My grandfather, David Catling, who has died aged 89, was a railway engineer who served as the senior manager on the Docklands Light Railway project in east London in the 1980s.
He had joined London Transport in 1948 as a graduate trainee and spent 37 years with the organisation, eventually serving as deputy general manager responsible for all engineering and systems on the DLR. David left London Transport in 1985 to become an independent consultant and was committed to the promotion of low-cost light rail and to improving access for people with impaired mobility.
He advised on projects in Hong Kong, Kuala Lumpur, Stockholm and around the UK. He was twice awarded the George Stephenson research prize from the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, in 1967 for a study of the Victoria line on the Underground, and in 1973 for the research paper on public transport, Wheels, Tyres and Axles.
David was born at the Salvation Army Mothers’ hospital in Hackney, east London, the son of Grace (nee Eveson) and David Catling, a policeman. Queen Mary, on a tour of the hospital, remarked that he was a “bonny baby”. The new mother was apparently of the opposite opinion.
David grew up in Stamford Hill, north London; the family lived with his mother’s parents. At the age of seven, he joined the choir of St Andrew’s church in Stoke Newington. Music and the church would become lifelong passions. In 1939, he was evacuated to Norfolk, where he continued his education at King Edward school in King’s Lynn. Not famed for his athletic ability, David was given permission to skip football practice in order to take organ lessons at Sandringham church. There the organist helped to secure David his first job, playing the organ for small village churches. In 1945, he was awarded a state bursary to read electrical engineering at Queen Mary College, London.
In 1951, David married Mary Wheeler, an artist, whom he had met on a sailing holiday on the Norfolk Broads. They settled in Burnham, Buckinghamshire, and raised four children. In 1966, David and Mary helped with the planning and building of St Andrew’s, a shared Church of England and Roman Catholic church at Cippenham, Slough. They both took a keen interest in the welfare of others: for many years David spent one night a week volunteering for a homeless charity in London.
In 1997, the couple retired to Ely, where they were active in the local community. David played the organ at Fenland churches, supported Christian Aid, was involved in the cathedral’s link to Hackney churches, and sang with the local choral society. David applied his engineering logic and experience to his faith, reasoning that the scale of creation is more complex than anything man could achieve alone. To him, the perfect railway could exist only in heaven.
Mary died in 2013. David is survived by his four children, Tim, Elly, Andy and Pete, 10 grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.
