The Bill Jackson Award 2012

This year's Bill Jackson Award for 'Professional Excellence' has been awarded to

Richard Mayo of Mayo's Car & Commercial.

The recovery required Richard and his team to return a derailed train to its tracks,

winch it back past the points to enable another shunter to come back down the track

and connect to it. The train then had to be pulled past the points and into a

workshop.

Making the recovery more difficult, and hazardous, the track was privately owned

and when Richard carried out his initial site visit the owner informed him that the rails

to the side of the casualty couldn't be touched as they were owned by British Rail.

Safety as always was the priority so bearing in mind the close proximity of the British

Rail tracks the recovery could only be carried out on a Saturday after 9am when the

adjoining line would not be in use.

On presenting the award IVR president Nick Ovenden said;

'This year's finalists had their recoveries presented to the attendees of the IVR AGM

to be voted on for the first time in the history of the Bill Jackson Award. It is always a

great honour to win the award but to be voted for by your peers is especially

humbling. I am very pleased that Rich has won this during his first year of running

his own recovery company. Very well done!'

A more in-depth description of the recovery, with additional photographs, will appear

in the next issue of the IVR member's Newsletter.