Adrian Shooter
Adrian Shooter was a director of the FR Society from 1971 to 1981.[1]
He was the owner of the former Darjeeling Himalaya Railway (DHR) Sharp Stewart 0-4-0ST No 19, and the two Boston Lodge built DHR replica carriages.
In 1971 he was elected the FRS's youngest director. He had first visited the FR in 1963 and joined the FRS and the London Area Group. He moved to Uttoxeter as a student apprentice in mechanical engineering. He cofounded the North Staffordshire Group of FRS in 1967 and he was secretary until 1971.
The following is based on a published bio on the Association of Train Operating Companies (ATOC) site, of which he was Chairman, and the Railway Safety and Standards Board (RSSB}, of which he was also a member.
He joined British Rail in 1970 as an Engineering Management Trainee.
In the course of his career, he had management responsibility for a wide range of railway activities, including operations, engineering and marketing. Throughout, he was at the forefront of improving productivity and delivering change, initially as Engineering Manager, then moving progressively into business management and, since 1993, as Managing Director of Chiltern Railways.
In 2002 Shooter became Chairman of Chiltern Railways and Managing Director of Laing Rail, a division of John Laing plc, the owners of The Chiltern Railway Company Limited.
Shooter was a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineers, the Institution of Mechanical Engineers and of the Chartered Institute of Transport.
He was also the Passenger Train operators' representative as a non-executive director of the RSSB, the railway industry's own safety management organisation.
He built and owned a private narrow gauge system known as The Beeches Light Railway, for which Boston Lodge carried out some contract work.
Shooter was created a C.B.E. in the 2010 New Year's Honours List. His citation read "Adrian Shooter, Chairman Chiltern Railway Company Ltd. For services to the Rail Industry".[2]
He was chairman of Vivarail, a heavy rail company which refurbished several old London Underground D Stock trains for use on National Rail with diesel or battery power. In 2021 he was quoted as cautioning about the practicalities of hydrogen propulsion for rail.[3]
By early 2022, he had been diagnosed with motor neurone disease but planned to continue driving his Darjeeling steam locomotive for long as possible. He died in December 2022.
See also[edit]
References[edit]
- ^ "Personal Portrait", Ffestiniog Railway Magazine, Issue 055, page(s): 032
- ^ Daily Telegraph, 31 December 2009
- ^ Railway Magazine, January 2021
External links[edit]
- Obituary, originally published in the Daily Telegraph.
- Obituary in International Railway Journal