Julian Burnell

Said the following about Roger Dickinson:

“Having joined BR in 1973, Roger is the Railwayman's Railwayman. Starting as an apprentice engineer in Signalling & Telecomms, he worked his way up to become the Regional S&T Engineer for West Coast by September 1995.

Following privatisation, Roger worked for Railtrack on the Great Eastern Resignalling scheme, and in 1997 he was appointed Project Director for the West Anglia Route Modernisation (WARM). This was a 5-party alliance and one of the first of its kind in Railtrack, He then worked in a Central Programme group up until 2004 when he was appointed the Director of Enhancements for Infrastructure Projects. Between then and his recent retirement he spent time as Regional Director for Scotland and The North-East, the South-East, and finished with a spell on the Great Western electrification.

There is scarcely a mile of track in Britain on which Roger has not had some direct influence, and his CV reads like a list of the significant upgrades undertaken in the past twenty years: Airdrie to Bathgate; Borders; West Anglia; the East London Line; the North London Line; Newport Station; Hitchin Flyover, and many more.

However, what cannot be seen from the CV is Roger's unfailing calm, good humour, modesty, leadership and commitment. Add to this his utterly encyclopaedic knowledge of the railway, and he represents one of the great talents of the industry of the recent years. His retirement, whilst richly-deserved, represents a great loss to those of us he leaves behind“