Oh that takes me back. Charles Frederick worked for BR Research & Development Division at the Railway Technical Centre in Derby. I worked there for a time as a student. Looking up his
Wikipedea entry I found quite a few familiar names. Oh and yes in 1977 everyone at
RTC» seemed to know about his patent for a spacecraft. I recall that there was some animosity, because although that was patented by BR, they refused to patent the stone-blowing tamper. So the inventor obtained permission to patent it himself. Development on it continued for a while but stopped. It only restarted under Railtrack, when the patent had expired! What a waste!
