Haydn Abbott interviewed by David Maidment

Oral history interview with Haydn Abbott, conducted and recorded by David Maidment at Porterbrook headquarters, Tavistock Square, London on 14 November 2018. Duration: 46 min. 27 sec. Engineering career; headhunted as Managing Director Angel Trains 1999; Royal Bank of Scotland; staff recruitment; culture change; competition and technical co-operation with other rolling stock companies (ROSCOs); relationship with train operating companies (TOCs); technical engineering aspects of ROSCOs; design and development of Virgin Class 390 Pendolinos; changing relationship with manufacturers; setting up Angel Trains; reflections on Angel Trains; Class 43 High Speed Trains (HSTs) upgrades; rail industry problems; Railway Children; politicians; Gwyneth Dunwoody (Member of Parliament); future of rail industry; implementation of European Train Control system (ECTS); Global System for Mobile Communications – Railway (GSM-R)

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.