A SIGNALLING engineer from York has chalked up a remarkable 60 YEARS working in the railway industry.

Rod Price joined British Rail as a 16-year-old in 1960, when most of the trains were steam and there were semaphore signals.

Now at 76 - when most people have long since retired and put their feet up - he’s still working, having adapted to a raft of dramatic technological changes in the industry over the decades.

Although he now works part time, Rod, now of Hungate but formerly of Appletree Village, is still out in the signal boxes most weekends, supporting less experienced staff.

Rod, who is married to Yvonne and has two children, said he did retire from working for one employer one Friday in about 1999 but went back to work on the following Monday for a different firm.

“As far as I am concerned, it’s the best job in the world,” he said. “I work with a great bunch of lads, who work together as a team.”

He said he had started working on the railways after studying engineering for a year at the old York Technical College, having left Park Grove Secondary Modern School at 15.

Steve Brookes, testing director at TICS Rail Signalling at Monks Cross, where he now works, said: “It’s quite a feat to have worked in one job for 60 years.

“But this is his life. He lives and breathes it. Rod has been an enormous asset to the railway industry and TICS Rail Signalling.”

He said Rod had spent his whole career working in signalling design and testing and commissioning of major projects and his commitment to the TICS Apprenticeship scheme was "amazing".

He added: “His willingness to impart his knowledge and passion to signalling on to the next generation of engineers entering the TICS family is heart-warming.”