rail engineer - issue 139 - may 2016

Engineerby rail engineers for rail engineers

www.railengineer.uk

MAY 2016 - ISSUE 139

TAKING HS2 TO COMPLETIONHS2 chief executive Simon Kirby explains what plans are already in place and describes what still needs to be done.

INFRARAIL REVIEW6,500 people gathered at ExCeL in London’s Docklands for the railway industry’s indoor show of the year.

UAV CLIFF TERRAIN SURVEYSRail Engineer and Network Rail bobbing about in a boat while a drone surveys the land around Dawlish’s railway.

What dohave in common?

Christmas and Easter

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Opinion 7Steve Dyke, former head of the ORBIS programme, reflects on the digital railway.

Tilts, camera…action! 28Grahame Taylor considers the soggy state of the network’s earthworks.

More for less 32Stuart Marsh looks at wheelsets and how to reduce both risk and cost.

Reading station: the power of partnership 38How Eurosafe Solutions used Latchways to deliver safe working at height.

Closer running – is it feasible? 42Ian Mitchell on the pros and cons of running trains in convoys.

Komplete metroisation 45Converting DLR seating from transverse to longitudinal is termed metroisation.

From Shinkansen to Scotland 46Hitachi brings its high-speed expertise to Scotland’s railways.

Craigentinny does it all 50David Shirres does a night shift at Scotland’s busy depot.

Depot projects proceeding apace 56Spencer Group is building a number of depots and refurbishing others.

Building the PS2 58Following Tornado, Sir Nigel Gresley’s P2 design is now under construction.

A positive move 64Infrarail moved to London ExCeL in Docklands. How did it turn out?

Telecoms – the heart of the railway 76Paul Darlington has an update on the rollout of FTNx.

ERTMS – the UK position 80Clive Kessell investigates how this new signalling system is progressing.

End of the line for VAB 90The Vehicle Acceptance Body process ceases on 4 June 2016.

A-Plant: audited and in Doncaster 94The Yorkshire railway town is the location for A-Plant’s latest Service Centre.

Reliability records 96Plant reliability can have a major effect on project completion. See more at www.railengineer.uk

Contents

We’re looking to highlight the latest projects and innovations in

Stations Surveying & BIMin the July issue of Rail Engineer.

Got a fantastic innovation? Working on a great project? Call Nigel on 01530 816 445 NOW!

18

24

40

Taking HS2 to completionSimon Kirby, chief executive of HS2, on the future of this game-changing project..

Not just a component supplierVoith now offers a whole-system approach, from drivetrains to modular cabs.

Mega Chipper

Cliff terrain surveys using UAVs

86

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Rail Engineer • May 2016 3

Delivering Excellence Through Innovation & Technology rail.ricardo.com

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This being our rolling stock and depots issue, we sent David Shirres off to Craigentinny depot. Only those involved in the day-to-day work of keeping a fleet in service will understand the complexity of what goes on. David gives us an impression of the punishing schedules our trains go through, along with the care taken to keep them running and clean and safe.

Apart from rails, one of the other oldest parts of technology in the railway industry is the wheel and the wheelset. They’ve been around right from the start, even before there was something mechanical to pull them. But, as Stuart Marsh discovers, they are still evolving, courtesy of some exquisitely elegant engineering.

Venturing into contrasting territory, David looks at the progress being made to create yet another steam locomotive from scratch. The trick this time is to see how much of the kit and gubbins from Tornado can be used in the new machine. Coupled with technology that would have been unimaginable 80 years ago, it’s beginning to look like there could be fleets of locomotives in the not too distant future!

Ever wondered how a rail vehicle gets approved to run on the network? It’s been pretty complicated in the past but, as David Edwards, the conformance manager at the Network Certification Body, points out, times are changing as the Vehicle Acceptance Body (VAB) process ceases on 4 June 2016. It still looks pretty tricky though.

There’s probably a knee-jerk reaction in most people when train convoys are mentioned - that’s running trains with only a gnat’s whisker between them. Feasible - yes. Viable - maybe. Safe - dunno! So it’s worth reading Ian Mitchell’s take on the subject. Perhaps it’s not as clear-cut as you thought.

At least there would be fresh air between vehicles in a convoy. The new Hitachi trains for Scotland - the AT200 - started life with a virtual gangway. It was all a necessary part of the design process as front gangway end doors were not part of the original AT200 concept.

With the dynamics of international affairs ever-changing, it’s comforting to know that our stalwart custodian of the mainline rail network has acquired an aircraft carrier. It’s not very large and the aircraft have to complete their missions within eleven minutes otherwise they drop out of the sky. Nevertheless, Network Rail’s new eyes are a valuable way of keeping tabs on what is going on with Dawlish Warren and other difficult sites. Mark Phillips was piped aboard and met the Captain.

Earthworks can be laborious assets to survey. It’s been the traditional place for ‘boots on the ground’ ….and in the mud …and up cliffs. But when there are 189,000 sites to look at and assess, there has to be either a lot of boots or some other clever way of doing the checking. Even better if it’s all done remotely.

Road Rail Vehicles can work wonders, they can achieve amazing levels of productivity - or they can be immovable lumps of junk. Making sure that the latter distinction is a rarity, or even a thing of the past, Lee Green, programme

manager for plant reliability at Network Rail IP Track, outlines what is being done to make sure that there are no nasty surprises.

For the past three years, Steve Dyke was the director of Network Rail’s Offering Rail Better Information Services (ORBIS) programme. In our occasional opinion piece, Steve gives us an idea of how the project started, its evolution and what it can now do for the industry.

Paul Darlington is at home with his account of the evolution and current developments of the FTNx national rail telecoms network to cater for the multiple data hungry technologies that keep popping up - CCTV, ETCS and the like. With FTNx now live there’s the opportunity to hook up all the ‘things’ in the ‘internet of things’.

Clive Kessell summarises the current state of ERTMS (European Rail Traffic Management System, if this acronym has passed you by). It’s interesting to see how various views are moving - upbeat at one turn, cautious at the next. However, never forget the radio bearer and changes in technology. No radio, very little ERTMS.

In this period before the ‘start’ of HS2, things are already underway. Chief executive Simon Kirby has been talking to Nigel Wordsworth, explaining that the HS2 team has been built, procurement processes have been designed, the supply chain has been softened up. The ‘start’ will be just the beginning of another stage.

“No news is good news.” In the railway industry, at least, this old adage can be reversed - and often is. Good news is no news. Which is why, here at the Rail Engineer, we make a virtue of drawing attention to when things go well. And things went well over the Easter holiday period. Nigel presents a positive summary.

We banged on about it for long enough and finally the Infrarail exhibition took place at the ExCeL exhibition centre in London’s Docklands. Our summary gives a taste of what you saw - or missed. Earls Court is no more. ExCeL is in an area that has been regenerated by railways and so is a fitting and appropriate successor venue.

Rolling stock, depots, plantand... aircraft carriers

www.rail-media.com

GRAHAME TAYLOR

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Having now taken up a new post in asset infrastructure and intelligence in the Middle East, I was pleased to be asked to discuss what ORBIS has achieved in the development of a data-driven railway, and why this is so important within a wider Digital Railway/Infrastructure vision and future.

The challengeThe UK has the oldest railway in the world, the

busiest network in Europe running more trains than Spain, Switzerland, Holland, Portugal and Norway combined.

Network Rail is an asset manager operating a highly complex, multi-dimensional ageing infrastructure. Add a further one billion passengers by 2030, set against decreased running costs, and the task of running a safe, high performing railway is challenging. Asset managers have always had to reconcile the balance between capacity, performance and cost, but the pressures on the UK railway mean that something fundamental had to be done. Over previous control periods and years, Network Rail had worked hard and successfully to become more efficient in the management of its asset risk, but this was against set asset policies focused on time-based maintenance.

At the same time, the largest ever period of investment in new railway infrastructure is underway. But our challenge remains: how can we drive greater availability and reliability from ageing assets while maximising the value and reducing maintenance and operations costs from the new infrastructure investment?

Effectiveness v efficiencyTo face and overcome this challenge,

Network Rail needed to make fundamental, transformative change to become more effective in its asset management, and that’s where ORBIS, the first real Digital Asset Management programme of its type, was born. ORBIS is a whole-system intelligence-led approach to put asset information, knowledge and intelligence in the hands of the engineers, enabling them to make different, more-effective decisions on the management and planning of the work bank and subsequent maintenance. By getting this right, we could move from time-based maintenance

regimes to condition-based, and later to risk-based, regimes.

ORBIS was set up to digitise asset knowledge capability. To do that, we required three central elements. Firstly, we needed whole-systems intelligence to be able to understand our railway as a system, to be able to plan and operate more effectively as an infrastructure asset system owner. Secondly, we needed an integrated suite of digital asset data to intelligence tools and capabilities - such as the Linear Asset Decision Support tool (LADS) - to provide insight and intelligence to enable better decisions, driving down maintenance and renewals costs. And thirdly, and in my opinion most importantly, we needed to educate, train and equip our engineers to use, exploit and realise the benefits of new digital tools.

ORBIS set about digitising the workforce and putting data at the heart of the railway, to enable the right maintenance, in the right place, at the right time. In many regards, ORBIS is creating the digital data engineer of the future and the prize is high, with financial benefits alone running into the £billions over the next 10-15 years.

Setting up for successThere have been too many expensive, IT-

enabled programmes that have failed because they were not people-led and outcome-focused with a clear and maintained vision. I come from a military background where the first principle of war is ‘Selection and Maintenance of the Aim.’ ORBIS had a great ‘Aim’ in the comprehensive Asset Information Vision and Strategy, but it lacked the rigour, structure and discipline to maintain this aim and deliver against it. That meant bringing in the technicians, operators and engineers - the people working every day on the railway - and designing the apps, tools and solutions based on their needs through a model office approach.

New boundariesIt’s not an exaggeration to say that what has

been delivered so far is ground-breaking. Through the rollout of 13,000+ iDevices, we have helped create an information-enabled workforce. Apps such as ‘My Work’, ‘Where Am I’, ‘Photo Reporter’ and ‘Fault Code Lookup’ allow technicians to work more safely, capture quality asset data and

complete work orders digitally while removing outdated paper-based processes.

We introduced LADS which, for the first time, gave track engineers the ability to visualise, manipulate and analyse information on track infrastructure. From iPads and desktops, they can analyse the root cause of faults - one of our route managing directors called this the railway version of X-Ray transformation. There are a number of decision support tools for signalling, switches and crossings, operational property and electrical power now being rolled out.

We are well on the way to delivering a whole-systems intelligence capability - the Railway Infrastructure Network Model (RINM) - to plan, specify and operate a digital ‘smart’ railway in the future. RINM is combining a geospatial ‘über google maps’ view of the railway down to 25x25mm accuracy, together with the logical relationships that describe how the railway as a system all fits together and interacts across multiple interdependent asset layers. It has been tried before, unsuccessfully, and there is nothing like it out there in industry. So far more than 140 data layers have been added and RINM will transform how we visualise and plan work while delivering benefits of £100s of millions.

A digital futureFocus must remain on defining and delivering

the Digital Railway Programme. If we are to deliver the railway to meet future growth, we must ensure this is an industry-wide, passenger-focused transformation, seamlessly connecting people and freight across the UK, and that is going to be fraught with challenge. Having led ORBIS Digital Asset Management, the key lesson is the need for strong and inspirational transformation leadership.

Within Network Rail, there is now an opportunity to build on the foundations and manage the risks of delivering a truly industry-wide passenger focused platform, enabling UK economic growth. A better railway for a better Britain - a digitally connected railway - is in their hands.

Steve Dyke has recently completed his role as transformation director - digital asset information (ORBIS) at Network Rail to take up a new post in the Middle East.

Putting data at the heart of the railway

STEVE DYKE

For the past three years, I have been the director of Network Rail’s Offering Rail Better Information Services (ORBIS)

programme. This is an ambitious £380 million asset data to intelligence programme, launched in 2012 to provide the right information, systems and business change to enable a transformation in our asset management effectiveness.

OPINION 7Rail Engineer • May 2016

Described as running along the sea wall, investigations by Network Rail and contractor Costain proved that this wasn’t actually the case. The railway on Shakespeare Beach was originally raised on wooden trestles (see right), with the waves breaking on the beach below, so there was no wall involved at all.

In 1927, the Southern Railway constructed the sea wall alongside it and dumped many thousands of tonnes of chalk around the viaduct, encasing it and building the railway on top.

A large section of the wall was damaged, breaking its foundation at Christmas. This allowed water into the chalk fill, turning it into a type of chalk ‘soup’. The only option is to remove the old structure in

its entirety and to build a complete new viaduct the whole length of the beach.

There is no real similarity with the damage done to the sea wall at Dawlish in February 2014. At Shakespeare Beach, reconstruction will be on a much wider scale, encompassing a longer section of railway, a very different type of failure, twice the tide heights and a much higher wall (10 metres).

The £44.5 million project to rebuild the line is about to begin. The new viaduct will be 235 metres long, supported by 134 concrete columns sunk into the beach. It will be designed to last 120 years and the cliff face behind it will be protected by 30,000 tonnes of rock armour.

Network Rail’s Steve Kilby, who is leading the project, said:

Dover-Folkestone shut for the yearThe line between Dover and Folkestone, which was severely damaged on Christmas Eve in a storm, is now not due to reopen until December 2016.

The campaign of misinformation about the HS2 project continues. A recent release by ‘Stop HS2’ claimed: “The construction timetable for HS2 has taken another setback. HS2 Ltd have released a complete timetable for delivering four stations in London and Birmingham, which has put back their delivery by at least a year, and surely as a consequence the completion of Phase 1 of the project.”

It added: “Whilst the completion of Euston station is still scheduled for 2033 due to Phase 2 works taking place after Phase 1 works are complete, the completion of Old Oak Common has drifted a year, and the two new Birmingham stations have now moved back two years. Following the completion of construction, a testing and commissioning process

must be completed before HS2 can open, which was meant to last for at least a year after all Phase 1 construction is completed.

“With station completion being pushed back to 2026, after which testing has to take place, the scheduled Boxing Day 2026 opening of HS2 must have been knocked back into at least 2027, more likely 2028 or even beyond.”

HS2:the truth, the truth, and nothing like the truth.

NEWS

Refuting these claims as “completely untrue”, HS2 lead spokesman Ben Ruse said: “HS2 is on time and within budget. We are looking forward to starting construction in 2017 and there is no change to the planned operational date. HS2 constantly reviews its design and construction procedures against best practice in the UK

and around the world. We are now able to start construction on parts of this vital national project later - reducing periods of disruption - while maintaining the completion schedule. HS2 has announced that construction of Phase 2 will begin earlier thus delivering key benefits to the North six years ahead of schedule.”

“The railway at this location was originally built on a timber viaduct and our modern, concrete viaduct will follow the same principles - although it will be hidden behind a wall of rock sea defences. We will also put a new footbridge back where the old one was, so

people can continue to enjoy Shakespeare beach.

“In addition to rebuilding the railway, we are also defending almost 750 metres of the sea wall with more than 130,000 tonnes of rock - the same weight as three modern cross-Channel ferries.”

Rail Engineer • May 20168

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0523 McMillan Rail Sector Magazine Ad.indd 1 25/07/2014 09:01

NEWSRail Live 2016 takes shape

Rail Live 2016, takes place at the Quinton Rail Technology Centre, Long Marston, Warwickshire on Wednesday and Thursday, 22-23 June.

Building on the success of the last three years, Rail Live is the show where visitors can actually see things working. Machinery digs holes, cranes lift, welders join and last year, for those new to modern communications, there were lessons in splicing fibre optic cables!

Although infrastructure focused, Rail Live 2016 also provides a home for the wider railway supply chain and the Rail Alliance Members’ Marquee, situated at the entrance of the show ground, provides a range of exhibitors that covers many, if not all, of the sub-sectors of the rail industry. The show also reflects the work of the Rail Supply Group (RSG), particularly in the areas of market growth, SMEs, skills, export and innovation.

Live demonstrations already planned include working at height (Bridgeway), rail welding (Thermit), concrete sleeper crushing (Husqvarna), signalling, a 70 metre long maintenance train (Robel), Fastclip removal (Hilti), ballast vacuums (Railcare), tree surgery (Ground Control), geotechnical surveying (Geotechnical Engineering) and vegetation control (McMurtry).

The show aims to provide over 300 exhibitors with the ability to

show off their products, goods and services to an appreciative rail audience. There will be specific zones for signalling and networking as well as an international pavilion and the Rail Live Conference organised by Rail Media. Additionally, the presentation of Network Rail’s show awards will take place during an evening barbeque and networking event.

Rail Live gives exhibitors a cost-effective opportunity to meet with current and potential customers, demonstrate their products without the restrictions found at indoor exhibitions, interact with the other exhibitors on site, talk to the industry press and trade associations, and generally to be seen as being active in the industry.

Visitors to Rail Live will be able to compare the latest products and techniques, learn about best practice, listen to presentations by industry leaders, meet their peers and even, in some cases, to have a go themselves!

Rail Live 2016 looks set to attract 6,500 visitors over the two days. There are still opportunities to exhibit and demonstrate at this show - please telephone 01789 720 026 or visit www.raillive.com. From a visitor’s perspective, to learn more about registering to attend the exhibition (free of charge), travel directions or parking, take a look at www.raillive.com.

The UK's largest outdoor railway industry exhibition.


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2016The largest UK outdoor rail showas endorsed by Network Rail

The railway is always evolving and, as an organisation measured by

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We are looking forward to Rail Live 2016, a well-established event that really does set out to address and meet industry challenges now and for the future.

Steve Featherstone Track Programme Director, Network Rail

‘set out to address and meet industry challenges now and for the future.

Track Programme Director, Network Rail

22-23 JUNE 2016LONG MARSTON

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> Hundreds of suppliersin one location

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What do

Well, they are both religious holidays (at least in theory - with one at the winter solstice and the other

at the spring equinox, there is a flavour of pagan festivals as well), one gives and receives presents (expensive ones at Christmas, chocolaty ones at Easter) and one gets a few days off work.

Oh, and some trains don't run, due to all the engineering works.

This year was no exception. Between Thursday 24 and Tuesday 29 March, more than 15,000 people were out working on the railway, at 4,000 sites in 1,000 possessions and delivering over £50 million of engineering work.

54 of those sites were classified as RED sites, those which carried a greater risk of overrun and/or a more significant impact in the event of an overrun. Many of those were also the more significant projects in terms of work to be carried out, and they were located all around the country.

Central regionThe Stafford

Area Improvement Programme reached its final milestone as work was completed to bring the new flyover and six miles of new railway into use. The new track was connected to the West Coast main line, and three ‘tie ins’ constructed - 150 metres of track and OLE for the new Down Slow line, 400 metres of track and OLE at Yarnfield and a new H-switch for the new Up Slow. Solid State Interlockings were upgraded at Norton Bridge, further signalling upgrades completed at Stafford station and the whole Norton Bridge area added to the Stafford workstation at Rugby Rail Operating Centre (ROC).

Work is underway on the Ordsall Chord project in Manchester. Over Easter, an 11-day blockade was taken to cover work in two main areas. Major remodelling at Victoria West, which is beside Manchester Victoria station, saw a new track layout, signalling system and overhead line equipment (OLE) added as well as a new train detection system installed. Another team removed the existing bridge deck and installed a new bridge deck at Span 19 on Middlewood Viaduct. This will be where the chord will join the existing railway.

In Birmingham, the twin-span bridge over the Birmingham Canal, which carries the electrified Stour Lines between Wolverhampton and

Birmingham, was replaced

with a new 25 metre long steel

underbridge. Each span weighed 120

tonnes and 100 yards of track on each line were also replaced.

A smaller bridge, a single span underbridge over a private access path located in Mickle Trafford, was also replaced. This structure carries the Up and Down main lines of the Chester to Warrington line. The redundant wrought iron deck and padstones were replaced with two concrete waterproofed U-decks (including cantilevered combined painted steel/fibreglass-reinforced polymer cess walkways).

Further along the same line (bridge 20 as opposed to bridge 9), Morley Hall underbridge was removed and the embankment filled in. The existing structure was constructed of eight I-section steel beams with brick jack arches spanning brick built abutments. The bridge underpass was used primarily by the adjacent landowners for access and, due to the poor condition of the bridge, all parties agreed that the best solution was to dispense with it.

400 yards of track on the Down Main of the Midland main line was replaced at Clay Cross, using G44 concrete sleepers and CEN56 rail. This removed the need for a temporary speed restriction.

NIGEL WORDSWORTH

have in common?Christmas and Easter

Stafford.

Man

ches

ter

Vict

oria

.


SouthernThe main support timbers of the River Arun bridge were

in poor condition and deteriorating. An inspection last year had resulted in a freight restriction/differential speed limit of 10/60mph. Over Easter, new steel cross girders and rail bearers were installed. Associated pway elements, including new sleepers and guardrails to the approaches of the bridge, were also completed.

At Wandsworth Town, in association with Osborne, four pieces of work were planned. Fairfield Street bridge would be reconstructed, steelwork and abutment repairs carried out at Old York Road, the station subway at Wandsworth Town strengthened and waterproofed as well as platform renewals. High winds forecast throughout the Easter weekend resulted in the cancellation of the Fairfield Street bridge reconstruction. Consequently only essential repair works were undertaken to ensure the bridge was returned to a safe standard. The other three elements of the programme were completed as planned.

Great Western and CrossrailCrossrail Anglia undertook an extensive stations

programme including platform extensions and footbridge works. At Shenfield, middle sidings road 2 and an existing crossover was removed and a Kirow crane was used on the mains installing a new crossover in preparation for the new Country End layout of Shenfield. OLE works, including SPS (small part steel) to new structures, removal of structures and wire transfers along with signalling works to facilitate the changes at Shenfield, all contributed to a safe and successful Easter on Crossrail Anglia.

As part of the Crossrail On Network works, there was a need to significantly modify the existing infrastructure in the area around Abbey Wood station. This includes the creation of two new Crossrail lines from Plumstead tunnel portal to Abbey Wood station served by a new dedicated island platform. The current North Kent Lines are relocated southwards to accommodate the new Crossrail lines and will also be served by their own new dedicated island

platform. The new station will sit at high level above two new island platforms. Over the Easter period, 1,073 metres of track were renewed on the Down North Kent line and two signals either repositioned or adjusted. The podium deck was installed above the Up North Kent Line for station construction and platform demolition and drainage works took place.

Substantial track works, including lowering and sluing 495 metres of line, took place at Old Oak Common while S&C work was undertaken at Southall.

Station upgrade and redevelopment continued at 13 stations across Crossrail West. 42 piles were completed at West Ealing, ready for platform extensions, and further platform work took place at Southall and Hayes. However, slow progress of foundation break-out at Hayes resulted in the cancellation of a planned Relief line UTX (under track crossing). In addition, the Bayline UTX was cancelled prior to the start of Easter works. Neither of these works were possession critical and will be re-planned.

The redevelopment of Maidenhead station is part of the Crossrail programme, improving travel from Reading into the capital. On track, 240 metres of plain line were

Battersea.

Abbey Wood.


laid, including one super ‘G’ turnout, on the Up Relief and 230 metres of plain line track from the country end of the Braywick Road Bridge on the Bourne End Branch Line through platform 5. Concrete riser walls and 210 metres of coping were laid on the same platform, which was also given a surface of hot-laid tarmac.

Believed to have been built in the late 1800’s, the existing Causeway footbridge near the village of Kintbury, Berkshire, was showing signs of deterioration and needed to be replaced under a design and build contract by principle contractor AMCO. Over Easter Monday the deck was removed in a single lift using a Kirow 1200. On the Tuesday night, the new deck arrived in one section with the road trailer being positioned at Kintbury level crossing. The Kirow crane picked up the new footbridge deck and delivered it by rail to the structure. The deck was landed on new concrete cill units that were constructed in advance of the installation possession.

SignallingThe Cardiff Area Resignalling Scheme will close seven

signal boxes, including Cardiff PSB and the manned level crossing box at St Fagans, and transfer control into the Wales ROC. It will also deliver significant track renewals and remodelling enabling the layout, especially in Cardiff East, to be rationalised whilst creating additional operational flexibility. Over Easter 2016, during a 77.5 hour possession, points at the east end of Platforms 6 and 7 in Cardiff Central station were recovered and new points installed together with a turnout into the new platform 8. Approximately 1200 tonnes of spoil was removed and new ballast installed. Demolition of the old Cardiff East signal box slab was completed and then rebuilt to provide a new base for a new signalling equipment building.

In East Kent, a new signalling system between Longfield and Sittingbourne was successfully commissioned, transferring the control of the signalling to the East Kent Signalling Centre (EKSC) at Gillingham. The project team also successfully re-controlled Strood from Ashford Integrated Electronic Control Centre (IECC) and Sheerness Branch from Sittingbourne signal box to the EKSC.

TrackEight switch and crossing units at the London end of

Battersea Park station were renewed, along with 700 metres of third rail. The associated signalling equipment and points heaters were installed and tested and the whole site handed back at line speed.

A complete crossover was renewed at Peterborough while the associated OLE was replaced and adjusted, including a 250 metre slue.

Maidenhead.

Shenfield.


In Scotland, work continued under the 20 week blockade to upgrade Queen St Tunnel. Over Easter, the S&C North Alliance renewed 120 yards of rail and sleepers and stressed 600 yards of plain line. This was part of a renewal of around two miles of plain line, 250 yards of drainage, five point ends upgraded to SPX In-bearer Clamp Lock (IBCL) layout and the heavy refurbishment of four point ends, including re-timbering/re-gauging and changing steel work, which took place during the first three weeks of the blockade in tandem with EGIP works (Edinburgh-Glasgow Improvement Programme).

Galton Junction is positioned just south of Smethwick Galton Bridge station. This junction was very prone to failure, particularly in the summer months, so a complete remodeling including four point ends and 380 metres of plain line track was called for. Eight new piled foundations and OLE structures were also needed along with 630 metres of new OLE wire as well as relay changes and signal testing to operate the signalling system with the remodelled layout.

338 yards of track were renewed at Monmore Green, Wolverhampton, as was 500 yards at Tipton, Staffordshire. However, in the latter case, an asbestos pipe was found running parallel to the railway in the four foot, at approximately 150mm depth. To recover the lost time, 340 yards of ballast were only skimmed so that the new track could be laid and the line returned to service on schedule.

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Galton Junction.

Glasgow Queen Street.


Works Delivery and Asset ProtectionAt the quaintly named ‘Music Hall Slips’ at Waterloo,

eight point ends were refurbished over the Easter period. 13 crossings and 220 timbers were installed as panels using a Kirow 810 crane and part piece-meal. This work forms part of a major S&C refurbishment around Waterloo in Control Period 5 to improve reliability of track assets, an investment of £5 million in preparation for the August 2017 Blockade.

The A6MARR project is a £300 million externally funded highway scheme that interfaces with the railway at five discrete locations between Hazel Grove (near Stockport) and Manchester Airport. Over Easter 2016 a new underbridge was installed at Hazel Grove on the non-electrified Buxton to Hazel Grove line. During a 100 hour possession, the railway infrastructure was removed to enable the 44 metre long, 1800 tonne underbridge and

cill beams to be driven into position using self-propelled modular transporters. The works were undertaken by Carillion Morgan Sindall in collaboration with Network Rail Asset Protection LNW(N).

Qualified successThe Easter bank holiday was a great success in

engineering terms, despite the best efforts of Storm Katie which caused significant disruption in a number of areas across the UK. The vast majority of works were completed safely and in full and were handed back on time.

There were nine incidents of ‘possession over-run from planned work’ across the whole of Network Rail resulting in 99.2% of possessions handing back successfully. Two of those incidents were attributed to Infrastructure Projects consequently giving a successful handback rate of 99.6%.

Unfortunately, there were a number of minor injuries over the Easter weekend including two RIDDORs. One on the Arun river bridge works where an individual broke their ankle slipping through a gap on the bridge deck and another near Manchester where an individual trapped their foot under a concrete sleeper.

The plain line track renewal at Ilford was cancelled prior to the start of the bank holiday due to drainage issues on site. In Wessex, bridge work at Wandsworth Town was cancelled due to high winds.

While the two injuries were two too many, it must be said that, taken on top of the success of the work at Christmas and the New Year, Network Rail must be congratulated for getting its Bank Holiday house back in order and for having, once again, carried out significant engineering work without unduly inconveniencing the travelling public.

Thanks to Nick Greer, DWWP (Delivering Work Within Possessions) at Network Rail, for his help in compiling this report.

Maidenhead.

Wandsworth Town.

16 Rail Engineer • May 2016

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So far as many people are concerned, HS2 is a high-profile project that hasn’t started yet. True, there have been some route plans published, many of which are being criticised by those who live close to the proposed alignment. But then, no-one likes a railway at the bottom of their

garden.

There have also been complaints from passenger groups who want the money spent on the classic network, improving capacity for commuters rather than allowing the fat-cats to travel from Birmingham to London ten minutes quicker. And also grumbles from the rail freight community whose trains won’t be allowed on the new lines at all.

On the other hand, other lobbyists are asking why, if it is all about capacity enhancement, the new railway won’t have four tracks instead of just two.

Then there is the fact that the new railway will terminate at Euston, with no access to HS1 and the continent, and will cause half of Camden to be flattened to

accommodate it.But construction isn’t due to start until 2018 and not be complete until 2025 - if

it doesn’t overrun badly as large projects tend to do. No doubt there will be a lot of changes in that time, if this expensive white elephant gets built at all.

The truthAs usual, there is a huge gulf between public perception, or at least what get’s

reported in the ‘popular’ press, and reality.Despite its name, High Speed 2 isn’t just about high speed - it’s about capacity.

Pulling long-distance passenger traffic off the West Coast main line and onto a new railway will leave more room on the ‘old’ lines for stopping trains, commuters and

freight.And although construction won’t start until the Hybrid Bill to finally approve the new

line gets Royal approval, probably around December 2016, a lot has already happened. Designs are in place, contracts for preliminary works will be placed over the summer, staff

have been employed, offices set up, and it is all systems go.Rail Engineer spoke to chief engineer Andrew McNaughton at the end of last year (issue

133, November 2015) about all the work that has already been done since the project first came together in 2009. Now, chief executive Simon Kirby

was asked to look forward, to talk about what plans are already in place and what still needs to be done.

It’s all about people“This is a massive year for the programme,” Simon

Kirby stated. “We have gone through the third reading in the Commons, and the bill is into the Lords. By the end of the year, we hope to be well on towards Royal Assent.

“What we’re doing, though, that no one has done before, is, in parallel with that process, to design and create the team that’s going to deliver the programme. We’re focused on delivering the programme as soon as possible for the best value for money.

Taking HS2 to

NIGEL WORDSWORTH

completion18 Rail Engineer • May 2016

“We’ve then got the whole work of procuring the civil contracts. That’s now well underway and that’s very much to engage the market in the design of the project. Getting royal assent will enable us to start the early work so we’ll be announcing early works contractors this year.

“If you look at the company itself, we’ve got an organisation now of about 1200 staff. Some will be temporary, as we need people to come in for a year or so to do a specific piece of work, but the bulk is people for the long term of the programme. We’ve got an average age of 31, and we’ve got 43 per cent women.

“We’re putting a lot of time and effort into defining the culture of the company, how do we operate, what are our values? We’ve recruited some really good staff just in that area to help us operate and behave as a new organisation. Because when you reflect back on what we’re doing, and Andrew will have taken you through quite a lot of this, this is new technology to this country.

“The one big thing I’ve learned in nearly two years in this job is high speed rail is different. Now that’s sort of obvious, but actually when you get out there and see a high speed railway actually on the ground, the technology is different, the track system is different, the overhead line is different, train control systems - ETCS - it’s very different.

“So when you think of the staff we need, and who are the partners we need in our supply chain, inevitably they’re going to be recruiting lots of new people because we’re not using solid state signalling, we’re using ETCS, it’s software-based so a lot of the skills will be different. That’s not to say some people won’t make the migration, of course they will, and we are looking for a balance of really strong railway engineering experience and new people and new suppliers, so it’s hugely exciting.”

There is no doubting Simon’s enthusiasm for both the project and his role in it. He is passionate about giving young people important jobs to do.

“You’ve got to really think about what we are as an organisation,” he explained. “We’re not an Olympics or CrossRail, we’re not a project that’s going to complete in five years. We’re a programme that’s going to design and build a railway over nearly 20 years, and then we’re going to operate it. Now who actually operates it is a decision to be made in the future, but the way we think is we’re creating a 50-year concession. So the people we recruit today will be the people who will operate and maintain the railway in 10, 15, 20 years’ time, so by definition we need a balance of ages.

“So we are putting a lot of challenge on our own team to recruit both experience but also to recruit on potential, rather than experience. This is about creating a younger, more diverse,

workforce so we are writing job descriptions that enable people to be recruited on potential and having interview panels that actually do recruit on potential. We’re challenging ourselves and we’ve got people really putting some thought into that area, because attracting experienced people isn’t easy, but attracting experienced people who want to work on this railway in 20 or 25 years’ time is almost impossible, so you have to think differently at that point.”

With Britain not having built a major railway in a long time, and other countries having already built high-speed networks, it’s not surprising that HS2 is getting applicants from around the world.

“We are looking to create a world-class railway which by definition will be technology that exists around the world,” Simon continued. “But it’s about British jobs, so we have to strike the right balance. We have also got people on this project from all over the world, from all sorts of backgrounds and that’s one of the strengths, that’s why it’s a great place to work.”

Background and foregroundAs well as some people coming from other

high-speed rail projects around the world, it would seem obvious that technology will come in as well. Why reinvent the wheel when Japan, Spain and China are already running high-speed railways very successfully?

19Rail Engineer • May 2016

“First of all, building a new railway is different, whether it’s high speed or not,” Simon Kirby stated. “A lot of the things we’re doing are because we’re building a railway in 2016 rather than 1916. A lot of the things are different, the approach is different.

“France and Japan, they were the first to develop high-speed railways so their technology can be comparatively old. But they’re renewing that technology now, so we’ve got people who have spent a lot of time out looking at what exists round the world. So we have looked at the early users of high speed rail in Japan and France. Then there is Spain, which has been building high-speed railways since 1992 and now has the second-biggest network in the world, and that’s technology mainly deployed in the early 2000s. Then there is China which has built 14,000 kilometres in the last nine years and which has the latest technology in some areas. Not in all areas, but some.”

Simon went on to differentiate between ‘background technology’ and ‘foreground technology’.

Background technology is the systems that the passenger, the customer, doesn’t see. ETCS signalling, clever traffic management systems, trains which report their own faults to the depots in advance. These are the building blocks of the railway and they will have to be robust. So HS2 doesn’t intend to be the first deployment for any of this technology. Although cutting edge, it must all have been used successfully somewhere else first to reduce risk.

Foreground technology is that which the passenger sees. Ticketing, passenger handling at stations and on board the train, information systems and entertainment - the passenger experience. “We’re trying to delay those decisions as long as possible, because they should be

leading edge,” was Simon’s comment. What is good practice today, such as video screens on the backs of seats, will be passé by 2026.

“The point is that, ten years ago, you couldn’t predict what your iPhone does now, so we shouldn’t even attempt to do that. We are starting to talk to some of the technology companies, but we’re trying to leave that as late as possible because my view is you’ll carry your digital space round with you. You won’t want anything in the train other than 5G or 6G, whatever we’re at, and a power socket, and a great experience.”

Railway technologyHS2 is going to be a high-speed railway. But

even that leaves questions unanswered. How fast will it be? 200mph (320km/h) seems to be the norm now, but will it be in ten years’ time?

“First of all, this is quite a small country we’re in, so unlike Spain and China, where speed and journey time is key, this is about capacity and I think, being a bit critical, that wasn’t communicated very well in the early days of this project. It just wasn’t.

“So the reality is this is about capacity and connectivity with the existing network. Very few railways around the world have integrated in the way we’re going to integrate between the high-speed and classic rail networks from day one.”

While speed will obviously have an effect on capacity, and HS2 is being designed to run at speeds of up to 360km/h, braking, acceleration and dwell times will have as much effect on journey times as outright speed.

The infrastructure will also need to be bullet-proof as well as future-proof. It will need to cope with hundred-year floods and droughts, cold winters and hot summers, and the design team is coping with that challenge as well.

Looking goodAnd then, of course, there are those

complaints from lineside neighbours. These have forced a lot of the route to be either underground or in cuttings while the more obvious parts have to look good.

“Having been to a number of railways around the world that are quite obtrusive, one of the focuses we have is creating a really well-designed, visually designed system,” Simon Kirby stated. “So we’ve created a design panel, 34 people that get drawn on for particular expertise, led by Sadie Morgan who’s from an architectural background. They’re independent of HS2 Ltd, they’re our guiding mind, assurers around great design.

“The focus we’re trying to put on it is not so much the stations, because the stations will go through local planning and they’ll be iconic and they’ll be what the cities want in terms of their station, but the viaducts, the fencing that people see right across the country. These features can be designed so they’re not obtrusive.

“As you know, most of the time when you look at a viaduct it won’t have a train on it, it’ll just be a viaduct which is going to be there for 150 or 200 years. Therefore, why can’t we make it an iconic design piece on its own? So that’s the focus.

“We want to go back to Victorian values and create great iconic infrastructure. It doesn’t have to cost any more, it really doesn’t, and you can make some very attractive ‘stone’ structures out of precast concrete.

“You can buy it now in modules that are built in factories and, if you go and look at the stations in Manchester on the new Metro link extensions, the Mancunian brick stations are all built in Derby. Interestingly, they’re hand-pointed but all the bricks are precast brickwork. It’s all moulded


in a factory. If you look at the bridges on the Stafford bypass on the West Coast main line, they’re all precast. The bridge parapets are all made in a factory. They’re hand pointed to give that authentic look but you wouldn’t know the difference. But the cost, the speed of construction, is just massively different.”

Why high?Some people have questioned whether a

high-speed railway is strictly necessary. If a conventional railway, with a speed of, say, 140mph, were to be built instead. Wouldn’t that do just as well?

“Most of the characteristics are the same for any type of new railway, the aesthetics of bridges and the substructure are the same,” Simon replied. “One of the challenges we all have as an industry is taking people into the world of three or four per cent passenger growth and imagining what the industry looks like in 10 or 20 years’ time. Half of the trains out of Euston by the end of this decade will be full, and that’s with standing provisions as well. So we’d need a four track railway from Euston to Birmingham, not a two track one, because the speeds are slower and the capacity is less.”

But then why not build a four-track conventional railway instead of the twin-track HS2?

“Then the envelope would be much bigger and the cost would be greater. The land take would be greater and the viaducts would be twice the width. A lot of what we’re doing doesn’t matter if it’s high speed or not, a viaduct is a viaduct, a tunnel is a tunnel, two tunnels cost twice as much as one tunnel, so I’m not being smart but it would be a lot more, and the benefit probably would be marginal.

“In addition, to get the connectivity, you do need to get to the north of England more quickly or there would be no point. So when you look at the cost and the massive strategic investment of HS2, why shouldn’t it be a world-class system, a world-class railway? And world-class long-distance railways are high speed now.”

Removing the long distance passenger traffic from the existing West Coast main line will create a lot more capacity on the classic network. A lot more.

“We double the amount of commuter seats into London. We take 500,000 lorries a year off the roads with the freight capacity we create on the West Coast line because we’ve got high-speed trains on the high speed network.

“I think we do a great job in this country of running a railway that was built by the Victorians, we really do. With the capacity enhancements over the years, more people use it now than ever before. When you go around

the world and look at what new railways look like, you do realise how things have moved on. If you go on the Spanish high speed network you’ll see it’s just different. It’s like going in a 1960s car or in a new car, it does the same thing but it’s just more efficient, it’s a better experience and I think when people experience high speed trains in this country, they’ll just see the difference and want more of it because it is just totally different.”

Planning constructionWith Royal Assent not expected until the end

of the year, which will release the construction funding, how much can be done in advance?

“All our findings from around the world show that, when people spend longer in design, they get the design right, they get the plan right, then they go and construct it in a much shorter duration and that’s what we’re going to do.

“So if you look at our civils durations that we had in the plan a couple of years ago, they’ve had about a year and a half taken out of them looking at international benchmarks. We have invested that time into the design to create a better and lower cost solution - something that has had more thought put into it.

“That’s what’s different about building a greenfield railway. Everything we’ll be constructing will be on our built environment.

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When you look at the electrification of the Great Western line today in terms of piling trains and all that sort of activity, we won’t be doing that. Instead, we will be putting overhead line stanchions into substructures we’ve built, you drop them in, you fill them with concrete, waterproof them and go to the next one. If you look at international benchmarks, they do a mile a day of that sort of thing in a green field environment.

“And if you do have a problem, if you don’t quite do a mile, it doesn’t matter because you’re not handing a railway back to trains running the next day, you just come back, fix the problem, and carry on building.

“When you look at how the French and the Spanish have designed their high speed railway, they’ve designed them to be built. The only way you can do that is to bring the builders into the design to help you, so that’s really why we’re doing that at the moment.

Contracts“This year, we will award the early works

contract packages which are earthworks, utility diversions, that type of work. We have to package those to an early works contractor and we’re tendering that at the moment.

“Then, for the main works, it’s a two stage design and build process. We will look in our ITT for all sorts of criteria of experience and skills. We’ll start by asking bidders how they would build a kilometre of track and the costs of it.

“Stage two is the big construction contract. So all we’re committing to at stage one is to give companies a design contract for a year, or

whatever it is, and an incentivisation mechanism to get their costs to where we want them to be. Then, when we award the construction contract, which is after royal assent, we’ve got an incentivisation of pain and gain on it so they can make more or less money around how they perform in construction.

“So we’re looking for contractors who can do all of that, and we’re seeing international consortia form with British companies.”

Once a consortium has won a stage one package, and worked with HS2 to finalise the design, and have proved they can do it for the required cost, then they will be awarded a stage two contract. “It’s theirs to lose, basically,” was Simon Kirby’s comment.

The exact number of contracts is still being finalised. As well as the seven civils packages, there will be one for signalling, one (or more) for stations, one for traction power supplies, one for telecommunications and so on. But, at the end of the day, HS2 is unlikely to have more than 15 suppliers. The rest of the industry will be acting as subcontractors to those, but with the HS2 team keeping an eye on things to make sure standards are maintained.

Phase twoOf course, building the high-speed route from

London to Birmingham is only the first part of the plan.

“Phase two is great because it’s the next phase of the project,” enthused Simon. “We’re mobilising a team for that now in Birmingham under a project director for that phase. In our civils tendering, we’ve put an option in for 2A

(the extension to Crewe) because one of the things we get a lot of feedback on from the market is continuity of work creating efficient delivery. Phase 2A is 40 miles more of railway, and we’re going to put in our civils tendering an option for that phase, so when that goes through into construction it could ultimately be done by the same companies.”

Recruitment has started for phase 2B, from Crewe to Manchester and Birmingham to Leeds. Paul Griffiths has joined the team from Centro as development director for that phase of the work. Both phases 2A and 2B will need their own hybrid bills, and work on those is also underway.

Once those two phases are complete, Britain will have its new high-speed rail network connecting Manchester and Leeds with Birmingham and London. But what about to the continent?

“HS2 is about capacity and connectivity. The business benefit and the economic benefit to the country is about connectivity north to south. Creating a rail link in the way it was being done would have taken quite a lot of capacity out of the system, so we’re looking at different options to get people from Euston to St Pancras.

“Clearly, once you get beyond a certain journey time, people will always fly where time is premium, but that’s not to say in the future there won’t be a link. Who knows where the future will go? But the immediate solution will be an easy connection between Euston and St Pancras by 2026.”

So HS2 is well underway. Despite all the negativity and the doubters, it will happen. And with all the planning that is taking place, it won’t be late or overbudget. It may even be early…


We are CEK and this is our journey...In the world of construction, Carillion, Eiffage and Kier need little introduction. But as a joint venture, we realise CEK might sound a little less familiar.

You may know Carillion as UK’s leading rail and highways contractor. Eiffage is rightly famous as one of Europe’s leading public works contractors. And Kier is actively delivering some of the UK’s most significant infrastructure projects in transport, power and utilities.

But guess what? All three of us are as adept at building teams as we are building high speed rail. After all, rail travel brings people together. And that’s what will happen at every stage of the journey to delivering HS2.www.cek-hs2.team

Cliff terrain surveys using UAVs

MARK PHILLIPS

© High Viz Media

© High Viz Media


Even though the well-known stretch of railway between Dawlish and Newton Abbot is often in the news and other

reports, it now has a new attribute to add to its fame. It has been host to a trial of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) and, what is more, Network Rail has been launching them from its own small-scale aircraft-carrier.

Rail Engineer was invited to witness the recent use of a UAV at Teignmouth as part of an innovative approach to surveying this stretch of coastal railway. The survey forms a key element in the project and study to create the long-term resilience plan for the railway assets here.

The famous or, some would say, notorious stretch of railway between Dawlish Warren and Teignmouth is scenic and dramatic. Along with these characteristics comes the need for high levels of vigilance and maintenance and an ongoing programme of strengthening works.

For decades, the approach has, of necessity, been one of patch and mend as the need has arisen to ensure the railway stays safe. Such works have entailed, below the running lines, masonry repairs to the sea walls and parapets, underpinning of the wall foundations, installation and repair of beach groynes and, above the running lines, rock scaling and netting of the cliff faces, improving drainage and the provision of armoured barriers against rock falls and slips.

Detailed studyNow, and given extra impetus by the storm

damage of February 2014 and subsequent major closure and repairs, Network Rail is preparing a 100-year look-ahead resilience study and plan for the railway assets from Exeter to Newton Abbot. Jo Grew, senior sponsor for Network Rail, and Simon Woddy of Mott MacDonald, the managing consultant for Network Rail, explained that the study will not solely investigate the more immediate concerns of sea wall integrity and cliff face stability between Dawlish Warren and Teignmouth. It will also evaluate the longer term effects of climate change on the sections of railway adjacent to the Exe and Teign estuaries.

For example, designs will eventually be prepared which will cope with the sea level rise predicted for the year 2065. Such interventions may not be implemented until around that time. More immediately though, it is anticipated that a major programme of works will be needed over the next twenty years. It is in determining these needs that the UAV has a significant part to play.

Between Langstone Rock (near Dawlish Warren) and Teignmouth, 34 Cliff Behavioural Units (CBUs) have been assigned to capture the varying geological conditions, and these will be used as a key part of the resilience study. From the modelling that they provide, tailor-made remedial works will be evaluated, designed and implemented.

The geological variations over this section of the route are significant. Therefore, there will not be a ‘one size fits all’ solution for the remedial and resilience works. The issues to be tackled vary from weathering, spalling and erosion of rock faces to cliff areas where rotational slips are prevalent or possible, drainage and vegetation control. It is for these reasons that a fine-grained suite of CBUs is needed.

To achieve a comprehensive 3-D survey using conventional surveying methods over the section of the line where the 34 CBUs are to be modelled would have been difficult, time-consuming and with some attendant safety hazards associated with working on or around a live railway. The potential for an equivalent, possibly more accurate, survey by UAV was identified as the way forward.

Why use UAVs?Before explaining the detail and practicalities of

the UAV trial, it is appropriate to mention some history of the use of UAVs in similar applications. Firstly, UAVs have been used widely throughout Europe for several years now for many technical purposes. These have included not only inspection and monitoring of difficult-to-access areas of bridges, viaducts, oil production platforms, wind turbines and tall buildings, but also in agricultural applications such as monitoring crop health and productivity. They can be useful for thermal imaging applications.


Network Rail recognised these potential benefits and, around 18 months ago, instigated five framework contracts for the provision of UAV services. The type of work on which these services have been deployed so far has been largely for bridge or overhead line inspection purposes.

For the survey work between Langstone Rock and Teignmouth, the specific contractor is Resource Group, whose UK base is at Cwmbran. On-site manager Mark Jones and assistant Lucy Morgan explained the principles of data collection for the survey. The UAV is operated by manual radio control to access a particular defined survey area. Once there, its onboard computer takes over and flies the UAV in a series of pre-programmed flight paths back and forth over the survey area. Its flight pattern, when viewed in plan, can be described as similar to the progress of a lawn mower creating regular stripes. In the case of the UAV, there is a much larger overlap than in even the highest-quality lawn mowing, each pass overlapping its predecessor by 80%.

Even whilst the UAV is flying on autopilot, it has to be within the line of sight of the operator continuously. This is where the ‘aircraft-carrier’ comes into the story. Network Rail’s own regulations stipulate that UAVs must not operate within a 50 metre envelope around an operational railway. That stipulation precludes the UAV operator from launching and landing the aircraft from the lineside public walkway which exists alongside the majority of the survey area and which would otherwise have been a convenient area to use.

So the whole operation had to become a land-sea-air exercise with the UAV operator and the UAV and its associated back-up equipment being conveyed to the site vicinity by rigid inflatable boat (RIB). The advantage of the seaborne approach is that the RIB can be positioned 30 or 40 metres offshore in order for the operator to get a good view of the flying control area. It also facilitates the rapid progress of the survey along the whole site by moving the RIB progressively in stages along the shoreline.

Planning the surveyThe area to be surveyed was divided up into

several sub-areas. For each of these, the UAV is programmed to fly from one ‘waypoint’ to another throughout its series of passes. It continuously records data, describing the ground profile in three-dimensional co-ordinates to an accuracy of 7 or 8mm and simultaneously recording digital images throughout.

To check and calibrate all the data acquired from the UAV flights, use is made of Ground Control Points (GCPs). Over 200 GCPs were installed along the top of the cliffs and also at railway level before the UAV survey took place. Several of the GCPs had to be sited within private property fronting the top of the cliffs. 16 or 17 property owners were approached to allow access to their land for the installation of the GCPs. Simon Woddy commented that all were helpful and curious about the work that was being carried out! The GCPs are temporary only and can be removed after the surveying has been completed and checked. Each GCP is manually surveyed with a ‘GPS antenna pole’ to determine its own absolute co-ordinates. This data will then be used to calibrate the data and photography from the UAV recordings.

Network Rail had specified that a rotary rather than a fixed wing UAV should be used in this trial. The type supplied by Resource Group was a Topcon Falcon 8. This aircraft is manufactured by Ascending Technologies in Germany and has been in production since 2009. It is fitted with eight rotors arranged on a frame which is cleverly designed in a V shape so that, when looking upwards, for example to the underside of a structure, the rotors do not impair the camera view. The Falcon 8 is compact, being only 770 x 820 x 125mm in size and weighing 1.5kg. It can operate in wind speeds up to 15m/s or 12m/s

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when using GPS. The camera onboard for this trial was a Sony Alpha 7R that has a 36.3 megapixel sensor.

On the day of the trial at Teignmouth, the weather window had been carefully selected and was as predicted - calm and dry. The Falcon 8 was launched from the RIB for each flight and had to be returned back to the operator on the boat within 11 minutes, the limits of its battery capacity. However, this seemingly short flight time is not an issue as it was quickly refitted with a replacement battery and relaunched. Meanwhile batteries were being recharged on the boat, each one taking 20 minutes.

More uses for UAVs?The overall benefits of the use of a UAV,

compared to using traditional methods of survey, were evident and impressive. Firstly, the survey, assuming continuing good weather conditions, was achieved over three days. Conventional surveying was estimated at around two months to complete. Secondly, there were no obvious safety implications with the UAV method whereas the alternatives would have involved difficult and dangerous access to the cliff faces with roped access and similar measures. It is believed that cost comparisons have not yet been fully made but again the UAV is likely to be competitive. Finally, the accuracy and detail available from the UAV survey is greater. A conventional survey

would, by its very nature, be restricted to a limited number of measured points, even if a very closely spaced mesh were to be specified, whereas the UAV survey provides continuous imaging and mapping.

The survey data will now be combined with a future ground investigation survey to generate detailed plans and designs for the resilience project. Jo Grew said that the use of the UAV approach, particularly in combination with the boat launching, was an exciting use of new technology, allowing a shortening of the programme to align with other ongoing investigations.

Network Rail now has a specialist department dealing with the use of UAVs above and adjacent to the railway. This has developed stringent safety rules in conjunction with the Civil Aviation Authority covering the qualification and certification of operators.

It seems likely that Network Rail will be encouraged by the success of this trial to widen the use of UAVs to similar applications in the future. Whilst the use of helicopters for covering large areas rapidly has become well established, UAVs will be able to complement them, in particular for covering small areas with specific purposes.

© High Viz Media


Tilts, camera…

GRAHAME TAYLOR

Over the years there have been a number of times, dates and locations that have been etched in the psyche of

generations of railway engineers.

Times. Dates. Locations. 21:16, 5 November 1967, Hither Green

derailment due to a broken rail. Track engineers should be well aware of this as it was the Hither Green derailment that prompted the use of ultrasonic crack detection throughout the network.

08:36, 10 May 1965, Clapham A Signal Box collapses – right at the start of the morning rush hour. This time it was structures maintenance engineers who had to take note. There followed a hurried inspection of all those structural parts previously hidden out of sight.

18:48 31 January 1995, Ais Gill derailment. On this occasion, the time of the derailment is almost insignificant because, when a northbound train derailed after running into a landslip on the Settle-Carlisle line, there were few casualties.

At 18.55, however, a southbound train ploughed into the wreckage and what was a rather scruffy event became a major incident with a fatality and several injuries.

The inspector’s report dwelt at length with

the ‘lost’ seven minutes, questioning why the first train had not been protected and looking in detail at the various communications between train and operators. There was little mention of the landslip but, as time passed, this event became a catalyst for a more proactive approach to managing geotechnical rail assets. The fatal collision was as a direct result of the uncontrolled failure of a cutting slope.

The world was moving on from an almost passive acceptance of such a slip-related derailment being ‘just one of them things’, to a fundamental questioning of the ways in which earthworks are managed.

Classic signsSimon Abbott is head of geotechnics at

Network Rail and explained that, in common with any infrastructure asset management system, the whole process starts by compiling a list. This part is not rocket science.

The realization that an earthworks failure cannot be regarded as ‘just one of them things’ led to a concerted effort to condition grade all the network’s slopes. This was undertaken using a visual inspection process with people on the ground collecting electronic geo-referenced information.

action!

Botley.


They looked for the classic signs – the toe bulges, tension cracks, leaning trees – not like the trees in the Railway Children film which seemed to progress down the bank remaining bolt upright! There are also more subtle indicators like the wandering line of a cable troughing route.

As Simon continued: “More recently, we’ve flown the entire network with LiDAR and that formed part of Network Rail’s ORBIS programme.”

(LiDAR - Light Detection And Ranging - a surveying technology that measures distance by illuminating a target with a laser light)

(ORBIS - Offering the Railway Better Information Systems)

“We now have a super-high-definition model from a point cloud of 40 points per square metre. This information is just about post-processed and is available to all the asset managers. It not only allows us, for the first time ever, to have absolute confidence in our geometry data, it enables us to quantify the volume of earthworks we have out there. This information provides a fantastic baseline model in 3D in the form of a Digital Terrain Model (DTM)”

In parallel with the survey work, there is the process of geotechnical assessments that take place during the development of all major interventions ensuring the best engineering solution can be found.

An area of ongoing improvement is the development of a new tool focussing on a basic assessment against modern standards. Using better geometry data from the LiDAR analysis will, in part, give an idea of the liabilities from legacy design to be quantified.

Enforcement noticeOver the past twenty years or so, the industry

has had around one train derailment caused by an earthwork failure per year. But 2012/13 brought a shock to the geotechnical fraternity. This was a very wet period - very wet indeed - and prompted 196 earthwork failures across the network. More seriously and significantly, there were six derailments.

This led the Regulator to issue an enforcement notice. It was just not acceptable that trains should be sent out, over or through earthworks, without mitigations in areas of high risk during extreme weather.

At this point it is worth reflecting on the way that earthworks have been viewed in the industry. Traditionally, earthworks are part of the permanent way, just as is track and, indeed, fencing. Being part of the permanent way, earthworks management has tended to have been looked after by track – or ex-track

– engineers. This has, probably, been due to the way in which track quality is affected by deteriorating earthworks. And, in this context, for ‘earthworks’ read ‘embankments’ (mostly). However, this changed in the early 2000’s when specialist engineers took on responsibility.

GravityEmbankment failures can be large-scale

projects. They affect the quality of track and thus they cause traffic disruption and reductions in line speed and so on and so on….

But, despite their scale, they are less common than cutting slope failures.

An embankment in distress usually has the common decency to give notice of failure. There are signs, sometimes subtle, at times not so subtle, but nevertheless there are signs of a problem developing. There is often time to mitigate the risks – even if this means a line closure.

Leighton Buzzard.

Whatlington.


On the other hand, a cutting slope gives very little notice. A failure often obeys the laws of gravity without hindrance. A cutting failure can come in a variety of forms – slurry, mud and rock, or very large boulders. One minute the line is clear, the next it’s blocked with the very real potential to cause a derailment – as at Ais Gill.

And so it is cuttings that cause the Network Rail geotechnical engineers the most concern.

Remote monitoringOver the past three years there have been

no earthworks-related derailments. Why? Has it stopped raining perhaps? On the contrary, the weather has been very challenging over this period with record-breaking wet winters in 13/14 and 15/16. It’s just that there is now a greater awareness of the risks involved at a number of key locations and these risks have been mitigated by measures such as blanket speed restrictions or closures.

It’s been a matter of getting the right people with the right expertise to the right locations. It’s the start of a process of making earthworks management more proactive.

But there is plenty yet to do. Getting people to a site might just transfer risk

from one person - on a train - to another - on the ground. The aim now is to go for much more remote monitoring.

Tricky questionsThis is a project being looked after by senior

engineer Mike Brown. Although not in all routes, the pilot involves some significant sites in Scotland, LNE, Wessex and Western.

But it’s unrealistic to monitor all soil cuttings – as an example – using traditional deep-seated monitoring devices. It’s far too expensive and involves many thousands of assets covered in vegetation.

There are 189,000 one-hundred-metre lengths of earthworks over the network. But, of course, not every one has to be monitored. On the other hand, though, there needs to be a sound reason why a site is not being monitored, which leads right back to the original quandary for the infrastructure managers.

“We were asked what technology was out there already and how it worked. Well, the answer to the first question was that we didn’t know about all of it which meant that there was little point looking at the second question!”

There were a number of well-established sites such as through the Pass of Brander, which is fitted with Anderson’s piano wire – a device that is triggered during a rock fall – perhaps.

Then there’s the heroic use of fibre-optic acoustic sensing.

Tilts and cameras“Tilt-sensing technology backed up with a

camera was what we have tried in earnest, not just looking at the widget on the ground, but looking at the whole system of getting the information from site to someone who could take an action.

“Tilt plus camera is at a technology-ready level. It is ready to be implemented in large enough numbers to make a significant impact on risk mitigation.”

Sensors, with infrared cameras as backup, will lead to a standard data output. And, most importantly, a standard way of dealing with alerts.

On bespoke sites, the alert would typically go direct from site to someone’s mobile phone. But action depends on the phone being heeded!

To be really effective what is needed is to have someone looking at this information 24/7 - but the infrastructure maintenance organisations don’t have the resource to achieve such a system.

The Intelligent Infrastructure (II) programme within Network Rail gathers data in a standardised format from product approved and tested kit. The process of handling this data is then managed through flight controllers in the operation centres.

Earthworks are going to use these software platforms, and the links within the operations organisations in Network Rail, to deal with the alerts and alarms.

Eden Brows.


Mechanically, there will be three-hourly heartbeat reports from the sensors, 12-hourly from the cameras and a validation heartbeat every minute.

All will be battery and solar powered. Pictures are taken if a sensor triggers.

Site installations are progressing even though the integration issues have yet to be completed.

Findlay Irvine, a company that specialises

in monitoring technology and logging, won the tender

for equipment supply and support. Installation of the kit was done in-house.

Pilot projectSo far, there are 180 pilot sites out of the 189,000

that will be monitored, and it is likely that these should come on stream towards the end of this year. There is the potential for a further rollout over the coming years depending on the pilot's success.

Though few, these sites have been chosen because they are high risk – such as slopes near tunnel portals.

This goes part of the way to further improving the interventions taking place to strengthen earthworks. However earthwork failures will appear as and when the weather provides the next period of challenging rainfall. The technology being developed by Simon and Mike and its integration into the active management of the network’s aging infrastructure will go a long way to reducing the chance of another Ais Gill.

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Speeding through Rugeley, the Class 390 leaned gracefully into the reverse curves. The sun was over the yardarm and a complimentary glass of red wine was a temptation that couldn’t be refused. Everything was right with your writer’s Pendolino world, as he headed towards a

day-long seminar at the Institution of Mechanical Engineers (IMechE) in London. Contemplating its slightly cumbersome title, ‘Wheelsets: Less cost, Less Risk - The Challenge,’ thoughts turned to what was keeping the Pendolino on the straight and narrow - and those reverse curves for that matter. With the house red going down nicely, it was sobering to contemplate the train wheelsets revolving at 1,100 RPM, with the stability and safety of the train depending upon the subtlety of the tread profile.

As passengers, we take all this for granted of course - and indeed why shouldn’t we? After all, we’ve had 150 years to perfect the concept of steel wheels running along steel rails. All very well, of course, but there’s no denying that wheelsets have a hard life. They are subjected to daily wear and tear - the result of dynamic loads, cyclic stresses and the affects of acceleration and braking. Nevertheless, twenty years have passed since a defective wheelset caused a major accident in the UK.

That safety comes at a cost, of course. Long gone are the days of the wheel tapper and now we have more sophisticated inspection and testing regimes. Regular visits to the wheel lathe restore profiles and mitigate the hazards presented by damage and rolling contact fatigue, but each time wheels are re-profiled up to 6mm of metal can be removed. As a consequence, wheelsets represent some of the most expensive ‘consumables’ on rail vehicles.

Critical to vehicle availability, they account for a significant proportion of an operator’s maintenance budget. The IMechE seminar explored the relationship between safety, performance and cost, focusing on new and emerging research and how the industry can benefit.

Risk and costSponsored by Perpetuum, Mechan and

Kluber Lubrication, the IMechE event hosted presentations from sixteen speakers. The keynote address was given by Andy Course, chief operating officer of Eversholt Rail. He posed the question: “Is it a doable challenge to have less cost and less risk in the design, maintenance and inspection of wheelsets?”

The UK rail network is the safest in Europe but, as Andy went on the say: “There is no complacency, but do our rail systems need to be safer, and safer, and safer? The wheel/rail

interface represents a single point of failure, with potentially catastrophic results if things go wrong, but what is the probability of that risk?”

Andy pointed out that between 2006 and 2012 there was a linear growth in axle rejects, rising from 10% to 60%. “During that time there were no catastrophic events, but who pays the cost?” asked Andy. “The answer is - all of us.”

Up to 30% of the fleet maintenance costs within the UK are estimated to be due to wheelset replacements. Although we can expect a 35-40 year fleet life, the wheelset life is a mere fraction of that. Some £50 million is spent each year on wheelset replacement, with indirect costs probably doubling that figure. So, does spending more money equate to more safety?

Andy thinks not. Perhaps we are throwing good money into the

skip - money that could be put to good use on other things?

Andy asked: “If we can currently expect a 600,000-mile bogie life, what would it take to extend that life, say to achieve a million-mile

for lessMore STUART MARSH

© Lucchini Zhibo

Rail Engineer • May 201632RO

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bogie?” Get it wrong and the consequences could be dire. As Andy concluded: “We clearly need to avoid the ‘Go to Jail’ card - to protect liability. In order to achieve savings we really need to understand the probability of failures and the mitigation of the risks.”

It became clear during the course of the seminar that innovation, new products and new techniques have the potential to realise that challenge.

Consortium benefitsLucchini Unipart Rail (LUR) is a new joint

venture between Lucchini RS Group and Unipart Rail. The tag line ‘From Furnace to Fleet’ sums up the way in which LUR attempts to eliminate supply chain wastage by providing a one-stop shop for bogie and wheelset overhaul. Lucchini RS of Italy manufactures steel ingots and undertakes the forging and rolling of wheels and axles. LUR then machines loose components and undertakes wheelset new build, overhaul and inspection; whereas at its Doncaster facility LUR undertakes bogie overhauls. Completing the picture, Unipart Rail provides component distribution to the whole of the UK network. The idea is that this ‘vertically integrated supply chain’ will bring greater efficiency, cost savings and reduced lead times.

Sam Foulkes is a project engineer with LUR and his presentation looked at ‘A Wheelset Manufacturer’s View of Maintenance.’ He described how wheelset overhaul activities require interference fits to be broken. This can reveal damage to the axle, such as corrosion, axial and circumferential scoring and indentation. Axle scrapping data shows that corrosion at the abutment shoulder is the most significant factor, followed in decreasing order by corrosion to the axle body, bearing journal and, least of all, the wheel seats.

By examining the scrapping data, LUR will target these areas for improvement. The company will also review axle design and generate reclamation procedures to enable the removal of defects and extend the operational life. “Many customers are now looking into additional axle reclamation,” said Sam.

Principally, this involves re-machining. Areas of potential material removal have previously included: » Axle body » Wheel seats » Abutment shoulders » Axle-mounted brake disc seats » Stress relieving grooves.Machining to remove fretting damage at

bearing journals is possible, together with the addition of stress relieving grooves in these areas. Such grooves are now included by LUR during manufacture as a preventative measure. In addition, the application of Loctite 5699 is used to prevent corrosion in overhangs and transition radii.

ReLASEAn innovative young company, LASE Limited,

is able to build up metal surfaces by a process of laser cladding. Sam Lester, a director of the company, outlined the process: “Axles can become scored when wheels are removed, leading to the scrapping of axles that have only minor surface wear. Laser Cladding is essentially a welding process that uses metal powder to rebuild the damaged surface for finish machining.”

A laser provides the heat source, creating a weld pool 4mm in diameter into which the powdered metal is blown. LASE Limited claims that the amount of heat transmitted into the substrate can be very accurately controlled. Excellent process control gives repeatable results and low stresses, ensuring that distortion is minimised.

LASE Limited is currently testing different weld alloys, mainly concentrating on nickel and cobalt-based alloys for axles. The mechanical parameters, including hardness, can also be changed by adjusting the heat input and the cooling rate. The objective is to apply a coating that is harder than the original, or ‘better than new.’ LASE Limited is currently working with TWI (The Welding Institute) in Port Talbot on CT (computed tomography) testing and fatigue testing of axles. This innovative laser technique appears to hold great promise as an effective method of axle repair.

MagneticIn her presentation, Stephanie Klecha

of MRX Technologies described how the measurement of magnetic flux density in wheel treads can be used to optimise the amount of material to be removed during wheel turning. As she explained: “Damage and surface cracking of wheel treads is expensive. Surface damage is difficult to classify visually and it’s not possible to establish the depth of defects. This makes data assessment and trending difficult.”

The ability to reliably and accurately measure the depth of wheel tread damage could potentially reduce the time a vehicle is on the wheel lathe. It could also prevent the excessive removal of material, maximising wheelset life and allowing greater consistency between different wheel lathe operators.

MRX’s Surface Crack Measurement (SCM) technology has been used on rails for more than eight years. The technique has now been adapted to measure surface cracking on wheels, with funding being awarded through RSSB to validate a hand held product. This work has been undertaken in collaboration with Bombardier Transportation and the University of Huddersfield.

SCM firstly involves magnetising the surface to be tested, inducing lines of magnetic flux into the specimen. If there are no defects, these flux lines are undisturbed through the specimen and are wholly contained within it. If a defect is present the flux can’t easily pass through it, causing some flux to leak out of the surface.

A rail component being laser clad.

MRX hand held unit in use.

Rail Engineer • May 2016 33ROLLING STOCK/DEPOTS

The Wheel SCM product has 16 sensors spaced at 5mm pitch across the wheel tread to measure and record the leaking flux. Gathered data is used to produce a damage map (flux density plot) of the wheel surface. Colour coding gives an indication of the damage severity, up to a maximum depth of 9.9mm. The device is particularly effective in detecting and analysing rolling contact fatigue (RCF) cracking and, of course, it can also be used to confirm when a wheel is defect-free after turning.

It is estimated that the use of this technology in optimising cut depths at the wheel lathe could extend wheelset life by up to two re-profiling activities, representing a 25% saving in costs.

Thin flangesJulian Stow of the Institute of Railway

Research, University of Huddersfield and Hamid Khan of Alstom described a project that has evaluated Economic Tyre Turning (ETT). Undertaken under a strategic partnership between the RSSB and the University of Huddersfield, with sponsorship from Alstom and Virgin Trains, this project has involved re-profiling Class 390 Pendolino wheels to the design profile, but using a thinner flange within RGS limits.

The idea is to restore the wheel profile with a smaller-than-normal reduction in the wheel diameter. This technique can extend wheel life and is particularly useful when the wheel is nearing scrapping diameter. It can provide flexibility (delay) when planning wheelset change. On the downside, this benefit can only be achieved once in the life of a wheelset.

The potential for ETT was originally highlighted during RSSB Research Project T963 (‘Wheel Tread Damage Guide’). Network Rail’s Dr Mark Burstow then examined thin flange profiles turned on scrap wheelsets at several wheel lathes, finding that the resulting profiles contravened both GM/RT2466 and EN 13715. The shapes of the flange faces produced are the same as profile P8, for which a thinner flange is not permitted.

Furthermore, it was found that the method of blending the profile between the flange and tread datum changes the radii of the tread profile. It was also discovered that the lathe can produce profiles thinner than those permitted in the EN - without any warning! Network Rail therefore issued a National Incident Report in October 2014, reminding maintainers that turning thin flanges is not permitted.

There was, however, anecdotal evidence that ETT is widely used in Europe. Also in support of change, RSSB T641: Cost Effective Turning of Flange Worn Wheel Profiles states that thin flanges don’t ‘compromise derailment safety or have significant detrimental effects on vehicle dynamics’ and includes a statement that an ETT option should be made available at final tyre turning.

Furthermore, IRR Report 110/81: Business case for ETT on GB railways considers realistic wear and damage trajectories and estimates that ETT could save between one and four per cent of wheelset maintenance costs. That would represent a tentative cost saving of between £0.8 and £5 million per annum for a typical UK passenger rolling stock fleet.

Wear modelling was undertaken, based around Class 390 using P8 and P12 profiles, Class 44 using P8 and P12 profiles and bulk cement

Magnetic flux density plot of damaged wheel tread.

Profile restored with a thinner flange gives a smaller reduction in wheel diameter.

© University of Huddersfield


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From Furnace to FleetLucchini Unipart Rail Ltd. Wheel Forge Way, Trafford Park, Manchester, M17 1EH+44 161 886 0300

LUR Bogie Division Hexthorpe Road, Doncaster, DN1 1QY +44 1302 319150

[email protected] www.lur.co.uk

Lucchini Unipart Rail is a joint venture between Lucchini RS Group and Unipart Rail Limited Excellence In All We Do

From the announcement in November 2014 of the Joint Venture, Lucchini RS and Unipart Rail have worked together to enable LUR to deliver Bogies, Wheelsets, Axles and Wheels from its Doncaster and Manchester sites.

In April we have received our second Sirmu wheel lathe with manipulator, moved our Doncaster-based staff into new offices at our Hexthorpe bogie facility and received the keys for our new Distribution Centre for wheelset & gearbox components and off-the-shelf wheelsets, located next door to our gearbox facility in Trafford Park.

LUR is unique in the control of its supply chain, with forged wheels and axles coming from the Lucchini RS steelworks in Italy before final machining and delivery “just in time” from Manchester. Wheelset and gearbox assembly and overhaul in Manchester and bogie overhaul in Doncaster complete the picture of full service provision for the traction system.

Another Big Thank You to our Customers and Suppliers and to the 350 employees who have contributed to our first full year in business as a JV.

Wheels

Axles

Wheelsets

Non Destructive Testing

Bogie Overhaul

Wheelset Overhaul

Gearbox Overhaul

tank wagons using the P6 profile. It was found that thin flange profiles have the same wear characteristics as full flange P8 and P12 profiles. In fact, the flange wear rate was slightly lower. A study undertaken to assess whether thin flange profiles could affect RCF damage found that RCF damage was similar to full flange P8 and P12.

In the light of these findings, a trial was then undertaken using a Class 390 Pendolino set that was due for overhaul in March 2016, during which its wheelsets would be replaced. The aim of the trial was to provide evidence that would support a change to GM/RT2466 and permit the use of ETT. It would also provide an opportunity to gain a better understanding of wheel-rail performance after wheel re-profiling (economic and normal wheel re-profiling), which could be used for further optimisation work. The principle objective, of course, was to validate the findings of the wear modelling and demonstrate that there was no adverse effect on ride quality.

Twenty wheelsets were turned to a flange thickness of 26mm. Of these, six wheels reached the minimum flange thickness after 32,000 miles. These were turned again to a flange thickness of 26.5mm, plus 14 more wheels for parity (i.e. 10 axles in total). The remaining ten wheelsets have now accumulated over 60,000 miles in service (minimum flange thickness 24.3 mm).

The trial has supported the simulations, suggesting that tread and flange wear rate would be the same for thin and full flange profiles. It can be concluded that ETT has the potential to be a useful tool in extending wheelset life, with a recommendation that RGS should be changed to permit its use. Alstom’s preference would be to allow any flange thickness between the design P12 (28.4mm) and a minimum of 26 mm (RGS limit 24 mm). There is also the potential to determine how many miles each flange thickness can give - perhaps 30,000 miles for 26mm for example. This would allow wheelset life to be fully utilised, mirroring common practice elsewhere in Europe.

Realising the potentialIt has been said that, here in the UK, the rail

industry is quite good at talking, but not so good at putting new technology into operation on the railway. The IMechE conference included a total of sixteen presentations that outlined ways in which wheelset life can be increased at less cost. It is therefore clear that new and emerging wheelset research could benefit the industry enormously, meeting the dual challenges of less cost and less risk - if the challenges of implementing it can be overcome.

Justin Southcombe, commercial director of event sponsor Perpetuum, in discussing condition-monitored maintenance for rail, expressed a view that technology now exists that could realise 60 per cent more mileage from proactively managed wheelsets and bogies.

He went on to highlight that, by 2020 we can expect a 20 per cent increase in passenger miles, but it’s predicted that by then there could be a 35 per cent shortfall in traction and rolling stock technicians. Could that be a recipe for what Justin likened to a perfect storm, or can the industry overcome the challenge of implementing changes in the way it procures, manages and maintains its expensive assets? Certainly the aspiration is there.

Some of these changes will involve amendments to existing standards, or even the emergence of new ones. These standards exist to achieve compatibility, to manage safety through the use of best practice and to ensure the avoidance of known errors. Standards development is an ongoing process - EuroNorms are now being revised to include the latest developments in protective coatings, surface treatment processes and transition geometries. The ETT trial underway on Class 390s seems likely to lead to standards change.

To sum up, the way forward seems likely to involve new concepts such as real-time in‐service monitoring, tailored maintenance and management regimes, and the use of tailored wheel profiles. The use of new and improved materials, coatings and repair processes will be important too, together with improved understanding of fatigue defects. New opportunities will be considered and assumptions tested.

The technology of steel wheels on steel rails might be 150 years old, but the message delivered at the IMechE was that it can still evolve!

Thanks to the Institution of Mechanical Engineers for helping with this article.


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The recent multi-million pound refurbishment of Reading station saw Latchways systems chosen by work-at-height registered installers Eurosafe Solutions. The companies worked together

to provide fall protection systems and walkways for use during the construction process and for future maintenance; one of numerous projects the two safety leaders have collaborated on since Eurosafe was formed in 2000.

As a major transport hub, it was vital that Reading station remained operational throughout the refurbishment works and so construction of the new platforms was carried out using off-site construction methods, with sections of the platform roofs being completed offsite at ground level and then transported and positioned as finished units on site. As a method of delivering construction with the minimum of disruption and considerable cost savings, building offsite is becoming the preferred method for numerous Network Rail projects including Farringdon Station and the ongoing London Bridge refurbishment.

Offsite construction, onsite safety

Due to the adoption of this construction method, a bespoke fall-protection system was a key element that Latchways and Eurosafe needed to develop to allow the roofing contractor to safely complete the installation of the roofing sections. Eurosafe managing director Gavin Ellis explained: “One of the major benefits we get from working

with Latchways is the ability of their engineering department to work hand-in-glove with ours, to develop a bespoke system to fulfil the brief. In the case of Reading, it was essential that, as the roofs were installed, workers could navigate safely from one structure to another during the erection of the platform buildings.

“Another of Latchways’ strengths is that it works closely with the roofing manufacturers, which is vital to forming the strongest possible supply chain on a project. Due to the nature and size of the roofing panels, it was essential that we had the full cooperation of Kalzip, the roofing manufacturer. Latchways’ long term partnership with Kalzip allowed any technical queries to be solved quickly and efficiently.”

Using ManSafe horizontal systems with Constant Force® technology, as well as WalkSafe walkways for temporary roofing access and permanent maintenance solutions, allowed Eurosafe to provide the very best available fall protection demanded on the Reading refurbishment project. Gavin Ellis concluded: “We use Latchways with 100%

confidence. It provides solutions that are always ahead of the game and the quality of product is head and shoulders above the rest. Every single one of our projects is different, but our clients come to us because they know we only work with the very best in the industry and we, in turn, know that Latchways are one of the best partners we could have.”

Developed in DevizesLatchways, which has its

headquarters in Devizes, is responsible for innovative fall protection systems at many iconic buildings across the world - including New York’s Grand Central Station, the new Doha airport in Qatar and the Olympic Stadium in London.

At the heart of Latchways global success is its New Product Development Centre, headed by Karl Jones. From the

facilities in Hopton Park, the multiple award-winning Personal Rescue Device (PRD) has been designed, developed, tested and manufactured to produce the world’s first fall arrest and self-rescue system.

“We pride ourselves on innovating and breaking new ground in engineering fall protection solutions,” explained Karl. “We specialise in ‘technology transfer’, which means we learn from the high-tech worlds such as those of Formula 1® and aerospace and translate that learning into providing truly game-changing fall protection.”

As Rail Minister Claire Perry, who is also MP for Devizes, said during a recent visit: “It’s exciting to discover that we’re manufacturing products here in Devizes that are then installed and used to protect people working at height across the world.”

The power of partnership

ManSafe Self-retracting lifelines (SLFs) in train depot.


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This is an exciting time for High Speed rail in the UKVisit our website to view our vision for High Speed and become part of the Hitachi design journey…

hitachirail-eu.com @HitachiRailEU

Not justa component

In the UK, a significant number of DMUs are at a point in their lives where business cases may still support refurbishment and modernisation initiatives. Voith components have been associated with the UK rolling stock market for over 30 years. Be it the revolutionary hydro-dynamic and hydro-mechanical transmissions, Scharfenberg couplers, cooler groups or

final drives, the company’s equipment delivers high quality and reliable performance time after time.

Today, Voith has evolved to become far more than an individual component supplier. Its strength lies in the capability to offer customers a whole-system approach by, for example, supplying a complete driveline from the engine to the wheels or a modular train front end including the fitted-out cab structure, integral energy absorption, coupler and retraction mechanism.

The Voith product range can help realise the aforementioned projects either through complete product replacement or through bespoke sub-packages. The company has the expertise and resources to take full control of the sub system design, manufacturing and integration. In the case of retrofit projects this can also include installation and commissioning.

Strength in serviceWith 25 service engineers across the UK and Ireland,

Voith rapidly responds to customer’s demands for on-site assistance at depots and train manufacturing facilities. Service engineers work in close cooperation with customers, providing end user support in daily operation through fault-finding, troubleshooting, training and maintenance baselining exercises. A major part of the company’s aftermarket strength is its proactive service approach.

Voith offers completely or partially integrated solutions to support franchise modernisation programmes, assuming the control of projects on customer demands. This project management approach minimises the efforts on negotiations and the interfaces for the customer.

Transmission solutionsThe Voith hydrodynamic transmission has been hugely

successful in the world market with over 40,000 units sold. In the UK, in the 1980s, the T211 hydro-dynamic transmission initiated a new era of increased reliability and performance of DMUs. Today, customers around the world still specify these as their transmissions of choice.

A more recent development is the DIWARail hydro-mechanical transmission, the key feature of which is the integrated reversing mechanism, unique to Voith. Unmatched in the market, the DIWARail transmission addresses the increasing drive to reduce fuel consumption and component weight whilst maintaining reliability and efficiency. Simulation programmes allow users to choose a specific transmission to suit their particular requirements and duty cycles.

A recent evaluation trial involved the fitment of two DIWARail transmissions to one Class 158 train. A collaborative project between train owner Angel Trains and

supplier

ICx modular cab.

DIWARail transmission.


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operator Arriva Trains Wales, turnkey design, manufacture and integration were managed completely by Voith with the fitment completed within 14 days, a tribute to the excellent collaboration between all concerned.

Top marks!The results of the trial proved that fuel

consumption savings of up to 16 per cent are achievable, although this can be influenced by both the average distance between station stops and the average train line speed.

The expectations in terms of the trial performance criteria were exceeded, and an overall train weight reduction of over 400kg was realised by the modification. The train is now in operational service with over 100,000 miles of fault free running having been accumulated.

Wheelset solutionsAs further example of a retrofit driveline project

to enhance an existing fleet, Voith is currently delivering 200 new final drives and cardan shafts for a UK DMU fleet. These vehicles had a critical timeframe for delivery, so the project demanded a ready-to-fit solution, with no modifications to be made to the vehicle.

Having worked closely with the customer to develop a dedicated replacement powered wheelset and cardan shaft, the scope of supply also required Voith to obtain RISAS certification and fit customer-supplied axle bearings and associated parts.

The combined final drive and cardan shaft package has a potential operating life of one million miles. So far, the wheelsets and cardan shafts fitted have

accumulated a total over five million miles of trouble free operation.

Coolers, couplers and cardan shaftsThe UK Cooler Group Excellence Centre is

located in Greenford, where Voith has modern facilities to test any particular design of cooler groups for locomotives and DMUs. Here, thanks to extensive resources, Voith offers overhaul, test and upgrade of any manufacturers cooler group in any application for both diesel and electric traction from multiple units to locomotives.

Scharfenberg couplers need no introduction as they are the established standard for modern effective coupling around the world in all applications from Metro through to the latest high-speed trains. Complete coupler replacements, upgrades and retro fit packages are offered, based on standard models or design and engineer bespoke solutions to improve performance and reliability.

These upgrade solutions can be applied for any manufacturer’s couplers including packages such as replacement coupler heads, upgraded electrical boxes or winter resilience modifications.

Voith’s ‘one million mile’ cardan shafts are now fitted to a high proportion of UK DMUs and are proving to be a cost effective and reliable option for operators. The key is having the technology and expertise in-house to develop the most effective solution for any application.

Now including

diesel engines!Although known for its

transmissions, adding a diesel engine range to Voith’s driveline product range was an obvious extension. It allows the prime mover to be perfectly matched to the transmission, either as a separately mounted configuration or in a powerpack combined with a DIWARail, T211 transmission or electrical generator. Voith engines are Stage 3B compliant and the six-cylinder engine covers a power range from 294 to 390kW.

For a significant number of UK legacy DMUs, the Voith engine offers lower weight/space envelope and higher power with reduced fuel consumption.

When the new engine is combined with the DIWARail transmission, the benefits of reduced fuel consumption from two components can be realised with the added advantage of modern technology and increased power.

When taken together, Voith rolling stock solutions deliver increased efficiency, fuel savings, weight reduction, improved reliability/availability/maintainability and the elimination of parts obsolescence. Retrofit integration on the fleet can be delivered as a single source, turn-key solution.

Cooling system options.

400DH railpack.


Railways around the world are facing demands to transport more passengers and freight, but constructing new tracks is both expensive and unpopular. This leads to an ambition to run more trains on existing

tracks, and challenges to the fundamental principles of present day railway operations are being proposed to achieve this goal.

One such principle is that trains following one another on the same track must be separated by a sufficient margin to ensure every train is capable of braking to a stand before reaching the last known position of the train in front. With braking rates limited by the adhesion between steel wheel and steel rail, the required separation increases dramatically with speed - on a high-speed line trains must run several kilometres apart. The migration from fixed block to moving block signalling (such as CBTC or ERTMS/ETCS level 3) is driven by an ambition to maximise capacity within this constraint, but demand for ever increasing capacity means that the principle itself is now under challenge.

The argument for an alternative approach starts with the assertion that it is unrealistic to assume the train in front will stop instantly. Provided the two trains have similar braking rates, the trains can run much closer together. A communication link between the trains can ensure that if the leading train starts to brake, the following train will do the same and maintain separation as the two trains slow together. This concept has been described by its proponents as “ERTMS level 4”, “Train Convoy”, or “Virtual Coupling”, and it features in national and international research agendas such as the UK Railway Technical Strategy and the European

Shift2Rail research initiative.The precedent for this mode of

operation is on the roads, where vehicles routinely run with a spacing based on the distance travelled while the driver reacts to the brake lights of the vehicle in front, not the full braking distance to a stop. While the safety levels achieved are orders of magnitude lower than on the railways, this is primarily due to the reliance on human drivers. Autonomous road vehicles are now a major research topic, and this is likely to deliver an automated version of the existing style of motorway driving that will be considerably safer than at present and could have technology spin-offs for railway applications.

So is this an idea that railway signal engineers should be taking seriously? Three questions arise:

1. Is the technology feasible?2. Is it safe?3. Does the concept create useful

additional capacity?

Is the technology feasible?The answer to this is undoubtedly

yes. The odometry systems that report train location for CBTC or ETCS level 3 also report train speed, and braking characteristics are a known parameter within the system. Sensors developed for automated road vehicles may also play a part. A direct communication link between the trains would be needed and there are various technologies that can be used for this purpose.

Automatic driving of the trains would be essential, but this is already required to exploit the maximum available capacity from our existing signalling systems, such as on the Thameslink project in the UK. The greatest technical and operational challenge is probably in the management of transitions - how to insert or remove a train from a convoy?

is it feasible?IAN MITCHELL

Train Convoy Concept.

Closer running:Rail Engineer • May 201642

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Is it safe?Safety is a much bigger question. The instinctive reaction of every signal

engineer will be that it is an intolerable risk for trains to operate closer together than the braking distance. This is confirmed by a simple risk assessment - a train coming to a stand in less than its normal braking distance is a credible consequence of a derailment due to a train or track defect, or hitting an obstacle, and the collision of a following train that is running too close to stop could have catastrophic consequences with multiple fatalities.

However, think about it another way. Instead of running two trains as a convoy, they could be coupled together. Then, if the combined train derails, twice as many passengers will be affected by the initial derailment.

With two trains running separately in a convoy, there is at least a chance that the second train would have been able to stop in time - in this situation the convoy option would actually be safer.

Depending on the separation of the trains, and how quickly the leading train stops when it becomes derailed, there will be a spectrum of consequences. The key parameter is likely to be the speed differential when the following train catches up with the derailed train in front. If this is significant, then it is very likely that the loss of life from derailment of the first train followed by collision of the second will be greater than from derailment of a double length train.

The mechanical and structural design of the vehicles could have a significant effect - modern rolling stock is designed to crashworthiness standards that consider collision with a fixed obstacle, and to allow coupling with a stationary train. How will these features perform in the derailment followed by collision scenario described above?

Paradoxically, with the right vehicle design, trains running very close together could be relatively safe, with the risk increasing as they become further apart. When the first train derails, a second train very close behind will catch up before the first train slows significantly, and the speed

differential may be within the crashworthiness and coupler capabilities. The consequences would then be the same as for derailment of a double length train.

Accident scenarios involving a train on a parallel track also need to be considered. At present we are happy to allow trains to run at full speed in opposite directions on parallel tracks when a derailment on one track could block the other, but historically the accidents with greatest loss of life are those where a derailment as a result of two trains colliding on one track has resulted in a third train running into the wreckage (Quintinshill, Harrow and Clapham for example). Would this type of accident become more likely, or could the technologies used for train convoys provide additional warning to the train on the parallel track?

As well as the probability of occurrence, the other key issue for the adjacent line derailment case (and to some extent for ‘sudden stop’) is that, whilst the causes remain essentially unchanged, the consequences for an event involving convoys, rather than single trains, might be significantly greater and thus there may be an increase in risk.

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What would happen if a train derailed and lay across the track, as in this recent incident at Dalfsen, Netherlands?


From this very superficial safety analysis, it is apparent that there is no absolute answer, and the safety of a train convoy, or convoys, compared to single trains with equivalent capacity will depend on a number of parameters. The mechanical and structural design of the trains needs to be taken into account as well as the mode of operation that is envisaged and the possibility of designing in additional controls and/or mitigations.

Useful additional capacity?There is no doubt that the train

convoy principle would improve plain line capacity, but is this really the factor that puts limits on the useful capacity of the railway system?

The experience of metros that have adopted moving block CBTC signalling is that the achievable capacity depends largely on station dwell times for passengers to board and alight at the busiest stations, and turnaround arrangements at termini. If this is the case, abandoning the principle of absolute braking distances for the train convoy concept will not deliver any further improvement.

Longer platform dwell times are required in mainline applications, but this can be compensated for by the provision of additional platforms, so that the dwell time does not necessarily determine the

route capacity. However, this introduces the need to switch successive trains into different platforms by moving points between trains.

If the train convoy concept was adopted, this would mean moving points between trains in the convoy. This introduces another safety risk, that of the points failing in position that would derail the train. This is a very credible scenario, much more frequent than a train derailment, hence the universal practice of proving that the points are detected in the required position before granting a movement authority to an approaching train - so trains in the convoy would have to be spaced out to braking distance on the approach to any diverging junction. The same factor limits the benefits from existing moving block signalling technologies on complex track layouts - they become fixed block at the very places on the network where capacity is most critical.

This implies that, on its own, the train convoy concept cannot deliver a real increase in capacity. A whole-system approach is needed that starts by identifying the real limiting factors in complex areas of the network, and then seeks out relevant technical and operational concepts that will deliver an improvement in these critical locations.

Realistic option?So should the concept of train

convoys be taken seriously? Going back to the original questions at the start of this article:

1. Is it technically feasible? Technically, it can almost certainly be made to work, but there will be significant operational challenges to make it useful in practice.

2. Is it safe? This will depend on a number of factors so it should not be ruled out entirely on safety grounds but the safety argument will be difficult.

3. Will it deliver real benefits? Not without addressing other factors limiting practical capacity at stations and junctions.

Nevertheless, no doubt more will be heard on this topic in the future. ‘Virtual Coupling’ is one of the topics to be covered in the European Shift2Rail research project, and ‘Closer Running’ is the title of an RSSB research project in the UK.

Ian Mitchell is a member of, and writes in conjunction with, the International Committee of the Institution of Railway Signal Engineers.

Train headways at a diverging junction.


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Metroisation is a term coined by Komplete, but it’s not an initiative the company can claim to own. It refers to the method of improving passenger flow through trains, which is helping to transform rail travel in megacities throughout the world.

The majority of megacities – metropolitan areas with a total population in excess of ten million people – can be found in Southeast Asia, where passenger numbers are higher than anywhere else on earth and optimising flow through train vehicles is crucial. Key to success is the arrangement of seats longitudinally, rather than in a transverse layout. In other words, seats which face across the train vehicle, rather than those which face backwards or forwards. Longitudinal seating arrangements generally accommodate more passengers but also make it much easier for people to move through train vehicles – easing congestion amongst the world’s largest commuter populations.

Transverse seating, which goes back to the days of the horse and carriage, has run its course in many different modes of transport and is now benefitting from an evolution to more efficient layouts. Longitudinal seating has already been used within London Underground train vehicles in the UK’s own megacity. Docklands Light Railway (DLR) recently commissioned a project for the upgrading of its B2007 fleet – in which Komplete has a vital role to play.

Seat modificationKomplete, which offers bespoke solutions for

clients in the rail sector, has now completed the installation package of the project for DLR (through operating partnership Keolis Amey Docklands – KAD). The modification of the seating from transverse to longitudinal, along with the associated equipment such as grab rails and handles, is what Komplete refers to as ‘metroisation’. However, it is the Group’s approach to project management – in particular, its collaborative way of working – which has distinguished its turnkey solution.

The contract was won through an open tendering process, in which Komplete developed

a proposal to deliver a fully managed service for DLR, with all work being undertaken within Beckton depot – the primary railway maintenance depot for the Docklands Light Railway.

Meticulous planning has prepared the way for successful delivery of works. In addition to credentials such as RISQS codes and ISO9000, Komplete has built a reputation within the industry for its collaborative approach to working. This project has been no exception and collaborative working has created total synergy between client and contractor. Key to this process is the opening of effective channels of communication; use of specialist software has enabled those involved in the project, both within the Group and client side, to see each stage of delivery.

Part of the Komplete's early work in the project was the creation of a physical mock-up of the new seating arrangement to improve passenger flow and experience in the B2007 fleet of train vehicles. With full client input and agreement, the project moved to the design stage, with reviews and ultimately approval to deliver works: » Material / supply chain of train hardware » First article inspection (with comparison to

design plans) » 360° feedback with DLR and KAD » First in class fitment (May 2015) » Feedback on first and all subsequent fitments » Improvements made as a result of feedback » Completion of all 55 vehicles in the B2007

fleet (March 2016)

As in any project of this nature, there have been challenges to overcome. However, all modifications and improvements which were required as a result of the 360° feedback were made in a culture of collaboration, with Komplete working in tandem with DLR and KAD.

Positive commentsMike Harmer, head of projects at Komplete,

commented: “This project has allowed Komplete to demonstrate its ability to provide a fully managed service for clients. We have an existing relationship with Docklands Light Railway and this formed the foundation upon which we have built a collaborative working environment in which all work is consulted on, reviewed and improved to achieve the best possible result. We are looking towards September 2016 to hand over all successfully completed works to DLR and KAD.”

This sentiment was echoed by Mark Fox, project manager of rolling stock at DLR: “Komplete has worked seamlessly with our team at Beckton Depot, maintaining excellent lines of communication. I have found the Komplete team to be motivated and professional whilst maintaining excellent delivery performance. Even when faced with challenges, Komplete responded with a quality solution and attitude”.

The quality of the new longitudinal seating installed in the DLR train carriages highlighted the shortcomings of the remaining transverse seating – which is testament to the high standard of workmanship performed by Komplete Group’s skilled personnel. With a strong collaborative relationship in place, it was natural for DLR to ask Komplete to quote for the replacement of the remaining seating. As a consequence, the Group was asked to undertake the further installation work.

Crucial to this project has been the stringent application of health and safety standards – with Komplete ensuring every fibre of material in all installations conforms to BS 6853:1999 Code of practice for fire precautions in the design and construction of passenger carrying trains in respect of fireproofing and guarding against toxins.

The ‘metroisation’ project for DLR could pave the way for similar projects for train operating companies that experience extremely high volumes of passengers – and not just in the capital. Komplete has potentially created the blueprint for how such projects can be managed to a high specification, ensuring the optimum experience for busy rail passengers.

metroisationKomplete


It is now 52 years since Japan’s Shinkansen gave the world its first dedicated high speed rail line, which transformed rail travel in Japan. This also provided the country’s train manufacturers with a market for advanced

trains. Hitachi, in particular, has been involved in all Shinkansen trains since then and has progressively perfected its high-speed train technology to become one of Asia’s leading train manufacturers.

Hitachi entered the European rail market in 2007 as the first of 28 Class 395 ‘Javelin’ units were delivered for use on domestic high-speed services on HS1 between London St Pancras and Kent. These trains were introduced into service in 2009 and are based on the 400 series Shinkansen, adapted to meet European standards. With a maximum speed of 140 mph, the Javelin trains are the UK’s fastest domestic train and have dual voltage operation (25kV AC and 750V DC third rail).

Also in 2009, it was announced that a consortium of Agility Trains and Hitachi Rail was the preferred bidder for the delivery of Inter-City Express (IEP) trains for the Great Western and East Coast main lines. Hitachi Rail Europe, as part of its growth strategy, decided

to build these trains in Britain and, in 2011, chose Newton Aycliffe in County Durham as the site for its new rolling stock plant. Work started on the new plant in November 2013 after the IEP deal had been finalised in 2012. The facility, which cost £82 million and will employ 730 people, was opened in September 2015 by the Prime Minister.

Meanwhile, the first pre-series IEPs were under construction at Hitachi’s Kasado factory in Japan. After two months at sea, the first IEP test train arrived at Southampton in March 2015. Following testing and acceptance, service introduction of the first IEP is planned for December 2017 on the Great Western main line. However, as will be seen, ScotRail’s class 385 will be the next Hitachi train to enter service in Autumn 2017.

FSW technologyIEP is an example of the AT

(aluminium train) series trains that Hitachi Rail has developed for the European market. These AT trains have a double-skin body shell produced using friction stir welding (FSW) in which a rotating tool heats two facing surfaces. The friction heat generated creates a region of very soft metal at each face, which the tool mixes together. The technique was invented in Britain by The Welding Institute (TWI) in 1991 and has since been further developed by Hitachi.

Unlike conventional welding, FSW does not melt the mating services so there is no requirement for filler materials. Hence the weld composition is almost the same as that of the parent metal, there is minimal degradation in strength or heat distortion due to thermal effects. The maximum distortion over the 26 metre IEP body shell is only 0.5 mm. Light dressing of the FSW join leaves a smooth finish with no filler required for painting.

To meet crash worthiness requirements, the body shell has corner posts, collision posts and anti-climbing devices, designed to prevent overriding and penetration into the cab and passenger compartment in the event of an end-on collision. The auto coupler can absorb impact energy at low speeds above which it is designed to break away from its mountings and be retained within its coupler pocket.

From Shinkansen to ScotlandDAVID SHIRRES

Hitachi 800 series Shinkansen.

Javelin trains in Hitachi's Ashford train maintenance centre.


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Hitachi’s AT familyThe AT trains use technologies that

Hitachi has developed for Shinkansen trains over many years and come in four types. The AT100 is for metro services and is 20 metres long. For suburban use there is the 23 metre long AT200 whilst IEP is a version of the inter-city AT300 which have a 26 metre body shell. The AT400 is for high speed operations and has yet to be developed.

As far as possible, the different AT trains have interchangeable components. For example, the AT200 and AT300 modular traction packages are very similar and this allows for various train configurations to meet differing performance requirements. All IEPs have at least one diesel traction module, which can move the train in the event of overhead power failure. On bi-mode IEPs, just over half the cars (three out of five, or five out of nine) have a diesel power pack that uses MTU’s 1600 V12 engine.

ScotRail’s ShinkansenAbellio ScotRail took over the

operation of the ScotRail franchise in April 2015. One key requirement is the procurement of new electric trains for

the soon-to-be-electrified Glasgow to Edinburgh line and other Scottish routes. To meet this requirement, Abellio ScotRail was in discussions with Hitachi Rail during the preparation of their franchise bid and, as a result, were able to sign a contract for 70 new trains in March 2015, just before taking over their new franchise on 1 April.

These new trains will be ScotRail’s Class 385 units. They have a Shinkansen pedigree and are the first

UK order for a Hitachi AT200 train. The contract is for 46 three-car and 24 four-car units and includes a ten-year maintenance agreement. It gives the Scottish Government the option to buy back the fleet for £1 after 25 years.

The Class 385 trains will have a maximum speed of 100 mph. Four-car trains have two motor bogies fitted each end car while, on the three-car train, one end car

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has an unpowered bogie under the cab giving a total of three powered bogies. The traction system includes a transformer manufactured by ABB and a water-cooled inverter from the Czech Republic. Traction control is by an insulated-gate bipolar transistor system developed by Hitachi.

The three-car units have 206 seats, whereas the four car trains have 273 seats of which 20 are first class. Peak services on the Glasgow to Edinburgh line will be formed of two Class 385 four-car units which provide 45 per cent more seats than the current two three-car Class 170 diesel units.

Other passenger improvements include at-seat power sockets, large luggage racks and a flexible multi-use area for prams and bikes. The units have more bay seating (four seats around a table), and better alignment of seats with windows. The seats will be cantilevered out from a floor fixing next to the body side, leaving a clear floor. A passenger counting system will record people leaving and entering the train and will be linked to platform display screens and the ScotRail app to let passengers know where to wait on the platform to avoid crowded coaches.

Virtual gangwayTo learn more about Hitachi’s new

Scottish trains Rail Engineer was glad of the opportunity to meet Jon Veitch, general manager for Hitachi Rail Europe. Jon advised that one of the most challenging aspects in the design of the Class 385 was Abellio ScotRail’s requirement for front gangway end doors, which are not part of the original AT200 concept. One issue was the need to adapt the Japanese gangway doors to comply with European standards; another was driver ergonomics as the gangway results in a small cab and possible driver sighting issues.

To optimise the cab design, and other aspects of the train interior, Hitachi engaged the services of the University of Liverpool’s Virtual Engineering Centre (VEC). This was established in 2010 to

offer virtual technology for industrial and commercial applications. VEC was also used to get feedback from drivers and train crews as part of the design process to ensure their buy-in. The Class 385 was finalised as a result of three design reviews - compared with sixteen needed for IEP.

ScotRail’s passengers had the opportunity to see inside the Class 385 recently when a half-coach interior model was unveiled at Edinburgh Waverley by Scottish Transport Minister Derek Mackay, ScotRail Alliance managing director Phil Verster and Karen Boswell, managing director of Hitachi Rail. This model was on show for a month and was manned by volunteers from all types of ScotRail staff, including apprentices.

A design model was specified in the Class 385 procurement contract, along with the supply of a driving simulator.

Production and testingIn December, the first Class 385

body shell was completed at Hitachi’s Kasado plant in Japan. The plan is to build the first six Class 385 trains there and the remaining 64 in Newton Aycliffe. The first four-coach Class 385 train will be shipped from Japan in June, destined for the Velim testing centre in the Czech Republic. The second train, also a four-car unit, will leave Japan four weeks later to arrive in the UK this summer.

Also completed in December was the combined testing of the traction systems on a static rig. This simulated all possible types of situations and duty cycles. Crucially, it proved that the Class 385 could achieve the required 42-minute journey time between Glasgow and Edinburgh with three stops. This is the time required by the contract, which does not specify a particular power output. Combined testing results show that a unit would consume 445 kWh for an Edinburgh to Glasgow journey of which 28 per cent was for the auxiliary power supply. The return journey from Glasgow

Inside class 385 model at Edinburgh Waverley station.

Karen Boswell (Hitachi), Phil Verster (ScotRail Alliance) and Derek Mackay (Scottish Transport Minister) unveil a full size model of the new Class 385 interior.


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requires an estimated six per cent more traction energy due to the climb out of Queen Street station.

To undertake the simultaneous production of both IEP and Class 385 rolling stock at its new Newton Aycliffe manufacturing facility, Hitachi has increased the workforce and is evaluating various options. For example, with its recent acquisition of AnsaldoBreda, the Class 385 bogies will be produced in Italy.

Hitachi Rail has a dedicated team for compatibility and acceptance testing. This is a challenging aspect of the delivery programme but benefits from the experience of introducing the Javelin units. Much of it needs to be done in signal protected zones to provide confirmed compatibility with the signalling system. The current requirement is to have the Class 385 train accepted and ready for the start of driver training by March 2017.

Service introductionOnce electrification of the Edinburgh

to Glasgow Queen Street route is complete, its passengers will experience their first electric trains in December in the form of existing class 380 units. From autumn 2017, customers will be able to travel on the new Class 385 trains, which will then be progressively introduced so that, by December 2017, they will be used on all Edinburgh to Glasgow trains. This will enable an improved timetable to be introduced, with the fastest trains offering a 42-minute journey between the two cities.

Thereafter, Class 385 units will be introduced on North Berwick and South Glasgow services in 2018. December 2018 will see them running to Stirling, Dunblane and Alloa. Finally,

by May 2019, they will be used on the Edinburgh to Glasgow route via Shotts.

The units will be maintained at Craigentinny depot in Edinburgh, which will also maintain the IEP trains. The depot is currently operated by Virgin Trains and is the base for its High Speed Train fleet, which will be replaced by IEPs from 2018 onwards. Hitachi will become the depot operator in August 2018.

Hitachi’s AT series trains offer digital train maintenance. As Jon Veitch puts it “trains have an indicator which may say ‘I’m not feeling very well’ alerting maintenance crews so they know what to do about it”. Thus the maintainer has real time access to train data providing up to date information on train performance and passenger comfort.

This includes CCTV from both internal and external cameras. As a result, when a train arrives in a depot there will be no surprises, engineers have enhanced capability for material and resource planning to optimise train availability for the end user. This is an enhanced maintenance philosophy, which builds on innovations already in place today at Ashford for the Hitachi Javelin trains.

Evolution not revolutionJon Veitch is clearly enthusiastic, not

just about his company’s new trains, but also the Japanese culture that led to their development. He considers

Hitachi’s philosophy to be “evolution, rather than revolution” with the focus on growth and quality improvement. Jon describes how Japanese school children are taught quality techniques such as Kaizen and Six Sigma at school so it becomes second nature to them.

Further evidence of this culture is the 36-second average delay on the frequent Skinkansen service. On the rare occasions when a train is delayed over five minutes, passengers are issued a delay certificate to avoid them getting in trouble with their employers who would otherwise not believe that their train could have been late.

It is less than ten years since Hitachi introduced its Shinkansen-based train design to Europe, giving customers in Kent highly reliable 140mph Javelin trains. Since then, Hitachi has built a new train manufacturing facility and has secured orders for a further 1,134 new vehicles (IEP GW and EC HST replacement - 596, IEP IC225 replacement - 270, Great Western Bi-mode IEP -173, TransPennine bi-mode AT300 - 95).

The first of these new Hitachi trains will enter service in Scotland next year following a design and production programme that has seen the first train manufactured just over 12 months since contract signature. Jon considers this is a “phenomenal achievement”, due to effective collaboration between all partners. It is difficult to disagree with him.

The first Class 385 bodyshell was completed in December at Hitachi's Kasado plant in Japan.


CraigentinnyDAVID SHIRRES does it all

Between 21:34 and 00:24 on the night of 15 March, fifteen trains, made up of 115 rail vehicles, arrived for servicing at Craigentinny depot in Edinburgh. Production manager Jim Donnelly ha to ensure that each of

these trains is fit for service before it leaves the depot again between 04:02 and 08:59.

Only six of these trains belong to the depot operator, Virgin Trains East Coast (VTEC). Three of these are 125 mph HSTs (High Speed Trains) made up of two class 43 Power Cars with nine mark 3 trailer coaches between them. The other three are Inter City 225s (their maximum design speed is 225km/h or 140mph, although they operate at 125mph). These have a class 91 electric locomotive, nine trailer coaches and a driving van trailer.

Of the other nine trains, seven are from CrossCountry Trains (two HSTs and five class 220/221 Voyager trains) and two are First TransPennine class 350 EMUs. In addition, the depot maintains the class 73 locomotives that are

starting to be used on the Serco sleeper trains to Inverness, Aberdeen and Fort William.

Also by 01:30, three class 67 locomotives have arrived at the depot for servicing. Although this work is undertaken by personnel from DB Cargo (formerly DB Schenker Rail), these locomotives take up part of a pitted road in the depot and are being used on the sleeper services until all six Class 73 locomotives are in service.

On his shift, Jim is assisted by a team leader who supervises the work and a planner who programmes trains onto the required maintenance roads. He normally has twelve Band A skilled staff at his disposal, but tonight there are only eight due to the others being on technical courses.

Managing overnight defectsAs Jim starts his shift at 22:00,

he studies defect sheets for the arriving trains that were printed in the afternoon. Some defects are not urgent and can be deferred to the next ‘A’ examination, others may be deferred subject to additional monitoring. His first priority is to identify the safety and operational defects that have to be fixed before the train can leave the depot.

These include an HST power car with a very quiet driver’s safety device (DSD) vigilance sounder and a failed driver’s air conditioning unit. This train had been turned at Newcastle to put the defective power car at the rear of the train. There was also a power car with the engine shutting down, one to be replaced for a ‘C’ examination and tyre turning and another with tripping wheel slide protection, for which a pitted road was needed to examine the WSP (wheel slide protection) probes.

Although Jim says that every shift is different, the common factor is that trains have to be available for their morning services. That night was no exception.

During the day, the depot is a very different place. There are fewer trains but more people as the focus is on heavy maintenance and repair work. Phil Buck, head of VTEC’s HST fleet, explains that the depot also undertakes a wide variety of work for other train operators. As well as servicing CrossCountry’s Voyagers and First TransPennine’s class 350 units, the depot undertakes wheel re-profiling for all operators and services the luxury Royal Scotsman train.

A power car receives an F Exam.


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HST maintenanceThe depot’s core activity is HST maintenance for which

its allocation is 32 power cars and 131 mark three coaches (including spare first, standard, buffet and guard coaches) of the VTEC HST fleet, 10 power cars and 40 mark three coaches of the CrossCountry HST fleet and the three HST power cars of Network Rail’s New Measurement Train (NMT).

The Virgin and CrossCountry power cars have a progressive examination regime with A, B, C and D examinations being undertaken after 7,000, 21,000, 84,000 and 252,000 miles respectively, while the three NMT power cars have a different, balanced examination regime. Mark three coaches have A and B exams after 15,000 and 30,000 miles. Thereafter there is a balanced exam every 90,000 miles.

Normally the ROSCO (rolling stock company - the train’s owner) would arrange for levels 4 and 5 rolling stock maintenance to be undertaken at a specialist workshop. However, Angel Trains and Porterbrook have agreed that the depot can do heavy maintenance of their HST fleets, for which there is a corresponding reduction train lease charge. Phil considers this to be a much more flexible arrangement which also avoids the need to move rolling stock to workshops and maximises fleet availability.

This heavy maintenance requires the depot to manage the supply of sub-components. For example, power car bogies are changed at E, F and G exams as they have a maximum life of 630,000 miles. The new bogies are supplied from the Doncaster plant of LUR, a joint venture of Lucchini and Unipart. LUR also supplies the mark 3 coach bogies required for a C4 repair which can be done in a single day. These bogies are guaranteed for the 600,000 miles running between C4 repairs, although this is soon to be extended to 750,000 miles between overhaul.

The Class 43 power cars have MTU V16 4000-series engines which are returned to MTU’s Magdeburg MRT (MTU Remanufacturing Technology) plant every 25,000 hours for remanufacturing, using components that have been restored to as-new condition. MRT also overhauls the alternator so MTU returns a fully overhauled and tested power unit. Thus, typically the depot will change one power car engine every two weeks.

Virgin red seatsFrom a passenger perspective, the most obvious work

currently being undertaken by the depot is the interior refurbishment of its HST fleet as part of a £21 million programme announced by Virgin Trains in November. This involves completely stripping out the nine mark 3 coaches in each train prior to replacing carpets and fittings throughout as well as refreshing the vestibules and toilets. The train’s 523 seats are replaced with those of a Virgin design which, not surprisingly, includes a lot of red - even in first class, the seats are charcoal leather with red trim. A search of the hashtag #PlushTush on Twitter shows this refurbishment to be popular with Virgin’s customers.

For this work, one of the cleaning shed roads has a wide scaffold platform erected between the side of the shed and the train to provide both easy access and a storage/working area. Halfway along the shed, a part of the wall has been removed to create a loading bay to transfer deliveries from lorries onto the platform.

Other than for its project management, the refurbishment work does not use depot staff. Instead, personnel are supplied by a labour supply agency, with up to 41 staff working at any one time.

The complete interior renewal requires a train set to be out of service for fourteen days. It takes eleven days to carryout the refurbishment, after which the coaches each receive a B exam. This includes a battery check as the set has been on shore supply for this time.

2014 Craigentinny power car.(Inset) power car named Craigentinny in 1984.

Nighttime servicing in inspection shed.


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Scotland’s biggest depotWith capacity for 176 rail vehicles, Craigentinny is by far

the biggest depot in Scotland. When first built by the North British Railway company in 1914 as a carriage servicing depot, it was reputed to have had Britain’s first carriage washing plant. It was extensively modernised in 1978 to maintain HSTs as they were introduced to east coast services.

The depot complex is 1¼ miles long and is energised at 25kV except for the heavy maintenance and repair roads and the Portobello servicing facility. Its reception road begins two miles east of Edinburgh Waverley station and includes two fuelling roads for HSTs and Voyagers.

The main depot consists of an inspection shed with two 265 metre roads with centre and side pits for routine maintenance, an adjacent single 265 metre road with a centre pit, which is covered by a three-tonne crane for one hundred metres, for heavy maintenance and refurbishment, and a further 90-metre long road with a centre pit and two three-tonne cranes for power car maintenance.

The depot also has a carriage cleaning shed, with four 250-metre roads and facilities for controlled emission toilet (CET) servicing, and a further eight roads for stabling and servicing trains. An external 15-tonne crane lifts engines, cooler groups and bogies.

Furthest away from Edinburgh Waverley is the Portobello end of the depot. Here are three dedicated roads for the servicing and cleaning of six Voyager trains each night. Also at Portobello is the Hegenscheidt CNC wheel lathe. This was installed in 2014 by Cairn Cross Civil Engineering to replace an older lathe, which involved demolishing and rebuilding the

wheel lathe pit and installation of the lathe. The tyre turning workload varies but is typically one to two vehicles per shift. If there is no tread damage, a full vehicle can have all its tyres re-profiled within four hours.

The depot also has a training centre and a dedicated component repair centre to overhaul and test components, including air conditioning and kitchen equipment.

Most reliable HST fleetThe depot’s 256 staff includes 45 in servicing teams, 62 in

repair and heavy maintenance and 54 in the cleaning teams including ‘finishers’ who hand polish the train’s bodysides which are not fully cleaned by the carriage washers as the coaches are not perfectly smooth. Also, each night one train receives a complete exterior hand wash. At any time of the day, this work is managed by one of six production managers who are supported by seven planners who work with Virgin Trains and CrossCountry controls to develop short, medium and long-term train maintenance plans.

The depot’s complement also includes 24 in operations teams to move trains within the depot. To do so, they are assisted by the recent replacement of four hand-operated points by Zonegreen Points Converters at the Portobello servicing sidings which are almost a kilometre from the depot’s operation’s control. These are operated by a computerised control system that provides route visualisation and can be set to route trains into sidings without physical intervention.

There are also small teams for the wheel lathe, Edinburgh Waverley station, stores, the repair centre, training and the maintenance of depot facilities.

Martin Armour leads the technical team which reviews all technical defects and develops prioritised action plans to reduce failures. This includes recent work on central door locking (CDL) and the battery charging system.

One current programme is the replacement of the trailer car three-phase power cables. This is a significant amount of work for a fleet which, by December 2019, will have been replaced by new trains. Phil Buck explains that performance improvements will be required until HSTs leave Craigentinny when the intention is to hand them over in peak condition.

The fleet’s reliability is measured in miles per technical notifiable incident (MTIN) i.e. failures that cause more than three minutes’ delay. In the recent period 12, the Virgin Trains HST fleet had a 33,886 MTIN. At the ‘Golden Spanners’ awards in November, VTEC was shown to have by far the most reliable HST fleet. Martin is clearly proud of this and recalls that about fifteen years ago MTIN was only about 7,000 miles.

Changing HST power at fuelling point.


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All changeCraigentinny’s reliable train

maintenance derives from its skilled staff which have years of experience. Yet this maintenance regime is soon to change. On 18 March, Virgin Trains East Coast unveiled its new ‘Azuma’ trains. These will be a fleet of 65 Class 800/801 IEPs (Intercity Express Programme), which will progressively replace Virgin’s HST and IC225 fleets from August 2018.

At the same time, VTEC’s lease of the depot from Network Rail will be transferred to the new trains’ manufacturer, Hitachi. However, prior to then, the depot will be maintaining Hitachi trains in the form of new ScotRail AT200 EMUs (Class 385s) which will be introduced from August 2017.

The Azuma fleet will be maintained at a new Doncaster depot, Bounds Green, as well as at Craigentinny where the VTEC HST fleet will be looked after until the last one is replaced in December 2019. Thus the transitional arrangements for Craigentinny to maintain the new Hitachi trains are quite complex. They also need to take account of the current work for other train operators and ScotRail’s introduction of 27 HST trains in 2018 with Scotland’s HST expertise being at Craigentinny.

From December 2019, Craigentinny will also see Hitachi trains operated by First TransPennine. These are the 19 five-car AT300 units, similar to the IEP trains, that the company has ordered from Hitachi in a contract announced on 31 March. They will be bi-mode units that have both electric and diesel propulsion with increased engine power output to cope with the gradients of the TransPennine network. These trains will also be maintained at Hitachi’s Craigentinny and Doncaster depots.

Getting the depot ready for Azuma trains started in November when Spencer Group started work to install a new Garrandale washing plant for them. This is housed in a 40-metre long x 6.5-metre wide steel clad building. It will wash trains in ambient temperatures as low as -5°C and will recycle 70 per cent of the water used. This work involves alterations to the fuelling point as well as significant track and OLE alterations and is due to be completed in July.

Close liaison between the depot and Spencer has ensured that these alterations will not reduce work carried out by the depot. Nevertheless, there are some operational constraints, for example during a week in May when a Kirow crane is to remodel the depot layout - it will only be possible to access the depot from its Portobello end during the daytime.

The next stage is the installation of additional facilities within the depot. Synchronous jacks are to be installed within the inspection shed for bogie replacement and number 2 maintenance road is to have a roof level inspection gantry installed. A bogie drop is also required in the maintenance shed. However, as the shed is not long enough both to accommodate an HST train and to build a bogie drop, this installation will not start until 2017.

From HST to AzumaFor over a hundred years Craigentinny

has maintained coaching stock for east coast train operations. During this time, it has seen many famous locomotives including the iconic Flying Scotsman

and Mallard in the steam era and the Deltic diesel locomotives. With the use of HSTs on east coast services commencing in 1978, it also became a traction maintenance depot.

The HSTs are the world’s fastest diesel trains. Their introduction transformed the east coast train services by reducing journey time between London and Edinburgh by an hour. Each day they travel about a thousand miles and, after nearly forty years, have now each covered about ten million miles.

In October 2014, the depot celebrated its one hundredth birthday at a ceremony attended by Karen Boswell, then East Coast managing director, who was “delighted to celebrate Craigentinny’s centenary with the dedicated team who provide such an important service to Britain’s railway” and noted that the depot had “grown to inherit the mantle of the once-great steam shed at St Margaret’s, becoming Edinburgh’s long-distance passenger train depot”.

Although the depot will continue in this role for the foreseeable future, there will soon be significant changes as it starts to maintain VTEC’s new Azuma trains under Hitachi ownership. However, it will still have the same managing director as Karen Boswell now holds this role with Hitachi Rail Europe.

As for the future of Craigentinny’s HSTs, surely someone would be glad to acquire these trains that have only 10 million miles on the clock and one careful owner.

Working platform for mark 3 coach refurbishment.


Spencer Group has enjoyed a phenomenal start to 2016, which has seen the securing of £86 million of work; that total is £121 million when combined with the Group’s energy works. Depot enhancement projects

are significant in this recent success, most of which are part of the Intercity Express Programme (IEP).

Craigentinny, EdinburghCraigentinny, with a capacity for

176 rail vehicles, is the biggest depot in Scotland by far. Its reception road begins two miles east of Edinburgh Waverley station and includes two fuelling roads for HSTs and Voyagers after which is the main depot. The depot complex is 1.25 miles long and is energised at 25kV (except for the heavy maintenance and repair roads and the Portobello servicing facility - the part of the depot which is furthest away from Edinburgh).

Craigentinny’s reliable train maintenance stems from its skilled staff, who have many years of experience. However, the regime is now changing due to the introduction of Hitachi's Class 800 and 801 IEP trains on 18 March 2018.

Getting the depot ready for Azuma trains began in November 2015 when Spencer Group started work to install a new Garrandale washing plant. This is housed in a 40-metre-long x 6.5-metre-wide steel clad building and will wash trains at temperatures as low as -5°C and

will recycle 70 per cent of the water used. This work involves alterations to the fuelling point, with significant track and OLE alterations. It will be completed in July 2016.

As a result of close liaison between the depot and Spencer Group, these alterations will not reduce work done by the depot. Nevertheless, there are some operational constraints; for example, during a week in May when a Kirow crane will remodel the depot layout, it will only be possible to access the depot from its Portobello end during the daytime.

The next stage will create additional facilities within the depot. Synchronous jacks are to be installed within the inspection shed for bogie replacement and number 2 maintenance road is to have a roof-level inspection gantry. A bogie drop is also required in the maintenance shed. However, as the shed is not long enough to accommodate a HST train and build a bogie drop, this installation will not start until VTEC has given up its lease in August 2018.

Ferme Park, LondonFerme Park is also part of the IEP

Depots framework. At this location in North London, Spencer Group completed the enhancement project in January 2016. The upgrade to Ferme Park - as will be the case for all IEP depots - facilitated the maintenance of Hitachi Trains’ new fleet of Class 800 and 801 IEP trains; they will run at speeds of up to 125mph and reduce journey times on the East Coast main line (ECML).

Spencer Group’s on-site team encountered numerous unforeseen challenges along the way, but managed to overcome them in order to meet the specifications of the project on time, to budget and with zero accidents/incidents over approximately 38,500 hours worked. The team was required to install facilities to refuel, empty the controlled emission toilets and replenish the water tanks. A fuel system additive - AdBlue® - has also been supplied at each fuel point.

Employing its multidisciplinary in-house design team, Spencer Group was able to provide a full design and build service, completing the detailed design of all civils and M&E. One of the main challenges through the design was the requirement

Depot projects proceeding apace


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to provide stormwater attenuation within the apron structure so as to not exceed the capacity of the existing drainage system. This meant providing an attenuated track slab and hydrobrake unit to aid in the storage of water and slow the release of storm water.

DoncasterContracts were signed in 2012 for the first phase of

the Intercity Express Programme, for trains for the Great Western Main Line. The second phase, to enable trains to run on the ECML, began in 2014. The latter involved the construction of the Doncaster Carr train depot, alongside the ECML.

Spencer Group was contracted for the construction, testing, commissioning and handover of the proposed modifications relating to the connectivity of the newly constructed depot on the Doncaster Carr Loco site. The works, which will be completed this year, facilitate the maintenance and servicing activities associated with the new IEP fleet. This included: » Overhead Line Equipment (OLE) - the modification

of OLE between the Up East Slow line in the vicinity of Balby overbridge and Doncaster Carr depot, the installation of equipment in the new depot and the installation of a permanent earth system;

» Track / P-Way - including 35 metres to the north end and 100 metres to the south end of the depot;

» Point heating - including the recovery of 2,352 items of point heating equipment;

» Signalling and telecoms; » Associated civil engineering works at the depot -

including the diversion of an authorised walking route to allow for the provision of OLE structures;

» Works are carried out in three 36-hour possessions - work is sandwiched between Doughton depot works and Doncaster depot enhancements, so planning and integration are paramount to successful delivery.

Reading Spencer Group was awarded the contract to extend

and upgrade Great Western Railway’s flagship train care depot in Reading. With the decommissioning of Old Oak Common depot for the development of HS2, the majority of fleet maintenance work is being transferred to its Reading depot, including the requirement for a new wheel lathe facility.

Spencer Group produced a clear delivery strategy demonstrating phasing of the planned works at Reading, which will ensure the usual depot operations can continue unhindered throughout the majority of the project’s lifecycle. Spencer Group also undertook GRIP 5 approval for the project in order to attain the necessary Network Rail design approvals.

The scope of works includes an extension to the existing train maintenance shed to create space for the new wheel lathe facility, the extension of the pway and associated modifications to existing signalling and depot protection equipment to allow trains to access the wheel lathe, the relocation of the depot’s carriage wash plant building to a temporary location to enable continuous maintenance

operations while the construction works progress, and the construction of office/training rooms and welfare accommodation within the extension for depot staff.

Works have been delayed to date due to the need to relocate existing public utility services, but Spencer Group has worked collaboratively with the client to develop temporary access routes to allow enabling works and permanent construction to progress.

Spencer proposals director Simon Bethell commented: “One of the challenges with this particular project at Reading depot is that it is on the boundary of the Reading Music Festival site. Spencer Group’s site accommodation and storage must be carefully planned, taking cognisance of timescales around Reading Festival. We have to keep the Reading Train Care depot fully operational throughout the duration of the contract. However, we have great experience in depot works and live working environments and are confident of achieving success.

“We are delighted to have been chosen to handle the upgrade of a number of depots on behalf of both First Great Western and East Coast main line. It continues our successful record in delivering a variety of works at depots in England and Scotland: Airdrie Bathgate, Neville Hill, Heaton, Hornsey, Bounds Green, Eastleigh, Cricklewood, Etches Park and New Cross Gate Train Care Depot to name a few.”

In addition to the depot projects detailed above, which are either underway or nearing completion, Spencer Group is also in the design stage with further projects at Heaton (Newcastle upon Tyne), Bounds Green (North London) and Neville Hill (Leeds).

Projects at these further locations also form part of the Intercity Express Programme, forming part of Spencer Group’s extensive portfolio of UK depot enhancements for the new fleet of Hitachi trains.


Tornado is the fiftieth A1 class loco - the other 49 were built in 1948 and 1949 to a design by Arthur Peppercorn, the last chief mechanical engineer of the London and North Eastern Railway (LNER). It has now run over 83,000 miles and is typically used on 20 to 25 main line steam charter trains each year.

Why a P2?Inspired by the success of Tornado, the trust decided

to build another LNER locomotive - a P2 class designed by Sir Nigel Gresley. These were Britain’s most powerful passenger steam locomotives with a rare 2-8-2 ‘Mikado’ wheel arrangement. Only six were built and none survive. Building the P2 was a popular choice as, in a survey undertaken for the trust, 60% voted for it.

The first P2, No 2001 ‘Cock o’ the North’, was built in 1934 and incorporated various novel features including rotary poppet valve gear and distinctive streamlining. All six P2s were different. No 2002 had Walschaerts valve gear and others were fitted with the same streamlined front end as the A4 Pacifics.

The intention to develop the design further was frustrated by the war during which Gresley’s successor, Edward Thompson, had the locos rebuilt with a 4-6-2 wheel arrangement. This was not a success as they did not have enough driving wheels for their power output.

David Elliott, the Trust’s director of engineering, explained that the P2 needed its eight driving wheels to haul fifteen coach trains on the steeply graded Edinburgh to Aberdeen route. He considers it a spectacular design with an almost limitless ability to haul trains. With such power, there will be increased revenue from longer trains, or, as David put it, the further the back coach is from the locomotive, the more profitable the train.

The new P2 will be No 2007 ‘Prince of Wales’. It will be modelled on No 2001, which had Lentz poppet valve gear and a unique front end that cannot be confused with any other locomotive.

David acknowledged that the P2 had its problems. It did not go round curves well and had occasional crank axle failures. Alarming though this might sound, David was certain these problems could be solved by current railway engineering techniques.

Buildingthe P2

DAVID SHIRRES

Steam locomotives are inefficient and costly to operate, hence British Railways replaced them with diesel and electric traction nearly fifty years ago. Today, however,

steam-hauled specials are still very popular - and profitable. There is no denying the enthusiasm for steam trains on which people are willing to spend the time and money needed to keep heritage lines and their locomotives operational.

Britain has over thirty major heritage lines which operate some of the 180 steam locomotives that were rescued from the scrapyard after BR ran its last steam train in 1968. 22 of these old locomotives are authorised to operate on Network Rail’s infrastructure along with one new one, the A1 class 60163 ‘Tornado’. Built by the A1 Steam Locomotive Trust, it hauled its inaugural train in January 2009 after taking fourteen years to build.

© Railphotolibrary.com


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3D design 2007 will not be a slavish copy

of 2001. Its design will be that of a P2, but altered to resolve problems, improve maintenance, reduce life-cycle costs and meet current and foreseeable operating requirements and standards. Much of it will incorporate proven Tornado components.

The starting point was the National Railway Museum’s P2 drawings, which were copied on a full-size digital scanner. With the advances in computer aided design (CAD), the entire locomotive is modelled in 3D using ‘Solidworks’ software. This will sort out clashes before cutting metal, particularly useful for electrics and plumbing. It incorporates a finite element analysis package and also produces really nice pictures for advertising.

Design work started in 2013. The plan is, subject to funding, to complete the locomotive by 2020 and, after trials and testing, have it operating in 2021.

Flat pack start Construction started in April 2014

with the rolling and flame profiling of the frame plates at Tata’s Scunthorpe steelworks. Frame holes were drilled and the plates machined all the way around, using CNC machines, by Boro’ Foundry at Stourbridge. This reduces the risk of cracks and provides accurate reference points.

Construction started when a flat pack frame kit arrived at the Trust’s Darlington workshop where the frames were set up on stands and held together with threaded rods prior to fitting their stretchers. Frame assembly will require 1,065 driven bolts with an interference fit.

The 30mm rear frame plates were bent using a novel technique. A bending former was positioned on the inside of the bend and tack welded

to the rails. Once the frame had been heated to a dull red heat by two large oxy-propane torches, it was nudged by a fork lift truck to the correct shape as confirmed by a laser-profiled template. The rear frame is to Tornado’s design which has the same principal dimensions as the P2 class but is easier to manufacture.

Frame castings were produced by William Cook Cast Products of Sheffield. Existing patterns were used where frame components were common to Tornado, otherwise new polystyrene patterns were made. These were CNC machined from the 3D CAD drawings by Bakers Patterns of Telford. Axle boxes were then machined by Timpsons Engineering of Kettering, which also manufactured the roller bearing spacers and rings.

Preventing axle failuresWheels were another early

programme item. These have now been cast and proof machined. Carrying wheels (four for the engine, eight for the tender) were cast from existing Tornado wooden patterns

while the coupled wheels required a new one. After casting six wheels, the pattern was given larger bosses and used for the two driving wheels. Unlike Tornado, the cast coupled wheels have no balance weights as metal removal for wheel balancing is expensive. Instead, fabricated balance weights containing lead antimony alloy will be fitted. It is hoped that the amount of alloy for the correct balance can be theoretically determined using 3D CAD without using a balancing machine and that this will satisfy the vehicle acceptance body.

The 6’ 2” diameter tyres had to come from South Africa, the only place that can manufacture tyres of this size. Roller bearings will be the same as on Tornado, a degree of interchangeability that has already proved useful - during Tornado’s recent overhaul, bearings intended for the P2 were ‘borrowed’.

Having the wheels fall off was a problem for the original P2s. The six

CNC machined polystyrene patterns.


locomotives had five crank axle failures within ten years. Fortunately, there were no derailments. The crank axles broke at low speed as the train started, when they were subject to maximum torque generated by piston forces of up to 34 tonnes. Furthermore, the eight-coupled wheels rarely slipped, which would allow excess torque to dissipate, so all of the tractive effort was forced to pass through the cranks. The crank pin keyway design also made the pin susceptible to crack propagation.

To ensure 2007 suffers no such failure, Mott MacDonald undertook a finite element analysis of the crank axle. This showed that an improved keyway design would significantly reduce the probability of failure but not completely eliminate it. Hence the axle diameter is to be increased from 95/8 to 10 inches to take it further out of the fatigue regime. With improvements in bearing technology, this increase in diameter can be accommodated within the P2 bearing housing.

Poor curvingWhen introduced into service, the P2s suffered from

indifferent curving ability. They derailed on poor track in yards and could exert high forces on curved main line. Gresley’s pony truck swing link suspension tended to lift the front of the locomotive and off load the leading coupled wheels. High track forces arose from the swing link suspension’s uncertain centering force on poor track.

The LNER found a solution during World War Two when its Doncaster works built LMS class 8F locomotives which had a pony truck side control system that used springs to exert a side force which doesn’t lift up the loco.

The Trust appointed DeltaRail to model the interaction between the P2 and the track using Vampire software. This confirmed the original design’s problems and has been used to refine a pony truck design with side spring control and to determine coupled wheelset clearances. As a result, 2007’s track forces will not be higher than Tornado and so will be able to run on the same routes.

David explains that this was not straightforward. Vampire, intended for modern bogie vehicles, had to be modified for a vehicle with a rigid chassis and for a steam locomotive’s unbalanced reciprocating forces. Extensive data collection during Tornado’s main line testing was used to set up Vampire to accurately model a steam locomotive.

Right, Cab, frames and rolled smokebox plates at the Darlington workshop.

Lentz valve gear fitted to a South African steam locomotive.



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Cylinders and valvesWith 21” cylinders, the P2 design is

two inches wider than Tornado, and so would be out of gauge where track has been moved to reduce the platform gap. The cylinder diameter for Prince of Wales has been reduced to 19¾”, and a further ¾” has been saved by using a fabricated steel rather than cast iron cylinder block. To retain the same power output as other P2s, 2007’s boiler will operate at 250psi instead of 220psi.

Gresley believed in the potential advantages of poppet valves. Hence, unlike other railway companies, LNER trialled Lentz poppet valve gear on various locomotives, including P2 2001. To assess its effectiveness, 2001 was sent to the Vitry-sur-Seine locomotive test plant in Paris to be compared with classmate 2002 which was fitted with Walschaerts valve gear. The results did not favour the Lentz arrangement, partly due to the materials technology of the time.

For the greatest efficiency, a steam locomotive needs to operate at maximum pressure and control power by ‘cut off’, the proportion of cylinder travel during which steam is admitted. This needs to be finely adjusted

according to power demand. As built, the Lentz valve gear had infinitely variable cams. However, these became worn by their roller followers. The solution was a series of stepped cams making it no longer possible to fine tune the cut off and keep the regulator fully open for maximum efficiency.

With improvements in the heat treatment of steels and modern tools, a durable infinitely variable cam can now be produced. When 2001 was built, cams were turned to their approximate shape, heat treated, then ground down to precise dimensions, removing some of the hardened surface. Now CNC machines can turn cams to their final shape so no further metal is removed after heat treatment.


A problem fitting Lentz valve gear to 2007 was the lack of drawings in the National Railway Museum. However, research undertaken by Andy Hardy, the Trust’s P2 archivist, found an extensive set of drawings of the Lentz valve gear fitted to South African locomotives.

Further drawings and manuals of a modified Lentz gear produced by the American Franklin Company have also been obtained. David explains, that by chance, he made contact with Charles Smith, whose father, Vernon, was a senior engineer with Franklin. As a result, the Trust was able to scan the Lentz valve gear information that Charles held.

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Boiler and smokebox2007 is to have Tornado’s type of boiler. This was

manufactured by Deutsche Bahn Meiningen steam locomotive works in the former East Germany where main-line steam operation continued until the mid-1980s. As this boiler is 17 inches shorter than the P2 boiler, 2007’s smokebox will be 17 inches longer. In practice, it was found that this extra boiler length did not raise extra steam as firebox gases cooled at its far end.

An advantage of the longer smokebox is a larger vacuum reservoir to smooth exhaust pulses and stop the fire being pulled apart. A particular challenge was the flat-topped smokebox door required by the streamlining. This could not be made from a spun tank end like Tornado. Instead the South Devon Railway’s boiler press was used to form heated steel plate into the required shape using tooling made from the 3D CAD model. The smokebox door frame is to be machined from 90 mm thick boiler plate.

Tornado’s pattern could not be used to cast the double chimney due to the streamlining’s sloping smokebox. Hence a new pattern was made at a cost of £6,500. However, the 3D CAD model confirmed that streamlining would not prevent Tornado’s complex superheater header being fitted in 2007’s smokebox, thus saving £18,000-worth of pattern making.

Electric oil lights2007’s headlamps each have seven LEDs, equivalent to

a 150-watt halogen bulb. These satisfy Group Standard requirements and fit inside a replica of the original P2’s oil lamp.

Its electrical system will be similar to Tornado’s, which has three miles of low-smoke zero-halogen wiring from 230 separate wire runs. It has a steam turbo generator (32 amps at 28 volts) and, on its tender, a belt driven alternator (200 amps at 24 volts) and two 24 volt 65-amp hour battery banks. The wiring will run in ‘hammer proof’ 6mm stainless steel trunking with removable covers for easy wiring alterations.

Tornado has two separate electrical systems, essential (for TPWS, headlamps) and auxiliary (lighting, drain valves). The essential supply’s control panel is under the driver’s seat, whilst the fireman’s seat is over the auxiliary panel. Strip lights illuminate the motion for cleaning and maintenance - some drivers even use these to make the locomotive look good at night!

The need to fit ERTMS signalling in the future has been considered. The power supply is rated for its power demand and there will be an ERTMS cubicle in the tender.

Fulfilling the promiseBuilding the new P2 will cost an estimated £5 million.

Raising this sum is a challenging target, but not unachievable as £3 million was raised to build Tornado. The Trust has various innovative fundraising schemes such as its Founder Club, which alone raised £450,000, sufficient to get the project to the point of manufacturing the frames.

There is no doubt that the company has the skills and experience to tackle the complex mechanical engineering project of building the new P2. Whether it can do so by its planned 2021 completion date depends on the rate at which funds can be raised.

The P2 was a promising design that was never developed to meet its potential. The use of modern technology to remove known flaws will fulfil this promise by producing one of Britain’s most efficient and powerful steam locomotives. It is interesting to speculate what Sir Nigel Gresley could have achieved had he had the technology available to the A1 Steam Locomotive Trust.

Anyone wishing more information or wishing to contribute to the P2 project should contact www.p2steam.com

Rolled smokebox plates being formed at the Darlington workshop.


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It isn’t difficult to compare a modern trade exhibition to a butterfly. At 18:00 on the day before the show opens, all is a mess. Stands are still being built, areas of carpet are unlaid, aisles are full of packing cases and trolleys of all shapes and sizes, the lighting is harsh and people dressed in a

variety of suits, jeans and high-viz are everywhere.

By 09:00 on the following morning, the ugly chrysalis has turned into a butterfly. All is calm and tidy, the floor coverings are immaculate, bright spotlights highlight colourful exhibits and, apart from a bit of last-minute arranging of leaflets and small products, all is ready. The most pressing question seems to be: “Where’s the coffee?”

And so it was for Infrarail 2016, held at London ExCeL in mid-April. Infrarail is the railway infrastructure show, which takes place in even-numbered years. The larger Railtex, which includes rolling stock as well as infrastructure, takes place in odd-numbered years at Birmingham’s NEC. Both are organised by St Albans-based Mack Brooks Exhibitions.

Move to ExCeLLondon’s Docklands is changing almost daily. A

mix of expensive and expansive office buildings (Canary Wharf) and hardly-developed wasteland, it has its own airport - London City - and its own railway, the Docklands Light Railway (DLR).

It also has its own exhibition centre. ExCeL London (be careful of the capitalisation) was opened in November 2000 and now belongs to the Abu Dhabi National Exhibition Company. The building basically consists of two huge halls, North and South, which can each be subdivided up into 11 parts.

Since the last Infrarail show in 2014, the UK’s national railway industry exhibition had become homeless with Earls Court being demolished for a housing development. However, ExCeL was a suitable replacement and is actually no stranger to

railway shows, having housed Railtex 2007 before that show moved, first to Earls Court, and then to NEC Birmingham.

The industry responded well to the move. Stand reservations were 12 per cent up on the previous show and pre-bookings by visitors held their own too. Hotels in the area, and there are several of them on-site, sold out.

On opening day, the halls looked bright and airy, there were plenty of coffee shops and catering stands in the main concourse between all the halls, and both exhibitors and visitors could arrive at the show using two DLR stations, one at each end of the building. The few doubters were swiftly silenced.

On showBut the reason for going was not to admire

the venue but to be updated with all that is new and interesting in the railway industry. Infrarail’s specialisation in infrastructure was quickly apparent. Rather than huge mock-ups of trains, there were stands showing signalling, level crossings, geotextiles, soil nails, platforms, drains and all of the other stuff without which the railway would soon grind to a halt.

There were project stands from both Crossrail and HS2, exhibits by professional bodies such as the PWI, IET and IMechE (Permanent Way Institution, Institution of Engineering and Technology, Institution of Mechanical Engineers), and even a co-located Civil Infrastructure & Technology Exhibition (CITE), which could be distinguished by its red carpet.

A POSITIVE MOVENIGEL WORDSWORTH

Infrarail switches to Docklands

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The show was opened by ‘Rail Minister’ Claire Perry, MP for Devizes and officially a Parliamentary Under Secretary of State at the Department for Transport (Rail Minister is a bit shorter!). She joined Mack Brooks chairman Stephen Brooks and Railway Industry Association director general Jeremy Candfield in welcoming the first of around 6,500 visitors to Infrarail and CITE.

Following a quick tour of the show's exhibits, Claire Perry was back for the first day’s keynote speech. Asked if she would take questions afterwards, she replied that the questions were often the most interesting part of the session. However, after having stressed the Government’s commitment to the railway industry and having praised the innovation and dedication shown by the supply chain, the only questions she received were on ticket prices and services. Not exactly the subject of an infrastructure show, but then hardly unexpected either.

Keynotes The Minister’s keynote address was one of

three over the course of the show, one on each day, all organised and hosted by Rail Engineer. The second day’s ‘volunteer’ was Network Rail chairman Sir Peter Hendy, who gave an entertaining speech to a packed seminar theatre, drawing from his experience at Transport for London and comparing it with his latest job, which he described as only part-time - four days a week - as he eases towards retirement. Anyone who has seen Sir Peter at work, and the energy he pours into his role, will quickly see that he isn’t ‘easing’ anywhere.

The reclassification of Network Rail as a public sector body has caused the organisation to change its view on how projects are planned and funded. Sir Peter referred to this both in his speech and in answering a question afterwards. Asked whether Network Rail would be doubling-up some of the single track railways around

the country as demands on capacity grow, he replied that he would be delighted to, so long as someone paid for it. If there was a viable business case for such an upgrade, money would be found. If there wasn’t, then it wouldn’t. Simple.

David Waboso, London Underground’s director of capital programmes, came along on Thursday and gave delegates a whistle-stop tour of all of the work currently being carried out on the network. David will be leaving LU in June to take up the post of head of Digital Railway at Network Rail, so his appearance was very topical.

In fact, it was almost as though the keynote speakers were planned. On Tuesday, Claire Perry talked about the Hendy Report. On Wednesday Sir Peter Hendy, author of that report, mentioned he was soon to be joined at Network Rail by David Waboso, who duly spoke on Thursday. Take a bow, the programme organiser.

Seminars and discussionsThe technical seminar programme, organised

by Rail Engineer, gave visitors to Infrarail the chance to hear all about the latest developments from the ‘horse’s mouth’ - the engineers which developed them.

The programme stretched over all three days of the show and was extremely varied. In keeping with the modern, high-tech railway, a lot was about electrical power and electronics. Thomas Schaad of ABB spoke on Innovation in Electrification and Automation, Chris Harris of Tratos chose Cables for a Digital Railway as his topic, TE Connectivity’s Mario Appello explained how to choose materials for marking cables to meet current fire standards and then Beth Dean, Reaction to Fire technical specialist at Exova Warringtonfire, explained recent changes in train fire safety requirements and the testing to go alongside them - for all materials and not just cables. Beth’s talk sparked off an interesting

Claire Perry MP talks with Jay Mecta of ABB.

David Waboso (centre).

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Rail Engineer • May 2016 65INFRARAIL 2016

Q&A session, with the audience even arguing amongst themselves. And all of that was just on the first day!

On the second day, following Sir Peter Hendy’s keynote address, Steve Roberts, engineering director of Unipart Rail, outlined the concept of Zero Maintenance Technology, particularly as it applies to LED signal heads. Korec’s Matthew Lock spoke about cost-effective monitoring solutions to detect movement in structures and earthworks.

Next up was David Short of Wireless CCTV who explained how body-worn camera systems could assist with security on the railway and also prove that procedures were being followed. Lastly, Arnaud du Grand Placitre spoke for Fimor on how the use of under-sleeper pads could significantly reduce track maintenance costs, giving examples from their successful implementation in France. Interestingly, Arnaud’s presentation spawned the most active Q&A session of the day as he covered aspects such as recycling of spent sleepers.

The third day’s session followed David Waboso’s address. Pascal Grosjean explained how Setec could bring its expertise to bear to both assist and temper the design process for high-speed lines to make it more compatible with the environment. Tata Steel’s Daniel Pyke described how the use of advanced technology materials and coatings can extend rail life in critical applications, and Martin Orman followed that with a look at Whitmore Rail’s applicators for the lubrication of both plain line and S&C.

In the same seminar theatre, between Rail Engineer’s technical seminars, there was a series of project update reports, delivered by the project teams themselves. Operations director Howard Smith described how the

Crossrail project is already planning for train operations while Thameslink’s principal programme sponsor Nick Gray looked at how the project will transform north-south travel across London.

Jonathan Ferry, who is construction procurement director for HS2, explained the high-speed railway’s procurement plans as a ‘new’ client, and he was followed by Roy Freeland of the Rail Supply Group talking about the RSG’s strategy for productivity and growth in the UK. Southeastern managing director David Statham finished off the project updates for the second day by discussing how the train operator is working to create a better passenger experience while accommodating the major rebuilding work at London Bridge.

There were two industry briefings on the third day of Infrarail. Firstly, David Hoggarth, director, Rail North, explained how developments in the North were good examples of Devolution in Action. He was followed by RSSB’s John Abbott, who talked on supplier assurance and how it could be dovetailed with a strong health and safety policy.

The seminar theatre also played host to The Platform, a series of panel discussions, one on each day, on critical topics that are important to the industry. Skills and Training, Supply Chain Engagement and Infrastructure Planning were the topics this year and all were well attended and provoked lively debate.

All changeBut the serried ranks of exhibition stands were

what the visitors flocked to ExCeL to see. There were 242 exhibitors, including those in the CITE area, some in small shell-scheme stands and others with more elaborate constructions.

Tata Steel was making its last appearance under that name. The day before Infrarail opened it was announced that a Sale and Purchase Agreement had been signed with family investment office Greybull Capital, offering a future for the 4,800 strong workforce of the Long Products Europe business, of which the rail mills in Scunthorpe and Hayange are part, potentially to be renamed as ‘British Steel’. The purchase may be finalised before the end of June.

On its display were HP335 rail, for improved

Sir Peter Hendy. © High Viz Media

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wear and rolling contact fatigue resistance to reduce grinding, the SilentTrack® tuned rail damper system to reduce noise levels by 3-6dB(A) to help comply with noise legislation, Zinoco® - the most durable system available to combat rail corrosion and a modular platform from Tata Steel Projects, designed to provide shorter construction times and better sustainability with improved health and safety.

The modular platform was actually adjacent to two lengths of track which Tata had provided for the On-Track Display, a facility also used by Rosehill Rail, Sperry and several other exhibitors.

Keynote speaker and Rail Minister Claire Perry MP visited the stand as part of her tour. She talked to the team about her thoughts on future support from the Government for key infrastructure projects and Government support in general for the steel industry.

Another piece of news which broke at the show was the forming of a joint venture between Tarmac and Max Bögl to deliver a new slab track system specifically for high-speed rail applications in the UK. Tarmac is the UK’s leading sustainable building materials and construction solutions company and Max Bögl is the largest privately-owned infrastructure engineering company in Germany. The new JV draws upon Tarmac’s expertise and manufacturing capability for the UK rail industry and combines this with Max Bögl’s extensive experience of working on high-speed projects.

The JV had one shared stand at Infrarail, showing off Max Bögl’s slab track system. Max Bögl director Johann Holzinger, said: “The UK is a new market for us and we wanted to align ourselves to a company that can fully support our vision and values. We see the UK High-speed rail market as a key growth area and felt compelled to place ourselves into contention for future projects.”

Hi-tech on showThe show contained another shared stand, this

one combining Gai-Tronics, Cisco and Telent. It showcased the ability of Telent’s MICA station management system to integrate with call managers, such as Cisco’s CUCM, and hence provide management and monitoring of GSM-R, legacy telephony (POTS) and IP (SIP) Gai-Tronics help points.

Of particular interest at Infrarail was the MICA integration of audio messaging, CCTV and the green ‘Samaritans’ help point that Gai-Tronics had on show. Demonstrating the ability to automatically detect unusual behaviours, and bring a view of that area to the attention of staff who can then trigger a suitable announcement out of the help point or PA system, proved very popular.

Also on display was a complete IP-based on-train communication system. Integrating Gai-Tronics’ new IP audio communication units (crew communications, driver to crew, PA and call for aid) with a Cisco network and Telent’s PIS (Passenger Information System) showed how companies can work together to give a powerful, total solution for fleet managers and engineers.

Technology was also a feature of Red CCTV’s stand. Fastmast combines a telescopic mast topped by CCTV cameras, solar-power and battery energy supplies and wireless communication into an observation point that can be deployed almost anywhere. Representatives of Network Rail, Irish Rail and principal contractors visited the Red CCTV stand throughout the show and, it is reported, two contracts have already been placed as a direct result of the Infrarail display.

Many more technology companies had their products on display. Westermo had a variety of data communication equipment on show while Socomec displayed uninterruptable power supplies. Dorman Unipart and Park

Signalling, now part of the same group, showed off different aspects of signalling while Henry Williams and FT Transformers concentrated more on Class II switchgear, power supplies and transformers.

All this technology needs cables. Prysmian, Goldwing and Tratos were displaying the cables themselves, Flexicon showcased cable protection systems and Emtelle explained how to ‘blow’ cables under roads and railway lines.

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Flexicon’s Colin Legg was very positive: “We had a busy show with some great quality discussions on the customer benefits of our new product - Flexicon Ultra™ for rail applications. Customer feedback was very positive and the show was a great opportunity to network and catch up with new and existing contacts.”

Infrarail enabled Tratos to showcase its latest approved fibre-optic dual fire barrier cable and also to present ‘Cables for Digital Railways’ at the Rail Engineer technical seminar theatre. This seminar provided Tratos with the opportunity to raise awareness and understanding of the UK Digital Railway Programme and particular interest was shown in the company’s bespoke composite copper and optical-fibre cables.

Wrexham Mineral Cables is the only producer in the United Kingdom of Mineral Insulated Copper Cabling (MICC) which, the company claims, is the only real fire survival cabling to be found in the market. MICC is used to power critical electrical items such as sprinklers, lighting, air-extraction and elevators, all of which need to continue to operate while people try to escape a fire. The numerous visitors to the stand gave credence to the old adage: “ Safety isn’t expensive, it’s priceless”.

Harting was one of a number of companies displaying and demonstrating a wide range of plugs, sockets and other connectors for all of these cables, particularly for railway bandwidth expansion and inter-car jumper cables.

The Cable Services Group stocks and supplies both cable and cable accessories to the domestic and international markets, sourced from a select number of leading product manufacturers from various UK locations. Infrarail offered the perfect platform to target the rail infrastructure market and generated over 100 leads from contractors to design engineers and project buyers, many of which were not aware of the services the company provides.

Safety firstMany stands had an element of safety and

risk-prevention included in their displays. Security, CCTV, handrails and safety at height were all on show.

PPE (personal protective equipment) is often thought as being just high-viz orange suits and steel toe-capped boots. But one look at the range of items, fits and materials at Infrarail would soon dispel that myth.

Bodyguard was displaying its new Gore-Tex range as well as an all-important innovative Eco Vest which has been recycled from plastic bottles to offer sustainable workwear. Sounds like an industry first!

Stand staff claimed that feedback from visitors at shows such as Infrarail gives them valuable insight when developing the next range of protective clothing. This year there was a range of clothing developed and tailored especially for women - a response to complaints from the female workforce.

ARCO had picked up on the same idea, of having a specialist range for women. It had also developed a new way of distributing PPE using vending solutions. If you need a new pair of gloves, just get it from a vending machine!

In a more high-tech vein, Schweizer was showing its Minimel Lynx mobile track warning system, ideal for patrolling and short worksites, as well as its new enhanced user-worked level crossing system.

Making tracksTrains run on tracks, so it’s not surprising

that a host of companies were involved in this segment.

Tata Steel (or British Steel?) has already been mentioned and will shortly no longer be part of the worldwide Tata group. Speaking after his technical seminar presentation, rail specialist Daniel Pyke was pleased that a conclusion was being reached and confident that it would reassure the company’s workforce.

However, another large steel producer was at Infrarail for the first time. ArcelorMittal Europe Long Products is one of the key business units of ArcelorMittal. Employing 10,700 people with about 12 million tonnes of steel shipped each year and a total of 23 plants in 10 countries. Simon Cottam, UK area manager, commented: “Infrarail was an important opportunity to showcase our products and services and was also a fantastic forum to meet our customers. The exhibition facilitated meetings with key specialists within the industry and, as a result, an agreement was signed with Alphatek Hyperformance Coatings Limited.”

Representatives of Linsinger were on hand to discuss the merits of rail milling in restoring rail profile, while Spikefast, on the DWG stand, is used for repairing damaged sleepers. Whitmore Rail supplies both lubricants and applicators to manage friction between rail and wheel while Sekisui manufactures synthetic sleepers made from plastic.

On its large stand, Rosehill Rail had its complete range of modular rubber rail crossing systems on display, as well as a video wall showing life-size video of how quick and simple the systems are to install. Reflecting on a busy show, UK sales manager Wayne Hutton said: “From the conversations we’ve had over the three days, it’s clear that the continued focus on improving efficiency and reliability, tighter budgets and minimising disruption are driving the demand for our innovative crossing systems.”

He continued: “The video wall showed visitors just how quickly and easily our systems can be installed. Our customers can now install a 10.8 metre road rail access point (RRAP) in less than 90 minutes.”

GrayBar point heater systems were on show at Infrarail. Over a successful three days, company representatives were also able to

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Steps and platformsDura Composites seemed to have a complete

railway station on its stand. “We came up with an innovative train station stand concept built entirely from our own composite materials which generated a lot of buzz and interest,” commented Richard Palmer, rail sector sales manager. “We’ve already secured some great orders and have several new opportunities in the pipeline for Dura Platform, Dura Cladding, our brand new Structural Stair Treads and our FRP Dagger Boards, making this an extremely worthwhile event.

“We found that Infrarail 2016 attracted a high calibre of attendees from a wide range of organisations with real-world challenges which our composite solutions are ideally placed to help solve, and we look forward to building on our success at Infrarail over the coming year.”

Stair tread specialist AATI also successfully displayed products for stations. “We had TOCs (train operators) East Midlands, Abellio and DLR who all wish to trial our products,” said a delighted Robin Oxborough. “TFL and Crossrail also visited regarding new and previous projects.”

Many station components, as well as those for other elements of the railway’s infrastructure, need corrosion protection. Wedge Group Galvanizing had the stand facing the seminar theatre so that helped bring interested visitors along to see what was on offer.

Not only technologyAll aspects of the railway industry were

represented at Infrarail, and that included show media partner Rail Media. A busy (and very pink!) stand attracted a lot of attention as befits the

industry’s largest and most active publishing and events company. Editors, reporters, sales staff and awards-event and conference organisers were all on hand and there always seemed someone ready to ask a question or look for more information.

Rail Engineer, the industry technical magazine with by-far the largest readership, was running the technical seminar programme while staff from RailwayPeople.com (otherwise known as the Railway People people) were manning the show’s Recruitment Wall, which was perpetually busy.

Catering was represented as well, and Express Catering had a hugely successful Infrarail 2016. With 30 strong enquiries for catering over the next 18 months, staff were simply swept away with potential clients and a two-month 24/7 booking in central London is already close to confirmation.

The most exciting thing for those on the stand was to keep hearing “this is a great idea” and “we need this!” - referring to what is believed to be the first full rail-site catering one-stop package.

A successThe CITE co-located show was also well

attended and received. Some familiar names amongst the exhibitors showed the sense in combining railway engineering and civil engineering into what was, essentially, one exhibition. Aspin Group, Erlau, Fuchs Lubricants, Mabey Hire, SCCS, and Platipus Anchors all work in the rail sector, and no-doubt so did many of their visitors at ExCeL.

Exhibition manager Kirsten Whitehouse was very satisfied with the result of her team’s hard work. “In terms of both visitor numbers and exhibitor support, this year’s combined event fully met our expectations,” she told Rail Engineer afterwards. “Any initial concerns about the move to ExCeL London turned into warm approval for the venue. There was also welcome positive feedback from exhibitors and visitors confirming that CITE was an important part of the overall event.”

So now it is time to start planning for Infrarail’s big brother. Railtex 2017 will be back at the NEC Birmingham for three days, 9-11 May 2017. Many stand spaces have already been allocated and it should be another bumper event.


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Is there just a little bit of nostalgia for Earls Court - the former London exhibition centre which is now being demolished? After all, there have been many railway exhibitions held there over the years.

Ken Harris, Mack Brookes’ press officer, paused for a moment.

Just a moment. Not much more than a moment. “Perhaps, but times move on and an

exhibition centre smack in the middle of a couple of London Boroughs had its limitations.”

How would the industry react to a new venue for Infrarail - the ExCeL centre in Docklands?

Another pause. Equally brief. “Look around.” The doors opened and the industry

flooded in.

Accessing Infrarail When you think about it, the

ExCeL and Docklands is an entirely fitting venue and area for a railway infrastructure exhibition. The whole of Docklands has been opened up by railways - and in particular the DLR (Docklands Light Railway) which offers tremendous journeys, winding around all the new developments with a service that, on a good day, is seamless. Doubtless the appeal could pall if journeys were part of the daily grind but, for the occasional visitor, it’s all rather special. The DLR does what railways do very well. It shifts people and makes a car almost irrelevant. Navigating into Docklands by road is a challenge.

This editor’s view of Infrarail attempts to find themes that don’t appear in the exhibition guide. It tries to discover how an industry is reacting to the changing requirements of the major players.

So, what was it that caught the eye?

Noticeable themesAfter a few circuits of the floor it

seemed that a noticeable proportion of exhibitors were promoting steps. Yes, steps and walkways and access equipment. Railways are notoriously

tricky to get at. They’re high up or low down. Some of the equipment used on the railway is also just as inaccessible. Perhaps in the past we all accepted the heroic and hazardous yomp up and down embankments, the leg up over a wall or the slither over Dickensian rooftops. Now it seems, there are steps and walkways of all varieties - and not before time.

There were of course several stands showing the traditional railway hardware - rails, sleepers, fastenings - along with the associated tools and machinery, but what was striking was the number of cable manufacturers who were on show. With every cable there are associated accessories - the cable marking systems, the jointing systems, the plugs and sockets, the cabinets to house the duly marked, jointed and terminated cables.

In the past, any cabling on display would have been associated with power and traction. Now, with the expanding interconnectivity of the industry, there is a plethora of data links along with the hardware that goes with it all. Of course, there were a number of exhibitors that promoted cable-less equipment for remote condition monitoring. Again, this is response to the demands of the industry.

This edition of Rail Engineer focuses on earthworks - it’s just a coincidence because this was another

DLR - Docklands Light Relief

GRAHAME TAYLOR

© Shutterstock.com


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subject that supported a noticeable clutch of exhibitors. Soil nailing and sophisticated geotextile and fabrics - they were there in abundance as more emphasis is put on stabilising the network’s stock of aging infrastructure.

Another theme centred around making traditionally heavy trackside items much lighter. So there were plenty of lightweight cable troughing and drainage units on show along with anything that has to be humped around the railway. Lightweight materials from outside the industry are being moulded and machined into components that have always been notoriously difficult to move. ‘Railway’ has been just another word for ‘heavy’. That’s no longer the case.

The industry is changing - just as it always has - but now it is embracing new technologies and adopting the wide range of ready-made technologies from outside of the railways. This exhibition reflects what is happening. The test of an industry initiative is whether suppliers react and whether they react positively enough to invest in putting their wares on display.

AmbitionSo much for general themes. In

contrast to a vast stand showing off some very impressive Chinese high-speed trains, there was a tiny stand that had just one chair and a poster promoting what was probably one

of the most ambitious concepts on display. TEB Technology Development Co. from China was promoting the straddling bus. Imagine an overhead crane running on crane rails travelling above a roadway. Now imagine that, instead of a crane, it’s an articulated bus spanning the street. A bit like an upside down cut and cover concept. Or an elevated railway but with the rails at road level rather than overhead. It’s certainly ambitious, but fraught with practical issues.

Docklands itself is a heady mixture of shiny office buildings, scrapyards and almost continuous building works. It’s an area in transition. It’s an area where people are on the move. The DLR is visible from almost everywhere, trundling steadily over the flat landscape.

Despite any lingering nostalgia, Earls Court was in the middle of a largely residential area. There wasn’t much else to see once you arrived.

It certainly couldn’t boast having a nearby aerial cable car across the Thames or waterbuses or riverside walks.

Eating places are perhaps a little sparse in the immediate vicinity of ExCel, but there’s one of London’s best Chinese restaurants just down the road - if you can work out how to get in it!


From the very earliest days of the railway, telecommunications networks have always been an important part of the infrastructure and, with

the transition of Network Rail and the rail industry to digital, this is increasingly so.

Rail Engineer reported on Network Rail Telecom (NRT) and its plans for the FTNx Internet Protocol (IP) upgrade in issue 130 (August 2015).

Now Craig Ellis, head of technology and engineering in Network Rail Telecom, has revealed how the rollout of FTNx is progressing and how it will be the heart of the digital railway.

The railway did it firstTo illustrate how railways and telecoms have always

been linked, consider that Morse code was introduced to the world in 1844. However, the London and Birmingham Railway had trialled the Wheatstone and Cooke five-needle telegraph between Euston and Camden seven years earlier.

Also, the Great Western operated the world’s first commercial telegraph system between Paddington and West Drayton in 1839, but Alexander Graham Bell only patented the telephone in 1876.

Railways have always been at the forefront of telecoms technology. Railway companies installed some of the first automatic telephone exchanges and, while microwave links are nowadays found in many telecoms networks for short-haul links, BR connected York to Newcastle on the Eastern route by microwave in the early 1960s.

At around the same time, an electronic teleprinter system was installed on the LMR, years ahead of anything the Post Office (now BT) had. In the 1970s, the first data links were established over the internal railway telecoms network for the tracking of freight. The various regional networks were combined to form a national network of analogue and then digital transmission equipment. This allowed many channels of voice and data to be sent down the same copper pair of wires. As the number of channels and frequencies increased, coaxial cables were used, and then fibre optics with all-digital transmission equipment.

With the rollout of GSM-R at the turn of the century, there was a requirement for 2Mbit/s links every few kilometres. A business case was made to provide a new Fixed Telecoms Network (FTN) of fibre and digital transmission equipment to support both GSM-R and the operational railway.

A 24-fibre cable was chosen as this was more than adequate for the railway’s operational requirements and there were no plans to carry commercial traffic. More importantly, a 24-fibre cable could be jointed within a short rail possession in the event of a failure. The cable is only a few centimetres in diameter but has immense data-carrying capacity.

Telecomsthe heart of the railway

PAUL DARLINGTON


A call-off contract was put in place for Synchronous and Plesiochronous Digital Hierarchy (SDH/PDH) transmission equipment, supplied by Alcatel.

Even this was not new technology. The West Coast main line from Euston to Crewe preceded FTN with a 48-fibre cable with SDH/PDH transmission equipment supplied by Marconi.

The next generationWhile the FTN SDH/PDH equipment was advanced for

its time, telecoms equipment soon becomes obsolete and, by the mid 2000s, the IP revolution was taking over in all telecoms networks. It was possible to provide OSI (Open Systems Interconnection) layer 2 Ethernet connections over the FTN, and this was used as a stopgap solution to support some applications.

The feasibility of enhancing FTN to carry IP traffic, called FTNe, was investigated and this developed into the next generation of the national rail telecoms network called FTNx.

FTNx builds on the network of 24-fibre FTN cable with the use of Dense Wave Divisional Multiplexing (DWMD) equipment provided by Infinera. DWDM works by combining and transmitting multiple signals simultaneously at different wavelengths along the same fibre. In effect, one fibre is transformed into multiple virtual-fibres, thereby increasing the traffic-carrying capacity of the cable many times.

A Cisco IP/MPLS network sits on top as a layer 2 and 3 network. The core network is made up of Cisco’s ASR 9000 IP routers to form a Multi-Protocol Label Switching (MPLS) network. An MPLS network provides traffic engineering where packets can be prioritised and virtual private networks (VPNs) formed.

In terms of traffic carrying capability, the FTN SDH could provide a 10-gigabit link over a single fibre pair. However, the optical technology with DWDM and IP/MPLS in FTNx allows for up to 80 x 100Gb/s circuits. To put this into perspective, that’s the equivalent of 125,000,000,000 simultaneous telephone conversations over the same fibre.

FTN SDH was arranged in ‘rings’ with protected circuit paths so that, in the event of a failure, a circuit could be rerouted around the ring in the other direction. With the FTNx IP network, the data message is broken down into ‘packets’ of data and each packet may be routed over several paths to reach the destination address, at which point the complete data message is reconstructed in milliseconds. This means FTNx is even more resilient to failure than the first generation FTN.

The main driver for FTNx is the operational railway, which uses it for transporting mission critical and, in some cases, data-hungry services such as CCTV, ETCS, traffic management, GSM-R, Signalling and SCADA (supervisory control and data acquisition), together with non-operational rail and business voice and data corporate services. While FTNx could be exploited to deliver services off the rail corridor, the focus and requirement is to support the operational and business railway.

This is even more important with the introduction of the digital railway, and FTNx will be its heart, artery and veins. The small green fibre cable alongside the track, while resilient and self-healing in times of failure, will

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be strategically extremely important and, even on a secondary rural route, could well be carrying 100Gbits/s of traffic for mission critical data (including everyone’s pay cheque!) for a different part of the network.

The management and maintenance of FTNx is delivered via the vendor NMS (Network Management Systems) consisting of Cisco Prime and Infinera DNA. In addition the systems will be incorporated into the NRT OSS (Operational Support System) and BMS (Building Management System). NRT has established a georedundant NMS so that, if the primary datacentre was lost, there is a hot standby where services run in parallel and can be ‘cut across’ nearly instantaneously. The NMS allows circuit provision and service fix to be carried out remotely in seconds, and without deploying staff into the field. The equipment is remotely monitored down to port level so that action can be instigated to avoid service-affecting failures.

Going liveThe main part of FTNx is now up and running, and

has been fully handed over by the principal contractor, Telefonica. The core programme has provided two layers, known as the core layer and the aggregation layer. The

core consists of eight ‘super node’ locations at major rail cities and towns such as Edinburgh, Glasgow, Doncaster, Manchester, Birmingham, London and Bristol. These are currently operating optically at 100Gbit/s but are capable of higher data rates when required.

Sitting below the core are 25 IP aggregation nodes and 33 optical aggregation nodes currently configured for 30Gbit/s connections to the core nodes. These are also all connected and are working with test traffic for the SCADA programme, with Traffic Management (TM) being added during 2016.

Below the aggregation layer are the distribution layers, or rings, which are based on the FTN core node locations. These will consist of 130 nodes on 19 rings. A number of the rings are due to go live this year with the remaining rings due to be built during the remainder of CP5 and CP6.

The access and sub-access layers are being developed and provided by the respective resignalling schemes requiring the connectivity. Over the five layers, there are strict access authentication and authorisation rules and processes in place defining who can work on and access the equipment. All staff working in the NMC have been upskilled to manage the IP/MPLS network. Maintenance staff have also received training and competency assessment.

The migration of Network Rail corporate office voice and data traffic onto the IP/MPLS FTNx platform will commence in 2016/17, together with the rollout of video conferencing and unified communication messaging. Sections of the access and sub-access IP layers have already been deployed in Scotland and England, and this includes migrating from legacy SCADA kilostream links associated with the Crewe, Eastleigh and Rugby electrical control rooms off BT onto the NRT access layer, together with IP access rings for the Borders railway.

Cyber securityUnderstandably, security is an important part of FTNx.

It is a critical element and underpins all of the design and implementation. A specialist team under the direction of Darren Hepburn, chief information security officer (CISO), has introduced robust cyber security measures that are


to be found in all major enterprise IP/MPLS networks and which consist of layers of cyber protection. The measures also include business continuity, disaster-recovery processes, risk management, and security assurance processes as well as physical security.

Between the operational (ERTMS, TM, SCADA and SISS) and the business (corporate voice and data), there are two critical data platforms (CDPs). These consist of racks of equipment which act as a demilitarised zone (known in the cyber security industry as a DMZ) between the two service platforms.

The CDPs comprise state-of-the-art firewalls, load-balancers, authentication systems, intrusion detection and prevention systems and Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) protection. Processes are also in place to quickly implement security firmware and software updates as threats emerge.

All this is monitored via the telecom security operations team which can provide incident and event management as well as threat detection and vulnerability analysis.

While FTNx is an open network, it is arguably more secure than previous closed networks which don’t have sophisticated cyber security measures in place - only limited and basic physical security. Cyber Security measures never stop and they need to be constantly managed and updated. This is an overhead that small, closed network systems will find difficult to sustain.

Going forwardThe next phase for FTNx development is for it to enable

the Rail Infranet (infrastructure network) through the deployment of the emerging internet of things (IoT). IoT is the next technology level that uses sensors, networks, and analytics software to connect physical objects and infrastructure to analytical processing systems. This will allow any communications between sensors and information systems, avoiding the creation of technology and data silos.

Network Rail has been using remote condition monitoring (RCM) for some time to remotely alarm such objects as point machine current, track circuit current, substations, traction power supplies and busbars, using traditional circuit-switched or mobile or fixed dial-up

communications. However, with the IoT, this could be taken down a level. For example, as well as monitoring point operating equipment (POE) machine current, there could be sensors all over the POE to measure and report facing point lock criticality, or the stresses and strains within the entire switch and crossing layout.

On plain line, IoT sensors could be used to remotely monitor cant and other critical parameters in real time. OLE pulleys and droppers as well as current drain at various points in the distribution system could also be monitored. This would remove the need to physically patrol and inspect the infrastructure, thereby removing a safety hazard, whilst targeting intervention to where it is required.

Occupation and accommodation crossing gates sensors could detect if the gates had been left open. Earthwork monitors have been used for some time, but how about IoT sensors on every structure to monitor and report loading and asset condition?

All of this data will require connectivity, security and data-analysis. NRT believes that this could take place locally within the access or sub-access layers or be backhauled to the central datacentres, depending on the data and application. Security of IoT micro-devices is an issue, but the local processing systems could be used to provide a security layer. A trial of the required technology and design rules is being developed for the Old Dalby test track (now RIDC Melton).

So, just as it has always been, telecommunications is the heart of the railway, enabling a digital railway.


Chairman Michel Ruesen, managing director of the ERTMS Users Group based in Brussels, brought focus to the event by comparing the UK with the rest of Europe. The Users Group was formed in 1995 to steer the railways and supply industry into achieving the interoperability goals for cross border operation.

Government, regulation and standardsIf ERTMS in the UK is to succeed, it needs the

backing of government, it has to be effectively regulated and it requires understandable standards. Without these three in place, neither the railway nor the supply industry will make much headway.

Farha Sheikh, who is leading the Department for Transport’s initiative on rail digital services, outlined the DfT’s position. There will be a commitment to invest in train-borne Wi-Fi, improved mobile coverage and in the provision of ERTMS, the latter needing to concentrate on ETCS (the signalling component) and TMS (traffic management). It is recognised that a long legislative programme is necessary and this embraces the EU Directives that have emerged since the 1990s.

The original Railtrack intent, to introduce ETCS level 3 on the WCML, proved a disaster but a national ERTMS programme has been in place since 2005. The Cambrian line deployment has proved useful in understanding many of the problems and has led to ERTMS being the ‘system of choice’. Since then, commitment has been given to the IEP inter-city train, Thameslink, Crossrail and HS2, all of which will use ERTMS at some stage.

However, the ETCS deployment plan has slipped and is unlikely to make much progress in CP5. Two factors need to be resolved before ongoing work can proceed, the future structure of Network Rail in the light of the Hendy, Bowe and Shaw reports and the inclusion of ETCS provision within franchise obligations.

Above all, the funding situation must be clarified both in terms of outlay and cost benefits.

The ORR controls the regulatory position and Ian Maxwell, its ERTMS guru, gave an honest and pragmatic view of the situation. The disaggregated nature of the industry does not help the roll out of projects that cross the wheel/rail divide, but a clear business case has to emerge if ERTMS is to get the necessary backing.

Each rail organisation has a role to play in the big picture but equally must be mindful of its own contract and franchise conditions. Network Rail has to provide the infrastructure through its contractors but is also responsible for project managing the whole industry. Sometimes Network Rail treats its partners as contractors and that can lead to fractious relationships.

As the national safety authority, the ORR has to ensure the industry is safe, competitive and fair. A distinction is drawn between placing into service and putting into use, analogous to an electric toaster which might comply with all the safety requirements when purchased but can cause havoc if used incorrectly. In broad terms, the ORR expects ERTMS to yield: improved safety, better level crossing protection, improved track worker safety and more flexible possession management. Upon these must come a robust business case for CP6.

To ensure the industry as a whole knows what ERTMS has to provide and the technical / operational requirements that go with it, a credible set of standards is required. Tom Lee from RSSB gave details on how the current suite of standards has evolved both at European and National level.

CLIVE KESSELL

The UK position ERTMS

ERTMS is certainly controversial. Much has already been written on how the European Rail Traffic Management system will benefit the wider railway. A recent conference to review the UK position, organised by Waterfront,

attracted delegates from all corners of the rail industry, interested to discover how much progress had been made since the previous year’s event.


At the top is the EU Interoperability Directive from which the Technical Standards for Interoperability are imposed by law across Europe. Within the UK, these translate into the Railway Interoperability Regulations and from thence to Railway Group Standards, Rail Industry Standards, Codes of Practice, Guidance Notes and, lastly, the various company and project standards.

For ERTMS, the RSSB has developed a suite of standards embracing everything from rail company co-operation to electromagnetic compatibility. While it all may appear to be a bit daunting, the standards are intended to be easy to follow. Overall the RSSB is keen for ERTMS to be deployed as quickly as possible so that the engineering, operational and financial benefits can be obtained.

The up-beat messageThe Network Rail (as in Digital Railway Group)

position portrays optimism for the benefits that ERTMS can bring. Delivered by Andrew Simmons, the chief systems engineer for the Digital Railway, deployment is essential if the challenges of additional capacity are to be met. There are now 1.2 billion rail journeys per year and this could well double by 2030. A study on the South West main line from Basingstoke to Waterloo shows a potential 30,000 extra peak hour seats if ETCS is deployed properly, equating to the current 24 trains per hour up to 35.

However, some realism is necessary. ETCS level 1 and level 2 as an overlay mode to traditional signalling will yield no real advantage. Only with level 2 and no lineside signals can the block sections be radically changed. If level 3 with moving block ever becomes a reality, then a further closing-up of trains could be achieved although account must be taken of different braking characteristics for different types of train and also the impact of stations and flat junctions.

Traffic Management Systems (TMS) are vital to optimise train movements through the latter, further enhanced by the addition of C-DAS (Connected Driver Advisory System). The timetable for conflict error is currently set at 30 seconds and

needs to be reduced to five seconds if a greater number of trains are to pass conflict points on schedule.

The initial industry plan for ETCS will be launched in Sep 2016, covering the first Thameslink usage in Oct 2016 with full deployment in Dec 2018 and Crossrail West routes in April 2018. A digital system integration trial is planned for 2020 covering GSM-R, ETCS L2, TMS, C-DAS, FTNx (the IP based bearer) and COMPASS (the degraded mode operation). Getting to full Digital operation in 2038/9 will be in nine transition states but business benefits will only begin to be realised once the seventh is implemented.

The train operator viewJust how do the train operators prepare for all

this? Many of them are not yet involved, as their lines are still years away from conversion. Two TOCs and the Freight groups gave an indication as to what is involved.

Most advanced is Virgin East Coast, with Paul Boyle explaining that conversion of the King’s Cross to Wood Green section will happen in March 2020 and northwards to Peterborough by 2022. These dates have slipped from last year’s conference, indicative of the challenges to be

faced. ERTMS is within the Franchise plan and a host of new skills will be needed by virtually everyone employed. Simulators are already in place - the Kings Cross one becoming active this summer - and an iPad ERTMS appreciation and training app is available.

The transition from conventional signalling to ETCS at speed will need careful planning, it's being anticipated that the system will prepare for activation in the southwards direction some seven miles north of Wood Green. The TOC will challenge the Digital Railway group if it perceives the wrong methodology is being used. The long-term objective will be to enable 140mph running.

Great Western Railway has a number of years of experience with the pilot ATP system dating back to BR days. Geoff Brison, GWR project manager for ERTMS, stated that the company knows that low adhesion conditions, variable braking curves, the impact of temporary speed restrictions (TSRs) and level crossings are problem areas. Training for ETCS will be done on simulators but care will be taken not to mix this up with training for the forthcoming electrification.

The new IEP Class 800/801 trains will be fitted at the factory but the Class 387 EMUs for outer suburban services will not - a somewhat strange situation - but here the inclusion of SDO (Selective Door Opening) will need to be built into the ETCS package. Since the GWR project is intended as an overlay to conventional signalling, a means of informing the signallers which trains are operating ETCS and which are not will be needed. Operational requirements must drive the detailed design.

The freight situation is different to that of the TOCs, according to Paul Gledhill from DB Cargo. Initially resistive to ERTMS as it threatened to impose disruption and extra cost, a more considered approach has now emerged. The seven FOCs and Network Rail have a collective approach with fully integrated governance and a functional working party. A contract to design the ‘first in


class’ (FIC) for six locomotive types will shortly be let and further contracts are intended for fleet fitment in readiness for the ECML King’s Cross to Peterborough section in 2022.

The development of a training programme is underway but is not as advanced as had been hoped. ETCS benefits are expected to produce improved incident and disaster recovery working, better train planning through TMS and reduced complexity for new connections and decommissioning of redundant lines. Several challenges remain, including proving the capacity benefits on a mixed traffic railway, resolving braking curve issues for a diverse wagon fleet, coping with the loss of locomotives during the fitment programme, and drivers having to cope with two signalling systems plus the mph versus km/h measurement of distance.

Retrofitting of rolling stockIn an ideal situation, matching new rolling stock

with ERTMS provision would avoid having to retrofit rolling stock, but the real world will not be like that and many classes of existing trains will need fitting with ETCS. Andy Norris from CPC Project Services who is managing the ROSCO retrofit programme, described some of the requirements.

The three main ROSCOs are planning a three-pronged procurement programme based on FIC, fleet fitting and ongoing maintenance. The FIC spec is 80 per cent complete for eight classes but only the Class 365 EMU is underway with Alstom. A mature Invitation to Tender (ITT) is needed to cover a whole life cost model, taking into account that signalling safety becomes part of the train and with cyber security being an ever present threat.

The manufacturers involved in the fitment programme - Alstom, Bombardier, Thales, Siemens, Hitachi, CAF - must all recognise the full implications. Specific retrofit challenges are: » Sequence of work - which stock to do first; » Space for ETCS equipment in trains - always a

squeeze with cabs a particular problem; » Availability of a test track equipped with ERTMS

infrastructure - the Melton Mowbray (Old Dalby) site is not yet ready;

» Finalising the ETCS software levels by the ERA; » Reliability proving - absolutely essential for old

trains; » Release of trains from the TOCs - each will

need about 10 weeks; » Capacity of industry to fit 2,300+ trains; » Funding - FIC will be from Network Rail, fleet

fitment likely to be the DfT via franchise requirements but only Virgin East Coast and GWR have this at present.

Open access operators have also to be considered but the main objective will be to align train fitment with infrastructure roll out.

Other countries have faced similar problems, and Pieter Rypma from Siemens gave details of how ETCS has been applied to mixed-traffic railways in Switzerland and Morocco. The Swiss have 365 vehicles retrofitted with a carefully planned system for integration and testing. Sufficient time was allowed to learn from the FIC activity with user and maintenance manuals needing to be clear and simple. Importantly, a system interface owner was assigned.

In Morocco, 65 vehicles of six different types have been equipped, dynamic testing on a dedicated test track having been seen as important with braking curve identification and validating being the hardest part to accommodate.

GSM-R and the futureToo often, the GSM-R radio bearer is taken for

granted by the people doing ETCS development, much as water in the tap. However, it is a major element of ERTMS and there are several risks to performance associated with it. Paul Callaghan from SNC-Lavalin (formerly Interfleet) set out the situation.

The UK GSM-R rollout is complete but the network of 2,000 masts and base stations, along with 1,000 dispatcher terminals, is only optimised for voice communication. This gives near 100 per cent coverage but with little resilience should a base station fail (there is little overlap in coverage between base stations), also the minimum signal level for robust ETCS operation will not be met. A study for the ECML indicates 30 per cent more base stations will be needed to overcome this deficiency.

The need to adopt packet switching (GPRS) has been explained in earlier articles as the existing channel allocation of 4MHz with circuit switching will only allow five ETCS connections per cell. This increases to seven users per timeslot with GPRS, which should be sufficient for even the busiest areas.

To improve the resilience of the base station network, three options are available. One is to have full duplication of base stations at every existing site, which would be costly and wasteful of radio spectrum. Providing in-fill sites would be costly and frequency hungry, and finding suitable sites would be difficult. Lastly, there is the possibility of duplicated interleave with a separate base station controller for the duplication - again costly and difficult to manage. Unsurprisingly, no decision has yet been taken on which option(s) to adopt.

There are opportunities for additional use of the GSM-R network. One is online key management. The distribution of ‘keys’ to trains, as verification that the train is ‘correct for ETCS’, is currently carried out offline at depots. Changing this to an online progressive operation, key management centre to radio block centre to GSM-R network to on-train ETCS, radio will add efficiency.

Also the distribution of C-DAS information from train to signalling centre and back, using GSM-R instead of the public mobile networks, will save money.

Other challenges will occur in the short and longer terms. With the opening up of more public mobile spectrum adjacent to the GSM-R bands, many European railways, including the UK, are experiencing interference. Vodafone and Telefonica have caused interference in the north of England, which has been fixed in the short term by mutual agreement to turn down power levels. In the medium term, however, it could mean replacing the present 8,000 train mobiles with a higher spec model incorporating improved filtering, at a cost of between £60 and £80 million.


In the more distant future, the 2G technology of GSM-R will need to be replaced. A functional spec for the Future Rail Mobile Comms System (FRMCS) is already prepared and out for consultation and a technical spec should follow in 2018. Product development should begin by 2022 with systems being ready by 2030, which is when GSM-R support will wane. The technical, safety and security implications of all this are still way off any solution.

Cyber security and legal aspectsArticles in Rail Engineer on cyber security have

featured recently and Christos Voudouris, the head of digital business systems in the Digital Railway proffered some alarming statistics.

670,000 cyber attacks occurred on industrial control systems in 2014, up from 163,000 in 2013. The physical exposure of digital assets and geographic spread creates a large footprint, and safety critical data systems change at a slow pace, thus making them attractive from a cyber perspective.

Rail safety will increasingly depend on computer systems with fully connected signalling infrastructure across networks. Part of this will include control of lineside equipment and trains, crew rostering and train planning, all of which will tend to use IP-based COTS (commercial off-the-shelf) equipment.

The vulnerabilities are many and involve people and processes as much as technology. For ERTMS, accreditation of new systems will impose firewalls between different levels of application, the main thrust being to protect anything that can be connected to the internet. The Digital Railway sees three phases to counter cyber-attack - design, zoning and boundaries, and real time correlation - all combining into a managed service for rail.

Legal challenges could abound with ERTMS deployment if not recognised and subsequently managed, according to Suzanne Tarplee from Stephenson Harwood. Manufacture, operation, maintenance, ownership and finance all need to be considered: » Procurement - multi party suppliers, down time

to install, IPR, warranty provision, early fitting of train equipment - but if not powered for some time who becomes responsible when it goes live?

» Penalty Regime - TOCs may become partly responsible for signalling delays and delay attribution - how to reconcile with the penalty regime, liability for the track to train interface, performance payments?

» Security - cyber-attacks, obsolescence of equipment and software, how to manage system updates?

In short, it could become a jungle and there is no option to just switch off the signalling. Expensive lawsuits might result if these issues are not thought through on a collaborative basis in the early stages.

ATO Within Europe, the core element of Thameslink

will be the first deployment of automatic train operation superimposed upon ETCS level 2. It was a surprise to learn that a project is already underway on the Mexico City to Toluca Interurban line.

Jon Alzate from CAF described the scope: a 60km route, 25kV electrified, five stations, 30 trains, 160km/h speed and a 2½ minute headway. ATO will yield improvements in punctuality, capacity, energy consumption and passenger comfort and will also reduce wear and tear. The ETCS is to Baseline 2.3.0.d software and the ATO must be interoperable and compatible with this, as set out in SS-125, the ATO systems requirements specification which is not expected to become mature in Europe until 2021. The line is expected to achieve full ATO in 2018.

CBTC comparison and human factorsERTMS is all about the main line railway

whereas metro operators have achieved similar performance improvements with CBTC (Communications Based Train Control). Julian Gill from Thales examined how the two systems compare, concluding that, whilst much of the hardware is essentially similar, the software is fundamentally different.

The prime goal of ERTMS is interoperability whereas CBTC is all about performance and capacity. Convergence of the two will be difficult given these starting positions, but the metro world would like to see CBTC made interoperable from a multi supplier base.

In practical terms, and with the history of the London Underground Jubilee and Northern lines behind them, Mike Harvie, the LU Head of Signal Engineering, thought that ETCS level 3 equipped with an ATO package could deliver the same level of service achieved using CBTC. The transmission link on CBTC has been mainly inductive loops to date whereas ETCS level 3 would be radio-based, as indeed will the Sub Surface Lines’ CBTC once it is commissioned. This could be another learning curve.

No one should overlook the complete change in how the railway is operated with ERTMS. Both Ben Dunlop from Atkins and Toby Garner from

Ricardo Rail looked at the change in culture that will be necessary. Learning the lessons from other industries when significant change in technology has taken place is advisable. Imposing technology without considering the effects can be disastrous. As an example, just consider self-service baggage drops at airports.

Behavioural shift needs to be recognised with factors such as system safety, human error and user engagement. Personal health and safety has to be considered for both train drivers and infrastructure staff, all leading to a wider exposure to the technology being desirable at an early stage. Risks of repetitive strain and muscle fatigue injury are possible, the transition from old to new being the most critical time.

Moving forwardCompared to the same conference last year,

the position with ERTMS remains optimistic but a degree of realism has emerged on the benefits to be obtained and the difficult logistics of transition. ERTMS - incorporating ETCS and TMS - is going to happen but implementation will not be easy. The technical elements are virtually finalised and the software at Baseline 3 Release 2 looks robust. However, getting all the other elements in place will be a challenge.

Peter Leppard, who headed up the Arriva Trains Wales team for the Cambrian line project, made it very clear that unless everything is properly thought through before commissioning, the train service is likely to experience major disruption. Integration with level crossings remains uncertain. Applying ETCS to the most remote of rural lines is unlikely ever to be a cost-effective solution.

There was virtually no mention during the conference of ERTMS level 3, which was surprising since only with this will real financial savings occur. The situation with GSM-R needs a high-profile steer and the long-term future for radio networking is a major worry.

Above all, the situation where the ‘signalling system’ is 50 per cent infrastructure and 50 per cent train-borne requires a major culture change and maybe the creation of an organisation that can engender a systems approach will have to be the answer.


To improve our already impressive health, safety and environmental record, this coming year Stobart Rail aim to reinforce and support this record by introducing a new Safety Vision:

Stobart Rail are proud of the Safety, Health and Environment Culture it has actively created.

Our aims are to have:

Zero Accidents

Zero Complaints

Zero Health Issues

Zero Environmental Issues

Zero Incidents

As part of a new initiative “Think Safety, Act Safely” Stobart Rail commissioned Carlisle based Cloudscape Studios to design 30 bespoke posters to aid and support a new culture campaign.

The campaign has allowed Stobart Rail to introduce some unique characters that deal with a wide selection of

safety issues that the workforce can relate to. The poster topics came from a number of sources including the Lifesaving Rules, accident and incident statistics from the last 5 years, high risk activities Stobart Rail carry out, wellbeing issues and behavioural based safety.

An extensive range of subjects have

Following the rules whether this be a procedure or site specific rules including the Network Rail Lifesaving Rules

Reporting any shortcomings to line management

Stopping work when something is not right or has changed from the planned activities

Staff using the training they have been given to carry out their roles and responsibilities to create a safe working environment

Robust Planning

Improving communication between all parties to learn and improve

Ensuring the Just & Fair Culture process we have in place is applied

Continuing to hold Stand Down days

Continuing to encourage the reporting of Close Calls

Providing the correct equipment and resource to carry out the works we conduct

Leading by Example

How will we achieve this?

For queries please contact:

Andrew SumnerContracts [email protected] 07736108749Office 01228 882300

Website: www.stobartrail.com

facebook.com/stobartrail

twitter.com/StobartRailLtd

Improving communication between all parties to learn and improve

Ensuring the Just & Fair Culture process we have in place is applied

Continuing to hold Stand Down days

Continuing to encourage the reporting of Close Calls

Providing the correct equipment and resource to carry out the works we conduct

Leading by Example

The Safety and Wellbeing of our staff is our highest priority. This campaign is based on relatable circumstances

that our staff encounter regularly, with characters they identify with. It’s about raising personal awareness to threats that we’re exposed to on a daily basis.

We all want to stay healthy and stress

free. We want to travel to and from work safely. We want to do this whilst being considerate to the Environment

and the Communities we work in.

Kirk TaylorStobart Rail Managing Director

been covered from working at height to wellbeing information all with the goal of raising awareness and providing information to Stobart Rail staff.

It is hoped that these bespoke posters are well received by our workforce and clients alike, acting as a constant reminder of the risks and hazards we face at work every day and how to eliminate them.

Mega ChipperMany readers may own a shredder - a useful garden power

tool that rapidly turns fallen twigs and small branches into a mixture of chippings and sawdust. Just the thing to

have when pruning the roses or disposing of unwanted saplings, manufacturers often claim it can dispose of branches up to 45mm in diameter, though frankly many struggle to do this.

Rail Engineer • May 201686PL

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Get a bit more ambitious, add a petrol engine and you can handle tree limbs up to around five inches (125mm in diameter). At this stage it is a chipper, not a shredder.

Even larger ones, as used by professional tree surgeons and towed behind their vans to site, can take small trees and large branches up to 8” (200mm) diameter.

But is that good enough for use on the rail network? No! The railways always do things bigger and better.

QTS Group, one of the country’s leading providers of innovative rail vegetation management solutions, has just revealed the latest addition to its extensive fleet - the QTS Mega Chipper, the world’s biggest and only rubber tracked, rail mounted chipper.

It can take whole trees, literally. With a capacity of a whopping 27” - that’s 685mm or two-thirds of a metre - the fully-automated Terex TAK790 (ARB77) chipper is remote controlled and can be towed on track by an RRV excavator. It even has a self-feeding conveyer, capable of operating free on wheels at 35º, and is powered by a seven litre, 300hp caterpillar engine.

Bigger than beforeQTS Group was founded in 1990 by managing

director Alan McLeish. The company is a multi-discipline railway contractor providing specialist services in vegetation management, drainage service, fencing, training, civil engineering, earthworks, geotechnical services, industrial rope access and specialist plant fleet hire.

The company already owns an eight-wheeled RRV Valmet Forwarder, which can chip vegetation and trees up to 24” diameter. Now it’s gone one better.

To handle the large trees that these chippers can consume needs yet more specialist machinery. The Forwarder has an integrated nine-metre crane fitted with a log handler. The new Mega Chipper is hauled into position by an RRV excavator which can also feed the conveyor, removing the need for operators to interface with what could be very dangerous pieces of kit.

The QTS Mega Chipper works at an extremely fast rate and can take the place of several smaller machines, leaving aside the fact that only it can handle the really big stuff. It will dramatically reduce the man-hours worked on large-scale devegetation jobs and its multi-purpose tracking system allows it to work both lineside and on-track.

National contractQTS is one of seven successful suppliers who

will deliver more than 1,000 maintenance, renewals and enhancements projects improving earthworks, bridges, tunnels, footbridges and station buildings as part of Network Rail’s £40 billion programme to build a bigger, better UK railway during the five-year period between 2014 and 2019.

The company’s recognition as one of the best contractors on the UK rail infrastructure has led to an increase in its current frameworks and it landed a vast majority of the national vegetation contract

just a few months ago. This will see the company retain its responsibility for the de-vegetation of railway and surrounding areas nationally.

The QTS group is also Scotland’s largest framework contractor in rail vegetation management, fencing and earthworks. Nationally, it is the largest rail fencing contractor and, through rapid expansion brought about by winning new and retaining existing frameworks from their clients, the company has ambitious plans to develop its national presence in other specialisms, with a view to becoming the market leader nationwide.

With ten offices nationwide, the company has seen its national presence stretch further across the UK. The national headquarters remains in Strathaven in South Lanarkshire, Scotland, although it has its English HQ in Nottingham.

QTS manages and owns the largest vegetation management fleet in operation on the UK Rail infrastructure, and it could be argued that it has one of the largest in Europe. The company provides specialist vegetation services such as stump treatment, crown reduction, tree cutting, rock cutting, felling, pruning, weed control and even tree and shrub planting 24 hours a day, 365 days of the year.

After all, that lineside vegetation just keeps on growing.


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The main reason for this is a result of a number of years work undertaken by individuals at RSSB (formerly the Rail Safety and Standards Board) to revise the engineering acceptance process following the publication of the Railways and Other Guided Transport Systems (Safety) Regulations (ROGS) and the Railway (Interoperability) Regulations (RIR), both in 2006. These regulations supported the split in safety responsibility between the railway undertaking (RU) and infrastructure manager (IM) under their accredited safety management system (SMS) and being overseen by the National Safety Authority (NSA) which, in the UK, is the Office of Road and Rail (ORR).

Railway Group Standard (RGS) GM/RT 2000 prescribed the methodology for engineering acceptance by a VAB in order to deliver an EAC detailing that the project conformed to the applicable standards. GM/RT 2000 issue 3’s publication in 2010 changed the requirement for a VAB to be the sole permitted body able to issue an EAC by recognising the safety split detailed in ROGS and RIR by permitting an EAC to be issued by a “competent person employed or contracted by a railway undertaking, that a rail vehicle conforms to all of the relevant mandatory standards”.

Several railway undertakings recognised this aspect and identified in their SMS who the competent persons were and thus making the current VAB process no longer fit for purpose. However, although the VAB process will cease on the commencement of RIS-2700-RST Issue 1 “Rail Industry Standard for Verification of Conformity of Engineering Change to Rail Vehicles” on 4 June 2016, RUs who require the level of assurance from a third party assessor can still obtain this from a certification body which has successfully obtained an accreditation for RIS-2700-RST.

Different arrangement for plantCertification of On Track Machines (OTM) and On-Track Plant (OTP) are

outside the scope of RIS-2700-RST and therefore these are to be covered by the certification process detailed in another new standard, RIS-1710-PLT issue 1 “Rail Industry Standard for Engineering Certification of Railborne Plant”. This standard applies to all OTP and trolleys and OTM in travelling and working mode plus OTMs in running mode for infrastructure which is not in the scope of the Interoperability Directive.

for VABEnd of the line

After 22 years and over 110,000

Engineering Acceptance

Certificates (EAC) issued, the

Vehicle Acceptance Body (VAB) process

ceases on 4 June 2016.

Strabag Rail Grinding Machine.

Road Rail Vactor/Drainage Clearance Vehicle named as the Rail Whale.

DAVID EDWARDS


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You’ve done all the hard work of identifying the standards and safety risk that apply to your vehicle. You’re now looking for the independent assurance so that you’re ready to roll. Look no further than the NCB.

We operate with all types of rail vehicles, including passenger, freight and plant and machinery. Whether you’re a manufacturer, owner or operator, we have the ability to deliver conformance certification to meet your needs.

From engineering modifications through to new build, we’ve got you covered - working as: • a Notified Body and Designated Body • a UK Vehicle Acceptance Body undergoing UKAS accreditation as a Plant Assessment Body • an Assessment Body under the Common Safety Method

Our knowledge of processes and our connections throughout the railway industry give us the unparalleled ability to provide assurance and certification solutions that work for you.

Network Certification Body (NCB) is the choice for rail conformity assessment.We’ll get you on track

NCB: Trusted to deliver...Get in touch to discuss how we can help.

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J4055 - Rail Engineer Advert Amends AW.pdf 1 14/04/2016 14:38

RIS-1710-PLT is a development of section 3 of RIS-1530-PLT issue 5 and mandates that an engineering conformance certificate (ECC) is issued by a UKAS accredited plant assessment body (PAB) upon a successful conformance assessment against RIS-1530-PLT for OTP or RIS-1702-PLT for OTM (travelling and working modes). An ECC and EAC are, effectively, one and the same as they both detail that the vehicle conforms to the appropriate standard.

New OTMs, or ones having undergone a major engineering change, would still require authorisation under the RIR for their running mode operation on the mainline railway in scope of the Interoperability Directive under the RIR.

Network Rail currently issues a letter of instruction mandating conformance to RIS-1530-PLT for all OTP. This process will not be adopted this time around as the Network Rail standard NR/PLANT/0200/module P300 “Plant approval and design” will be revised and published on 4 June 2016 detailing certification is to be undertaken in accordance with process detailed in RIS-1710-PLT issue 1 and the technical requirements of RIS-1530-PLT issue 6 and therefore mandating these two standards.

Industry enthusiasmThe certification specialists seem to be backing these

changes. James Collinson, managing director of Network Certification Body (NCB) told Rail Engineer: “The transition from VAB to PAB has been a long awaited change for us as a certification body and for the industry as a whole. It provides safety and cost benefits and removes the ambiguity that existed when the requirement for a VAB changed for different ‘Vehicle’ types, for example freight and passenger vehicles versus plant vehicles.

“It also means that we can really start to develop our young engineers as we unlock the myth that only ‘time served’ technical experts could be trusted to assess compliance, and grow the much needed expertise (alongside our established and experienced engineers) that the industry is becoming starved of.

“The trick will be to make this transition as quick and as painless as possible for plant manufacturers and converters and working with Network Rail and UKAS will be key to this success - which we are already on the case with.”

The last VAB/CCB conference was held in Derby on 31 March to detail the transition from the current VAB process, through the UKAS accreditation process, to becoming a PAB. At this conference, each of the eight remaining VABs were awarded a ‘Certificate of Engineering Integrity’ in recognition of their significant contribution to the safety of the UK rail network by overseeing the introduction of new rail vehicles and safety related changes to existing rail vehicles.

David Edwards is a conformance manager at Network Certification Body.

Alstom Transport Wiring Vehicle.

Flash Butt Welder and CD501 Fast Clipper.

LH Skyboom 2 Mobile Elevated Working Platform (MEWP) road rail vehicle.


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T HE SPEC I A L IST R A I L PL A N T SUPPL IER

www.apwebbplanthire.co.uk

A.P. Webb Plant Hire Ltd

m a i l @ r a i l a b i l i t y . c o . u k 0 1 7 8 5 2 1 4 7 4 7 w w w . r a i l a b i l i t y . c o . u k

Rail Engineer • May 2016 93PLANT AND EQUIPM

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One of the UK rail industry’s leading plant suppliers is expanding its operations by opening a brand new depot in South Yorkshire.

A-Plant Rail’s new Service Centre is in Doncaster, a town with strong railway connections and the base for many of the infrastructure work teams that need support with specialist plant and equipment. With over 8,000 square feet of space, the new Service Centre is ideally located within the engine room of Doncaster’s rail sector and just five minutes from Junction 3 of the M18.

Doncaster was strategically chosen for A-Plant Rail’s latest location due to the large amount of Overhead Line (OHL) work taking place across the north of England, something which A-Plant Rail specialises in supporting with equipment.

audited and in Doncaster

Plant, Tools, Lighting,Power, Welfare, Lifting,OHL Equipment and much more

0370 050 0797 www.aplant.com

Control Code: 04/16/4267

Exciting developmentService Centre manager Matt

Cartwright explained: “We have made a large investment in this new location, the facilities are state-of-the-art and we have a fleet of new specialist equipment ranging from height and stagger gauges, crimping tools and wire de-kinkers to static work benches for the forming and manufacturing of droppers to build overhead line cables.

“This is an exciting time for A-Plant Rail. The team here at Doncaster are vastly experienced rail professionals, we are PTS trained and can provide expert service and advice. What’s more, as a company we are active members of the Rail Alliance along with being RISQS Accredited. With the ongoing electrification works and infrastructure plans around the Northern Powerhouse initiative we have a solid platform for growth.”

AuditedIndeed, A-Plant was recently

awarded the highest accolade of five stars in the Railway Industry Supplier Qualification Scheme (RISQS) audit, formerly known as Link-Up. The certification covers all aspects of A-Plant’s ability to serve the rail industry.

Head of performance standards Chris Ryan commented on the award: “We have received the accolade as a result of our demonstration of a compliant and auditable business management system, having met the Network Rail Sentinel Health, Safety, Operational and Competence standards required under the RISQS framework for working within the rail environment.

“Being RISQS-audited allows us to hire equipment to rail projects whilst assuring our customers that we are compliant with the highest of industry standards.”

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Network Rail relies on a variety of plant suppliers for almost all of its major projects. Some of these are national firms, with branches around the country, while others work on a regional basis or supply

specialist kit.

But, whichever firm is supplying the equipment, it has to be reliable. Failure of even a modest piece of plant can result in an entire project overrunning or being cancelled. It really is true that the failure of a £10 hydraulic hose can cost Network Rail (or its supplier!) £1 million.

However, in the past, Network Rail hasn’t been good at recording and assessing the performance of its contracted suppliers of RRVs (road-rail vehicles) and the reliability of the plant they supply.

Major problems caused by project overruns, particularly those which closed King’s Cross for an extra day after Christmas 2014, highlighted this shortcoming as the failure of both RRVs and their attachments contributed to the situation. So Network Rail introduced a process to measure this critical area of supply chain performance.

By doing so they are able to qualify the levels of RRV performance, define the root cause of failures of the RRV supply, and develop performance improvement plans with suppliers and clients.

Introducing RRVPSThe first thing that was needed

was reliable data. A web-based application was developed which would allow Network Rail, and its new plant reliability team, to measure actual performance.

The new Road Rail Vehicle Performance System (RRVPS) measures RRV performance using data uploaded by the plant suppliers on a weekly basis. It rates performance using a nine-point scoring system and a series of fault codes. This information is then validated by the customer, principle contractor or maintenance delivery unit before the scoring and detail is accepted into the system as being accurate.

Using this information, suppliers and clients can develop a better understanding of how improvements in reliability and performance can be obtained. It will identify machines with repetitive faults so that improvement plans can be drawn up and help in understanding the true cost of plant failures.

In addition, the Network Rail plant reliability team uses this information to help understand the causes of machine failures, to define the root causes of performance issues by the RRV supply chain and to develop performance improvement plans that include suppliers and clients. Sharing best practice and solutions provides Network Rail with a greater level of reliability and is a core element of the programme.

Commenting on the new application, system designer Andy Richmond said: “RRVPS was designed from the ground up solely for the purpose of recording RRV shift performance. Many other applications and websites bury the user in layers of complexity whereas we have focussed on simplicity and clarity.

“The RRV suppliers are key to the software’s success. They have been very supportive and they see the benefits that RRVPS brings to their organisations.”

Is it having a positive effect? In any given week, Network Rail buys-in around 1,000 shifts of RRVs across multiple disciplines. During 2015-16, more than 26,000 shifts were recorded in the system with an overall plant reliability performance of 98.03 per cent.

ReliabilityLEE GREEN records


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High output campaign manager Dean Mtumbi has been using the system for over six months. He reported: “The RRVPS allows Network Rail to monitor its own performance. Previously, shifts lost to late trains, possession issues or inadequate resources were not recorded, but now they are. And the results are showing where the faults really are.”

System in operationAlthough it has been rolled-out around the country,

the new reporting system is not mandatory. Project engineer Andy Reynolds explained: “At the beginning we didn’t know if the system was going to work because it depends on suppliers and clients doing an extra bit of work that they’re not contractually obliged to, but we soon realised they would also benefit from using the system.

“For Network Rail, the system gives up-to-date reliability figures for plant machines working on our network. For suppliers, it creates the opportunity to highlight the work they have done to improve the reliability of their machines.”

Data is obtained, not just for each supplier, but for every machine in its fleet. Senior business analyst Matt Skelton said: “RRV suppliers upload their shifts on a weekly basis and rate the performance of each RRV, including different types of faults that are marked with a set of codes. Once it has been validated, the report is available in the system for accountability and reference purposes.”

All of Network Rail’s RRV suppliers upload information on a weekly basis. The national roll-out across network operations has now been completed, bringing that organisation into the reporting mechanisms along with Infrastructure Projects (IP) track. Over the coming months, there are plans to link in the wider IP organisation.

With this consistent measurement process in place, the root causes and trends of failures can be targeted for improvement. This is not simply looking at plant reliability but the wider performance impacts caused by the selection and planning of work.

One year onThe first big test of the new system came over

Christmas 2015, twelve months after the failures at King’s Cross. Another significant delay would simply not be tolerated.

As it happened, the Christmas 2015 engineering work was a huge success with limited plant failures.

In preparation, the plant reliability team facilitated cooperative working between Network Rail, its principle contractors and suppliers. Plant protocols were shared with the Network Rail project teams, utilising the principle contractors’ and plant suppliers’ involvement to gain further detail. This brought additional focus on the selection, supply and contingency arrangements each project had in place.

The teams were also asked to provide a full list of RRVs to be used on their sites. Using the machine’s ID and RRVPS, the plant reliability team analysed each machine to find its reliability score, how many shifts it had completed and, if any failures occurred, what type of failures they were.

Any apparent risks or poor performing plant were highlighted and a risk status defined. This allowed the project teams to make changes to the plant as required based on reliability - simple machine or site-specific changes as opposed to wholesale plant change.

Torrent exampleOne particular case in point was the Pandrol MkIV rail-

mounted applicator for Fastclips, supplied to Network Rail by Torrent Trackside. There were simply no failures at all over the Christmas period.

90.0091.0092.0093.0094.0095.0096.0097.0098.0099.00

100.002015/16ReliabilityScoresperPeriod

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NetOps

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BallastBrush

Trailer Clamshell Cropper LogGrab Other

2015/16Top5A:achmentFailures

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Shift Analysis screenshot.

Rail Engineer • May 2016 97PLANT AND EQUIPM

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The plant reliability team held advance meetings with Torrent to discuss and understand the events surrounding repeat failures of MkIV Fastclip machines. As a result, a performance improvement plan was agreed.

Interim measures were put in place by Torrent until the full performance plan could be implemented. These interim measures ensured that all hose configurations did not allow for excess hose length, and that all first aid kits for each machine had spare sets of hoses for that specific machine until the fleet had been standardised.

Torrent also removed the guide plates, as these are not present on all machines and had the potential to cause hose damage if the sleeper grab was out of alignment with a sleeper it was lifting.

Overall, it was a great success for both Torrent and Network Rail. This plan, with Torrent’s support, is now being shared across all other suppliers of this equipment, nationally.

Going nationalThe last 12 months has seen the

rollout of the system to suppliers, clients and the route teams, including a National rollout across Network Operations.

Executive and route summaries have been created which distill the data gathered and communicate only that which is of most value with commentary, or interpretation of the message the data is showing.

The performance of a machine cannot be gauged until the shift is completed and agreed by both parties (client and supplier), and this can sometimes take a number of days to agree. As a result, reports will always be for the previous full period.

Working with the suppliers, the plant reliability team has created a series of Joint Performance Improvement Plans (JPIPs), to aid best practice and reliability.

Performance improvementOver the last 18 months, there has

been a 50 per cent improvement in plant performance. The number of shifts being loaded into RRVPS is ever increasing, giving the plant reliability team greater ability to analyse trends.

Now that the shift levels have increased significantly, greater scrutiny can be focused upon the quality and integrity of the data. It is essential that all failures are captured and the root cause of the failure correctly identified.

During period 11 (9 January - 5 February) there was a total of nearly 90 failures over the four-week period. Ballast brushes and electrical failures remain the largest cause of breakdowns, so future JPIPs will focus on these key areas.

In fact, JPIPs are now in place for a number of suppliers and these plans will be driven to aid the improvement of performance and reliability. They are evolving documents which capture innovations, improvement areas, sharing successes and tracking issues and concerns.

JPIPs will be a key driving point for the Plant Reliability team in 2016/17.

Assurance and governance of RRVPS

The latest update to RRVPS incorporates two new tools which will result in greater standardisation and interpretation processes and provide a better and consistent means of measurement.

The first new tool is FRACAS (Failure Recording, Analysis and Corrective Action System). It gives the plant reliability team the ability to drill down further into the uploaded shifts and failures, allowing the management of timely shift signing. This tool will also assign machines with performance codes of 1-5 to allocated team members for action and to close out the fault.

The second tool is a governance tool, which highlights the difference between the performance code submitted by the supplier and the client’s challenges back on that coding. It enables fault reporting trend analysis for fairness, consistency and also to highlight any training opportunities.

Finally, the development within the system of a ‘Machinery Tracker’ has been provided. This allows the client teams to easily check on the machines being supplied and their individual reliability. This is not just about machine reliability - it also enables the clients to check their own plans, work methodology and contingencies based on the plant supply.

Moving forwardPerformance scores within Network

Rail are measured on a financial year basis, and RRVPS will be no different.

Over the last year, nearly 30,000 shifts were entered into the system and the overall reliability score stood at 98 per cent - a great achievement but the ideal is, of course, an almost-unachievable 100 per cent.

With the new financial year starting on 1 April, all statistics held within RRVPS reverted to zero. With all suppliers, clients and route teams on-board with the new system, this was the perfect opportunity to re-set all the totals, levelling the playing field and giving more integrity to the data.

However, the previous year’s data will be archived, not deleted. It will be stored so machine reliability data is still available to show trends and history when needed.

Now everyone just needs to start all over again…

Lee Green is programme manager, plant reliability, IP Track at Network Rail


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rail engineer - issue 139 - may 2016

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