Lough Foyle (1827-9) was incorporated as the "geodesy" section of the Royal Military Academy's curriculum for the training of military engineers. On his return to England he was placed in charge of the Ordnance Survey's new offices in Southampton, where he produced a set of maps of the City itself; in 1852, with Captain Tucker of the Royal Engineers, he completed a plan of the city of York. In 1851, Yolland was appointed to one of the judging panels for The Great Exhibition, serving with Colonel Hall in the military engineering category. When Colonel Hall retired in 1854 it was expected that, at the second opportunity, Yolland would be offered the Superintendent's post. However Hall, who had continued to resent his subordinate's abilities, succeeded in blocking the appointment. Yolland left the Ordnance Survey immediately afterwards. The Railway Inspectorate of the Board of Trade was invariably staffed from the Royal Engineers and Yolland, although still an army officer (by then a major) had no difficulty in securing a post with that organisation. Additionally, he was appointed to a commission to report on the best methods of scientific and technical training for military officers. His findings were accepted and his report was still influencing the training of military engineers (in Britain and the United States) at the end of the twentieth century. Railway Inspectorate Yolland retired from the army in 1863, with the rank of lieutenant-colonel, although he retained his position with the Railway Inspectorate. At a time when Britain's railway mileage was expanding at a great rate, his duties included the inspection of new lines and he took full opportunity to insist that the latest safety features, such as signal interlocking and block working, should be deployed. Yolland's campaign for continuous automatic brakes (he favoured the spring-and-ratchet system invented by James Newall) was initially less successful. At that time the Inspectorate had no statutory powers with regard to existing lines; all too frequently Yolland found himself reporting, in his characteristic rigorous manner, the organisational failures and neglect that had led to serious accidents. In 1877 he was appointed HM Chief Railway Inspector in succession to Henry Whatley Tyler. He died on 4 September 1885 in Atherstone, Warwickshire. Shipton-on-Cherwell accident (1874) One of the worst railway crashes he investigated occurred on the Great Western Railway near Oxford. The accident occurred on 24 December 1874 at Shipton-on-Cherwell, just north of Kidlington when a