Oral history interview with Mike Crabtree, conducted and recorded by David Maidment at the interviewee's home in Crewe on 29 May 2018. Duration: 2 hr. 17 min. 24 sec. Personal career; early career; Acting Superintendent Doncaster Works 1979; building Class 56s; Superintendent of Wagon Works 1980-1984; Works re-organisation; British Rail Engineering Ltd (BREL); British Rail Maintenance Ltd (BRML); BREL privatisation; sectorisation; new contract systems; staff benefits concerns; BREL management buyout (MBO) preparation and involvement; Production Manager British Railways Board (BRB); Level 5 Maintenance Depots preparation for privatisation; financial arrangements; General Manager of Departmental Traffic; preparation for privatisation; MBO; three freight companies set-up; personal situation 1994; Fleet Manager for Trainload Freight South East: MBO; Mainline Freight MBO; split of locomotive and wagon repairs management; National Power; wagon policy; MBO progress; management style; Wisconsin Central; Ed Burkhardt; English, Welsh & Scottish Railway (EWS); Her Majesty's Railway Inspectorate (HMRI); new organisation; Scottish depots; scope for action under privatisation; staff reductions

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.