new phase in his career. In 1975 he became divisional S&T engineer at Leeds, one of the largest divisions of the Eastern Region, and settled in the Yorkshire village of Poppleton. But six years later he was back in Scotland, as deputy chief S&T engineer for the Scottish Region.

Now living in Troon, when his boss left to go south, he was promoted again and his role as the region’s chief S&T engineer involved overseeing the introduction of various major resignalling schemes, including those at Aberdeen, Dundee and Inverness, and converting ageing regional telephone exchanges to digital. He and his Scottish team also had a part to play in the introduction of a new radio system of railway signalling which was pioneered on the Dingwall to Kyle of Lochalsh route and later extended across the North and West lines.

Between 1989 and 1992 a new signalling centre at Yoker, controlling the Glasgow North suburban lines, became Scotland’s first Integrated Electronic Control Centre and his last major project.

Throughout his career he had been passionate about training and in 1986 replaced a cramped facility at Edinburgh’s Castle Terrace with a training school at Slateford. Six years later he was seconded to the Engineering Council in York to promote the concept of continuing professional development for engineers and technicians.

Following privatisation of BR in 1994 he was appointed Head of Train Control & Communications for the Railtrack Safety and Standards Directorate, where he remained until his retirement in 1996.

He had been a member of the Institution of Railway Signal Engineers (IRSE) since his student days in the 1960s and was elected a Fellow in 1982, the same year as he became a foundingmemberandthefirst chairman of its Scottish section. He later served as IRSE president, leading a convention to Florence in the 1990s and becoming something of a conventions addict.

With such a vast knowledge of the railways, he utilised his expertise as a consultant for several years after leaving Railtrack, was a senior invigilator for IRSE exams and fostered the research and preservation of railway and signalling records. As a result there is now a comprehensive collection in the archives of the Scottish Railway Preservation Society at Bo’ness where he also restored and maintained carriages, including those used by HM The Queen and for The Railway Man film featuring the story of Japanese POW and Death Railway survivor Scotsman Eric Lomax. He was also involved in a project at York’s National Railway Museum to preserve video and audio records of mechanical signalbox operations.

Away from work the popular, sharp-witted railwayman with boundless energy, was a member of Troon Sailing Club, and a keen golfer and hillwalker who also enjoyed art classes and membership of his local church.

Married to Jessie for more than 50 years, he was a devoted parent and grandparent whose sons recall many childhood holidays abroad, always by train – departures for which their father never liked to turn upearly.bundlinghisfamilyin with only minutes to spare, he would often alight after boarding to inspect the engine, the train pulling out without him reappearing. He would eventually materialise, usually from the opposite direction, before happily equipping himself with BR notebook in one hand, camera in the other, to note the condition of trackside signalling systems.

“I never met anyone who enjoyed train travel so much as him,” said his son Robin.

He is survived by his wife Jessie, sons Robin, a consultant microbiologist, and Richard, a bioengineer, and grandchildren Alexandra, Angus, Robbie and Finlay.

ALISON SHAW The Scotsman welcomes obituaries and appreciations from contributors as well as suggestions of possible obituary subjects.

Please contact: Gazette Editor

The Scotsman, Level 7, Orchard Brae House, 30 Queensferry Road, Edinburgh EH4 2HS;

gazette@scotsman.com

“Unlike most schoolboy hobbies, his interest in the railways did not fade as he matured”

nn