RSSB’s Charlotte Sweet urges those who are new to the industry to shadow an experienced person out on the railway. She did, and it benefited her enormously.
The railway is full of people who know so much about how everything works – and in particular how everything works together. That’s why the focus of the Leading Health and Safety on Britain’s Railway (LHSBR) strategy is about collaborating, so that we can bolster our efforts to keep safe.
A great thing about being new to the industry is meeting all these people, all of whom are happy to pass on their knowledge. One of them is Megan Noblett, Network Rail’s Level Crossing Manager (LCM) for the North West & Central Route. She spent a day with me as I visited different types of level crossing across her patch.
Megan gave me an overview of her role as an LCM and the responsibilities that go with it. There are around 6,000 level crossings on the network and there’s a legal duty to assess, manage and control the risk for each one.
Megan told me specifically about the risks from trespass at level crossings – something we see all-too-often in the daily logs and SMIS reports. I gained real insight into the importance of clear and legible signage at crossings, and of course the importance of them being adhered to.
Megan and I also went to Parbold signal box, where the signaller told me about how crossing
safety is maintained at a manual box. Under close supervision, I was also able to use the equipment to send and receive the relevant bell codes, pulling the appropriate levers once a train had been accepted into my section.
It was great to get that hands-on experience of the industry. Driving a desk, as the saying goes, doesn’t really impress upon you enough the enormity and importance of what we all do to keep crossings and crossing users safe. But that goes for all areas of the railway– from driving to dispatch, signalling to shunting and so on.
If you are new to our industry, I urge you to see if you can shadow an experienced person out on the railway. It really will help you to see how and why what you do is so important.
RSSB members can learn more about level crossings in our Level Crossing Digest.