CPA Bulletin

48 CPA Bulletin > November 2021 www.cpa.uk.net rail plant association RAIL PLANT ASSOCIATION: 1 Around the time I was writing the last article, Rail Infrastructure Magazine kindly sent me copies of some very early articles for research. They were all written by the chairperson of the time, Andy Webb. For those who didn’t see a copy of the RI Magazine earlier this year, Andy’s company, AP Webb Plant Hire Ltd, celebrated 50 years in business. That’s truly incredible. Anyway, back on point, the sharing of those old articles was well timed, because I can now continue with a little bit more RPA history. Early Rail Infrastructure Magazine articles There really is something captivating when reading history. Our little bit of storytelling today will summarise Andy Webb’s articles from issues 16 to 24. To put that in context, this magazine is issue 144 (November/December 2021), so we’re back-tracking to the late 90s for those of you who were trying to do the maths. What can I say, researching our RPA history has been an education. I may be the acting chair for the RPA Management Committee, but my fellow committee members are a font of railway knowledge to me, with vastly more railway experience. My background involved 16 years mining coal before joining the railways in 2003, (as it happens, David Simmons, our chairperson, was my first railway employer, and I’m sincerely grateful to him and his late brother Steve for putting me on this track). I had no idea that the RPA had its own industry recognised Supplier Audit Protocol. Article 16 was heavily defending that protocol because it was produced and undertaken by technical experts in plant, and Railtrack (aka Network Rail) were pressing the implementation of a new supplier audit protocol for all suppliers. Link-up. As it turned out, harmony was restored via a collaborative involvement of the RPA, M&EE Networking Group, and new Link-up team in the creation of an audit protocol. ALL ABOARD! Hello RPA article readers and welcome. In our last article we did something a little different. We published a Q&A session in the hope of sharing some history on us, the RPA and what we can do for our valued members. For me, your humble narrator, it was an enlightening article because I learnt many things about our little group, its connection to the Construction Plant-hire Association (CPA) and who its founder members and chairpersons were.