BR Department Abbreviations Help Please

Andy873 · 14 Jul 2026

I've managed to sort out seven BR department abbreviations but I'm stuck on these, can any one help please?

D.C.E. - Divisional Civil Engineer? Divisional Chief Engineer?
P.R. & P.O. - Public Relations and Publicity Office?
Both are based in Preston.

Thanks,
Andy.

RailUK Forums

Mcr Warrior · 14 Jul 2026

D.C.E. might well be Divisional Civil Engineer's department. Address in early 1970s used to be 59 Marsh Lane, Preston.

Rescars · 14 Jul 2026

Just a guess, but might P.R. & P.O. be Public Relations and Press Office?

AndrewE · 14 Jul 2026

The BRB used to publish directories with this sort of info in, I would expect there to be one online somewhere.

D6130 · 14 Jul 2026

Rescars said:
Just a guess, but might P.R. & P.O. be Public Relations and Press Office?

In my day it was Public Relations and Publicity Officer.... although he/she often also dealt with the press.

Elecman · 14 Jul 2026

Andy873 said:
I've managed to sort out seven BR department abbreviations but I'm stuck on these, can any one help please?

D.C.E. - Divisional Civil Engineer? Divisional Chief Engineer?
P.R. & P.O. - Public Relations and Publicity Office?
Both are based in Preston.

Thanks,
Andy.

DCE was Divisional Civil Engineer and they were based in Ladywell House Preston

Falcon1200 · 15 Jul 2026

There was also CCE, Chief Civil Engineer, although as a signalling colleague remarked this should really have meant Cable Cutting Engineer....

Harpo · 15 Jul 2026

Falcon1200 said:
There was also CCE, Chief Civil Engineer, although as an signalling colleague remarked this should really have meant Cable Cutting Engineer....

The WR had a strange thing of burying cables instead of troughs or hangers and the civils often ‘helped’ them map the routes.

AndrewE · 15 Jul 2026

This is what you need

British Rail Directory

books.google.co.uk

I have a paperback one buried somewhere, there must have been loads of them given they were printed annually and quite widely distributed. I'm surprised my search hasn't turned up more of them...
(It's possible that they were Regional, but including the BRB at the top. )

SargeNpton · 15 Jul 2026

P.R. & P.O is, I would suggest, Public Relations & Press Office.

Andy873 · 16 Jul 2026

Thanks everyone for that, with your help I'm now able to complete my list of BR departments / offices that were involved with closing a branch line.

Taunton · 18 Jul 2026

Harpo said:
The WR had a strange thing of burying cables instead of troughs or hangers and the civils often ‘helped’ them map the routes.

This was following repetitive cable theft and the associated extreme disruption, especially on Paddington to Reading, it was decided to auger well down and bury them.

There was inadequate documentation of exactly where they were buried (putting ground markers would have defeated the original purpose), and when the electrification started on the line it was a key issue in the cost and programme overruns, and repeated signalling failures and gross delays, as multiple breaks were made by the mast installation teams. It was a considerable part of the failure of the much-vaunted high output mast installation train.

Harpo · 18 Jul 2026

Taunton said:
repeated signalling failures and gross delays, as multiple breaks were made by the mast installation teams.

The cables didn’t need to be hit directly either. I remember a huge incident from a broken 48 core near Bath caused by adjacent groundworks disturbance.

Taunton · 18 Jul 2026

I wonder if it was a hangover from old WR/old GWR practice. The water distribution system at Taunton station cane from a very large tank east of the station (still there, south side of the line, brick structure) which did everything, all the water columns, etc. That was buried well down, ostensibly for frost protection, and gave a substantial head all round, but was a real civils job when it developed leaks and faults.

We may have to explain to the current generation what frost protection is ...

Hellzapoppin · 23 Jul 2026

Taunton said:
This was following repetitive cable theft and the associated extreme disruption, especially on Paddington to Reading, it was decided to auger well down and bury them.

There was inadequate documentation of exactly where they were buried (putting ground markers would have defeated the original purpose), and when the electrification started on the line it was a key issue in the cost and programme overruns, and repeated signalling failures and gross delays, as multiple breaks were made by the mast installation teams. It was a considerable part of the failure of the much-vaunted high output mast installation train.

Utter tosh. Only 3 cables were struck during the installation and only 1 of those caused delays.

Belperpete · 26 Jul 2026

Taunton said:
I wonder if it was a hangover from old WR/old GWR practice.

It had certainly been WR practice to mole plough cables in relay interlocking days.. However, you can't then mole plough additional cables in, without risking hitting the existing. By the time of the electrification, I would have thought most of the route would have been resignalled to make it electrification immune, using surface troughing cable routes.

Hellzapoppin · 26 Jul 2026

Much of the main buried routes on the Western were hand dug. Not all of the resignalling had been completed as electrification commenced. The main cable strike was in the Pangbourne area which was a buried telecom type cable which still supported signalling circuits.

BR Department Abbreviations Help Please

Andy873

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Rescars

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