We are delighted to announce that we have been appointed as a Value Added Partner by CGE Risk, the leading provider of barrier-based risk management solutions.

We have been using the bowtie methodology for several years with railway, metro, tram, fire & rescue and social care clients, so this appointment marks an important stage in how we help clients apply the technique.

Being a Value Added Partner for CGE Risk allows us to provide a complete solution for the bowtie risk assessment methodology; helping you to understand and apply the methodology and also provide and implement CGE’s specialist software for producing excellent bowties.
CGE Risk has verified that we have been trained in risk and incident analysis methods as well as the application of these in their software solutions.

If you are looking for consultancy (applying the bow tie technique to your business risks), training in the methodology and/or the software or advice on how to scope or purchase software then please contact us.
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We're delighted to be working with Vintage Trains, a Community Benefit Society that is set to become the UK's newest steam locomotive charter train operating company. The vision of Vintage Trains is to preserve express steam trains, keep them operating on the main line, to teach and transfer skills. 
Our work will initially involved railway safety critical skills training and training for Vintage Trains' trainers and competence assessors.

As part of our work to support Locomotive Services (TOC) Limited, we recently spent a day creating video footage of emergency situations that can forseeably occur when operating on the railway network. To create these sequences safely we carried out full risk assesments and safety briefings on the day to make sure that we kept everyone (and some very expensive camera equipment!) safe.
These clips will be used to support learning programmes that we are creating for drivers, firemen, guards, stewards, shunters, service personnel and traction inspectors. The learning programmes are part of the organisation's competence management system that we have developed and support the operational rules and procedures that we are working on.
The top photograph shows what happens when the locomotive suffers a 'blowback' (as happened on a charter train service at Wood Green in 2012). Blowbacks occur when combustion products from the fire are blown back into the cab - when a train passes into a tunnel or when there is a mechanical failure of some sort (as happened at Pickering on a heritage railway in 2006).
The second photograph shows the moment that a detonator (also known as fog signals) explodes under the wheel of a locomotive. Detonators are small metal devices containing a limited quantity of explosive. Detonators are placed on the running surface of a rail by the traincrew to protect approaching trains of a hazard (derailment, track maintenance work, or something fouling the line) - the wheels of a train will cause the detonator to explode and the sound will alert the driver to to stop the train immediately. As well as creating video footage of detonators being placed, and then exploding, we wanted to test how audible they would be from the footplate of steam locomotive under a range of conditions.
We are hugely grateful to the volunteers and staff at the Churnet Valley Railway for providing access to their railway, the locomotive and train, the crew for the day and for allowing us to do some very unusual things!

Our Managing Partner, John Baker, has been working with Locomotive Services (TOC) Limited to set up the organisation and to achieve safety certification from the Office of Rail and Road (ORR) so that it can run steam and diesel charter trains on the UK main line rail network. We have been working with a team of professionals to create a safety management system (SMS) and assess the risks of using 1930s on the 21st century railway network using the bow tie method. An important part of this has been analysing steam-era rules and instructions (mostly 1950s, but some dating from 1934) and turning these into suitable instructions using Plain English principles and current understanding of human factors.
On the 4th of August the ORR announced that it had granted a European Passenger Train Operating Licence to the company.
The next phase of our involvement will see us prepare for the first passenger services. This will include route risk mapping and creating training and competence management systems so that steam and diesel train drivers can be issued licences as required by the Train Driving Licences and Certificates Regulations 2010.

You can read more about the announcement on the Locomotive Services (TOC) Limited website, as well more about the locomotives it will operate.