Once, when he was a young man, RCR Tomlinson's CEO Paul Dalgleish fell off a moving train. Now, it seems, the news at the engineering company he's headed for the past decade is so bad he and the board have decided he should make another sudden exit.

RCR Tomlinson on Tuesday extended a trading halt, first requested more than a week ago, to the end of the month, after what seems like rather severe cost overruns at "a single project, nearing completion". As a result of the board's investigations, Dalgleish has stepped off effective immediately, while non-executive director Bruce James has been parachuted into his place.