Oral history interview with Leslie Smith, conducted and recorded by Frank Paterson at the interviewee's home in Edinburgh on 5 December 2019. Duration: 1 hr. 36 min. 10 sec. Career overview; freight marketing posts; Managing Director Trainload Freight (TLF); cost reductions; TFL profit subsidised Railfreight Distribution (RfD) losses; separation of freight; implementation processes; management buyouts (MBOs); Wisconsin Central bid; internal movement of engineering materials; English, Welsh & Scottish Railway (EWS); Ed Burkhardt (Chief Executive Officer); Ian Braybrook (Managing Director); reversed strategy; open access; Foster Yeoman; Charterail; National Power contract; private owner wagons; Section 8 grants; Merehead Quarry; Class 59; financial improvements; retirement

One of over 150 oral history recordings made as part of the Britain’s Railways All Change (BRAC) archive project. BRAC was set-up to cover gaps in documenting the railway privatisation process in the United Kingdom, between 1994 and 1997, when the government-owned British Rail was dismantled into over 100 privately-owned companies. The interviews capture the recollections of people involved in the planning and implementation of the privatisation process, the management of change and running the railway during privatisation.