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Wow!  July has been a very busy month for Bycroft Consulting.  Here are some of the highlights

1.  We aquired another new van to add to the fleet

2.   Some of our recent works around the country.

1.  Up in the North of Scotland

2.  Down in London

3  The lads in London enjoying a well earned meal at the Ace Cafe

4.  Directors Chris Bycroft and Karen Foster have gained their CAA drone pilot licences to enable us to operate our 2 drones commercially.  Here is a recent photo taken with one of the drones.

5.  Director Karen Foster has recently undertaken the Mental Health First Aid course and is now a qualified Mental Health First Aider – Well done Karen

6  And finally, Bycroft Consulting are proud to announce that our Managing Director Chris Bycroft is now the professional Head of PWay for the North Yorkshire Moors Railway.  Congratulations Chris!!

I spoke to a lot of lovely people last week, who were very interested in the work we were doing.  None more so than my lovely little assistant Theo, who was fascinated by all the plant on site.  We gave him a hi vis vest and one day he brought his own yellow hard hat.  Thank you to Theo for making my week!  and to Theo’s dad for giving me permission to post Theo’s photograph.

A challenging week at Telford Steam Railway excavating 30m of track encased in tarmac, concrete and spoil from the engine shed across a public access crossing before installing new concrete sleepers with FB rail and a 27m Strail Crossing system.  The work required a week long road closure and thermic welding of track panels.  The project was completed ahead of schedule and to the satisfaction of the client.  Special mention to BCL director Karen Foster who spent the week preventing interested locals wandering around the worksite, and to our Newcastle team who worked tirelessly through to 9pm on Friday to complete the works.  Also Jonathon Quin at Quin Plant, the Haigh Rail weld team, Billy from L&M Surveys and of course Chris Whitehead and the Telford Steam Railway Volunteers without whose support we could not have completed the work.

At the start

Team Bycroft spot re-sleepering in North Derbyshire. A special mention to Alex who has recently joined the team

The team hard at work in North Derbyshire

Another shot of the team hard at work in North Derbyshire

And for those train fanatics amongst us, we were privileged to witness the wonderfully restored D213 and 45118 crossing our worksite prior to online testing.  We were also lucky to have tank engine “Harry” who visited the worksite and helped us clear up on the last day.

Welcome to the latest members of team BCL, and well done to all the team on the recent works completed in the North East.

New staff are extreme left – Jordan Shaheen, (blue hats left to right) Adam Dunn, Alex Wood and Connor Armstrong.  Joining Jack Douglas and Steve Earl

Congratulations to director Karen Foster on passing her IOSH Managing Safely course

We are pleased to announce that Bycroft Consulting Ltd has now passed its RISQS (Rail Industry Supplier Qualification Scheme) making us verified industry suppliers.  The first step in moving towards becoming an audited company.  We look forward to posting our audit qualification very soon.

Scotland – Renewal of sleepers and fixings on a redundant road in preparation for reinstatement to operational use.  60 sleepers renewed over 3 days in very difficult access conditions.

Well done to the team in Scotland

North East Works – S&C servicing in the North East which entailed returning 3 switches back to operational use and the renewal of a 2 way manual lever box and con rod.

Special mention to our Newcastle team who completed the works over 2 days

At Bycroft Consulting Ltd we constantly strive to keep our teams as safe as possible whilst travelling to and from site and during work on site. With this in mind we have become full members of CIRAS the confidential safety hotline. This follows our core principles of opening the company to external audit to ensure as Bycroft Consulting Ltd expands it does so in a way that ensures that the welfare of its employees is of paramount importance

The start of 2024 for Bycroft Consulting Ltd has begun with a very busy period of management inspections.

This week’s inspection took us to the north of Scotland where we were confronted with conditions akin to the arctic with deep snow and temperatures plummeting to -11.  The work was completed on time and to the satisfaction and astonishment of the client, and this was mainly due to BCL management and their heat holder socks, gloves and hats

Greaser inspection

Greaser wearing its top hat!

It looks so beautiful, but was so cold