Donald (Don) Sidney Ball CEng FIET, August 1928 – May 2023
Obituary provided by Don’s daughters, Jenny and Sarah, and his colleagues.
Don Ball, an electrical distribution engineer with a career in the railway industry spanning more than 65 years, has died at the age of 94.
Don was born in Hackney, London, in 1928. His mother, Mary, was a milliner and his father, Thomas Percy served with the British Transport Police.
Don’s affinity for mathematics and science led him to take up an apprenticeship with the London and North Eastern Railway which took him to many locations including Stratford Locomotive Works and Grimsby railway power station. During this time, he also studied at technical college and later qualified as a Chartered Electrical Engineer. Like his father, Don also loved cricket and played whenever he could.
Don held many positions during his career including working on putting into service some 70 new DC substations for the southern region, the design of substations for the introduction of 25kV overhead line electrification of the West Coast mainline and was an on-call engineer for major railway incidents.
In 1965 he married Enid Walker. They settled in Sussex and became proud parents of three children.
In 1984 Don joined the HQ Electrification Section at Paddington where he was responsible for the design, development and specification of power distribution equipment for British Rail major electrification projects. With seniority Don became a Fellow of the Institution of Electrical Engineers (subsequently the IET) and consulted on railway electrification in Canada and Australia.
Don took early retirement in 1988 but this was short-lived as he returned only months later to railway electrification work with British Rail and then for WS Atkins following privatisation. Later he joined the railway technical consultancy Green Leader Ltd where he continued to work on a part-time basis, only fully retiring at the age of 90.
Don contributed a great deal to the rail industry during his long career, guided by his meticulous focussed attention to detail coupled with his wide experience of railway electrification.
Sadly, his wife Enid died in 2017 and his son David died in 2021 but he is survived by his daughters Sarah and Jenny.