Rhys Vaughan Williams CEng FIMechE FIET, Crossrail’s Head of Mechanical, Electrical and Public Health (MEP) Engineering, works at the heart of Europe’s largest construction project.
Rhys oversees the work of 30 engineers, in addition to 15 Associate members of the Institution on Crossrail’s Monitored Professional Development Scheme (MPDS).
Currently in its fit-out phase, these engineers oversee the development, procurement and delivery of Crossrail’s ventilation, fire, lift and escalator, plant and equipment.
The project will transform rail transport in London and the South East and is projected to add an estimated £42bn to the UK economy. The route will run over 100km and link 40 stations.
Currently there are more than 10,000 people working across over 40 Crossrail construction sites, with the first services due to start running through Central London in late 2018.
To get a better insight into one of Crossrail’s most senior leaders, the Institution News team interviewed Rhys, probing him on his motivations to become an engineer and then a Fellow, and to find out what brought him to Crossrail. Read his responses below.
Why did you become an engineer?
“My father was an engineer. He worked on and repaired antique clocks and watches. But when I went to school, school was very different. I struggled with subjects such as English, but I excelled at the Sciences and Mathematics.
“My focus and love was Physics and seeing how things operated like electricity. For example, I was fascinated by some of the equipment my father had. This included Volt sticks and light bulbs that were used for early demonstrations of electrons in different metals in early Victorian theatre.
“A Victorian actor would have the Volt sticks on a part of their body. Then they would charge themselves up, and then at a set time they would fire a bolt of electricity between them and the audience member. Unfortunately, they didn’t have health and safety in those days, so if an audience member was carted away on a stretcher then so be it.”
“Also I went through school during a difficult economic climate. Leaving school in 1980, it felt like half the country was on strike that summer. So I found finding a job extremely difficult. My mother suggested I should join the army, because I liked engineering and liked being out in the Snowdonia Mountains. Consequently I joined the Royal Engineers as an apprentice electrician, after working there for six years I then started to work as an electrician in local industry.
“Then one day while working as an electrician at Shotton steelworks in Deeside, I was walking back to the welfare cabin and was surprised to see a much older gentleman waist deep in cold oily water.
“I asked him what he was doing, and he said to me: ‘I’m changing the brushes on this motor. What do you think I’m doing?’ ‘No that’s not what I’m asking,’ I said. We spoke for a while and it transpired that he was 70. After asking why he wasn’t retired yet, he said he couldn’t afford to retire.
“That conversation changed my life. It put me on the path I’m on at the moment. I decided that when I was 70 I didn’t want to be up to my waist in oily water. I would sooner be a consultant working for a major engineering firm, or overseeing designs, or construction works on major projects.
“So I spoke to my wife that evening and the following day I phoned up the local college and enrolled on an HND. The course tutor told me they were a quarter of the way through the season, but said I was more than welcome to sit in the back of the class and listen, and if I thought I could do it, he’d enrol me.
“So I sat in the back of the class and two weeks later enrolled onto the course, working evenings and weekends to support the family and pay the mortgage.”
What brought you to Crossrail?
“After finishing my HND I was invited to go on to a degree course, which I did, again working evenings and weekends.
“That is how I first started to get into the physical engineering side as opposed to being a tradesman. I started working for BICC cables in their research centre, which was a fantastic job. I then moved over to Essex to work at an engineering firm in Braintree. This is where I picked up skills in mechanical engineering.
“My role was to programme PLCs for large ventilation plant. I had to understand how air moved and the dynamics of motors and large impellers to be able to control them effectively. I also worked with radiance and gas heaters. That excited me and I continued to work in these variant fields from then on. I also started to work on bigger and bigger projects.
“I went on to work on the Mechanical and Electrical Engineering elements of construction projects at Colchester Garrison, Ipswich Marina and various retail business units.
“About 11 years ago, I had the opportunity to work for Tube Lines on their step-free access project. Which was fabulous to say the least. It gave me the experience I needed to put together multi-disciplinary teams made up of specialists in electrical and mechanical engineering, architecture, civil engineering and structural engineering.
“During that time we had several projects outlined for step-free access and I had the opportunity to move over to Crossrail, to build up a team on a slightly larger scale.
“One of the areas that excited me most about moving over to Crossrail was not just the enormity of the project, but to provide input in adopting technologies and equipment that are currently being used throughout the rest of the Mechanical built environment. The long term effects of this can have a massive impact on the whole life costs of the equipment we are installing.
“To be able to influence the rail industry on technologies and equipment that are being used throughout the rest of the mechanical and rail industry in modern electro-mechanical rail construction projects has become an amazing opportunity.
“The first area I covered from my familiarity with step-free access with Tube Lines was to change the LU standards for both lifts and escalators. I wanted to drive through change and use escalators and lifts that were more to industry standard, to reduce installation times and maintenance costs. These standards have now been adopted by all Transport for London projects.”
Why did you become professionally registered and then a Fellow?
“Shortly after I received my degree I applied for membership of the IEE, as it was called then, as an Incorporated Engineer. I transferred to Chartered Engineer some five years later. It was during my time at Tube Lines when renewing a mentoring scheme for Chartered Engineers with the IET that they encouraged me to apply for Fellowship, and Fellowship of the IMechE followed closely after.
“I have always been passionate about promoting engineering and getting people excited about it as a profession, even before I was a Fellow. During my time at university I used to train student teachers how to make teaching science more interesting and some of the tricks that were taught to me when I was younger by both my father and some passionate science teachers I had at school.
“So spreading the engineering word is something I’ve always liked doing. Part of the remit of being a Fellow is to promote the profession, CPD and encourage people to advance their skills. As a Fellow, I had more influence to create these schemes, so it made my life easier and helped me get my targets and ambitions across.
“I get a lot of self-reward knowing I’m supporting the industry and helping create the engineers of the future. My day-to-day work is a lot easier if I am surrounded by versatile, skilled and well-rounded engineers who know what they are doing. I get pleasure from seeing the graduates develop and enjoy what they’re doing.
“Also there is almost no turnover in my team, they enjoy working there. To get the best out of someone they have to be really happy in what they are doing and investing in their development is a key way to achieve this. It’s a win-win situation for me and I can start nominating them to take on more complex work, which helps me, and I feel good about it.
“We are getting weak in this industry and don’t have enough engineers. I think the balance in the UK has shifted too far towards us providing service industries. Service industries are very important and they keep the country alive, but we need a balance. At the moment I feel that the balance has shifted away from practical Engineering.
“Also there is a mismatch within Great Britain, other countries are very good at producing higher numbers of female engineers than the UK. In the UK, we need to do more to encourage more young people, and particularly females, to enter the profession.”
What is the greatest challenge facing engineering?
“Staff. It’s the expertise of graduates coming out of university, the skills bases that they have and making sure they are fit for modern industry.
It seems that the number of graduates that are coming through the system that take on Mechanical Engineering as a profession are being driven towards more scientifically based roles like robotics rather than construction Engineering.
What or who inspires you?
“I admire a myriad of people, including heroes such as Newton and Faraday, Einstein and Maxwell - and the way he understood the movement of atoms - and also the likes of Stephen Hawking, Stephenson and James Watt. It’s also wonderful to see the pictures of the great engineers in the halls of the IMechE.
“They are inspirational and my father was inspirational, showing me the way a clock works. It’s almost as if I was born this way. I have many weaknesses and a couple of strengths, and one of those strengths is solving engineering problems.”
What would you like to be remembered for?
“It would be nice if my children and grandchildren were to say sometime in the future: ‘Dad built this, or grandad built that.’ But it’s not really about me it’s about the continuation of the profession. I’ve achieved all the expectations I had for myself.
“When I was an electrician and my brother told he had just been Chartered, I thought ‘wow’. That was an aspiration beyond what I possibly could have imaged at the time. But I worked to get there and it was great. When I was younger if someone had of suggested to me I would one day became a Fellow, I would have thought that they were being ridiculous – it was such an achievement. I think peer recognition is also important to me. I would like to be respected and remembered by my peers.”
What are your passions in life beyond engineering?
“Rugby is a passion, although I’ve just retired from playing for my local club. I also have a passion for my father’s old trade, which is old clocks. Although my partner probably wishes that they didn’t all work, because at one point we used to have a cacophony when all the chimes would strike together on the hour every hour.
“I’ve also got a wonderful network of friends, I appreciate very much, and am a social person. I also love the mountains of Snowdonia and the countryside of North Wales. I don’t think there is anywhere more beautiful in the world.
“I also have a couple of old cedar canoes, and we have some wonderful waterways in this country that are navigable. You can spend 10 days just travelling down some of our rivers in a canoe, there is nothing more relaxing.”
What support do you receive from the Institution?
“The support the IMechE gives to my young engineers to help develop them is invaluable. Claire Maycock [the Institution’s Business Development Manager for Greater London, South Eastern and Wessex] is always on hand to answer any questions and help train my mentors.”
Learn more
Visit the Crossrail website to find out more about the project.
Find out about Institution Fellowship.
Find out about the Monitored Professional Development Scheme (MPDS).