James Collinson

Said the following about David Fuller:

“Right from the beginning of his railway career, David has been passionate about safety, starting with the voluntary work he did as a student, then working on the LUL Permanent Way section, followed by being one of HM Inspectors of Railways in the HM Railway Inspectorate and finally returning to his track background on the West Coast Route Modernisation before becoming an independent conformance assessment engineer.

David exudes passion for the railway and for safety; his career is more like a love affair which he will happily regale to anyone interested, especially the many strange and humorous stories which David has been a part of.

Away from work, David is happily married with a full grown family and he is the proud owner of a new (2015) special edition Landrover L90, complete with traditional livery of Keswick Green bodywork complimented by white roof and wheels, which he uses to travel to his caravan in Cornwall as often as he can.

David’s lifetime achievement has been to improve the safety of the railway wherever he can, using his technical expertise (which grew from his student days as a Civil Engineer at UWIST – University of Wales Institute of Science and Technology) and purposeful (but user-friendly) approach and by taking on roles that helped him to make a difference, including;

• 2 years voluntary work at Ffestiniog narrow gauge railway

• 10 Years of working on the London Underground

o Leading a small engineering team responsible for maintaining the correct ‘Load and Structure Gauges’ throughout the underground system, ensuring that all vehicles, including maintenance vehicles, could safely negotiate the tunnels.

o Area Resident Engineer, working regular nights and covering 50% of the then total LUL infrastructure. He was also the ‘On Call Emergency Engineer’ during this time, which is where many of his strange stories originate!

o Project Support Engineer, on major schemes such as Jubilee Line, Angel Station Modernisation and early Crossrail and Thameslink schemes.

• A career change plan in 1992 meant David was able to make a serious impact on railway safety when he was successful in being appointed as one of HM Inspectors of Railways in the HM Railway Inspectorate (HMRI).

o For 11 years, David carried out routine Health & Safety Inspections; New Works and Level Crossing Inspections. The more challenging tasks of accident investigation and enforcement action were also part of his life, which he took very seriously. David’s view is that every accident or close call is something to learn from and improve upon.

o Having earned a deep professional respect from those in the industry, he also appeared in legal proceedings as an Expert Witness for both colleagues within the HMRI along with other divisions within the HSE.

o By the end of his time with the HMRI David’s ‘patch’ had become vast, covering locations around the UK, from East Anglia to the northern extremities of the LNE and North West zones.

• In 2003 David returned to his track engineering background, working as the Senior Track Engineer on West Coast Route Modernisation for the northern section from Crewe to the Scottish Borders. When this large project was completed, David moved to become the Senior Project Engineer (Track), working on a national strategic freight portfolio of projects which predominantly delivered a number major gauge enhancement projects.

• With 30 years of wide ranging railway technical knowledge and experience under his belt, David took on his final role in his railway ‘love affair’ when he was accredited as a CIP (Competent Independent Person) for Network Rail in 2010. He extended this accreditation to become a Certifier in the Network Certification Body (NCB) when it was formed in 2012, certifying major track construction projects as the Notified Body certifier for conformance to the Infrastructure Technical Specification for Interoperability (European legislation) – a position that only a few individuals in the UK can achieve – and representing the pinnacle of David’s lifetime achievements.

o David is the lead certifier for an impressive portfolio of projects, but the one he is most proud of is the Borders Railway which is a brand new £350 million, 30 mile railway from Edinburgh to Tweedbank due to open in September 2015.

The best and most recent example that demonstrates David’s passion for safety and the culmination of his lifetime’s worth of experience and technical knowledge was when he prevented a serious accident during a crane lifting operation on a railway construction site. David was attending a meeting as part of his certification activities and noticed a crane lift operation being carried out that, to David, looked unsafe. This activity was unrelated to David’s meeting but because of his technical knowledge and passion for safety, David did not just walk on by, he approached the team and challenged the safe operation of the lift – bringing it to a stop. David had no ‘authority’, but every right to initiate this WorkSafe procedure and following a quick site investigation, it was agreed that David had been right to intervene and the lift was stopped, with a fuller investigation being carried out, where David later contributed to this as a witness.

David retired in July this year, but can’t seem to stay away from the railway…….“

Matt Bower

Said the following about David Fuller:

“David is a fantastic role model, with all of his years experience he is always able to identify the issues that no one thinks of. He has seen it all and done it all with an enviable passion. This is why he should win the award for lifetime achievement!“