Pino De Rosa

Said the following about Nigel Stockdale:

“Nigel Stockdale joined British Rail in 1979 at the Nottingham Area Civil Engineer’s office. Straight out of college, Nigel immediately embraced the ethos of the industry, which was one of “hard work”. This remains even true today as he has worked at 100% throughout his railway career. Regarded as one of the best rail engineers within Bridgeway Consulting, he has also gained a reputation within the business and with clients as a railway fountain of knowledge. His railway experience and know-how has provided him with a great understanding of the UK rail infrastructure. This has come with time and hard work to realise his goal of becoming an all encompassing rail engineer with a particular enthusiasm for bridges.

As a railway engineer Nigel spent time in many areas of the industry and was probably the last Technical Officer at Nottingham to have worked in every section of the East Midlands, so he gained a thorough knowledge of Permanent Way renewals and maintenance as well as bridges and Buildings. He was also responsible for many major projects, including numerous bridge reconstructions and the civil engineering work for the Leicester Re-signalling project.

He completed his time with British Rail as Infrastructure Manager, East Midlands. This job required Nigel to show his qualities as a complete engineer and manager, because he was responsible for staff across Structures, Mechanical Plant and Signalling and Telecommunications disciplines.

In December 1980 he trained as a diver and joined the famous British Rail Underwater Inspection team, distinguishing himself on inspections of Portsmouth Harbour, Ryde Pier head, Holyhead harbour and many other structures.

In 1996, Nigel was persuaded to join Bridgeway Consulting and was one of the first members of the Company. For many years Nigel was responsible for the Bridgeway Underwater Inspection team and during this period he expanded the examination section until it was responsible for the underwater inspection of railway bridges in over half the country as well as many highway bridges and other structures. As an inspection diver, Nigel applies his engineering knowledge to ensure that inspections fully reflect the condition of the structure and the work to be carried out. Nigel continues to maintain his diver qualifications and occasionally still gets underwater.

Over the years he has held many posts and is now Engineering Projects Manger, a role in which he is (as usual) excelling in. He has been instrumental in expanding the range of work that Bridgeway Consulting now undertakes and his experience and qualifications as an Engineer mean that he can ensure that all the work we take on is within the capabilities of the company and that a competent team is always appointed to undertake the work.

Nigel still does more than his fair share around the Company and most Saturday nights he can be found as a Senior PICOP on complex possessions, a job that he carries out with all his usual experience and expertise.

I have no hesitation in supporting the proposal that Nigel be awarded with the “Lifetime Achievement Award”. He is exactly the sort of person that the railway has always relied upon to ensure that the trains keep running. He is selfless in his application to the work and incredibly knowledgeable and skilful.

Over the years, if ever an engineer has been needed on a wet Saturday night to undertake the most difficult of railway engineering tasks, then it is Nigel to whom they have turned. Bridgeway Consulting continue to turn to Nigel whenever there are challenging projects to be managed and difficult engineering problems to be resolved. We at Bridgeway Consulting are very proud to have had him as a colleague and too many a great friend as well for all most his whole railway career.“