Too Busy to Delegate

Retired Civil Engineer Mike Collins' second foray down the branch lines of memory have produced a host of humorous new faces and some recognisable 'barmpots' from his first volume. Notable among these are Bill the prankster, the helpful if hilarity-prone Wendy, and the megalithic figure of Mike's No. 2, John Midgley. There are triumphs aplenty, including the heroic feats of Mike's Stakhanovite team on the York Remodelling Project, and swift action in the face of electrification, bulls on the line, and the 'wrong kind of snow'. Yet there are sadnesses as well - a fatal road accident, the use of tunnels as personal termini, not to mention the author's dismay at the onset of privatisation. Enter into this weird world of cants and chair screws, twistectors and traxcavators, pocket theodolites and gricers, where the humour is wry, the delivery straight - and the dialect Yorkshire! Mike Collins is a retired Civil Engineer, who worked all his life in Yorkshire. He has been a keen observer of the characters he has met and their humour. Within these pages are more memories, leaping from his earliest days up to the end of his working life.