But he was again critical of the privatisation because he wanted Scotrail's infrastructure

But he was again critical of the privatisation because he wanted Scotrail's infrastructure and services to remain together, rather than being separated into Railtrack and an operating company.Disillusioned by what was happening to the railways, he was headhunted by English Heritage where, surprisingly, he adopted a low-profile role, allowing Jocelyn Stevens, the chairman, to be its public face. A colleague of that time said: "He was great fun to work with ... He had a vision of the future and took you with it."He moved on to InterCity which became highly profitable, and was deeply disappointed that under privatisation it was to be split into half a dozen lines. Banned in a memo to all senior staff from the BR chairman, John Welsby, from speaking out against privatisation, he moved back to Scotland to run Scotrail. He created the corporate identity of Scotrail and was to do much the same at Network SouthEast, created out of the old Southern RegionIt takes a lot for a rail manager to become famous, but he became a well- known figure among commuters and rail passengers thanks to his strength of personality and his driving ambition to improve their lot.

CHRISTIAN WOLMAR Chris Green's venture outside the rail industry to English Heritage has ended in the first failure of a glittering career which almost took him to the chairmanship of British Rail. He was a career railwayman who joined British Railways as a management trainee in the mid-Sixties and his first major job was as head of Scotrail in the early Eighties. In 1996, half of this will be spent on grants for restoring private buildings. The grant has been cut by pounds 44.7m in the past four years.Its five most popular sites with visitors are:1 Stonehenge, Wiltshire2 Dover Castle, Kent3 Osborne House, Isle of Wight4 Tintagel Castle, Cornwall5. Battle Abbey, SussexOf the 700,000 visitors to Stonehenge each year, the average visitor spends 20 minutes at the monument. Stonehenge is 5,000 years old.The chairman Jocelyn Stevens has caused controversy with plans to encourage the commercialisation of Stonehenge.

He even suggested a McDonald's fast food outlet for the visitor centre.English Heritage has ambitious plans for the Tower of London, including the filling-in of the moat and diverting an adjacent five-lane road into a tunnel.. He is alleged to have said that one of the great heritage myths is that the Department of National Heritage has no strategy - something EH itself cannot be accused of.Guardian of historyEnglish Heritage is the Government's official adviser on historic buildings and sites and manages more than 400 properties.It receives an annual grant of pounds 103m. What he has not been able to do is to prevent the government from cutting EH funding and replacing these with money spent by the Heritage Lottery Fund."Because many listed buildings in need of repair are owned by hard- pressed families, EH has a duty to them; now that its budget is being cut by about pounds 10m a year it is unable to give effective help to minor buildings. Meanwhile the Heritage Lottery Fund, chaired by Lord Rothschild and commandinglarger sums of money than EH, is forbidden to fund these privately owned properties.Stevens, who is unlikely to want to stay at English Heritage when his term runs out in 18 months' time, has had a hit-and-miss relationship with the government. Like Oscar Wilde's "Happy Prince", Albert was stripped of his gold leaf. By the time Stevens has finished with him, millennial Albert will preside over a glittering monument complete with a visitors' centre in the forgotten vaults on which the memorial stands."Jocelyn makes a noise, enjoys publicity and parties," says a colleague at English Heritage "He has put the organisation on the map ... At a recent dinner hosted by the Architects' Journal, Stevens confided that the statue of Prince Albert at the heart of the florid Gothic Revival memorial will be regilded.