Why was this course needed?

Neil Denton:
“What this course is going to emphasise is the underlying issues of why points fail.

You might have a set of points that fail, and though the teams will go out and try to do something to improve their performance, the issue depends on whether it’s an installation problem, maintenance problem, a design issue or a combination of all three.

Because if it’s a design issue and you can’t overcome the inherent problem, then maintainers are just fighting every day against something that they’ve got no control over.”

Why is failure such a high-stakes issue?

Neil:
“When trains stop, this is when the pressure comes on all the engineers.

When trains start getting delayed, there is significant operational pressure to keep them running. The problem is a lot of the points issues we’ve got cost the railway industry millions and millions of pounds a day.

We’re looking at delay payments, where we have to pay compensation because the trains aren’t running. You can get a £2.5 million delay in one day just on one route.”

What kind of knowledge gap does this course address?

Neil:
“People don’t always take maintenance into consideration when they’re developing something – when they’re designing it.

Back in 2000, people thought they had developed maintenance-free S&C. In 2025, 25 years later, it turns out it’s not. Because when you’re making it ‘maintenance-free,’ that’s your plan A. But there is no plan B.

Your plan A failed after two years. Now we’re 25 years down the line and a lot is failing, and maintainers don’t understand why – because the underlying faults can be really difficult to understand. My work, and the focus of this course, is to get to the root cause of why these failures occur and how to stop them from happening again.”

What’s different about your approach?

Neil:

“What you’ve got to do is focus on the individual. I have to understand the people. My training skills have changed over the years. I don’t just stand up there and start talking on a presentation. I get to know the people. I explain to them – if you get it, be honest and tell me. If you don’t, let me know and we’ll do it again. You have to absorb the information, and you’ve got to get it in your head, and it needs to be clear for me to move on.

Paper competence means nothing if you can’t apply it in practice. This course is designed to bridge that gap – giving you the knowledge, context, and confidence to deliver that competency in the real world.” 

What sort of people is the course for?

Neil:
“This isn’t just an awareness course. We’re expecting people to have a certain level of railway engineering experience before they come.

But I’ve had people say to me before, ‘Oh, I’d love to come on your programme but I don’t know anything about S&C.’ And I said, well, you’re a perfect fit, I can put the right information in from the start. So, somebody having no knowledge is ok for me — because then I can input the right stuff.”

What do you hope this course will achieve?

Neil:
“It’s about bringing railway engineering together. We’ve got to look at S&C as a system, not just one discipline. We need to look at the underlying causes and what we can do to correct them.”

Any final words, Neil?

Neil:
“This course is unique. You won’t get this anywhere else.

I have 52 years of experience, which spans maintenance and manufacturing. What I’ve built into this course is that “lived” experience.”

We’d like to thank Neil for taking the time to speak with us and for his valuable contribution to the development of this course.

Further information on the Advanced Switch and Crossing Systems Engineering Course, including forthcoming dates and booking arrangements, is available here.