the rail engineer - issue 119 - september 2014

SEPTEMBER 2014 - ISSUE 119

this issueq IP EXPLOITATION IN SCOTLANDq THE LONG ROAD TO GUILDFORDq THE LIFE OF A SIGNALLING ENGINEERq CYBER SECURITY

FARRINGDON STATION CONSTRUCTIONThe ‘heart of the heart’ of Crossrail

SIGNALLING THE PASSENGERThe drive to move passengers quickly and efficiently

ALL ABOARD FOR BERLINInnoTrans 2014

BORDERS ON TRACKLongest new UK domestic railway for over 100 years

TECHNOLOGY | DESIGN | M&E | S&T | STATIONS | ENERGY | DEPOTS | PLANT | TRACK | ROLLING STOCK

the railengineerby rail engineers for rail engineers

www.therailengineer.com

Stockholm’s solution to its‘Wasp’s Waist’

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News 6The GNGE project.

Borders on track 16Largest new domestic UK railway for over 100 years.

The long road to Guildford 26Not every project goes to plan!

Block closure of the Uxbridge Branch 30A major 23 day London Underground blockade for Track Partnership.

The life of a signalling engineer 42Cardiff Area Signalling Renewal by Jon Leach of Atkins Rail.

Introducing Infrasig 46A Joint Venture company by Bombardier and Carillion.

Rail Engineering - a comparison of UK and France 50Clive Kessell reports from an annual convention in France’s second city, Lyon.

Next generation control systems 54Siemens Rail Automation’s control systems technology.

Civils before signalling 63Behind every major signalling project lies a civil engineering one.

Cyber Security 64Railways are not alone is needing secure, safe communications.

41 years of Ethernet 68The origins of Ethernet by Paul Darlington.

Developing a new wireless-operated distant signal 72A development programme brings three partners together - Westermo, Rockwell and Firstco.

Rail Survey technology reaches new heights 74Better information, improved communications and a reduction in human interaction.

On bended knee to Berlin 76125,000+ visitors expected at InnoTrans 2014

Contents

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Stockholm’s SolutionA new commuter railway tunnel under construction beneath central Stockholm.

Signalling the passengerOptimisation of station infrastructure to facilitate swift movement of passengers.

IP exploitation in Scotland

Crossrail Farringdon Station construction

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

Plant & Equipment Concrete in the November issue of the rail engineer.

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

See more at www.therailengineer.com

the rail engineer • September 2014 3

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Nigel Wordsworth’s epic article on Innotrans in Berlin this September will give you a taste of what’s on offer and a forewarning of the scale of the event. If you’re going, do make sure you plan your visit otherwise you’ll be completely overwhelmed. From the smallest widget to the largest locomotive, you’ll find everything to do with railways. The Rail Engineer will be there this year - Hall 7.1A, stand 215 - and we’d be delighted to see you.

What do we make of skeletons discovered in the course of civil engineering excavations? Archaeologists have been known to put forward some pretty ambitious theories - sacrifices, rituals, that sort of thing. What, though, will our distant descendants make of items we leave behind when they excavate down to the levels of Crossrail? Two abandoned tunnelling machines driven firmly into the London clay - were these sacrifices or some kind of ritual too? Chris Parker can’t help with this, but has a fascinating insight into the here and now on this massive scheme.

David Bickell considers what would happen to the aspiration to run 24 trains an hour if passengers didn’t play their part. Huge items of luggage, push chairs, wheelchairs - there’s the potential to slow everything down. That’s why there’s a drive to move everyone around quickly and efficiently - but in the nicest possible way. With signage, technology and kidology, it’s like providing signalling for passengers. And it’s where PAMELA and the HUMP come in.

It’s not just in London that folks are digging away underground. Over in Stockholm there’s an interesting scheme underway at the moment involving a great deal of digging and blasting. And where digging and blasting won’t work, they’re building tunnels in the open air before taking them out onto a canal and sinking them. It’s ambitious stuff as Collin Carr relates, but the benefit will

be a doubling of capacity through the ‘wasp’s waist’.

Clive Kessel has come back from France with a positive view of UK signalling - a term now widened to include train control. With the natural tendency of Brits to underplay their expertise and achievements it is heartening to see that there can be just as many foul-ups over there as we think there are here.

Uxbridge anyone? Not somewhere to rush off to this summer unless you fancied a bus ride. London Underground has discovered blockades and shut the Uxbridge branch for 23 days during July and August. There was a fair amount of work to do and, as Collin Carr tells us, there were quite a few challenges on the way - floods, of course, errant platform walls and rail temperatures peaking at around 50ºC. But all went to plan and the yellow toys are back in the box with Uxbridge open for business again.

We go from inter-continental travel - and even Uxbridge - to inter-nodal transportation. Paul Darlington gives us a fascinating insight into the origins of the Ethernet. Why the capital E? Because it’s a brand name, like Hoover and, believe it or not, Escalator. The Ethernet started life way back in the 1970s and ran at a pedestrian 2.94Mbit/s. But what speeds are we looking at now and in the foreseeable future? Apparently 400Gbits/s is on the cards - and that’s 6.5 million telephone calls.

There’s definitely a dark side to some technologies. The Internet

poses such an aspect and it’s not just a matter of unwanted spam emails either. When it comes to railway operations, security is a deadly serious matter as Paul explains. This hasn’t taken the industry by surprise and there are many strategies available to combat the problem. Being aware that the problem exists and can be countered is a pretty good start.

The railway telephone system is impressive. It grew from humble beginnings until it served just about every station, yard, office and signalbox on the network. Nobody was aware of there being a strategic plan. It just grew and grew over the years. On the other hand, the start of a new nationwide IP network (FTNx) is emerging in Scotland, but this time it’s being planned. Clive Kessell looks at the way that spare capacity is allowing this network to handle a multitude of facilities way beyond the capability of the old telephone system.

It’ll be a real railway soon with track being laid from Newcraighall to Tweedbank. David Shirres has been our guide over the years on the Borders Railway and now reports that mud will be transformed into the elegance of fully formed permanent way. There are, of course, a few major structures to complete along the way, but all is in hand for project completion in summer 2015.

Did you know that not every project goes to plan? It’s true, really. Our friends at Spencer had their ingenuity tested to the full when they had to cope without ballast trains, with rain, and more rain, and neighbours. The list seemed endless but, hey ho, they just got on with it - as you do.

See you in Berlin - remember, Hall 7.1A, stand 215 - and take your hiking boots.

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Grahame TaylorAll aboard for Berlin!


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EThe GNGE project, described in The Rail Engineer recently (issue 116, June 2014), is moving on apace. During a recent 16-day blockade, fifteen level crossings and fifteen miles of signaling were upgraded with the latest technology - the most delivered so far in a single block of work.

The list includes some splendid names. Crossings were improved at Blotoft (Old Forty Foot Drain), Golden High Hedges, Water Drove (Gubbole’s Drove), Blue Gowt and Cherry Holt, amongst others.

These works were part of the now-completed Phase Four of the project. Phase Two - between Gainsborough and Doncaster (the phase numbering is geographic and not time-related) has also just been completed while Phase Five (Spalding to Peterborough) will take place in late October.

Speaking of the £280 million upgrade project, Phil Verster, route managing director for Network Rail, said: “The GNGE line is an important route for both freight and passenger trains. Demand for rail services continues to grow, and the upgrade of this line is an important project to help meet that demand.”

From Helpringham to Pinchbeck

Wire-free tramsThe new Dubai Al Sufouh Tramway will open on 11 November. Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, UAE Vice President and ruler of Dubai, confirmed the official launch date following a test run on the first section of the new network.

Dubai’s tram system will be the first in the modern era to run exclusively catenary-free. The 14.6-kilometre network utilises Alstom’s APS II system (Alimentation par le Sol), an updated version of the one which was first used on Bordeaux’s tram in 2003.

A third rail is buried centrally between the two running rails, exposing only the top surface at ground level. This rail is divided into short insulated sections and only those actually under the tram at any one time are energised. Thus, pedestrians and pets can safely walk on exposed sections of the track without fear

of electrocution.Up until now, the system has

been used on relatively short stretches of track to run through areas where unsightly overhead wires would not be welcome. Thus, the Bordeaux system has a total of 12km of APS out of a total network length of 43.3km.

However, Dubai is the first network to run without wires at all. Services on the 14.5 kilometre route will be run using Alstom Citadis 402 trams, each 44 metres long and with a capacity of 408 passengers. Interestingly, all of the stations will be fitted with platform screen doors, another first for a tram system.

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the rail engineer • September 20146

NEWS

refurbishment of the Drogheda Viaduct. Originally built in 1885, the viaduct supports the main Dublin-Belfast railway line and is in need of urgent investment to ensure its long-term efficient operation.

These include steel repairs and full re-painting, renewal of track work over the viaduct, waterproofing of the deck, and installation of a new drainage system.

Match-funding for the projects has been supplied by the Department for Regional Development (DRD) in Northern Ireland and the Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport (DTTAS) in Ireland. Translink will act as lead partner for the Enterprise project with Iarnród Éireann (Irish Rail) leading on the Drogheda Viaduct refurbishment.

International cooperation

Cross-border rail projects don’t often feature in the British Isles, but now two are on the cards as the European Union is investing £17.16 million (€21.45 million) through the INTERREG IVA Programme.

A major upgrade of the Belfast to Dublin ‘Enterprise’ service has been allocated £12.2 million. Involving a significant overhaul of the train’s mechanical systems, new interiors, new livery, replacement of the Passenger Information System

and a completely new electronic passenger reservation system and CCTV system; the project is expected to contribute to delivering increased passenger numbers.

Meanwhile, over €6 million has also been awarded to a major

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In another tram story, the first Nottingham tram has now been tested over the new Karlsruhe Friendship Bridge that spans Nottingham station.

The 104-metre-long, 14.5-metre-wide, 1,100-tonne steel bridge was launched over Network Rail’s Nottingham station last year, and since then the track, signalling and overhead electrification has been installed and tested. Now, one of the new fleet of Alstom Citadis trams has crossed over the bridge pausing at the new Station tramstop on the bridge itself, and continued to the turnback facility at Wilford.

As the network is completed, more test running will take place as the route is completed out to Clifton. Another new line is also being built, this time to Toton Lane. Both of the new sections are now scheduled to be opened in ‘the first part of 2015’.

Over the bridge

another four.A100% low floor design, the new

trams are longer (32.4 metres vs 24) and wider (2.65 metres vs 2.44) than the old T69 models that are being replaced. They also hold 210 people, 60 more than the earlier design, which will help increase capacity even without the frequency moving for one every eight minutes to one every six minutes.

Platforms have already been modified to take the new trams, which are elegantly turned out in white, grey and ‘telemagenta’ pink.

With the line due to extend as far as Stephenson Street (for New Street station) next year, and proposed further extensions to Edgbaston and Wolverhampton mainline station on the cards, Midland Metro could well need those extra four trams.

Private tram to WednesburyEver wanted to get away from the crowds and have your own private train? Well, The Rail Engineer had just that recently - its own private tram from Birmingham Snow Hill station to the Wednesbury depot. Apart from one confused passenger, who was politely asked to wait for the next in-service tram, it was just Rail Media and Midland Metro personnel on the non-stop run.

The occasion was one of the early runs of the new CAF-built trams that will enter passenger service on Friday 5 September. Clean, modern, quiet, comfortable

- and air-conditioned; these descriptions all fit the new CAF Urbos 3. Twenty-one are on order, twelve have already been delivered, and there are options for

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with swipe card locks.The latest has just been opened

at Stourbridge station. Costing around £65,000, part of which was Government-funded through the Cycle-Rail fund to the tune of £30,000, it is sleek, elegant, modernistic - and expensive. As it houses only 30 bikes, that’s over £2,000 per space. With car parks

now costing around £3,000 per space on the flat, and £10,000 in a multi-storey - that’s a significant amount of investment for a bike.

Still, they don’t pollute and they keep you fit. And there’s no tax on them. So many more bikes (and ‘cycle storage facilities’) will no doubt be seen at stations in the near future.

Posh bike shed

Riding bikes to stations is becoming increasingly popular. Add that to an increasing cost of the bikes themselves (Halfords list four road bikes for over £3,500 each) and it becomes obvious that they need looking after while their owners are away on the train.

A piece of chain-link fence and a lock are no longer sufficient for these pampered velocipedes. Nor are traditional damp and draughty bike sheds (with or without

teenagers lurking behind them). Oh no. Instead, grand structures are springing up around the country boasting glazed sides, sturdy racks and CCTV-monitored high security

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Stockholm’s solution to itsCOLLIN CARR ‘Wasp’s Waist’


The Stockholm Citybanan (City Line) is a new commuter railway tunnel currently under construction

beneath central Stockholm, which will be used for the Swedish capital’s commuter rail service. The line will be six kilometres long, double track and electrified, and will run between Tomteboda and Stockholm South (Stockholms södra) station.

PHOTO: MIKAEL ULLÉN


Also included in this project, which is valued at approximately £625 million, are two new stations: Stockholm City Station which will be located directly below T-Centralen, the central station of the Stockholm Metro, and Stockholm Odenplan Station which will be located below the Odenplan Metro Station. This new commuter line is scheduled to enter into service in 2017.

The current position in Stockholm is that all the railway traffic - commuter trains, regional trains, long-distance services and freight - all share the same two tracks. As there are four tracks either side of this congested area, this restricted length of track is often referred to locally as the ‘wasp’s waist’. There has been very little change to this layout since the existing two track railway was first introduced in 1871.

At the turn of the century, the delays and congestion caused by the wasp’s waist reached such a level that something had to be done. It is not dissimilar to the many similar problems that we have in the UK addressing congestion problems of a track configuration designed for the eighteenth century - London Bridge, Reading and Manchester Victoria to name a few. However, in any large city, the solution is never easy or cheap and it always demands ingenuity of the highest order. The Stockholm Citybanan is no exception.

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Doubling track capacityWhen the project is completed, all commuter trains will

have their own dedicated tracks and the other existing rail services will continue to operate on the present two tracks. This means that track capacity will be doubled, and trains will be able to run more frequently and punctually. The interchanges for passengers will also be much smoother because the new stations will be located close to bus routes and metro lines.

Initial proposals to solve this problem were first considered by Swedish Railways back in 1988, but detailed planning and design of the project did not start until 2000 after which construction was underway by 2009. There are eight major civil engineering contracts that have been let, some are design and build and others build only.

The six kilometre long tunnel path will consist of blasted tunnel lengths leading up to 300 metres of tunnel that has been partially constructed on dry land then floated out and submerged into its final position - but more about that later.

Tunnel blastingAt the time of writing, two contracts for blasting the

tunnel paths either side of the Malaran Lake, where the submerged tunnel is being constructed, have been completed. This work has been carried out by contractors Strabag for the Norrmalm tunnel and Zublin for the Södermalm tunnel. Each contract is valued at approximately £35 million.

The bedrock in Stockholm consists mostly of granite and gneiss, which is ideal for blasting and more than 4.5 million tonnes of rock has been removed. The extracted rock is the property of the contractors who have transported it to different crushing facilities around the city ready for recycling. However, the significant volume of rubble only amounts to 15% of that required for the many different infrastructure projects currently underway in the Stockholm region.

Immersed concrete tunnel in RiddarfjardenBlasting a tunnel under the canal section of the Malaren

Lake was not an option since the bedrock between Riddarfjarden and Söder Mälarstrand lies too deep underwater. Various alternatives were considered but it was decided to build an immersed tunnel that would rest on piling under the water. The 300 metre long tunnel was constructed in three sections, each one being about 100 metres long, 20 metres wide and 10 metres high. Each section weighed about 20,000 tonnes.

For the first stage of construction, large steel boxes that would form the outer skin of the soffit and sides of the tunnel were fabricated at a shipyard in Tallinn, Estonia. These were then successfully towed across the Baltic and into Lake Mälaren, a distance of 235 miles. Before reaching their destination, each box successfully negotiated a lock system at Södertälje where the clearances were very tight with only millimetres to spare.

Whilst in an industrial harbour close to the final resting place, each of the three steel boxes was used as formwork for an inner layer of concrete, 1.1 metres thick, forming



the sides, top and base of the tunnel. The steel boxes are being retained to provide an outer shell that will serve as a watertight membrane throughout the life of the structure.

During the summer of 2013, the tunnel sections were submerged. The southern section went first then the northern and finally the central section. Each section was lowered onto bored piles which were formed in four groups of 72 bored concrete piles, each 400mm diameter and constructed in layers of sediment varying between 15 and 25 metres before keying into the granite strata below. This pile structure acts as an underwater bridge to ensure that any subsidence of the seabed would not affect the stability of the tunnel.

The southern section was immersed at the land end into a watertight pit that had been constructed close to the shore and under an existing roadway that was diverted using a pontoon to allow a connection point to be constructed. Seventeen metres below water level, this links into the main tunnel and allowed the roadway section to be repositioned.

The jointhouseThe northern section was connected to ‘the jointhouse’ - a

concrete structure 9.5 metres long, 25 metres wide and 12.5 metres high - constructed in a deep pit where the rock tunnel emerges at the river bank. Two rubber gaskets, each measuring 19.8 metres, were used to seal the joint and allow the tunnel some degree of movement when the water temperature fluctuates. To make the fitting of the final segment easier, the northern section was pushed into the jointhouse by one metre and, after the central section was in position, it was drawn back again, into its final resting place.

Temporary ballast tanks placed inside each section were filled with water and, using the principles of Archimedes, the sections were sunk to a level just above the pile caps so that the barges could make final adjustments and ensure that each section fitted to the adjacent unit as designed. Once the sections were in their final position, additional water pumped into the water tanks enabling them to rest on hydraulic bearings and bearing pads in their final position.

Once the ends of each section were removed and the joints made water tight, additional concrete was added to the soffit providing additional weight and allowing the ballast tanks to be removed. In addition, rock ballast was placed onto the top of the submerged tunnel ensuring that the weight of the submerged tunnel exceeded the water displaced as required by the above mentioned

PHOTO: AHLQVIST & ALMQVIST


principles. The completed structures had to accommodate a constant gradient change which meant that one end of the structure is now fifteen metres below water level whilst the other end is only five.

A separate service and emergency exit tunnel has been constructed running parallel with the track all along the six kilometres of tunnels.

New stationsTwo new City Line stations now need to be built. NCC

is the contractor for the Stockholm City station which will be used by more than 114,000 passengers each day. The station is located directly beneath T-Centralen Metro Station and replaces Stockholm Central as the station for commuter train services. The work, valued at £155 million, includes associated tunnel work as well as the construction of two platforms with escalators providing direct access to all metro lines.

The second station is Stockholm Odenplan which replaces Karlberg Station and will be designed to accommodate 90,000 passengers per day. The contractor is Bilfinger and the value of the work is £129 million which includes tunnelling work as well as the construction of the station itself. This station will become an important interchange and it will reduce travel time considerably for those passengers who need to change between commuter trains and buses or the metro.

New railway viaductTo accommodate the revised track layout, a new £26

million railway viaduct is being built between Arsta bridges and Alvsjo. The contractor for this work is Zublin which started work in 2011 and is using a moving scaffold system to construct the 1.4km-long single-track structure.

They say that eight out of every ten rail journeys in Sweden begin or end in Stockholm. When the City Line is finished, there will be room for twice the number of trains on the tracks through the city. This means that it will also be possible to improve rail connections with the Mälaren Valley and the whole of Sweden.

Carrying out such an undertaking, in such an environment, makes it essential that all the work is carried out in a safe and professional manner. This ensures minimum disruption to road and rail traffic and the continued stability of adjacent buildings while giving close consideration to ground water levels and, not least, maintaining the welfare of the hundreds of thousands of residents and neighbours. To overcome some of the particular challenges of this new line, ingenious ideas had to be considered and, certainly, the submerged tunnel fits into that category.

The slim-waisted wasp is starting to show a far more generous waistline. That will be good news for the 80% of Swedish railway passengers who are set to benefit from this project.

PHOTO: HANS EKESTANG

PHOTO: 3XN

PHOTO: 3XN


Near Newcraighall, five miles south east of Edinburgh Waverley, is a siding with a folding buffer stop. It is this siding that is to be extended by 49 kilometres to form the new Borders Railway, the longest new UK domestic railway for over a hundred years. The line will open in

autumn 2015. Principal contractor for this project is BAM Nuttall with Siemens sub-contracted for signalling and telecoms.

The project was described in detail in issue 110 (December 2013) but, with all of the work starting to come together, it was time to make another visit. Project director Huw Wark was, as always, only too pleased to show the progress that his 800-strong team has made. With a budget of around £15 million a month, there’s a lot going on.

Track laying set to startThe main phase of track laying is to commence

in October when frequent engineering trains will pass through this buffer stop. These trains will not require possessions as special instructions have been written to transfer the trains from Network Rail infrastructure to the project.

Bottom ballast for the track will have to be supplied by road - about 5,000 lorry loads will be required. Ballast stockpiles are already being created at access points. Track laying is to be done by a team from BAM Rail in Holland using the technique employed on the HSL-Zuid, the Dutch high speed line. This is expected to lay track at the rate of approximately 1.2 kilometre a day and complete track laying by the end of the year.

Ballast is already in place at the top end of the line. Further down, structures are substantially complete but some earthworks remain, especially at the southern end of the project.

Beyond the buffer stopThe area between the folding buffer stop and

the city by-pass is to be transformed by the new railway. Here, Shawfair station has been built on the site of Monktonhall, a large modern colliery which closed in 1998. Not surprisingly, this section of the line required mining remediation and, as recently as August, revealed a hidden mineshaft. With the track solum now complete, the mine should give the project no more surprises.

Borders on track

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For planning reasons, the railway is in shallow cuttings in this area with surplus soil generated as a result. This has not been wasted as it is being used for landscaping in the area, requiring frequent lorry trips, many of which are off road using disused railways.

Structures ChallengesThe largest structure on the line is the

Hardengreen viaduct. Here, a road improvement scheme cut away the original railway embankment and replaced it with a roundabout. The approaches to the viaduct use the reinforced earth system of precast concrete facing panels tied together with galvanized steel reinforcing straps held in place by the backfill. This system, supplied by Reinforced Earth Company (RECo), is used on some of the other project structures

and is a good solution where there is a restricted footprint, as at Hardengreen. It does not, however, provide the foundation for a derailment retention parapet such as that provided on the actual viaduct. For this reason the track over the approaches will have guard rails.

Fifteen kilometres south of Hardengreen is the line’s summit at Falahill. Here, getting the railway under the A7 requires another significant structure. Constraints at this location included a national grid pipeline, local cottages, a rocky outcrop and the A7. Satisfying the requirements of various stakeholders at this location proved difficult and resulted in two changes to the original parliamentary plan.

The solution adopted is a long, highly-skewed bridge. Currently, the 200 metre long, slightly curved concrete box that will carry the single-track railway under the road stands alone, with earthworks to carry the A7 over the bridge under way. Much of the adjacent rock was removed by blasting to provide useful material for construction. The resultant hole is now being filled with surplus unsuitable spoil.

The line has two tunnels, Bowshank and Torwoodlee, respectively 39 and 43 km from the start of the new line. Bowshank tunnel has double track as it is part of a four kilometre dynamic loop. With the requirement for passive provision for electrification, tunnel clearances are tight. For this reason, the floor of the 200-metre tunnel has been lowered and Rheda 2000 slab track installed. When visiting in early August, it was seen that the Down Loop track had been installed after two weeks work and that work had just started on the Up Loop. The tunnel rails, supplied by Tata Steel, have Railcote® for corrosion protection.

End of the LineThe town of Galashiels is in a narrow river

valley and was expanded around the original railway which took up much space in the town. After its closure in 1969, almost all of the railway land was built on. As a result there is now just enough space to get the railway through the town with some deviation from the original route and bridges to raise the railway over new roads. These bridges are now complete although most of the associated earthworks have yet to be completed.

Just beyond Galashiels, the original line was in a deep cutting that had since been filled in. This cutting, where a considerable number of utilities all converged, has now been excavated except where a BT fibre optics cable crosses the line which is now supported by a scaffold bridge. This enables the infill below it to be removed and, if necessary, the track to be placed underneath, before the cable is diverted through a new bridge at the end of the cutting.

After this cutting, the line crosses the River Tweed on the five-arch Redbridge Viaduct. The new single-line railway shares this viaduct with a footpath which is part of the Southern Upland Way.

Beyond is the end of the line, Tweedbank station. This is intended to be a railhead for Borders towns to the south and so will have a 240-space car park. A relatively late project design change, announced by Scottish Transport Minister Keith Brown in November 2012, was the requirement for it to have 220 metre long platforms to accommodate charter trains. There are, however, no run round facilities so any such train will have to be ‘top and tailed’.

Tweedbank may be the end of the line but, when The Rail Engineer visited, ballast had been laid ready for its switch and crossing which was to be installed on 16 August.

Also to be seen at Tweedbank during this visit was the cable plough. This ploughs a small-diameter, multi-way tubular fibre duct into the ground along the route. Fibre cables are then blown through these ducts. There will be no troughing along the railway. Instead there is this buried cable and signalling islands at each set of points, each with a relocatable equipment building fed from the nearest power supply.

As far as telecoms is concerned, the Border Railway requires 15 radio masts along its 49 kilometres. This indicates the nature of its terrain as the new 22km Airdrie-Bathgate line only required two.

Slow start, rapid progressFor various reasons, it has taken a long time to

get the Borders Railway project started. It took ten years from the Bill being first presented to the Scottish Parliament in 2003 to the start of main works last year, although some advanced works were undertaken from 2010. Those along the line could therefore be forgiven for thinking that the project was not going to happen.

But there has been rapid progress since last year and, within a few months, construction trains will be seen on the line. Civils works have been prioritised to clear the northern end of the line for track laying and, with all earthworks expected to be complete before winter, this should reduce any potential delays from bad weather.

Although, as with all projects, some uncertainties remain, the Borders Railway is well on track for project completion in summer 2015.


@StobartRailLtd

KEITH WINNERY, RAIL DIRECTOR

A pivotal and infl uential member of the Board of Directors for Stobart Rail, Keith Winnery is a lifelong career railwayman with experience that spans over four decades. Keith’s railway career has, to date, encompassed working at many diff erent locations within the civil engineering sector of British Rail and the privatised railway industry. During this time, he progressed from an apprentice to a number of key management roles. Keith particularly enjoys passing this invaluable life and railway experience on to all the members of the Stobart Rail team, ensuring consistent high levels of project delivery, innovation and value engineering.

During the last fi ve years as Rail Director, Keith has overseen the organic growth and success of the

Rail sector within Stobart Group acting as CEM (Civil Engineering Manager) and CRE (Contractors Responsible Engineer) on many varied and challenging schemes. Recently, Keith has been instrumental in helping to develop High Level Options Reports on the Key Output 2 scheme for structural strengthening, helping to reduce disruptive possessions, working times and costs. These strengthening works will eventually help to streamline the passage of trains through the prestigious London Bridge Station.

Keith added: “I am pleased to be able to utilise my experience with the delivery and management teams at Stobart Rail for the long term benefi t of the UK rail network”.

RAIL Live 2014The Stobart Rail team exhibited the Track Reballasting machine at Rail Live in June 2014. The show provided the platform for Stobart Rail to engage with the railway community, all of whom will be playing a pivotal role within the next Control Period as the railway industry continues to enjoy signifi cant investment to its infrastructure.

The show was a great success due to exceptional planning and organisation. Stobart Rail were very pleased to be involved with the event and are working with key contacts gained over the two day period. The show demonstrated the collaborative working required for success and provided business opportunities that Stobart Rail will turn into real projects that will benefi t the UK rail network.

Dave Richardson Plant Managert. 01228 882 300e. [email protected]

Gary Newton Contracts and Estimating Managert. 01228 882 300e. [email protected]

Andrew Sumner Business Development and Stakeholder Managert. 01228 882 300e. [email protected]

stobartrail.com

Farringdon Station will be “the heart of the heart” of Crossrail. It is going to be the only station in London with interchanges between Crossrail, London Underground services and the Thameslink

network. It will also be the only station in the city to have direct connections to three of London’s five airports, Heathrow, Gatwick and Luton. There will be up to 140 trains per hour through the station by the time the Crossrail services are in full swing, and it is forecast that these will carry up to 150,000 passengers/day.

With this in mind, The Rail Engineer was very pleased to be invited to go and see how the works are progressing. The day included some unusual sights such as Farringdon Thameslink Station from below track level and a grade 2 listed brick arch viaduct suspended some distance in the air! But more of those later…

Bored not excavatedJose Garcia, construction director, described how, in addition to this station

contract, the BFK JV (BAM Ferrovial Kier) has been responsible for all of the running tunnels west of Farringdon, right through to the east end of the new station. In total, on these and other Crossrail contracts, the JV and its suppliers are employing some 2,000 people and training 100 apprentices (almost one third of the total number of apprentices on the entire Crossrail project).

Looking at Farringdon itself in more detail, Jose said that it will have the longest platforms on Crossrail, some 400 metres in length, stretching between two ticket hall complexes at the east and west ends of the station. Developments above each ticket hall will be constructed, creating commercial and retail space.

Farringdon is unique among Crossrail stations in that the platform tunnels are being constructed in a different manner from the others. Whereas the others are being excavated as underground caverns, constructed from shafts driven down from above, at this site the running tunnels are being used as pilot tunnels.

The difference was driven (sorry for the pun!) by programme issues. At other station sites it suited the programme to begin to excavate the station caverns before the running tunnel TBMs arrived, allowing them to break into the voids already created. Where they needed to continue beyond, they were then hauled through the station area to continue their drive on the other side.

At Farringdon this order of construction would have been too disruptive. Instead, it was decided to allow the tunnel boring machines (TBMs) Phyllis and Ada to complete their drives from the western portal through to the east end of the station at Farringdon before work on the station platform tunnels commenced. There was another advantage in this sequence of

Farringdon StationconstructionCrossrail

CHRIS PARKER

20 the rail engineer • September 2014

work, in that this methodology reduces the likelihood and magnitude of settlement affecting the buildings and structures up above. Given the close proximity and sensitivity of infrastructure like the London Underground’s Barbican station and the Network Rail Farringdon station, this was no bad thing!

Opening out the stationThe eastern end of the station was the end of the line

for Phyllis and Ada and so they were diverted to the side and buried. Once they were clear, the excavations could begin, to create ten-metre diameter tunnels from the seven-metre diameter running tunnels over the required length of each to accommodate the platforms.

The platform tunnels are being lined with fibre-reinforced sprayed concrete (FRC), so the work involves careful removal of the precast segmental tunnel lining that was installed by the TBMs, the excavation of the ground behind to the required profile, and finally the robotic spraying of the FRC lining to the enlarged tunnel bore (pictured). Clearly, this is a sensitive business and so it is carried out in carefully managed stages. Normally these are threefold, first the crown, then the benches either side and finally the invert at the bottom. This ensures the minimisation of ground movements and the consequent settlements of structures above.

Despite the care taken in planning and executing the works, some settlement was still to be expected, and so mitigation measures were provided, in the form of compensation grouting. This technique can be applied after settlement has occurred to restore the ground

to its original level. Alternatively, it is feasible in some circumstances to raise a structure slightly in advance, so that the works below cause it to settle back to where it came from.

Which method is used depends upon the nature of the structures and the type and magnitude of the expected movements. Some structures, for example, can tolerate heave better than settlement and those would probably be best treated by lifting ahead of settlement. For others the converse may apply.

The compensation grouting is being applied using “tube a manchettes” that have been installed from five 14 to 15 metre deep grout shafts so as to cover the whole area above the tunnels. Some 18,000 linear metres of grout tubing have been installed and the area covered is about 27,000 square metres in extent. One of the grout shafts

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21the rail engineer • September 2014

lies in the adjacent corner of Charterhouse Square, and it was during its construction that several intact ancient skeletons were discovered.

One further benefit of the pilot tunnel technique is the reduction it means in the quantity of spoil to be taken out of the site by road. Since the spoil from the seven-metre running tunnel bores was taken away through the tunnel by conveyor back to the west portal, then something approaching half the spoil went away from the station tunnels without needing to be trucked away from the site. 90,000 wagon loads of spoil were therefore removed from London’s congested roads.

Halls at each endJose was assisted by his colleague Tom Moore in

describing the construction of the two ticket hall complexes. These lie at the east and west extremities of the platforms. The differences between the construction methods employed at these two sites illustrates once again the care that has been taken to select the most appropriate engineering solution at each and every location on the Crossrail project.

The western ticket hall structure is being constructed from the bottom, eight levels below ground, upwards. Segmental piled walls surround the shaft, forming its sides as the spoil is dug out from between them. As the construction proceeds temporary props are required to ensure that deflections of the piles are restrained appropriately.

When the right level is reached for a floor, this is shuttered and cast with ties into the wall piles. Once the concrete in the floor slab has reached the required strength, the floor is able to act as the prop to the wall piles, and the temporary props can be removed from

that level. At the time of the visit the props had just been removed from level -6, two floors up from the base of the works.

Top down at the other endAt the East ticket hall, Tom and his colleagues are

involved in top down construction works for a trapezoidal shaft going down to 42 metres below ground. A slab was built two storeys below ground level, once again inside an area walled by segmental concrete piles that extend down below the intended bottom floor level. This first slab provides the permanent propping to the piled walls at that level. There are both permanent and temporary apertures in it, the former for escalators, lift shafts and so on, the latter for use during construction. Temporary steel props above the slab provide restraint to the pile walls pending later construction of floor slabs at level -1 and at ground level.

Five plunge columns have been driven within the shaft to foundation depth below the level of the bottom floor. These will act as internal columns to support the permanent floors, several of them are also serving as supports to a partial temporary slab at ground level which is being used by construction plant and vehicles. Once the station works have been completed, the plunge shafts will form a significant part of the foundations for the steel framed over-site development which will sit above the ticket hall.

Excavation within this shaft was initially by means of a clamshell grab on an excavator sited on the temporary ground floor slab. This worked through the apertures in the slab to raise the spoil and deposit it into tipper trucks for removal from site. With this form of construction, the floor slabs are constructed on the excavated base of the hole once the correct level is reached. Each slab then provides the requisite propping to the wall piles at that level, permitting the excavation to continue beneath the slab to the level for the next floor down. This repetitious process has now passed the point where, at -30 metres, the excavator could no longer reach from ground level. Having peaked at a productivity of seventy-eight 20tonne tippers full of spoil in one day, the machine handed over to a mobile crane and skip for the rest of the job.


New techniquesThe crane/skip operation is the first in the UK to use

“hook-cam” technology to permit the safe operation of the system down through the apertures in the floor slabs to the working level far below. Cameras on the hook, connected wirelessly to screens in front of the crane driver, permit the driver to direct the skip on the crane hook safely to where it is needed, and bring it safely back to ground level when full. Slinger/Signallers are still employed at the working level, in radio contact with the driver, but the camera technology ensures that they need not stand below the hook to guide the driver during the lowering or raising operations.

On completion of the excavations, when the floor slabs are all cast in place, work will commence to fill in the temporary apertures in the slabs and to construct the sloping structures upon which the station escalators will sit. Screwed starter couplers have been connected into the reinforcement of the slabs to permit the necessary connections between the slab steel and the reinforcement in these further structures.

The segmental piled walls of the shaft are being lined with reinforced concrete as the floor slabs are completed, to hide the rough piled faces.

The trapezoidal shaft is not the only work required for the East ticket hall. There is a two storey underground structure to be built alongside. This is being constructed bottom up in a similar fashion to the ticket hall at the western end of the site. Again, segmental piles were driven from ground level to the designed foundation level below the intended level of the bottom floor. The heads of the escalators will extend from the deeper adjacent shaft into this shallower construction.

Another interesting feature of the works is the interface with the Network Rail Thameslink line and the Farringdon Thameslink station. The East shaft lies on the line of a pair of sidings that run through Farringdon Thameslink into Moorgate. These have had to be severed to allow the Crossrail scheme to be executed. At present, this gives some interesting views of the Thameslink station from points not normally available. The severed tracks are to be reinstated upon completion of the Crossrail station.

Assorted odditiesAt the opposite side of the worksite from the station

lies Lindsay Street Viaduct, a Grade 2 listed structure built many years ago to carry the eponymous street over the Network Rail lines. Unfortunately some of its foundations lie over the site of an escalator shaft for the new Crossrail station. In consequence it has been necessary to underpin several of the piers of the bridge and make provision for them to be lifted with hydraulic jacks should any settlement occur during the construction of the shaft. The bridge now appears, at first sight, to be hovering slightly above ground!

As mentioned, one of the grout pipes runs below Charterhouse Square, which lies across the road from the station. The Charterhouse began as (and takes its name from) a Carthusian monastery, founded in 1371 and dissolved in 1537. It was known to have been on the site of one of the large graveyards from the Black Death plague. One skeleton had been found previously elsewhere in the Square about one metre below ground. However, the discovery of several neatly stacked intact skeletons, all aligned east/west about two to three metres below ground as the grout shaft was under construction was a bit of a surprise. Crossrail had been prepared for some findings, but not quite this.

The site at the time of the plague lay well outside the City of London in rural surroundings. Staff from The Museum of London and local volunteers from the community have been investigating two pits within the Square, hoping to find remnants of the monastery and to discover the reason for a linear geophysical anomaly that crosses the square. They are rather hampered by restrictions on where they may dig, caused by the requirement to pay due respect to the ancient and protected plane trees in the square. However, they are persevering - assisted by the Crossrail and BFK teams who are very proud of their close collaboration with the Museum and of their very good relations with the communities in the area more generally.

These good relationships were exemplified for us later during a tour of The Charterhouse itself. Here, it was explained how the project has been liaising with the Brothers and other local communities to ensure that there is minimal harm done to local interests whilst the Crossrail project passes through the area. The Charterhouse is worth a visit - it is open to the public at certain times, though there is a small entry fee payable.

So, with Ada and Phyllis buried for good, and several ancient skeletons uncovered, a lot has been going on at Farringdon. And there is a lot more still to do.

Many thanks to Mabel Garcia Aranda, BFK JV corporate responsibility co-ordinator; Jose Garcia, BFK JV construction director; Tom Moore, agent for the JV for the Farringdon East Ticket Hall; Nisrine Chartouny, Crossrail project manager for the C435 Farringdon Station contract; Jay Carver, Crossrail’s lead archaeologist; Nick J Elsden, project manager of the Museum of London and Brother Philip of The Charterhouse for their help in preparing this article.

24 the rail engineer • September 2014

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Guildford North Box Sidings (GNBS) is situated on the London side of Guildford Station between the Cobham lines and the Portsmouth main lines. There were originally two sidings with a reception road and a head-shunt which had been out-of-use for a number of years.

Spencer Rail was contracted to deliver a project to reinstate two 10-car electrified sidings, a BV 9.25 turnout, the associated signalling and ETE works, and a new driver’s walkway from the sidings to Guildford Station, utilising an old disused underpass.

The works were originally planned to start in February 2013 and be completed by December 2013, utilising mid-week night and weekend route possessions with one abnormal possession at a weekend. All spoil and new materials would be delivered and taken away using rail haulage as is usual with a normal track renewal.

And so it begins…Spencer Rail started to clear the sidings ready

for the spoil to be removed by rail in March 2013. Due to unforeseen logistical problems, rail haulage was now not available for the foreseeable future. At this point, the project was wound down while new avenues were investigated.

At the end of November 2013, the project was instructed to start again and look at delivering the final solution by the end of March 2014, ready for the timetable change in May 2014. Rail haulage was still not an option and so the only way in which delivery of materials could take place was via road.

Sam Wadsworth, programme director at Spencer Rail, said: “Road haulage presented a major issue in that, due to restrictions on the site access, it was limited in both time and size of vehicle.

“The site could only be accessed by road via one route through a third party’s land where access was only agreed via a ‘gentleman’s agreement’. If that landowner, the company Transformers & Rectifiers Ltd, wanted to they could refuse both our and Network Rail’s access through their land at any time.

“Network Rail have an Off-Track site situated at the end of the road where the access point for the siding is situated. Alongside this, the road to the site from the entrance of Transformer and Rectifiers’ land was through a limited width area and then a steep gradient followed by a tight turn into the access. We were also not permitted to use the Network Rail Off-Track area as they had deliveries day and night and required 24hr access.”

Access agreedSeveral meetings were held with Transformer

and Rectifiers, Network Rail, Network Rail Off-Track and Spencer Rail representatives and a delivery strategy was agreed. All deliveries were to happen between the hours of 7pm and 6am.

The materials to be delivered in this way were: » 2,300 tonnes of ballast » 768 sleepers » One BV 9.25 turnout » 116 rails rails (conductor and plain) each

9.144 metres (30 feet) long » 12 lighting columns » Concrete driver’s walkway and concrete

trestles » One welfare cabin.

Alongside this, there was also all the spoil to be taken away and other small deliveries, all of which had to happen at night.

The long r o a d to Guildford


The first task was to remove all of the existing spoil. The specification asked for 200mm ballast and 100mm of sand formation and so therefore a 300mm dig was asked for.

Taking this into account, and the fact that all spoil had to be removed by 20-tonne rigid lorries overnight, it meant that Spencer Rail could accommodate, in a 12-hour shift, roughly eight lorries per night as the spoil had to be delivered to a specialised tip that was open during the night.

This allowed roughly 160 tonnes per night or 800 tonnes per week meaning the whole task would take between three and four weeks.

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Logistical nightmareSam said: “After the first night’s work it was

clear that eight lorries per night would not be possible due to their availability, the turnaround time to the tip, the time it took to position and load each lorry and then the added complication of the works having to be done during line blocks. All of this allowed us to actually have around three hours loading time or roughly four lorries per night if spoil was stockpiled.”

The team continued in this vein. However, line blocks were not being granted and this meant that Spencer Rail was paying for machines, men and lorries each night without any works being carried out.

Then it then began to rain – solidly.Spencer Rail used two dumpers and three

excavators to make the most of the time allowed, however, as the rain kept falling the site became wetter and wetter. The spoil that was being removed was becoming saturated and, due to the water content, the lorries were having to restrict the amount loaded due to the excess weight.

By Christmas 2013, Spencer Rail had only loaded one third of the spoil and had to stop work for safety concerns.

More of the sameWork started again on January 7, 2014. With

the rain continuing to fall, Spencer Rail could only load with spoil that had been removed from site and stockpiled to let the water drain out.

It all came to a head when, later in the month, a lorry loaded with spoil ran over the kerb at the top of the access road. Due to its high water content, the load spilt over the side of the lorry and ran down the hill. Approximately 15 tonnes of saturated spoil was deposited on the access road, the site was totally waterlogged and the lorry drivers refused to take any further spoil.

It was now nearly the end of January 2014. The project was due to complete by the end of March and spoil removal was not yet complete. The whole project was on hold due to safety concerns in that the site was too waterlogged.

To compound these problems, the tip which had been taking the spoil had also closed due to flooding.

Change to ALOUp until this date, the team had been working

under line blocks because the site was situated between the Up and Down Portsmouth and the Up and Down Cobham lines.

Spencer Rail discussed potential options with all parties concerned and decided that, if the correct control measures were put in place, it could work using Adjacent Line Open (ALO) working practices.

At the beginning of February, the site was ALO assessed and control measures agreed. These would permit the team to work 24 hours a day.

The rain also started to ease and this then allowed the team to start the spoil removal again.

Sam said: “Due to the time constraints we were now loading spoil in one area of the site and unloading ballast in another area. I had also approached Network Rail about the use of a special GeoTex blanket that negated the use of sand. This would reduce the number of lorry

runs required by about 50, which allowed a considerable amount of time to be saved.

“The Civils and the P-Way teams were now working together to deliver the project. Access was arranged with Network Rail each week. Any work requiring machines was ALO assessed and regular update meetings held with the surrounding property owners including Transformer and Rectifiers, the University and the local Premier Inn.”

It all came togetherDuring the wet period between December

and February, Spencer arranged road sweepers to clean the approach roads, Transformer and Rectifiers’ yard and the access road to both the site and Network Rail Off-Track compound.

Once the spoil removal was complete, the walkway trestle bases had started to be poured and the Terram GeoTex was laid with new ballast being unloaded.

The next deliveries to take place were the sleeper and rail deliveries with the S&C. Once all the bottom ballast and rails had been delivered and installed the buffer-stops (again road delivered) were installed and the final top stone delivered. The raised walkway, lighting and authorised walking route were installed again with issues that were addressed by working together with Network Rail.

The project team received compliments from a number of external parties on the way in which the project had controlled the access arrangements and the noise levels.

Sam said: “GNBS was a hugely challenging project that at times you could not see the end, but due to the commitment and help from the project team, Network Rail, Network Rail Off-Track, South West Trains, Transformer and Rectifiers and all other interested parties, a large rail project has been delivered by road.”


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Hall 5.2/Stand 101

The world is changing and economics now dictates that every opportunity must be taken in order to maximise the benefits of long engineering possessions. It started with the Christmas break, which has enabled infrastructure contractors to efficiently carry out major renewal

work for Network Rail. Over recent years, this opportunity has extended into London Underground (LU) which is now homing in on other suitable periods during the year including the summer holiday period, when the schools are closed and holidays beckon.

This summer was no exception with LU closing the Uxbridge branch of the Metropolitan and Piccadilly lines for 23 days from 19 July until 10 August. The work being carried out under this block closure marked the culmination of a major programme of improvements that have been carried out in recent years to replace life expired track and drainage and modernise other infrastructure on this part of the network. This work is part of London Underground’s £10 billion programme of continuous improvement, which has already delivered huge improvements to the London Underground network.

This part of the LU system is maintained by Track Partnership which is a strategic alliance between LU and Balfour Beatty Rail. It works as an integrated team delivering track and drainage upgrades to the LU network to ensure its life expired track infrastructure is replaced to keep London moving.

Command centreZak Zvakaramba, project manager and

Lukasz Wlodarz, construction manager, were in charge of the work. They started to plan for the block closure about 18 months ago and as part of the plan, they decided to use a portion of Hillingdon Station car park as the depot for this work. Alongside the usual welfare facilities, they installed a command centre where they coordinated a phone conference twice daily as well as progress meetings every four hours. This ensured that they knew what was happening at all times and that they could make any necessary adjustments required.

At any one time there were two to three hundred people working shifts around the clock to get the job done. They accumulated a total of more than 120,000 hours worked. A much-appreciated subsidised canteen was brought to site providing a variety of meals and

an unending supply of cold bottled water, which was an essential requirement during this very hot summer period.

New track drainage testedHaving said that, during the first week of the

work there was a torrential storm that flooded the A40 which is next to the railway. Within an hour more than one metre of standing water made it impossible for cars to pass. However, the construction team were delighted to see that the recently renewed track drainage, installed in preparation for this work, dealt perfectly with the storm and the track formation remained undisturbed.

In total, 5.9km of track was renewed during the closure between Uxbridge station and Rayners Lane. Road/rail excavators were used to tandem lift the old track, excavate the old ballast, place new ballast to line and level before placing new Fastclip concrete FE sleepers using a seven-sleeper bale. LU’s Rail Sleeper Delivery Train (RSDT) was used to place the 216m lengths of new rail into the sleeper housings ready for clipping up, destressing and welding.

Steve Naybour is Track Partnership’s business performance and improvement manager. He is responsible for introducing new, innovative, cost-saving initiatives such as the new sleepers which are designed with lighter housings and therefore cheaper.

Innovation and TwitterBlock closure of the Uxbridge Branch

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In addition, a new flash butt welder has been adapted to comply with specific safety requirements due to the fire risks that apply to the often-confined environment associated with the underground network. More than 170 welds were completed by this machine and, in one shift, they managed to produce an impressive 36 high-quality welds, adding an additional element of longevity to the infrastructure.

Moving loadsSteve explained the value of the road/rail Unimog they were using: “The

machine is agile and has the capacity to haul up to six trailers, each with a capacity to carry a 20 tonne load. It became an invaluable asset, reducing the need to use engines and ballast trains and therefore reducing cost and increasing flexibility on site.”

Another new machine introduced to this work was the tracked McCulloch Trac Rail Transposer (TRT) - a series of low-slung, tracked machines which are ideal for moving long lengths of rail.

High rail temperaturesOne concern that arose during the closure was that, because of the hot

weather, the rail temperature when installed was high, often more than 35 degrees and peaking at around 50ºC. Although this should not present an immediate problem, it has the potential to become problematic as the winter months come round. One of the main aims of the closure was to renew infrastructure that then could be left alone. To ensure this, additional night shifts were introduced to destress the rail to the correct temperature.

In total, 18,000 tonnes of ballast was replaced, 10,000 concrete sleepers installed, 6km of rail and 5,000 conductor rail ceramic pots were replaced. However, the porcelain third-rail insulator pots, which consist of nine parts, were not replaced like for like. Instead, another piece of innovative kit was introduced - the polyurethane pot which only consists of three parts. It was designed to make it easier to adjust the height of the pot to ensure that the right level was achieved.

All three tracks in the station at Uxbridge were renewed. Each track is in a single corridor between platforms so working space was very limited. To make life a bit more difficult, the existing drains running down the centre of each track were in poor shape and also had to be renewed. They were up to two metres below sleeper bottom. Very careful digging and an effective use of plant using 3D excavators and the Unimog were essential to ensure that this part of the work was completed successfully.

Local interestPlatform copings were then renewed and adjusted to the new track levels

which improved the step clearances. This was particularly appreciated by wheelchair users in the area, many of whom were following the works’ progress on Twitter. Track Partnership used the Metropolitan Line’s Twitter account to post photographs and updates that were followed by 26,000 locals. The feedback comments were fascinating. It was a good example of effective communications with local communities; one that will surely be followed by others and it was a great way of showing railway engineering at its best, especially to young people who are thinking about their future careers.

The track renewals extended east of Hillingdon beyond Ickenham station toward Ruislip. During the renewal of the platform copings following the track renewal, a section of concrete forming the platform wall and supporting the platform copings, which had deteriorated badly, collapsed. A quick solution was designed and the section of platform wall reconstructed. In total, about 170 metres of copings were modified at Uxbridge and Ickenham stations.

Within the track renewal sites, three under-bridges were stripped of ballast and formation in order to expose the bridge structure and renew the waterproofing. This work was carried out by specialist contractors Waterseal Ltd which is experienced in working in a railway environment


having used a combined spray and Wolfin sheet system for possession works.

In addition, the opportunity was taken to renew a crumbling 70 metres-long masonry retaining wall that separated sidings from the main line. The debris from the wall was becoming a safety hazard and something needed to be done. A series of 152mm square RSJs, each 2.5 metres long, were installed and precast concrete sections slotted into them to provide a simple but effective solution.

Supplier supportFor two weekends, the track closure was

extended to enable S&C units at Harrow-on-the-Hill to be renewed. This, and much of the above work, required effective and reliable back up from LU Power & Signalling, which was always provided. In addition, many labour suppliers - McGinley, Westview, VGC and CRS - provided the additional support required at different stages of the work. Also, alongside all the work, every opportunity was taken by the LU maintenance teams to renew S&C units in sidings and along the route to maximise the benefits of the closure.

Significant attention was put into the detail, not only to ensure that the welfare of the people involved was kept to a high standard but also to seek out cost savings and innovative ways of getting the job done. The new flash butt welding machine, Unimog, TRT and the polyurethane insulation pots, were just a few of the many initiatives which will help LU to fulfil its commitment to creating an urban railway network fit for the twenty-first century.

There was absolutely no doubting that Track Partnership would ensure that this challenging package of work would be completed on time and to a high standard of quality. Thanks to the

hard work and determination of the delivery team, the works were actually completed ahead of schedule. This meant that the Metropolitan line was able to run a special service on Friday 8 August to allow passengers to use the line on the busy Friday commute.

Stuart Burnett, London Underground’s Head of Strategy & Planning, commented: “Carrying out a block closure of this section of the network enabled us to complete the work in just over three weeks as opposed to fourteen weekend closures, which meant that we didn’t lose time to set-up and hand-back of works.

“As we were ahead of schedule we even managed to run a preview service on the Metropolitan line on Friday afternoon before the final weekend of this block closure. The hard work and dedication of our team has allowed for a reliable, on time and within budget project to be delivered for our customers.”

No doubt there will be many more LU block closures in the future. The Twitter community will surely be waiting enthusiastically for the many photos that will be posted. Everyone on site was keen to capture every stage of the work with their cameras - the incentive was a prize for the best photograph of the work.


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The exciting plans for signalling the Thameslink railway, including the introduction of the European Train Control System (ETCS) and Automatic Train Operation (ATO), were described in issue 109 (November 2013). However, introducing impressive new technology to run a 24

train-per-hour (tph) service through the Thameslink core could be frustrated by the very object the systems are ultimately provided for - the human passenger.

During a recent visit to the project offices, Paul Bates, Network Rail’s Thameslink programme director, high capacity infrastructure, was keen to explain that his portfolio included optimisation of the station infrastructure to facilitate swift movement of passengers off and onto trains, minimising train dwell times. This work is underpinned by extensive human factors research assessments and workshops which are being progressed within Paul’s internal team.

Level access is coming to ThameslinkIn addition to the heavy commuter and leisure

flows of passengers, 117 million per year, the Thameslink route serves the airports at Gatwick and Luton as well as the major hub of St Pancras International. Thus, travellers lugging huge suitcases around the Thameslink network could be a serious impediment to the efficient and rapid train dispatch necessary to meet the 24tph throughput of trains. And then there are wheelchairs and pushchairs to consider.

Train companies usually require advance notice of travel in order to provide assistance in dealing with Persons of Reduced Mobility (PRM). A wheelchair requires a member of the TOC staff to be in attendance on the platform at

the right time to deploy a Mobile Boarding Ramp (MBR). Project manager Keith Jones reckons this process adds three minutes to dwell time, creating a negative impact on a service interval of two and a half minutes.

In view of the performance risk of using the MBRs, the project team are hopeful that the provision of new fixed ‘HUMPs’ will obviate their use, though this will be a decision for the train company. Thameslink platforms at stations in

the core - London Bridge (Platforms 4 and 5), Blackfriars, City Thameslink, Farringdon and St Pancras International will be fitted with the PLA-HUMP®. This is an innovative pre-fabricated modular raised platform system which allows level access to the train for travellers with limited mobility, wheelchair users, families with pushchairs and those carrying heavy suitcases, by eliminating the vertical gap from train to platform.

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Delivering expertise and experience

Handy HUMPsPipex px®, a company based in

Plymouth, will supply the fibre reinforced polymer modular units. Studs are installed and the prefabricated units brought from the factory and plugged in on site. They will be delivered with markings already moulded in as specified, such as the yellow platform ‘stand back’ stripe and the disabled sign. The HUMPs are approximately 25 metres long and are designed so that they extend to both the PRM carriage doors.

The advantages of the Pipex px® HUMP include corrosion resistance, light weight, long life 60+ years, low electrical conductivity, and virtually maintenance free. Individual panels may be replaced if damaged or worn. As you would expect, the units comply with the Fire Precautions (Sub-Surface Railway Stations) Regulations, known as the ‘Section 12’ Regulations which were introduced in the aftermath of the tragic fire at King’s Cross Underground station in 1987 in which 31 people were killed.

The specific HUMP design for the platforms at Thameslink core stations will be compatible with the floor level of the forthcoming Class 700 stock. As the trains currently in service on the route have different floor profiles to the Class 700 vehicles, the ramps will not be installed until the introduction of the Class 700 is complete and exclusive.

An unplanned bonus for wheelchair users is that they are saved the indignity of being ‘assisted’ by a member of station staff as they will be able to take the lifts and ‘drive’ the wheelchair straight onto the train under their own steam, thereby restoring self-esteem.

Detailed studyThe manufacturer is currently

working with Exeter University to determine if there are any

implications relating to the different slip resistances of the HUMP, yellow marked area and existing platforms. Exeter has done some ground breaking research on the morphological features of floor surfaces and effects on slip resistance property. There is a Network Rail standard for this but the proximity of Underground platforms nearby may add a further consideration. Detailed design work for the HUMPs is currently in progress.

Clear signage will ensure that those needing to use the level access are directed to wait in the right place on the platform. Every train must stop with the PRM carriage (large space for wheelchair and luggage) adjacent to the ramp.

Trains will be formed of eight or twelve carriages and the stopping position will be such that the centre of the train will always coincide with the centre of the platform. The PRM carriage will be in the centre of the train, so that if a train set gets reversed, say during a Sunday engineering diversion, it makes no difference. Trains run under Automatic Train Operation (ATO) or manual driving and it is reckoned that an overshoot of 2.5 metres will still line up the PRM carriage doors with the ramp.

The test site for the PLA-HUMP®.


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Further significant high-frequency work is being undertaken by ergonomist Kate Moncrieff in conjunction with studies by the University College London. UCL runs a project for the empirical evaluation of door-open times for high-demand rail systems using their fully equipped Pedestrian Accessibility Movement Environment Laboratory (PAMELA) facility. This work is to demonstrate that the dwell times could be met.

Mind the gapA significant consideration for the Thameslink

project team is PTI. This relatively new acronym in the railway industry stands for platform-train interface and refers to the gaps both in terms of width and height between a station platform and a train, but also includes risks relating to electrocution and falls from platforms without trains being present.

Ian Prosser, director of railway safety at the Office of Rail Regulation, wrote in issue 107 (September 2013): “An area where there’s been a lot of focus from ourselves and the industry is PTI where serious injuries and fatalities occur. Some of it is down to passenger behaviour issues, but much is quite predictable. So to manage the risks it is important to have a good understanding of your location particularly with how people move around stations. Whenever work is done at a station, it’s important that the work actually takes this into account.”

ORR’s ‘Health and safety report 2013-14’ states that there were four passenger fatalities in 2013-14. All occurred at the PTI and involved passengers falling from the platform edge on to the track.

Keith Jones explained that the project intends to equip Thameslink station platforms with gap fillers, where required. There are two types of gaps the project team are looking at, vertical and horizontal between platform edge and train floor at the location of the PRM doors. The Hump will go some way to addressing the vertical gap. To address the horizontal gap, the team are currently reviewing mechanical and passive gap filler solutions. Gaps vary in size.

Generally, passive black rubber gap fillers will be permanently fitted to the platform edge such that trains will not make contact with the rubber but the gap has been effectively closed. There is a company in Cornwall who are currently assisting the project team.

Due to platform curvature at Farringdon, for example, gaps here are larger and necessitate a

creative solution. It is here where a mechanical gap filler is proposed. It will integrate with the HUMP to ensure a seamless method of boarding for PRMs and is currently under development with a company who have them installed and commissioned for Parisian subways RATP and RER.

The associated control system uses a combination of laser and hyper frequency distance indicators and speed radars to automatically deploy and retract the filler by detecting the arrival of a train in the correct dwell position and subsequent departure. The system complies with the SIL3 safety level and SIL2 for reliability. Progression is currently at project GRIP 3 stage (development). Assuming all engineering and human factors are satisfactorily addressed, they are due to be installed by 2018.


Customer Information Systems (CIS) and way finding

Due to concerns over the readability of the current TFT screens in variable lighting conditions, the team is evaluating the performance of TFT screens versus an LED alternative.

The principle is to ensure people are on the right platform, at the right time, and standing in the right position. Any hesitancy on the part of passengers soon causes back up, leading to bottleneck and protracted dwell time. The project team’s theory, validated by UCL, goes like this:

“As an intending passenger I arrive at Blackfriars station forecourt wishing to travel to Gatwick. On the route maps and CIS indicators in the foyer I determine that my train leaves from platform one and the destination is Brighton. Following the signs, I take the escalator to platform level. A big ‘1’ positively registers in my mind that I am on the right platform. As I turn to walk along the platform, I immediately see a CIS screen in front of me confirming the train I have seen downstairs is indeed the Brighton train calling at Gatwick. As I look up from that confidence factor, I see more screens further along the platform. Hence I’m certain that I’m on the right platform, I see my train listed and if I walk further along I’ll still get information.”

There will be six screens back-to-back along the length of the

platform. The idea is to spread out passengers along the platform for a 12-car train.

A further innovation will be the provision of hatching on the platforms to help ‘condition’ commuters to stand in optimal positions for the train. Research by UCL indicates that this should provide some benefit.

Consideration was given to giving Thameslink routes an identifier, for example, Bedford - Brighton could be the ‘alpha line’, as a means for passengers to identify the service required. However, the significant and changeable permutation of train origins, destinations, calling points and routing, made this concept far too complex. So, as part of the way finding process, stations will display diagrammatic route maps similar to those used on Underground stations.

This will enable passengers to quickly determine the likely train destination that will serve their own alighting point. Signage in general will be consistently applied at Thameslink stations from London Bridge to St Pancras International.

Reliable displaysPassengers need to have

confidence in the accuracy of information displayed by the CIS screens. The display “07:15 ON TIME” still displayed at 07:20 doesn’t look good.

Hitherto train information displays have relied upon outputs

from the signal box train describer system, a rather limited raw source of data. Enter project DARWIN which was described in issue 84 (September 2011).

Promoted as a Real Time Train Prediction system, Darwin draws data from a number of sources, assesses the information and then intelligently predicts what this will mean to the ongoing train service. The success of the new CIS displays will thus lie in the ability of DARWIN to predict the future to a high degree of accuracy. DARWIN will know exactly where the 07:15 is. DARWIN will cover perturbation but the train company will have local control in the event of major issues.

At the time of writing, unit size, font size, displayed content, sequencing and type of technology (LED/TFT) is being evaluated by trials in conjunction with supplier Infotec of Ashby de la Zouch. Zoning, such as First Class, is being considered and departure indicators will show the number of carriages as boxes on the screen lined up with the zones.

On the computer demonstration it was intriguing to see that each box contained a different level of infill. Keith Jones explained that the Class 700 has the capability to report back the loading of each carriage. This might be useful to help passengers position themselves adjacent to the doors of the least-full carriages.

Unfortunately there is a problem with using this concept on Thameslink. During the peaks, trains are likely to arrive in the core from the country already full and the system cannot predict how many passengers are likely to alight at any one station. So this facility will not be taken forward at present. There is, however, a plan for the TOC to gather the data and use this in the future.

The platform CIS displays will be in pairs. The left hand unit will show train in platform or about to come in, with destination, time and stopping points, whilst the right hand unit shows the next train to come. The all-new CIS screens are going up in 2016, way finding and signage in 2018. Laser scanning has been deployed to evaluate the visibility of existing signage and facilitate development of new signage as part of the plan to create a much more user-friendly passenger environment.

Train driving and dispatchThis article has focussed on

the work undertaken by the infrastructure owner to manage dwell times efficiently. Needless to say, the train operating company has been heavily involved with the various factors of train driving and dispatch to ensure 24tph is delivered through the core. Crucial to this objective will be a highly-disciplined approach to the dispatch of trains.

The new Thameslink, Southern & Great Northern franchise management contract commences on 14 September and will be known as Govia Thameslink Railway (GTR). Franchise incentives are linked to delivery of the Thameslink Programme, reflecting Govia’s role in collaborating with Network Rail.

Thanks go to Network Rail’s Paul Bates, Thameslink programme director - high capacity infrastructure; project manager Keith Jones; Kate Moncrieff, ergonomist and human factors specialist; and Paul Bull, designated project engineer, for their help in preparing this article.


As mentioned elsewhere, good wayfinding at stations is crucial. There is no point having frequent trains, short dwell times and punctual services if the passengers can’t find the correct platform

easily.

Network Rail has been carrying out a lot of work at Edinburgh Waverley station. As part of that, Lawrence Creative, Network Rail’s appointed project delivery company, needed to carry out an extensive audit and journey mapping process on passenger flows in order to develop an improved wayfinding strategy.

Detailed auditMerson Group’s wayfinding

and design division, MSD, carried out the audit which identified the need to rationalise sign types and quantities of signage at the station in order to de-clutter and streamline information flow. When implemented this would aid navigation and improve the passenger experience.

MSD then prepared a detailed delivery document containing the final construction design and specifications for a newly proposed signage scheme.

Cubes and totemsFollowing the completion of

the wayfinding and sign design phase, Merson Group’s signage manufacture and installation division, Merson Signs, was also appointed to implement the new signage package at Waverley.

This included the manufacture and installation of six large suspended cubes displaying directional signage, and five information totems each with a map displaying an exploded view of the surrounding area. The remit for the project was primarily to improve pedestrian flow, but also included enhancing the station’s ‘welcome message’. This was achieved by the installation of new station entrance signage utilising LED illuminated individual letters.

Following successful delivery of the scheme, Roddy Angus, CEO of Merson Group, stated: “2014 is a big year for Scotland so it is fantastic to have worked with Lawrence Creative and Network Rail to deliver tangible improvements to one of the country’s main transport hubs.

Our previous experience in the rail sector, as well as our experience working on large-scale air terminal projects in the UK and the Middle East, has stood us in great stead for delivering the Waverley signage package.

“As this project draws to a close we’re delighted to be continuing our work at Waverley as further improvements are made to the station over the coming months.”

To find out more about our work at Blackfriars visit railsignage.com

Wayfinding at Waverley


Over one billion journeys are made by rail in the UK each year. Every day, each train makes its way down the line, getting the all clear from green signals, passing over axle counters

and stopping at red signals. It is likely that, as these journeys occur, no-one realises that the work of signalling engineers has played a part in getting them to their destinations.

With investment in major re-signalling projects such as the National Signalling Framework and the Cardiff Area Signalling Renewal (CASR), there is a real demand for signalling engineers.

Signalling systems that have reached the end of their useful life need to be replaced with the latest equipment to keep the network running smoothly. It is the signalling engineer’s responsibility to design, test and bring into service a new, reliable system. To find out more, we spoke to Jon Leach from Atkins who is working as a project engineer on the CASR.

Walking a mile in his shoesA typical day for Jon consists

of a variety of tasks, from client meetings to being a point of contact for technical queries. “We get asked questions about anything and everything from how the train detection system should be applied to

the positioning of equipment on the network,” he said. “We also deal with multidisciplinary queries from other contractors working on the scheme to ensure everything from civils to signalling works together and matches the project scope.”

Answering these technical queries is very much a team effort. “Signalling is such a broad field so coming up with solutions requires everyone to share their knowledge and experience to work out the best way forward.”

For example, the installation of the Frauscher train detection system on CASR was the first time that this technology had been used on a British railway. When the questions came in, Jon and the team consulted the manuals, standards and manufacturer’s guidelines to find the answers needed.

They also looked at how the technology had been applied elsewhere in the world to see if something similar could be done on their project. As Jon explains: “There is no right or wrong answer; it’s about coming up with the best solution that will deliver a reliable signalling system that meets the client’s requirements.”

As part of his role, Jon also conducts regular site visits. During these weekly inspections, he looks at different aspects of the project such as how the equipment is being used on site and reviewing the control system at the new Wales Regional Operating Centre. He also monitors the performance of the signalling system that has already been rolled out to ensure it is working as it should.

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Delivering innovationsThe CASR project has given

Jon and the entire project team interesting challenges to sink their teeth into. Stretching across 192 route miles of track between Newport and Port Talbot, the scheme is one of the first major re-signalling projects to use innovations such as plug couplers as well as the Frauscher train detection system.

As a member of Atkins’ fabric improvements team, which is a group dedicated to investigating new improvements to operations, Jon wrote the initial business case for plug couplers on CASR as the innovation could save both time and money.

From there, he worked closely with the client, Network Rail, to develop product specifications and introduce this technology onto the UK railway network.

“Plug couplers are simple in theory,” Jon stated. “You attach a plug onto one end of a piece of signalling equipment and then plug it into a location case on the side of the track. This significantly reduces the amount of time that engineers have to spend trackside installing equipment. It has taken us a few years to get to this point but it has been worth it; plug coupler technology was installed for the first time during CASR’s initial commissioning in March 2013 and continues to be rolled out as the project progresses.”

Thinking outside the boxAs any engineer will tell

you, rigorous planning and programme management are key to successful delivery but from time to time, challenges arise. On these occasions, how do they keep the project on track? Jon explains that in these instances, problem solving skills are vital.

“We realised in December 2013 that the Phase 4 signalling commissioning on CASR would have to be delayed. However, this really wasn’t an option as a key P-way stage, which was reliant on the signalling commissioning, was already planned and booked in. The P-way stage was huge, at least 400 wagons of materials were being brought in so it was critical that these works be protected.”

The solution? Carry out additional signalling stages and overlay a new train detection system on the existing layout, which meant that the P-way works could go ahead as planned. “From agreeing on the solution we had just 16 weeks to design, test and commission the new signalling system to ensure the P-way works could be delivered. It was a real challenge, but one that the team overcame by working together,” Jon said.

A signalling engineer’s life is varied. Whether they are in the office or on site, one day is never the same as the next. So what’s the best part about being a signalling engineer? “Working on innovations is my favourite aspect,” was Jon’s reply. “I get to work across the project from checks and reviews to helping out with the design. I like looking at a system and working out how to make it more reliable.”

Jon Leach works in Atkins’ Rail business, which has exciting career opportunities available.


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At a time when collaboration between companies with complementary skills sets is at an all-time high, it is no surprise that two major players have come together in the field of signalling. Infrasig is a joint venture (JV) company that unites Carillion’s experience in the delivery of rail infrastructure projects around the world with

the rail control systems expertise of Bombardier.

Although a relatively new JV to the UK signalling market, Infrasig has already secured several contracts with Network Rail and is aiming to grow its business and capability to deliver major signalling projects for the future.

Infrasig combines the capabilities of two major global companies, bringing their respective strengths in rail control solutions and delivery of infrastructure projects to a focused partnership for the UK market. Bombardier is well known for its train technology and manufacture as well as its range of signalling and control systems and products deployed around the globe.

Meanwhile, Carillion is an established global supplier in many infrastructure sectors, with its rail division delivering major projects and frameworks across the UK for decades. Its range of disciplines includes overhead line equipment (OLE), permanent way, electrification and plant (E&P), engineering, telecommunications and signalling.

Rural crossing solutionAs reported in issue 95 (September 2012), despite

numerous public safety campaigns, one of the biggest remaining safety challenges on the network in the UK stems from level crossings, particularly those in rural areas.

Carillion has specific experience in this field, having installed or upgraded many solutions over the last decade, whilst Bombardier has significant expertise in engineering and manufacturing track circuit systems for the UK. Building on these specialist skills, the first collaboration by the JV partners introduces the Bombardier EBI Gate 200 system to the UK market.

Targeting minor level crossings with no previous indication system for users, and engineered specifically to improve the safety of user-worked crossings on the railway network, the EBI Gate 200 system is an easy-to-operate system. The integral equipment cabinet is fitted with two display/warning lights and a push button. The lights are normally unlit, but on pushing the button either the green (safe to cross) lamp will be lit or the red (train coming) will display together with a two-tone warning sound.

The red lamp circuitry is activated by strike-in treadles positioned at maximum line speed distance from the crossing on every approach track. This will give a minimum time of 40 seconds before the train arrival. If trains are slower, then a longer time period will elapse. For a multi-track railway, should a second train approach before the first has cleared, a verbal message ‘second train coming’ will be broadcast.

Treadles beyond the crossing, operating on the last-wheel principle, clear the warning cycle and enable a green light to be displayed. Reversion to the no-light condition will occur after a time unless the push button is reactivated.

Introducing Infrasig

EBI Gate 200 at Fourstones.


To find out more.

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Infrasig is a partnership between Carillion and Bombardier providing signalling and train control systems for the UK market

A dual digital judicial recorder is incorporated such that if an incident occurs, both Network Rail and the police can extract identical evidence. The judicial recorder will normally store ten days’ worth of crossing activity.

The system has been developed as a generic application, with common logic, so that it can be applied to any crossing of this type on a single or double track railway quickly and relatively cheaply. The strike-in/strike-out system can be overlaid on track circuits or other train detection systems.

EBI Gate 200 will be installed under a Network Rail contract on sites from Scotland to the West Country. Roll out of the new product is now well advanced with several systems commissioned and in operation - the remainder of the initial tranche are programmed for completion in 2015.

Level crossing framework Infrasig has also been chosen by Network Rail as

one of five national framework contractors for Control Period 5, with a commission to deliver a programme of crossing upgrades across the country. This began with a contract for five conventional relay-based level crossings on the Cumbrian coast line, three of which are now fully commissioned with the other two programmed for completion in 2015.

Meanwhile, Infrasig is undertaking GRIP4 (single option development) work for a tranche of level crossings with miniature stop lights (MSL) in the Stroud Valley, and another series of manually-controlled barriers (MCB) in West Wales.

It is clear that relay based crossings have had their day and the focus is now on new, more reliable technology. Infrasig engineers are currently adapting Bombardier EBI Gate 2000, an automatic level crossing system developed as part of the EU-funded PROTECTRAIL project, to UK requirements. EBI Gate 2000 can be installed on a single or multiple-track line, either electrified or non-electrified, and is a European barrier application based on vital programmable logic controller (PLC) technology housed within a small local enclosure. It is hoped that this will be trialled on a UK MCB type level crossing in 2015, after which the system will be further developed enabling it to be applied on CCTV and obstacle detector crossings in the future.

Expertise in ERTMS As the UK moves towards mainline deployment of the

European Train Control System (ETCS), Infrasig is utilising Bombardier’s market-leading expertise in driving ERTMS across Europe to develop solutions for the UK market. Bombardier has successful mainline deployments of its INTERFLO 450 ERTMS Level 2 system, notably on the brand-new high-speed Botnia Line in northern Sweden and the rebuilt Amsterdam to Utrecht route in the Netherlands. Infrasig will bring this capability to the UK, with UK engineers being trained in the design and deployment of the new system, whilst using already proven capability in implementation of signalling projects in the UK for installation, testing and commissioning.

Infrasig is one of four suppliers working with Network Rail on the development of ETCS for the UK and has installed the Bombardier INTERFLO 450 Level 2 system at the ETCS national integration facility at Hitchin. From there, it has demonstrated the systems capabilities using the Hertford Loop test track and the Network Rail ETCS test train. However, Infrasig has also gone one step further than its counterparts: drawing on its experience from Europe, it has used the test facility to demonstrate a Level 3 moving block application, which allowed the test train to chase a phantom train simulated by the control system along the Hertford test track.

Infrasig ETCS systems are based upon the INTERFLO 200 mainline interlocking solution. The application logic is being developed to support UK ETCS applications as well as conventional signalling applications. This interlocking solution has already been commissioned within a UK rolling stock depot with discussions currently taking place for a suitable on-track trial site. Developing a specifically compliant UK interlocking solution will allow Infrasig to create a strong position for projects in the mainline UK signalling project market.

Askam level crossing.


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Incandescence

All too often, the UK rail scene is compared unfavourably with countries in continental Europe. But is this fair? Or even true?

The Institution of Railway Signal Engineers (IRSE) holds an annual international convention to look at practices elsewhere, which in 2014 took place in Lyon, the second city of France. The current IRSE President is M Christian Sevestre, a senior engineer in SNCF, so showing off the latest in French technology was a natural expectation. The five day excursion yielded some interesting concepts but left delegates with an overall impression that rail engineering is now conducted on an international scale with the UK being well up in the drive for innovation.

France’s RailwaysAlthough bigger than the UK with 14,000km of route,

the organisation of the rail network has considerable similarities to that in Britain. The infrastructure is entrusted to RFF with SNCF remaining the principal train service provider. The latter is not a monopoly and several other train companies provide services in the regions. SNCF also specifies the ongoing modernisation plan, which includes both track and train elements.

This split of responsibilities is contentious with French trade unions lobbying for a return to a single structure. The latest public disclosure of new trains being too large for the loading gauge is an embarrassment for the two organisations and the weaknesses within the standards regime.

A big difference is the French high-speed network with lines radiating out of Paris in all directions and with four more lines under construction. Yet even this must be taken in context: the high-speed lines attract 300,000 passengers per day whereas the Paris suburban lines carry 3.2 million, excluding the Metro and other non-SNCF networks. Thus, as in Britain, the real challenge is one of capacity and how to get more trains running on the existing infrastructure.

France has problems in getting finance for track doubling / quadrupling and thus new signalling and associated technology are perceived as the means of getting more trains on the network. As Christian Sevestre commented, signalling is the interface between train and track, thus leading to his Presidential theme ‘from Signalling to Systems’.

S&T InitiativesFrance has long been in advance of the UK in the

development and provision of train protection systems and has four basic home grown products: » The ‘Crocodile’ system - basically equivalent to AWS but

with detonator enhancement so that any SPAD results in a ‘bang’;

EngineeringVs

Rail

CLIVE KESSELL

Lyon Metro depot showing rubber tyre tracks.


» KVB - dating from 1989 using spot transmissions from beacons and giving ‘control curves’ for SPAD protection - warning curve, control curve and emergency brake curve on a ‘distance to go’ philosophy. Some 20,000 signals are so equipped;

» TVM 300 - used on the first high-speed lines being a step continuous system using coded track circuits, infill loops and embedded sensors under the train;

» TVM 430 - used on later high-speed lines including HS1 in England giving continuous speed supervision.

Adding to these comes ETCS Levels 1 and 2, with Level 1 being primarily there for the international freight corridors.

With signalling technology not likely to change much in the near future, emphasis is being put on getting more out of the existing systems. Introducing Traffic Management Systems (TMS) mirrors what is going on in the UK but the French are more advanced with 14,000km of network already equipped. An upgraded system is being developed for high density suburban lines around Paris and other cities based on emerging CBTC (Communications Based Train Control) technology. Britain will be well advised to see how the French use TMS to deliver a more effective train service.

Other initiatives have a familiar ring to them: remote condition monitoring to predict failures before they actually occur, adjusting maintenance needs to the different sections of route/track, using 3D scanning technology for aiding track maintenance and positioning of structures, and the centralisation of heavy works programmes. All good stuff but nothing revolutionary.

The realisation is that passengers need a reliable end-to-end journey with seamless interchanges and constant accurate information. Twenty years of rail privatisation in the UK have accrued massive benefits in terms of passenger focus and the French are a long way off matching this.

Mass Transit and MetrosSatisfying a growing demand for commuter services into big cities is

as much a problem for France as elsewhere. The foresighted building of the RER cross-city lines in Paris from the 1970s onward, and recent new Metro construction (Line 14) plus other major cities construction of metro networks, has not been enough to keep pace with the continuing growth in passenger numbers. Couple this with the demand for enhanced safety and lower cost of operation, the challenge again falls to the S&T engineer for a solution.

CBTC systems have provided much greater train throughput but the lack of any standardisation between systems is seen as a drawback. Achieving complete ATC (Automatic Train Control) is a combination of ATP + ATO +ATS (Protection + Operation + Supervision), but these need to be considered in conjunction with all other systems, such as radio, communications and power supply.

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Lyon Metro depot.


The growth of urban systems often leads to metros and main lines having to share the same tracks at some point and thus the French see the need to develop CBTC into an open rail environment, impacting on both train-borne and infrastructure equipment. Whether to use fixed or moving block, how to provide a common driver machine interface, standardising control instructions - these are all things that operators, engineers and industry seem unable to get to grips with.

All the big signalling companies offer CBTC systems but, whilst the end train service result is broadly similar, the engineering solutions are all different. It is all too easy to blame the companies for not appreciating the need for standardisation and interoperability but no real organisation exists to drive the requirement forward.

Future possibilitiesThere are signs that the next generation of CBTC

offerings will take a wider look at future needs. Ansaldo believes that technology and safety will not be a future-differentiating factor as these are assumed to be a ‘given’.

The ability to supply systems in a faster timescale and with minimum disruption to existing train services could be the deciding factor. Achieving this will require a constant iterative approach to co-ordinate customer and supplier expectations. A design mistake not identified at the early stages will have long term and expensive implications as the project progresses.

Operations, design and safety case progression are all interactive, where changing one element will impact on the others. This chain re-action is rarely picked up.

New initiatives to improve the performance of metros will always emerge and Alstom suggest the way forward is to move from centralised control to train-centric operation. The complex information flows to route trains via a central control unit, with ATO bolted on as an overlay, make validation and safety of the system more difficult, thus adversely impacting on availability and performance.

A new architecture is suggested based on two fundamental concepts: track securing to be ‘booked’ directly by the train including an on-board interlocking; train spacing to be controlled by direct train to train communication. Each train will request its onward route by communicating to a trackside object controller which will change points and permit a movement authority. Trains will effectively signal themselves with no interdependency on trackside equipment, thus needing less signalling infrastructure, line extensions are made easier, turnback / train coupling activities are simplified, headway and operational margins are improved. The first deployment is to be in Lille.

The idea is somewhat controversial but in reality is it not a more sophisticated version of how trams and trolleybuses were routed a century or so ago? This French initiative will be watched closely across the world.

Signalling in the FutureThere are many predictions as to what signalling (more

correctly control) systems will look like in future decades. Jacques Poré, a past president of the IRSE, looked at how this is currently being studied. Three main groupings are at work: » UNISIG and ERTMS Users Group » NGTC (Next Generation Train Control) » Shift²Rail.

These represent the short, medium and long terms. UNISIG and the ERTMS Users Group are well established, primarily to get ERTMS and its component parts into a unified state with reliable hardware and workable interoperability. The principal ongoing activities are developing an ATO package to work over ETCS Level 2 (being led from the UK on the Hertford Loop test site in readiness for the central section of Thameslink), getting the GSM-R bearer to work with packet switching using GPRS, and improving the ‘key’ management for managing train identities and calling numbers.

Another activity is the creation of an intermediary system between ETCS Levels 1 and 2 to give simplified and limited supervision on more rural lines

NGTC is aimed at getting a train control system that fits both main line and urban routes. Work to date concentrates on analysing the similarities and differences of existing systems to reduce the requirement gap. Strong interest exists from manufacturers to rationalise product ranges and development efforts. NGTC is included in the EC Seventh Framework programme with €10.6 million funding until Aug 2016. Nine work packages will include IP based radio and satellite positioning

Shift²Rail is a much wider initiative with technical concentration on advanced traffic management systems, cost efficient technology for signalling, energy and mass efficiencies, seamless ticketing and freight integration. Sixteen founder members are involved with many more associated signatories including universities.

All of these have implications for France and the UK. The committee / grouping structure will be important to prevent individuals drilling down into the minutest detail and the pursuance of national interests.

Lyon’s new Signalling Control Centre.


Lyon Area TransportLike many French provincial cities, Lyon has pursued a vigorous

investment in local public transport with electric-powered vehicles being a core strategy. Thus metro, tram and trolleybus feature prominently, all owned by the local authority with a €1 billion annual budget. The city claims to offer the best value for money in France (and probably in Europe) with the result it has many visitations and conference hosting. Transport is seen as a major factor in commercial development but keeping abreast of technology is essential to maintain this thrust.

The statistics are impressive: four metro lines with 23 trains, five tram routes having 85 Alstom Citadis trams, nine trolley bus routes, two funiculars and 108 bus routes generate 1.5 million journeys every day. The operation is contracted to Keolis on a six-year contract worth €1.9 billion, including responsibility for both infrastructure and rolling stock maintenance.

Whilst the modernisation of UK urban transport has progressed significantly over the past 30 years, with many cities now having modern tram networks, the country has a long way to go to catch up with France.

The Two Countries ComparedFascinating as it was to see broad-order French rail engineering, it would

be an illusion to think that Britain is a second rate player in terms of rail transport. Even a visit to the depot where the French high speed measuring train is stabled (IRIS 320), of which they are very proud, shows that it is little different to the British equivalent, Network Rail’s New Measurement Train, (issue 98 Dec 2012), which has the added advantage of being diesel powered with a go-anywhere capability.

Certainly the French high-speed network is impressive with many lines now in service or under construction, and it is a vain hope that the UK could ever mirror that. Away from these prestige services, the privatised UK railway offers a train service that is probably second to none in Europe and covers main line, suburban and rural route operation.

UK engineering also shows pioneering spirit, with technologies such as modular signalling to reduce cost, that just don’t seem to be there in France. In safety, the analysis and certification of new systems tends to be an international business with firms competing for business on a European and even worldwide scale. Examples were given as to how this is managed in France but with no surprises in terms of the processes involved.

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The last twelve months have seen a number of notable developments to Siemens Rail Automation’s control systems technology,

with significant improvements in the functionality, performance and configuration of the key systems components.

At the heart of the company’s suite of products is its proven Controlguide Westcad computer-based control and display system, which following the development of new Modular Control Rack (MCR) technology, is now able to incorporate train describer functionality and to interface seamlessly with the Controlguide Westronic 1024 Time Division Multiplexer (TDM) system.

Controlling the LoopThe first application of this new technology was

deployed in 2012 to support Network Rail’s European Train Control System (ETCS) trials programme at its National Integration Facility. The work covered a five-mile stretch of the down line on the Hertford Loop (between Molewood Tunnel and Langley South junction) which now has the interlocking control from a relocatable equipment building (REB) in the former Hitchin goods yard.

Siemens designed, installed, tested and commissioned an MCR system in the REB to provide a local control point for the interlocking - the remote/main control work station being at Kings Cross Power Signal Box, with Hitchin being the local facility. A lockable switch at Hitchin allows for the transfer of control between the emergency Westcad at Hitchin and the main Westcad control work station at King’s Cross.

The project represented the first installation in the UK of a computer-based interlocking being controlled remotely over Network Rail’s Fixed Telecoms Network (FTN),

effectively proving the ability of Westcad MCR to remotely control any interlocking anywhere in the UK over the FTN. To provide a higher level of protection than would be given by the FTN, a new proprietary communication protocol was introduced.

Bigger performance, smaller packageHaving received Generic Approval from Network Rail

and having been through a full safety case, Controlguide Westcad MCR and Westronic 1024 both incorporate Siemens’ new mid-plane technology, providing the smallest possible footprint and dramatically reducing the size of standard control systems equipment (reducing the space requirement for a complete control system from a full equipment cubicle to the size of a standard domestic microwave oven). The introduction of common

control systems Next-generation


modules also allows for standardisation in both training and spare-holding requirements, with the modules all fully EMC-certified for installation within their own housing, or for mounting in relay racking, 19 inch cubicles or at the rear of a work-station.

Due to be commissioned later this year, the Wolverhampton resignalling programme will be the first to feature a fully-duplicated control and train describer system in a single rack, both running on the same processor and with a direct interface for the required emergency alarms.

Mike Lewis, Siemens Rail Automation UK’s head of control systems, said: “This project will represent the most cost-effective control centre solution available, with the train describer running as a software module within our proven control system to deliver significantly improved performance and reduced cost, and perfectly demonstrates the dramatic reduction in required footprint - from a full cubicle to a single rack.

“Unlike other manufacturers, we took the decision at an early stage in the development process to base our system developments on bespoke hardware, rather than relying on commercial, off-the-shelf (COTS) solutions. This not only allowed us to specify equipment without having to make compromises, but also to keep full control of the hardware development and manage the whole life cycle of the product, with the design of the connectors and interfaces ensuring full backward and forward compatibility.”

A major requirement of the development programme was to ensure a familiar user interface for the systems as well as providing the flexibility for their use in a wide variety of new and retrofit applications.

Mike Lewis continued: “With this dramatic reduction in size comes some obvious benefits. The unit is more portable and features much simplified cabling and drawings; consequently design, installation and testing are all easier and significantly faster. With a range of diagnostic tools and hot-swap standby features, the system is also incredibly reliable and easy to maintain.

“The move away from industrial PCs and Compact PCI technology allows any of the cards to be hot-swapped. Consequently, the system can ‘lose’ a card and it automatically switches to another whilst the faulty one is repaired and replaced. We’re using a ten layer mid-plane to do all the interconnections, which has eliminated the need for multiple processor housings and the associated interconnects.”


Faster installationUsing a suitable communications link, the system is

able to drive most types of interlocking, including solid-state interlocking (SSI), Trackguard Westlock, Trackguard Westrace and relay interlockings. Automatic Route Setting (ARS) and Automatic Route Facility (ARF) have also both been successfully integrated and are operating on Network Rail infrastructure.

Earlier this year and as part of the Thameslink programme at London Bridge, Siemens undertook a full, like-for-like replacement of the life-expired train describer equipment. The company introduced a modern system designed and developed to provide support both for the legacy equipment and future upgrade requirements, including the facility to allow simple re-control to Three Bridges rail operating centre (ROC).

By employing the new technology as front-end signalling processors, the company was able to complete a seamless changeover, with implementation having to be undertaken to minimise possession times, access times and operational disruption. The new train describer cubicles were all installed in their final position with all the new interfacing cabling and trunking pre-installed. Whereas the original equipment was installed in the 1990s over a whole weekend, this work was commissioned in less than half that time.

Another first for the application of this new technology was introduced as part of the Huyton to Roby resignalling programme which was commissioned in July 2014. Developing a bespoke signallers’ workstation, Siemens configured its Controlguide Westcad MCR system as a front-end display solution, with an ethernet connection to the equipment room interlocking management system (IMS). This custom desk incorporates ‘slide-out’ equipment bays to maximise the maintainability of the

equipment and has been so successful, that Siemens has received orders to install the same solution for York, Rugby and Three Bridges ROCs.

Flexible functionalityCompleting the control systems portfolio is Siemens’

Controlguide Westronic 1024 system which includes a point-to-point TDM, panel processor, emergency alarm system, signalling SCADA RTU and panel and TD input multiplexers. Again flexibility has been key to the system’s development and it can accept a number of rear transition cards, allowing for the simple ‘plug and play’ replacement of existing TDM systems such as S2 and TDM69.

The system is able to be used as part of re-control projects where existing route relay interlockings are retained - the rear cards of the product are simply changed to suit the site, rather than an extensive programme of rewiring being required. Changeover times are therefore significantly reduced and route closures minimised.

Fully compliant with Network Rail’s FTN, the systems are also capable of interfacing to all types of interlocking (including BR Freewire, geographical, Western E10K, ERSE and OCS). The complementary output card (COP) also guards against single-bit failure of TDMs and allows a direct connection to ERSE and E10K interlockings, significantly reducing the need for additional relay circuitry for these two interlockings on re-control schemes.

Mike Lewis continued: “We have now pre-installed 12 Controlguide Westcad MCR systems in the Manchester ROC this year, and have also secured the control systems work for both the York ROC Stafford resignalling programme (which is the first to be commissioned into Rugby ROC).

“With further work at the East and West Midlands control centres during the year, we will also be installing two further systems at Three Bridges ROC over Christmas 2014 as part of the wider Thameslink programme. Future phases will introduce our Westcad E software which has interfaces to the Siemens radio block controller (RBC) for ERTMS applications.

“We are however also continuing with the development of the systems group of products, with Immediate Route Setting (IRS) functionality planned to be introduced in 2015 at Cardiff and Romford ROCs as part of our ongoing Traffic Management Systems work with Thales. This will provide a direct interface between our Westcad MCR control system and Thales’ Aramis traffic management system and introduce our Controlguide Westcad technology which allows for flexible control.

“Future development work will also see the development of interfaces to the Controlguide Westcad E system from Frequentis’ telecommunications system and a novel solution to interface CCTV level crossing control - all of which will allow even greater flexibility of working between desks”.

William Wilson, Siemens Rail Automation’s director sales and commercial, said: “These are very exciting times for Siemens; having made a significant investment in new technology, we now have a portfolio of products ready for the next generation of Network Rail projects which require operational cost efficiencies, higher reliability, functionality and performance.”


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The increasing use of Internet Protocol (IP) as a general transmission standard is having significant implications for rail. Back in 2010, The Rail Engineer reported on the introduction of the so called ‘Jock WAN’, used as the bearer for Long Line PA systems on the Ayrshire lines

south west of Glasgow and for condition monitoring of equipment on the Edinburgh-Glasgow main line. This consisted of two core and access rings structured around Scotland’s central belt, operating at a 1Gbit/s rate. It continues to provide a useful service but for the moment remains a standalone facility.

More recently, Paul Darlington described the technology and architecture of IP networks (issue 113, March 2014) and it is clear that this type of networking is the way forward for future transmission needs. Network Rail Telecoms (NRT) is busy providing a nationwide IP network (known as FTNx) and this is a major project to be reported on at some future date.

Meanwhile in Scotland, by carefully co-ordinating various signalling and telecom projects that require robust datacom connectivity, it has been possible to establish the first elements of the FTNx access network, based upon the MPLS (Multi-Protocol Label Switching) IP technologies. This guarantees a quality of service as well as providing virtual private networks within the IP offering.

EGIP and CowlairsA number of projects are happening on the

Edinburgh to Glasgow corridor, collectively known as EGIP - the Edinburgh Glasgow Improvement Programme. The main elements are the electrification of the main line between the two cities, the upgrading and electrification of the line from Cowlairs to Cumbernauld and the re-control of the entire route over to the Edinburgh Rail Operating Centre (ROC). The latter is one of two for the whole of Scotland, the other, perhaps a little strangely, is at Cowlairs (near Glasgow) within sight of the E-G main line. Such is the flexibility of modern transmission systems that it matters little where the actual control point is located.

The associated signalling upgrade has had the original NX control panel at Cowlairs replaced with a DeltaRail IECC Scalable product that allows the existing SSI signalling to be controlled from Edinburgh ROC. It comes equipped with an IP access layer that requires dual (A and B) point-to-point IP links to operate. It was thus logical to

connect the interlocking to Edinburgh by using IP networking and the Scottish telecom team set about producing a network design.

Links to the interlocking are crucial and must have as near as practical to 100% availability otherwise control of the important Glasgow Queen St terminus and the 15 miles of route to the north will be lost. Mindful also of future requirements, the ensuing network will be needed to support many more services as the ROC areas are expanded.

The result is a 10Gbit/s MPLS IP access layer ring with 20 router nodes as part of a highly scalable and extensible FTNx architecture. There are three routers at Edinburgh and two at Cowlairs, with others at Dunfermline, Ladybank, Dundee, Perth, Greenloaning, Greenhill, Gartshore, Cadder Yard, Carstairs and Haymarket. Spurs run to Glasgow Queen Street, Glasgow Central, Buchanan House and Cathcart Electrical Control.

Each router is connected to its neighbour directly by fibre and transmission distances of up to 80km between routers are achievable at

IP exploitation in Scotland

CLIVE KESSELL


10Gbit/s. Most of the fibre existed as part of the Network Rail FTN (Fixed Telecom Network) project but a short length of new cable had to be installed between Glasgow and Gartsherrie to complete the ring.

Whilst the configuration design has been done in-house, ‘proof of concept’ testing was provided by Cisco, the supplier of the ASR903 router equipment, at its labs in Reading. IP addresses must be assigned to the routers and link interfaces, and are also needed for the various end devices. Addresses are controlled and allocated from the Class A private address range.

The new Cowlairs interlockings are now commissioned and, other than a few initial problems not associated with the IP network, have been successfully controlled from Edinburgh ROC. The flexibility of both IECC Scalable and the IP operation will make for much easier changes when the Glasgow Queen St layout is re-modelled in the coming months.

Extending the usageWith so much capacity available within the 10GBit/s ring, it was not long

before other uses for the transmission have emerged. These include: » Control of Greenfoot level crossing back to Edinburgh ROC; » Control of the forthcoming Borders Railway to Tweedbank in its entirety,

including the axle counters and SSIs (solid state interlockings) at the single line passing loops, thus obviating the need for any through lineside copper cables;

» Replacement of the legacy PDH (Plesiochronous Digital Hierarchy) transmission systems supporting the S2 TDM (Time Division Multiplex) signalling systems in the original Edinburgh signalling area, thus giving resilience to the somewhat vulnerable Forth Bridge cables;

» Control of the CCTV level crossings on the Edinburgh to Newcastle main line;

» Provision of diversity for the Yoker power box CCTV systems including Glasgow Queen St Low Level;

» Control circuits on the newly opened Paisley Canal line; » Replacement of HDSL (High-bit-rate Digital Subscriber Line) transmission

as part of the Paisley Canal, Rutherglen and Coatbridge electrification project.

Longer-term aspirations include expansion of the ring for the replacement of telephone concentrators with IP-based equipment at Perth, Inverness, Aberdeen and Dundee. When the Glasgow to Edinburgh line via Shotts is electrified, IP will be used as the bearer for all control purposes.

Extending southwards into Northumberland has created the name ‘Geordie WAN’ (or WyeAyeMAN) and the network now goes as far south as York. In the bigger picture of things, the ring will become one of many being planned by NRT as part of the FTNx access layer.


VoIP telephonyTraditional lineside telephones still abound including

the much loved (by some) signal post telephone (SPT). As a system, these represent a considerable percentage of a signalling scheme’s cost. With the increasing use of radio, the question is often asked: are all these phones still necessary? It’s a fair point but, for the present, the operating and safety authorities declare that they must remain. Is there however a cheaper way of providing this facility?

Voice-over-internet has been around for some time, voice just being another data stream. All such devices have, however, been mainly concentrated in office or closed-premises environments where the physical connection to a computer is short and a local power supply is available. Can the technology be extended to long-distance telephone circuits as would be found in a rail environment? The NRT Glasgow office has looked at the pros and cons and made some trial installations.

One of the challenges has been to provide telephones for a future electrification scheme without having to take expensive immunisation measures. A direct fibre connection to the telephone unit will solve this at a stroke and having an IP-capable telephone is the logical extension of this. Each instrument will however need a separate Ethernet switch, a power supply and a fibre termination point. All these are likely to make the phone considerably more expensive than a normal CB (central battery) SPT. Is there a halfway house that would be a compromise?

A product known as a Voice Gateway Router is produced by Cisco that enables up to 96 analogue phones to be connected to it within a distance limit of around 10km, depending on copper cable conductor size. In complex areas such as Cowlairs with many signals and points within a short distance of the interlocking, this router has been deployed yielding significant cost advantages and giving the flexibility of a VoIP telephone system at a reasonable price.

On the Cumbernauld line, some 30 VoIP telephones have been installed, taking advantage of the local signalling 110V AC power supply in the nearest trackside location. This is transformed and rectified to 50V DC and the Ethernet switch is positioned adjacent to this. The telephone is expensive - around £700 each - but having established an IP point of presence, the network is then available for other purposes such as condition monitoring.

So will VoIP telephones be the future? The jury is out at the moment but there are a lot of plus points. The capability of such a phone to incorporate features may be the deciding factor. The functions of the specialist PETS (Public Emergency Telephone System) units which can be found at level crossings, with their many proving circuit and priority requirements, are mostly already available in a VoIP phone as standard, thus saving considerable cost. There will be other such applications but, as always, it will be financial factors that determine the outcome.

At the ROCThe traditional ‘key and lamp’ concentrator units

continue to linger on but more recent concentrator units based upon electronic exchange technology are proving very expensive to adapt for the safety requirements associated with SPTs. With IP technology, well established in industry and especially in banking and finance, could the related products be used in the rail sector?

Edinburgh ROC was an ideal proving ground and the two new Cowlairs desks have been equipped with concentrator screens bought from the company IPTrade which traditionally supplies the financial sector. Some development work to add in extra button colours and latching functionality for level crossing phones has been necessary but the result is an outstanding success with both analogue (these needing an analogue telephony adaptor) and VoIP lines connected via the IP network.


IPTrade has integrated all these changes into its standard product, meaning that there is no special rail version thus maintaining the COTS (commercial off the shelf) principle. An IP voice recorder from Red Box Recorders easily integrates into the concentrator product and is widely used for safety applications in various industries including Network Rail, and emergency services such as the Ambulance Service.

The importance of the control system and the possibilities for expansion have led the Scottish engineers to duplicate all voice servers, one unit located in Edinburgh the other in Glasgow. This achieves the required redundancy and reliability, but the capacity is so great that it can potentially handle all the lineside telephony requirements of Scotland. The main benefit, however, is the reduction in overall system cost: final price was around £200,000 (including routers) as against a more typical cost of £500,000 for a standalone PABX based concentrator.

IP and the future.With the whole world moving to IP technology, it was only a matter of

time before the rail industry followed suit. The Scottish champion (Dr Robert Gardner) and his team have a level of enthusiasm and professionalism that will see IP applications expand into other areas. The Scottish project is an important start to NRT’s new FTNx access network, which will be monitored and managed by the Stoke network management centre (NMC) but maintained by NRT staff in Scotland. The team’s expertise is being used to create other access layer networks across other parts of the UK rail network.

Can IP technology extend into safety critical circuitry? It is too early to say as there are concerns about security and hacking. This is a global issue and the solution, if there is one, will need to be resolved on a worldwide stage.

We are probably some way off the situation of moving a pair of points via an IP address and associated command but it could happen as ongoing development of the IP suite of technologies should provide all the required security features.

Who knows what the next decade will bring?

Thanks go to Robert Gardner, Mark Donnelly, Billy Reid, Graham Smith, Alisdair Smith and others in the team for taking the time and trouble to explain current developments.

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People, contracts and services

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Here in the Rail Engineer, there are often articles on successful signalling and resignalling programmes. The reports are full of descriptions of sophisticated electronic kit, LED signal heads and

lineside cabinets.

But behind every major signalling project there lurks, hidden in the shadows, a civil engineering one.

Signal bases, foundations for cabinets, cable runs, trackside buildings - they all need civil engineers to come along in advance and sort them out.

However, it is all in response to a requirement from the signal engineers, so a collaborative approach helps to ensure that all ancillary civil engineering works are ready for signalling installation and testing teams when they need them.

Detailed planningVGC Rail Projects has

invested heavily in first-class planning resources so that critical possessions are planned meticulously, often down to the minute. Engineers draw up a timed project plan well in advance of the possession, setting out all the

individual elements and identifying key decision points so that pre-planned mitigation measures can be implemented if necessary.

However, the pressure to deliver means that designs are rarely cast in stone at a project outset and have to evolve as the project progresses. Contractors such as VGC often have to adapt programmes to cope.

“Sharing the detailed plans with project partners right from the start makes it much easier to manage re-planning. Close collaboration between the civil engineering, signalling and telecoms disciplines allows real flexibility in project delivery,” said Jaques Kriel, director of VGC Rail Projects. “On a recent signalling project it was necessary to re-schedule our whole delivery because of design delays. By working collaboratively with our client, we jointly reprogrammed

the works resulting in little overall impact on the project.”

Meticulous planning and collaborative working mean that as much work as possible is undertaken during possessions, and the railway is handed back into operation on time. The travelling public, who gain from improvements to train services as a result of infrastructure

investment, are happiest if they never have to know about the intense work periods when the railway is closed.

Civils before signalling


PAUL DARLINGTON

The introduction of TCP/IP-based networks to railway signalling, telecoms and electrification is now well underway. This will bring many benefits and advantages, but it also introduces a new threat in the form of cyber-crime and a need for cyber-security. These threats may range

from the innocent introduction of a virus through to a sophisticated terrorist attack.

In 2012, two US power plants were affected when an employee used a USB stick that was infected with malware. Similarly, some offshore oilrigs have been shut down for up to 19 days following malware attacks launched from USB sticks.

Another example is ‘Stuxnet’. This was discovered in June 2010 and was designed to attack industrial Programmable Logic Controllers (PLCs). PLCs allow the automation of electromechanical processes such as those used to separate nuclear material or to control level crossings (Issue 18 August 2014). Stuxnet reportedly compromised Iranian PLCs, collecting information on industrial systems and causing five fast-spinning nuclear centrifuges to tear themselves apart.

One railway example was a new physically-isolated operational telecoms system introduced in 2008 which was infected with a virus by a maintenance technician’s USB memory stick. An anti-virus programme was deployed but, because the system was not connected to a central monitoring system, no action could be taken remotely and, more importantly, there was no easy way of updating the anti-virus programme.

Doing nothing is not an optionIt could be argued that it is far too risky to

introduce such vulnerable technology for railway operational purposes. Rather, it could seem safer to rely on traditional point-to-point serial communications on the assumption that this will

maintain physical isolation from everything else. This misses the point since the new technology offers many advantages, such as remote maintenance diagnostics and monitoring.

Looking forward to the ‘Internet of Everything’, there will also be a requirement to network things we have not yet thought of and these will bring further benefits to reliability, productivity and safety. A totally isolated communication network is therefore no longer sustainable nor is it likely to be achieved.

While some engineers may be tempted to only specify point-to-point serial communications and to consider TCP/IP as not safe enough, they should ask themselves if a traditional relay room housing a transmission node, interlocking or substation is secure from external interference? Often the only security is a simple deadlock, with a key that may be obtained from a well-known on line retailer!

Even if a diverse telecoms link is provided for reliability, two failures of the transmission will lose control. However, a TCP/IP network can be designed with multiple paths for the data packets.

Learning from other sectorsRailways are not alone in needing secure,

safe communications. The UK’s national infrastructure is defined by the Government as: “those facilities, systems, sites and networks necessary for the functioning of the country and the delivery of the essential services upon which daily life in the UK depends”. The national infrastructure is categorised into nine sectors: communications, emergency services, energy, financial services, food, government, health, water and transport. Each of these sectors requires secure, reliable communications and the consequences of failure, or insecure communications, can be both economic loss and loss of life.

So whilst some railway organisations may be tempted to go it alone and not invest in modern TCP/IP communications, there are many other sectors which arguably are just as important as


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railways (if not more so) and they already use networks with TCP/IP. This also means most of the challenges faced in operational networks have already been addressed in enterprise networks and the lesson learned there can be applied to railway TCP/IP communication networks.

Corporate governanceSo what is the best practise that should

be implemented and how can the risk be managed?

The Centre for the Protection of National Infrastructure (CPNI) is a government organisation that provides protective security advice. It defines protective security as “putting in place, or building into design, security measures or protocols such that threats may be deterred, detected, or the consequences of an attack minimised”. Advice is available for physical security, personnel security and cyber security/information assurance.

A framework needs to be established that enables and supports information risk management across the organisation and, while ultimate responsibility for risk ownership should reside at Board level, it needs to be imbedded in all parts of the organisation and not just considered an IT problem.

The level of information risk the organisation is prepared to tolerate in pursuit of its business objectives should be agreed, and a risk statement produced to help guide information risk management decisions throughout the business. This will not be easy or straightforward and there will be many competing priorities.

The risks to the organisation’s information assets from a cyber-attack will always be changing and it should be a regular agenda item for Board discussion. The risk of cyber-attack should be documented in the corporate risk register and knowledge-sharing partnerships with other companies and law enforcement agencies should be encouraged. Cyber-security should not be seen as a one-time fix, but something that needs constant maintenance and update. The components of a risk can change over time so a continuous through-life process needs to be adopted to ensure security controls remain appropriate to the risk.

An overarching corporate information risk policy needs to be created and owned by the Board to help communicate and support risk management objectives, setting out the information risk management strategy for the organisation as a whole. It should not be left to

the IT or telecoms departments, nor should each department have its own policy and procedure.

All users have a responsibility to manage the risks. Training and user education should be provided which is appropriate and relevant and refreshed regularly. Staff should be encouraged to participate in knowledge sharing exchanges with peers across the business and other rail and non-rail organisations.

Security ControlsHaving decided on the level of security

required, controls need to be put in place to ensure that the required security level is met. The methods of control that can be put in place to protect an organisation fall into three categories:

Administrative: The policies and procedures for running the organisation from the classification of data to the hiring of staff. Legal and governance requirements fall into this category.


Logical: The systems put in place to monitor and control access to data. These include firewalls, intrusion prevention/detection systems and access control. Logical controls require a co-ordination point, a security operations centre, to manage and operate these systems and a security information and event management (SIEM) platform should be deployed to facilitate this.

Physical: These controls ensure the physical security of equipment and devices. Physical controls include CCTV, door entry systems, fire prevention/suppression systems and alarms. These should be specified and designed by someone with the right competence, and not left to the telecoms, E&P (electrification and power) or signal engineer.

Roadmap to implementationWhen planning what to do about cyber-

security there are a number of things that should be considered.

First of all, cyber-security needs to be included from the earliest stages of a project. Attempts to retrofit security solutions will almost certainly fail, leaving vulnerabilities in the network. A thorough threat analysis needs to be carried out considering both internal and external threats to security. Statistically, a network is more likely to be attacked from within than outside the organisation via disgruntled employees.

In the past, security involved building a strong perimeter to keep attackers out. The best practice now is to view security in layers using a wide range of solutions to provide monitoring and defence across and throughout the organisation. A Multi-Protocol Label

Switching - Virtual Private Network (MPLS-VPN) for operational data is one mitigation against a security threat, but a VPN alone is not designed for security and additional measures should be taken.

The best plan is to keep it simple and not to over-engineer solutions. The ideal security solution is one that enables people to do their work without being aware of it and over-complex solutions can be difficult to support and maintain.

Consideration should be given to the application of recognised good security management practice, such as the ISO/IEC 27000 series of standards, and the implementation of physical, personnel, procedural and technical measures. Other examples include ISA/IEC 62243 (formerly ISA99) for electronically securing Industrial Automation & Control Systems, IEC 62531 for securing power systems, and BS EN 50159:2010 for railway applications.

An obvious course of action is to limit the use of clear protocols, such as telnet, ftp, http and use to encrypted protocols while making sure that the Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) is up to date. This is a protocol for managing devices on IP networks, such as routers, switches, servers, workstations, printers, modem racks and monitoring their health. Similarly all device firmware should be updated regularly.

Robust firewalls between the operational and corporate network are essential. A firewall is, in effect, a filter blocking unwanted network traffic and placing limitations on the amount and type of communication that occurs between a

protected network and other networks (such as the Internet, or another portion of the communication network).

Configuring each device to be as individually secure as possible is crucial. Password or pincode security should be implemented on each device both within and attached to the network. Devices can be configured with rate limiting values to avoid flooding the devices with malicious traffic and event logs should be kept resident on each device in the network, with a copy sent to a central system log server for analysis and audit.

Cyber-security should be implemented using a quality assurance system based on; requirements capture - specify - development - design - implement - test - maintain. It should be tested on a regular basis to ensure that it is performing effectively. Penetration testing should be an audit requirement from a corporate governance perspective and ideally should be carried out by an independent third party.

Take it seriouslyManaging cyber-security is an increasingly

important element of operational network design and implementation. Failure to take it seriously can lead to severe operational difficulties and create the potential to create unsafe situations.

However solutions and tools are available and it is another challenge that railway telecoms, signalling and E&P Engineers must overcome. Other industries face just the same problems and knowledge-sharing partnerships with other companies and law enforcement agencies will simplify the task.


Although Ethernet has been used for a number of years in Local Area Networks (LAN) for Information Technology (IT), it is now being used within railway telecoms applications such as customer information systems and Voice Over Internet Protocol (VoIP) and, more recently,

within signalling control systems.

One recent example is the newly commissioned modular signalling scheme between Crewe and Shrewsbury, where Ethernet is used to connect together the; interlocking, trackside equipment, level crossing controllers and the control system. It is also now the dominant technology for Layer 2 of telecoms Internet Protocol (IP) networks.

Origin of EthernetThe origins of Ethernet began in the 1970s

with a requirement to link together computers on desks with devices such as printers.

The purpose of a LAN is to connect many more than just two systems. Connecting several thousands of computers to a LAN can in theory be done using a star, a ring, or a bus topology. A star is every computer is connected to some central point. A bus consists of a single, long cable that computers connect to along its run. With a ring, a cable runs from the first computer to the second, from there to the third and so on until all participating systems are connected, and then the last is connected to the first, completing the ring.

Ethernet was invented at Xerox’s Palo Alto Research Centre (PARC) in the mid-1970s. Xerox was building the world’s first laser printer and wanted all of the PARC’s computers to connect with the printer. Bob Metcalfe and colleagues were asked to build a networking system to do the job.

Bob based his network system on ALOHAnet which was a radio network set up in the 1960s between several Hawaiian Islands. With this

system, all the remote transmitters used the same frequency and nodes transmitted whenever they liked. Obviously, two of them might transmit at the same time, interfering with each other so both transmissions were lost. To overcome this problem, the central location acknowledged a message if it was received correctly. If it was not acknowledged then the transmitter sent the same packet again a short random time period later. The retransmissions made sure that the data got across eventually. It is ironic that Ethernet was based on a wireless technology as, 40 years later, wireless Ethernet systems are now widely used.

The Xerox team improved on ALOHAnet in several ways. First of all, Ethernet nodes checked to see if the ether is idle (Carrier Sense) and waited if they sensed a signal. Second, once

transmitting over the shared medium (Multiple Access), Ethernet nodes checked for interference by comparing the signal on the wire to the signal they were trying to send. If the two didn’t match, there must be a collision (Collision Detect). In that case, the transmission was broken off. Both sides now knew that their transmission failed, so they started retransmission attempts using an exponential back-off procedure. The protocol was therefore known as CSMA/CD.

Ethernet can be compared to an audio telephone conference without a chairperson. If two people on the conference start talking at the same time they will normally pause, before one of them starts talking (transmitting), while the other listens (receives). Once the first speaker stops talking the second speaker starts to talk.

41 Years of Ethernet

PAUL DARLINGTON

Bob Metcalfe.


The experimental Ethernet ran at 2.94Mbit/s. In 1973, radio or wireless could not provide the speed required so Ethernet used a thick coaxial cable which was referred to as “the ether”. The name did not come from the anaesthetic ether, but from the luminiferous ether that was at one point thought to be the medium through which electromagnetic waves propagate. On 22 May 1973, Bob circulated a memo titled ‘Alto Ethernet’ which contained a rough schematic of how it would work.

So what of the competition?Token Bus was introduced by General Motors for it its Manufacturing

Automation Protocol (MAP) standardisation scheme. A token was passed around a ‘virtual ring’ on a coaxial cable and only network nodes that possessed a token were able to transmit. It was standardised by IEEE 802.4, and was mainly used for industrial applications. However, due to difficulties handling device failures and adding new stations to a network, token bus gained a reputation for being unreliable and difficult to upgrade.

Token Ring was introduced by IBM and was standardised as IEEE 802.5. A three-byte frame called a token travelled around a ring of cable connecting the computer nodes together. Empty information frames were also continuously circulated on the ring - when a device had a message to send it seized the token. The device would then be able to send the frame.

In the 1980s there was a battle between Ethernet and Token Ring as to which was the best LAN architecture and, at the time, a classic interview question was to describe the difference between the two. There were claims that Token Ring was superior to Ethernet. However, with the development of switched and faster variants of Ethernet, Token Ring architectures lagged behind Ethernet and the higher sales of Ethernet allowed economies of scale which drove down prices further. Eventually Ethernet won the battle as 100Mbit/s and 10Gbit/s switched Ethernet dominated the market.

So Ethernet won the battle for standardisation, by being cheaper, ultimately faster and, most importantly, by being an open standard. It developed over the decades and assimilated higher bitrate protocols until it has become ubiquitous, not just for LANs but nowadays within Layer 2 telecoms networks which can be used for both railway telecoms and signalling applications.

Ethernet becomes ‘The Standard’Bob Metcalfe left Xerox in the late 70s and joined Digital. He was asked

to develop another LAN system, but he considered that he had already developed the best there was with Ethernet. He suggested that Xerox and Digital work together on a standard, and subsequently a consortium with Digital, Intel and Xerox was formed, known as the DIX consortium. They created an open and multi-vendor 10Mbit/s Ethernet specification and published this as DIX Ethernet 2.0 in 1979.

The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) were then involved in the standard and eventually produced 802.3, which is now considered the official Ethernet standard. There were some minor

PHOTO: XEROX CORPORATION


differences in terminology and format, but essentially it is the same standard. The IEEE originally avoided the word ‘Ethernet’ so that it would not be accused of endorsing any particular vendor. However, Xerox released all ownership of the name in due course so, while it appears to be a product name, Ethernet is now both an open technology standard and a name.

The first Ethernet was known as 10Base5 and used thick coaxial cable. The 9.5mm thick coaxial cable also wasn’t the easiest type of cabling to work with and subsequently a thinner solution was introduced in 1986 (10Base2) and called ‘Thinax’. This was much easier to install and use. The cables were half the size of ‘Thick Ethernet’ and looked similar to a TV antenna cable. Instead of cumbersome connectors, the thinner cables ended in BNC connectors and devices were attached through T-connectors.

In 1991, a new specification was developed to allow Ethernet to run over unshielded twisted pair cabling (UTP) and known as 10BaseT. This is still universally used today. UTP cables for Ethernet come as four pairs of thin twisted cables. The cables can be solid copper or made of thin strands. The former has better electrical properties; the latter is easier to work with. UTP cables are fitted with the now-common RJ45 plastic snap-in connectors.

A fibre version was also introduced and known as 10BaseF (with 10 being the speed in Mbits/s)

Every UTP cable is also its own Ethernet segment. So in order to build a LAN with more than two computers, it was necessary to use a multiport repeater, also known as a hub. The hub

or repeater simply repeats an incoming signal on all ports and also sends a jam signal to all ports if there was a collision. The end result was a fast and flexible system, so fast it’s still in use today.

Bridges and SwitchesThe next step was simply to bridge

between all ports. The multiport bridges were called switching hubs or Ethernet switches. With a switch, if the computer on port 1 is sending to the computer on port 3, and the computer on port 2 is sending to port 4, there are no collisions, the packets are only sent to the port that leads to the packet’s destination address. Switches learn which address is reachable over which port simply by observing the source addresses in frames flowing through the switch.

In 1998 the next iteration of Ethernet was introduced called Gigabit Ethernet. 1000BASE-T.

The new technology was introduced with only switch architecture and CSMA/CD was unnecessary as the two sides can both transmit at the same time. This is called full duplex operation, as opposed to half duplex for traditional CSMA/CD operation.

10 Gigabit EthernetA common way to create a LAN in a building

or office was to have a series of relatively small switches, perhaps one per wiring closet where all the UTP cables come together. The small switches are then connected to a bigger and/or faster switch that functions as the backbone of the LAN. With users on multiple floors and servers concentrated in a server room, there’s often a

lot of bandwidth required between the switches. So, even though computers with a 10 Gigabit Ethernet connection were not common, 10GE was badly needed as a backbone technology and the standard was published in 2002.

In 2006 10GBASE-T standard was published, allowing 10 Gigabit Ethernet over twisted pair cable. 10GBASE-T needed even better cables than 1000BASE-T and Category 6 cabling was introduced to reach 100 meters, with thicker insulation than previous versions.

Reaching for 100 Gigabit Ethernet, and beyond.

After 10 Gigabit Ethernet, 100Gbit/s was the next obvious step. However, transmitting at 100Gbit/s and faster over fibre has numerous challenges, as the laser pulses that carry information through fibre become so short that they have a hard time maintaining their shape. The IEEE therefore kept open the option to make a smaller step towards 100Gbit/s with a 40Gbit/s version and, on 17 June 2010, published standards for both 40 Gbit/s and 100 Gbit/s Ethernet. Products are now commercially available.

Nothing stops still with Ethernet though and so, in May 2013, 40 years after Bob Metcalfe’s memo to Xerox, work started on project IEEE 802.3bs for 400Gbits/s. To put this into perspective, a single telephone voice channel requires 64kbits/s, so a 400Gbits/s Ethernet connection could carry the equivalent of 6.5 million telephone calls.

Ethernet’s futureIt can be seen that Ethernet has managed to

survive over 40 years in production, increasing its speed by no less than four orders of magnitude. In those 40 years, all aspects of Ethernet have been changed and only the packet format has remained the same. It has evolved from simply connecting computers within buildings, to connecting whole campuses together, and is now to be found at the heart of nearly all modern telecoms networks. For example, Ethernet is now starting to be used within signalling control systems, both for vital and non-vital communications.

The IEEE has several task forces and study groups looking at various improvements and variants and Ethernet will continually evolve, just as it has done over the last 40 years.


The only reason Ethernet growth has slowed relatively over the past decade is because wireless LANs (in the form of Wi-Fi) have been introduced and are so convenient. However, wired and wireless LANs are largely complementary so, even though more and more devices go through life with an unoccupied Ethernet port, Ethernet is always there to deliver the speed, reliability and security that shared wireless can struggle to provide.

Terabit Ethernet1000Gbit/s? On the one hand, this seems unlikely, as transporting

100Gbit/s over fibre is already a big challenge. On the other hand, in 1975 few people would have guessed that today we would carry around affordable lap tops with 10Gbit/s ports.

Gigabit Ethernet already uses parallelism by using all four wire pairs in a UTP cable, and many 40Gbit/s and 100Gbit/s Ethernet variants over fibre also use parallel datastreams, each using a slightly different wavelength

of laser light. Telecoms carrier networks already transport multi-terabit aggregate bandwidths over a single fibre using dense wavelength division multiplexing (DWDM), so this seems an obvious opportunity for Ethernet to once again take existing telecoms technology, streamline it, and aggressively push the price down.

Bob Metcalfe’s viewBob Metcalfe is now a Professor of Innovation at the University of Texas.

He has predicted that the future of Ethernet will be: » Up - Ethernet data speeds will continue to increase, as can be seen

by the release of 40 and 100Gbit/s, and now investigation work on 400Gbit/s.

» Through - Ethernet will continue to be used throughout telecoms carrier networks to supplement and replace SDH (Synchronous Digital Hierarchy).

» Over - It’s ironic that Ethernet was developed on a wireless technology before being a wired technology, but it will continue to be used more and more over the wireless ‘ether’.

» Down - Ethernet will be used more and more down the technology hierarchy chain. That’s from network PCs to within sub-personal devices and micro-controllers, and into the embedded internet of everything. For example, there is already a lot of work specifying Ethernet for use within the automotive industry, and such uses will be for all industries and which must include railways.

» Across - Both LAN and WAN (wide area network) speeds are relatively high, but very often constrained by the telecoms network connection. Ethernet will play a key role as Next Generation Telecoms Networks bridge the gap between LANs and Carrier Networks.

Ethernet is one of the success stories of the last 40 years and will be around for many years to come as it continues to evolve.

Firstco, the leading independent

Controls & Communications Systems specialist

+44 20 7034 0833www.firstco.uk.com


Network Rail’s modular signalling programme was set up some five years ago to develop ways of renewing the signalling on secondary routes at a substantially lower cost than could be achieved by the usual techniques.

Secondary routes are characterised by lower linespeeds, simpler layouts and a lower-frequency train service. This allows the functionality provided by the signalling system to be simplified by comparison with that required for a busier and more complex primary route. It is this simplification, together with an approach to design, construction and testing based on standardisation and increased offsite preparation, which delivers the required cost saving.

Eliminating cablesWith two pilot schemes commissioned and

further schemes in development, attention is now turning to further ways to reduce cost. One initiative is to reduce the amount of lineside cable needed by using a wireless controlled Distant signal, with the power required to operate it generated at the signal. The Distant signal is the first signal seen by a driver and is located at braking distance, typically 1600 metres, from the Stop signal which controls access to the next section of track or protects an infrastructure feature such as a level crossing.

A development programme was initiated to investigate the possibilities of controlling such a signal by radio. Westermo took charge of the radio element, Rockwell Automation worked on the PLCs (programmable logic controllers) and Firstco acted as system integrators working with Network Rail.

Combining technologyThe resulting signal uses four key elements.

Firstly, lightweight, low power consumption LED signals have recently been developed which don’t need to be backwards compatible with traditional filament lamp signals. With a filament lamp, proving is done by measuring the current drawn. First-generation LED signals retained this method, using a ballast resistor to mimic the current draw of a filament lamp. The new LED signals provide feedback that the signal is functioning correctly by means of voltage-free contacts and hence consume far less power.

60MHz wireless systems, which again have a low power consumption, have only recently been made available for licensed use by Ofcom. This frequency band is licensed, giving a degree of

control over usage and has a typical maximum range of about five miles which means that the range required for this application, around 2000 metres from the local equipment room to the Distant signal, can be achieved reliably. The wireless system which Westermo selected has modern addressing and encoding facilities to help ensure the integrity of the data carried.

Fuel cells have been around for over a century, but their first commercial use came in NASA space programmes. Over the past 40 or so years typical applications have been to provide high power for relatively short durations but small capacity units, delivering around 100W of power, have become commercially available over the last few years.

A fuel cell works by passing a fuel, in this case methanol, and air across a membrane impregnated with a catalyst. A chemical reaction occurs generating a DC voltage which can be used to charge a battery. Water and carbon dioxide are the only waste products.

There are a number of different types of fuel cells. The methanol type was chosen for this project, partly because it presents no specific hazards to the user or maintainer. The fuel is supplied in robust polyethylene canisters, easily installed without special precautions and safe to transport.

SWORD - cutting edge technologyDeveloping a new wireless-operated distant signal

A SWORD signal (Signal Wireless Operated Remote Distant).


Industrial control equipment, rated at Safety Integrity Level (SIL) 3, is used to control and monitor the signal. A desire to see industrial Programmable Logic Controllers (PLC) used within a signalling system is part of Network Rail’s technical strategy. PLCs offer many advantages - as a result of their wide customer base and large scale manufacture they are very reliable, competitively priced and well supported with a proven history of forwards and backwards compatibility.

Intermittently litFrom this mix of components it has been possible to design a Distant

signal which can be operated over a typical distance of around two kilometres from the local equipment room. Power management is key to the design, so the signal is lit in time to be viewed from the approaching train and then extinguished after the train has gone past. A self test is carried out before a train is allowed to approach the signal to ensure it will function correctly when called upon. By this means overall power consumption is low enough for the methanol fuel canisters to need replacing only once a year.

The concept has been proved by means of a year-long trial away from the railway, with a simulated train service typical of a secondary route. Work is now underway to demonstrate that the system can meet safety targets, particularly with regard to the radio communications, and also cost targets.

Development of the wireless signal matches several of the themes in the Network Rail technical strategy, covering cost effective procurement, energy efficiency and improvements to staff safety. This is achieved by reducing the time required on track both to install and maintain it. Removal of the need to run cable to the signal saves both cost and avoids the risk of theft and the hazards that result whilst train operations are disrupted.

… Phone: 01489 580585… www.westermo.co.uk … [email protected]

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Network Rail and the various infrastructure contractors are in a high risk business. They have to plan work on assets that are not fully understood, there is increased pressure on project overruns and to manage and reduce health and safety issues, all necessitating more complex project management. They are having to come up with more and more imaginative solutions to the problems faced procuring or bidding for new work, delivering construction

projects and maintaining key assets.

New technologyThe stakeholders on all projects are searching for the following four

objectives: » greater efficiency (reduced cost); » less risk (especially Health and Safety); » quicker project times; » less track closures.A recent post on a LinkedIn forum seems to support these findings and

sympathise with those involved: “Rail infrastructure managers find themselves in a dilemma. They have to maintain the infrastructure to ensure its safety and reliability, while keeping the track as available as possible. They also have to optimise the use of their resources and contractors to keep costs to a minimum.”

The initiatives to support these key objectives are varied but represent a step change for the industry. Instead of palliative solutions aimed at reducing the symptoms (e.g. working longer shifts, reducing margins etc.) there is now an increasing use and adoption of technology to tackle the real causes.

But how can technology help? One of the companies involved in helping contractors to understand what

they are being asked to do is the Bionic Group. The London-based multi-media animation specialists for the construction and rail sector have worked directly with Network Rail and supported over 1,000 projects with the network’s main contractors. Having been working in the construction industry for 14 years, the company has amassed a wealth of experience. This shows that there are three main fundamentals to any major project: better information, improved communications and a reduction in human interaction.

InformationThe better an asset is understood, the more accurate an invitation to tender

(ITT) can be created and the more precisely a proposal can be crafted. The traditional method for understanding assets is through surveying. In addition to human interaction (see later) the output of a survey is often subjective and in the form of a fixed report non re-usable or transferable.

Where technology assists is with an increasing adoption of photogrammetry to create life-like images of topology. Large, high, remote or inaccessible structures can be filmed using unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs or ‘drones’) and the images used to create 3D models for surveyors to use for condition assessment. This can be done prior to a bid or as part of a risk based maintenance assessment.

LiDAR is increasingly being used to create pinpoint 3D measurements of land, tunnels and viaducts. This is coupled with a technology to convert the

Rail Survey technology reaches new heights

Remotely Piloted vehicle for rapid & safe data capture.

Sequence showing the transformation of LiDAR Cloud Point Data into usable solutions such as BIM models and Virtual Reality for driver simulations.


terabytes of data into pin-point accurate 3D models, often overlaying the use of photography to add texture and realism.

One example of the use of this technique is to create fully-immersive 3D models of new routes for signal location work and driver training. The results from this work can also be used to create BIM (building information modelling) models which have an obvious re-use.

All of this activity is entirely in keeping with Network Rail’s asset management strategy which defines, as an objective of its core principles, “optimising decisions and planning based on risk principles, robust principles and innovative methodologies”.

Whilst the introduction of these technologies is underway, the demographic is uneven. Some organisations have no capability while others conduct full LiDAR, cloud-point data processing in-house. There is no dominant player to go to today and often a solution would necessitate some in-house capability and a number of different sub-contractors/suppliers. These are indications of a young, emerging market which will, in all probability see a number of mergers and acquisitions over the next few years.

CommunicationsThe re-usable material created by the above technology-assisted surveys

is highly visual. This can greatly assist in the creation of method statements which are immediately usable, easy to understand and unambiguous for all project stakeholders. Poor communication of ‘the story’ is cited by project managers as a prime reason for project delay. The same output can be re-used again for public consultations and/or even dispute resolution.

Here the picture for adoption is equally fragmented, with the default

position being a reliance on paper. The more enlightened (and more efficient organisations) are comfortable with using 3D method statement videos, with time lines, as the primary communication for project teams.

InteractionA direct benefit of using unmanned vehicles to place cameras close to assets

is the obvious reduction in ‘boots on ballast’ and, often, surveyors on ropes. Although there are obvious limitations (no tactile examination capability), the unmanned camera approach provides a fast method to determine just how much, if any, of a given asset requires closure for human inspection or costly out of hours work.

Surprisingly, the number one bugbear from contractors is not cost or time scales but the complexity, time and cost involved in satisfying Health and Safety obligations. Here, technology is massively reducing potentially-risky human interaction with the rail network.

Bionic EyeSo the primary move seems to be around ‘asset information’, gained with

the minimum of human interaction and impact to the track. This data can then be leveraged and re-used in everything from bid support to maintenance approach. It’s a methodology that is easy to summarise but difficult to execute.

To assist, the Bionic Group has recently launched a specialist technology division aimed at bespoke solutions for rail survey and asset management, the Bionic Eye. This uses unmanned vehicles (aerial, ground and cable) and bespoke camera rigs to transmit highly accurate and interactive data to surveyors - the BE.3DAM solution.

The Bionic Eye mission is to be at the vanguard of the use of this new technology and processes - the ‘leading, but not bleeding’ edge of technology - and to use remote vehicle use to provide obvious and quantifiable benefit to contractors on the rail network.

For more information, visit www.thebioniceye.co.uk

RAPID SURVEY DATA

THE FUTURE OF

CAPTURE

“Improve your bids, transform your project costs and minimise your risk with The Bionic Eye.”

Come and see how at : www.thebioniceye.co.uk

Better asset informationImproved project communicationReduced human riskLess track closure

Add the technology into surveying to achieve:

An animation commissioned to illustrate the installation process of the new electrification of the HOPS plain line track - from survey through to vibro piling, structure installation, cabling and testing.


Canterbury, Lourdes, Glastonbury, Santiago de Compostela and Berlin. What do they have in common? All are places of pilgrimage. In the case of Berlin, 125,000 people assemble in one small area of the city every two years for that most revered of occasions - InnoTrans.

Since 1996, when an initial 6,000 experienced the magic of InnoTrans, the event has grown until, in 2012, 121,066 people, 62,803 of them from outside Germany, gathered at the Berlin Messe for the world’s premier railway technology exhibition.

Over 94,000 square metres of exhibition hall space (that’s 13 of the internationally recognised units of area - the football pitch) and a further 3km of outdoor railway sidings make up the show. That space is occupied by the displays of 2,500 exhibitors from 49 countries around the world.

Comprehensive displaysAmazingly, it all runs smoothly. All those

visitors arrive by metro trains at two stations and file into the venue and then, eight hours later, file out again.

So what do they see inside? 26 Halls, some of them on two or three floors, packed with exhibits of everything from complete diesel engines to the cloth for train seats. Do you want to find a lubricant to make points work more smoothly? Try Hall 26. How about those neat clips that hold rails down? Hall 23. Couplers for fastening carriages together into trains? Hall1, second floor. The pantographs to go on top are in Hall 9.

It’s all there! Whatever you want - someone will have it on a stand for you to see, touch, pick up (if you’re feeling strong) and ask about.

And there are whole trains there as well. High speed trains, locomotives, new designs of trams, even on-track plant. A couple of shows ago, Alstom’s latest AGV high speed train made its public debut, side by side with Bombardier’s S-stock train for London Underground. This year,

Siemens’ new train for Thameslink is rumoured to be making an appearance.

The show is so vast that there is an internal bus service taking visitors between halls. If walking, be sure to take comfortable shoes and give yourself at least 15 minutes between appointments to make sure you get there on time.

If a company doesn’t show up at InnoTrans, everyone assumes they’ve gone bust. It’s that important. The Rail Engineer will be there - look for us on stand 215 on the ground floor of Hall 7.

But apart from your favourite railway engineering magazine, what else might be of interest this year?

Trains and technologyBombardier will have one of the largest

stands at InnoTrans. Showcasing ‘The Evolution of Mobility’, exhibits will include vehicles and

NIGEL WORDSWORTH

On bended knee to Berlin


technologies that tackle 21st-century mobility challenges while redefining passenger and freight transportation.

Operators, cities and governments worldwide face the same three biggest mobility challenges - capacity, efficiency and urban flow. Bombardier’s Capacity exhibits will include metros, double-deckers and high speed trains with enhanced space and flexible interiors for moving more people in greater comfort. The Efficiency exhibits will show how advanced technologies bring about improved performance with optimised lifecycle and infrastructure costs as well as higher safety and availability.

Included in Bombardier’s Urban Flow exhibits will be advanced monorails, trams and signalling systems, together delivering cleaner mobility, reduced headways and the flexibility needed to optimise traffic on any network.

Siemens will be showing off a host of products. As well as the Thameslink ‘Desiro City’ trains already mentioned (the first three complete cars), there will be the first of the new Avenio-series trams and a C2 metro, both for Munich, and an Inspiro destined for Kuala Lumpur.

The company will also be displaying its smart rail grids, an intelligent power supply for trains, and driverless systems which are already in service on Paris Metro.

Alstom will introduce three major new products: the very latest version of its Citadis tram, a predictive maintenance tool, and new versions of the Atlas range - its ERTMS solution.

The new Citadis, more comfortable, more spacious and more accessible than earlier models, has been designed to improve the passenger experience. It will also feature more options, enabling it to be adapted to suit the unique requirements of individual towns and cities.

The predictive maintenance tool, which has been developed to reduce total lifecycle costs, can monitor the state of equipment and forecast its remaining usage time, hence optimising operational availability and maintenance costs.

Finally, Alstom will introduce new versions of the Atlas range, its ERTMS

solution. Scalable, they will adapt to various traffic requirements and can be used in low or high density networks to provide a better response.

Vossloh’s ultramodern and high-powered diesel locomotives for shunting, freight and passenger services are very much in demand not only in Europe - Class 68 and Class 88 are currently being built at the company’s Spanish factory for the UK market.

All locomotives on display outdoors will be based on the modular platform strategy whose basic objective is to develop customised locomotives from series-production units. Moreover trade visitors are invited to inspect the new 100% low-floor tram and 70% low-floor tram-train (similar to the units in-build for Sheffield Supertram).

Equipment for trainsVoith, known in the UK for its automatic transmissions, will also be

showing its new SA3 coupler. This allows automatic coupling of the main reservoir and brake pipes and has proven itself in heavy goods and passenger transport. It can be found on locomotives, railcars and passenger trains, particularly in Russia and the former Soviet states.

The SA3 head now accommodates fully-automatic coupling and uncoupling, enhancing safety, efficiency and comfort. The coupler heads are extremely robust and withstand high loads and temperatures of up to -50°C.

SKF plans to introduce a new class of compact tapered roller bearing aimed at the heavy haul market. Rated for 45 tons axle loadings, the new bearings will allow freight railways to increase capacity by carrying more in each wagon. On a smaller scale, new bearings for EMU/DMU applications have been designed for longer between-service intervals which will keep maintenance costs down.

Deute-Werke will feature six series of new products under the banner ‘Worldwide Tailor-made Innovations’. These will include REDBOX Safety Systems cover the entire spectrum for the measurement, recording and visualisation of speed with a safety level of up to SIL 4.

Meanwhile, in the driver’s cab, the four most important strands of driving information can be displayed on the digital display of the new MFT R 11/2 multifunctional terminal. The driver can manually switch between the TFT and the digital indicator.

Beakbane, manufacturer of composite panels, will be showing its latest lightweight guard technology for rolling stock. These are built around a honeycomb core and offer very high impact resistance combined with extremely low weight. Compared to metal alternatives they are easy to fix and handle, more durable and, because of their light weight, reduce energy costs and carbon footprint.

The British company will also demonstrate its comprehensive range of bellows and flexible connectors for applications such as brake actuator bellows, pantograph arm bellows, HVAC connectors and air intake bellows.

Cytec Industrial Materials, based in Heanor, Derbyshire, will showcase innovation in advanced lightweight composite materials based upon prepreg

Bellows and flexible connectorsBeakbane can draw on a wide range of materials, manufacturing technologies and product types to provide the right component for rolling stock applications.

Machinery Protection Specialists

Composite panels and guardsWith in-house design and manufacturing capabilities, Beakbane can produce custom-made composite panels for any rolling stock application where light weight needs to be combined with durability, impact and fire resistance to major European standards.

HALL 8.1STAND 302

www.beakbane.info01562 820561 [email protected]


technology. This allows the manufacture of thin and complex sections, including sandwich panels, which exhibit outstanding mechanical and fire performance properties, whilst offering significant weight savings over conventional materials. Typical railway interior applications for these materials include wall panels, partitions and ceilings while exterior and structural applications include fronts and fairings.

Infrastructure is not overlookedPlasser & Theurer always has a large stand

at InnoTrans. ‘30 years continuous tamping’ emphasises the economic successes of continuous-action tamping machines for over three decades. Over that time, technology has been developed constantly, enabling continuous tamping of up to four sleepers simultaneously while using fewer resources. At the same time, operators have benefited from ergonomically-designed workstations. At InnoTrans, Plasser & Theurer will be presenting the latest product of this continuous-action tamping technology, the universal tamping machine Unimat 09-4x4/4S.

Also at InnoTrans will be Plasser & Theurer’s new material conveyor and hopper units. Designated type MFS 120, these permit higher safe loads and offer improved load distribution for travel on additional types of line. The retractable transfer conveyor belt means that no match wagons are needed. A new operating

concept allows several MFS units to be controlled from one unit and the MFS 120 can be switched off automatically when it is completely loaded.

Robel, which can be found next door to Plasser & Theurer’s stand, will focus on its hand-operated machines and equipment. It will introduce its 62.05 Vertical Tamper series to international trade visitors and also present its innovative battery powered series which achieves time savings of up to 25%.

All 62.05-series vertical tampers feature patented vibration decoupling which enable operators to work comfortably due to their low hand-arm vibration. Available with either petrol engines or electric motors, the tampers have a newly-developed tamping tool which can be replaced easily and quickly on site.

The new range of modular battery-powered drills and wrenches is ideally suited for working in tunnels and, due to the low noise output, in urban environments. The high-power battery pack delivers quick cycle times and good availability - crucial in so many jobs on the railway these days.

Schweerbau will take its usual place in the outdoor displays. Look out for the new rotary planer, as described in issue 116 (June 2014). More traditional rail grinding will also be on show, as will machinery for ballast cleaning.

Talking trackKilfrost, which supplies de/anti-icing products

for the transport industry, will be presenting its solution to frozen ballast and dust suppression problems. Track renewals can be challenging

01737 762300 [email protected]@ www.platipus-anchors.com

ANCHORING SOLUTIONSFOR INFRASTRUCTURE

Land Slip Prevention & Remediation Emergency & Permanent Solutions Fast & Easy Installation

On-Site Training & Demonstration Geotechnical Design Assistance & Site Testing Cost-Effective Alternative

Installed by

STAND 111HALL 26


during the winter period due to the risk of ballast freezing, and frozen ballast on the ground can significantly slow down the excavation of old ballast, including the lifting of rail panels.

In the warmer months, dust becomes a greater issue that is often exacerbated by track renewal work, reducing visibility for those working by the track and impacting the health and safety of rail professionals and passengers.

Overcoming both of these problems, Kilfrost’s AGT is an inhibited glycol-based de/anti-icing fluid which is fully biodegradable and non-hazardous. It offers high levels of de/anti-icing performance down to temperatures as low as -25°C and also suppresses dust. It can be easily sprayed onto the ballast, absorbing any moisture from the surface and creating a coating which prevents further moisture from forming.

Tata Steel will be showcasing its extensive range of premium rail products, including Stress-Free heat-treated rail which has the lowest residual stress available for enhanced resistance to foot failures, and Multi-Life grooved rail which offers multiple lives through its increased wear-resistance and its ability to be weld-restored in track. The market leader in rail products, Tata Steel will also have two of its international experts on hand. Pascal Sécordel and Frédéric Fau will be at Speakers’ Corner discussing how Stress-Free heat-treated rail’s outstanding wear-resistance and uniquely low residual stress deliver industry-leading performance.

Consolis, the French pioneer in rail infrastructure, will be showing that InnoTrans is not just about trains. The Consolis group manufactures more than 3.5 million concrete sleepers each year and is a leader in both the design and manufacture of precast concrete sleepers and bearers. Consolis Rail’s extensive product portfolio includes mono and twin block sleepers, slab track systems and bearers as well as other products and systems. The group also provides engineering services for the construction of sleeper factories.

British presenceThe Brits will be there in force. The Railway Industry Association

is organising two pavilions on behalf of UK Trade and Investment. 46 companies will be represented on those stands, and there will be a further 60 British exhibitors with their own independent displays scattered around the show.

The Rail Alliance will also be in Berlin. Around a dozen members will be exhibiting a range of products and services - many of them taking the plunge into an international market for the first time.

Looking at the list of British participants, one can’t help but notice the wide range of activities that it represents. It includes CLASSEQ Classic Glass & Dishwashing System, Holdsworth Fabrics, Beacon Rail Leasing, Cressall Resistors, DWG Timber Components, Welsh Government and the University of Birmingham. What a mixed bag!

Furthermore, Secretary of State Patrick McLoughlin will be at InnoTrans on Wednesday, doing his bit to promote British technology and expertise to an international market.

The Rail Engineer will be at InnoTrans Berlin between 23 and 26 September, along with the Secretary of State and around 2,500 of our readers. If you’re one of them, drop into Hall 7.1A stand 215 and say hello (or should that be ‘Guten Tag’?).

If your company is announcing new prducts or technology or recently completed a major engineering project, please stop by our stand at the rail engineer and meet with our engineers.

CAS-CASR-CKSREnsure trackside safety with transducers that enable reliable condition monitoring. Designed to meet the needs of applications such as crossing gates, LEM transducers also cut maintenance costs by providing test circuit functionality. Increase safety with the transducers of tomorrow.

• Several current rangesfrom 6 to 50 ARMS

• PCB mounted• Up to 30% smaller size (height)• Up to 8.2 mm Clearance / Creepage distances

+CTI 600 for high insulation• Multi-Range confi guration• +5 V Single Supply• Low offset and gain drift• High Accuracy @ +85° C• Access to Voltage Reference• Analog Voltage output

www.lem.comAt the heart of power electronics.

Innotrans

Hall 11.1

Stand 310

Signallingsafety


» Abtus Ltd - 22./102 » AIRTEC INTERNATIONAL Ltd - 25./117 » Altro Ltd - 5.1/214 » Amantys Ltd - 15.1/105 » Ametek Airtechnology Group Ltd - 2.2/206 » Anchor Systems (Europe) Ltd - 26./120 » Andrew Muirhead & Son Ltd - 3.1/417 » Argus Fluidhandling Ltd - 10.2/205 » Arrowvale Electronics * - 7.1A/215 » Artesyn Embedded Technologies - 6.1/204 » Atkins - CityCube A/501 » Beacon Rail Leasing Limited - 11.2/306 » Beakbane Ltd - 8.1/302 » Birley Manufacturing - 6.2/315 » BMAC Ltd - 2.2/206 » Brecknell Willis & Co.Ltd - 9./203 » Brush Traction - 1.2/103 » Camlin Rail Ltd - 2.2/206 » Chieftain Trailers Ltd - 5.2/222a » CLASSEQ Classic Glass & Dishwashing

Systems Ltd - 1.1/107 » Concrete Canvas LTD - 26./120 » Control and Display Systems Ltd - 21./201 » Cox Wokingham Plastics Ltd - 5.1/409 » Cressall Resistors Ltd - 17./206 » Cummins Engine Company Ltd - 18./201 » Cytec Industrial Materials (Derby) Ltd -

5.1/201 » DeltaRail Group Limited - 26./151 » DRB Group * - 7.1A/215 » DTI EMEA Ltd - 2.1/406 » DWG Timber Components Ltd - 5.2/101 » Elite Rail Systems Ltd - 3.1/405 » ETher NDE - 22./806 » Ferrabyrne Ltd - 9./711 » Flexicon Ltd - 2.2/206 » Forbo Flooring UK Ltd - 3.1/319 » Forbo Flooring UK Ltd - 3.1/417 » Garrandale Limited - 26./120 » Gioconda Ltd - 26./151 » GKN Aerospace Services Ltd - 2.2/206 » GOS Tool & Engineering Services * - 7.1A/215 » Gurit (UK) Ltd - 10.2/310

» Hawker Siddeley Switchgear Ltd - 26./120 » Hepworth Rail International - CityCube A/509 » Hird Rail Services Ltd - 25./202 » HiTech Rail Project * - 7.1A/215 » Holdsworth Fabrics Ltd - 1.1/413 » Imaginos NDE - 22./806 » Infotec Ltd - 4.1/409 » International Railway Journal - 6.2/101 » Invertec Ltd - 3.1/226 » iSEEU Global * - 7.1A/215 » ITT Cannon - 10.1/216 » Kilfrost Limited - CityCube A/208 » LH Group - 1.2/103 » LML Products Ltd - 26./151 » LPA Group PLC - 2.2/206 » Macquarie European Rail - 11.2/202 » Mechan Limited - 2.2/206 » Morgan Advanced Materials - 9./101 » Nexcom Europe Limited - 4.1/203 » Nightsearcher Ltd - 5.2/607 » Nomad Digital Limited - 4.1/407 » Norgren European Logistics Company Ltd -

10.2/203 » Novograf - 3.1/417 » Oleo International - 1.2/405 » Omnicom Engineering Ltd - 26./151 » Pandrol Ltd - 23./210 » PCC.eu * - 7.1A/215 » Pennant Information Services Ltd - 2.2/206 » Perpetuum Ltd - 2.2/206 » Petards Joyce Loebl Ltd - 6.1/103 » Platipus Anchors Ltd - 26./111 » Portaramp * - 7.1A/215 » Primasil Silicones Ltd - 8.1/307 » Prolec Ltd - 5.2/306 » Quantum Seating - 5.1/401 » Rail Alliance Ltd - 2.2/206 » Rail Alliance Ltd - 7.1A/215 » Rail Interiors Solutions - 3.1/417 » Rail Media Group * - 7.1A/215 » Railmeasurement Ltd - 26./151 » Railway Gazette International - CityCube

B/401

» Railway Industry Association - 2.2/206 » Railway Industry Association - 26./120 » Railway Industry Association - 26./151 » RDS International - 26./151 » Replin Fabrics - 3.1/417 » Ricardo UK Ltd - 2.2/206 » Rosehill Polymers Ltd - 5.2/206 » Rowe Hankins Components Ltd - 2.2/206 » SBC Rail - 22./305 » SCG Solutions Ltd - 26./151 » SGS United Kingdom Ltd - 6.2/103 » Silver Fox Ltd. * - 7.1A/215 » Southco Manufacturing Ltd Touchpoint -

3.1/510 » Spectrum Technologies PLC * - 7.1A/215 » Sperry Rail Service - 25./219 » Staytite Ltd - 26./151 » Superform Aluminium - 2.2/206 » Telent Ltd. Technology Services - 4.1/219 » Tenmat LTD - 20./404 » Terrapinn Ltd - 6.1/203 » The Bionic Group Ltd - 5.2/211a » The Railway Engineering Co. Ltd - 2.2/206 » Thermit Welding (GB) Ltd - 25./325 » Tiflex Ltd - 3.1/606 » Time 24 - 2.2/206 » Tracksure Ltd - 26./120 » Transcal Ltd - 3.1/417 » Translec Ltd - 2.2/206 » Tribo Rail Ltd - 1.2/313 » Trolex Limited - 6.2/315 » TS Components Ltd - 26./151 » TVC UK Holdings Ltd - 10.1/307 » Unipart Rail Limited - CityCube B/409 » University of Birmingham - 7.1C/305 » Vortok International - 23./210 » Weedfree on Track Ltd - 26./162 » Weedfree on Track Ltd - Outdoor FA/39 » Welding Alloys - 5.2/225d » Welsh Government * - 7.1A/215 » Wireless CCTV Ltd - 26./120 » Zetica Limited - 5.2/220

* = exhibiting with Rail Alliance

British Exhibitors at InnoTrans 2014The Britpack


B & M McHugh Limited is a medium sized Civil Engineering Contractor located in South East London operating in Kent, Sussex, Wessed and Anglia.

We Execute Engineering Excellence through cost effective, value for money, customer focussed solutions for both Minor and Major Projects.

B & M McHugh (Rail)Civil Project ManagersProject Manager working out of our Basingstoke offi ce on the Wessex Routes.DescriptionB & M McHugh is looking for a Project Manager who has in depth experience of the Wessex rail routes. The individual will report to the Contract Manager and be accountable for the eff ective control of a portfolio of rail civil engineering projects and minor works.

Rates/Benefi tsSalary range £40k - £60k pa dependent on experience and qualifi cations.Defi ned benefi t pension scheme / Transport provided / PPE suppliedTraining supplied / Paid Holiday / Job Security / Progressive company.

B & M McHugh (Rail)Civil Assistant Project ManagerAssistant Project Manager working out of our Sussex offi ce on the Sussex Rail Routes.DescriptionB & M McHugh is looking for an Assistant Project Manager who has experience of the Sussex rail routes. The individual will report to the Project Manager and will support them on a portfolio of rail civil engineering projects and minor works. This is an ideal role for a candidate looking to step up into a project management role.

Rates/Benefi tsSalary range £20k - £40k pa dependent on experience and qualifi cations.Defi ned benefi t pension scheme / Transport provided / PPE suppliedTraining supplied / Paid Holiday / Job Security / Progressive company.

Immediate Permanent Position

Immediate Permanent Position

TO FIND OUT MORE INFORMATION ON EITHER OF THE ABOVE VACANCIES CONTACT 0208 859 7706

We’re transforming the future.Will you?We are Amey, the faces behind the services people use every day. From roads, railways and schools to waste disposal, airports or the energy and water you use in your home.

Together with our partner Sersa we are transforming the delivery of trackworks in the UK. In a contract worth up to £400m over 10 years we are renewing Switch and Crossings (S&C) in a new way for Network Rail, across two thirds of the UK’s rail network. Working within multi skilled teams, you will be provided with full training to work with innovative plant and equipment from Europe, in use for the first time in the UK.

Based from Crewe, Manchester, Doncaster and Glasgow we’re looking for:

S&C Design/Installation Engineers • Permanent Way/Track Engineers OLE Design/Installation Engineers • Construction Engineering Managers Testers in Charge • Commercial Managers

We’re looking for passionate individuals to join us on this exciting and transformational journey.

To find out more visit amey.co.uk/careers and search ‘S&C’

the rail engineer • September 2014 RECRUITMENT 82

OUR PEOPLE MAKE OUR PROJECTS

CURRENT VACANCIES:• Civil & Structural Design Engineers• Signalling Design Engineers• Electrical & OLE Design Engineers• Permanent Way Engineers• Rail Project Managers

URS PROJECTS INCLUDE:• Crossrail• High Speed 2• Switch & Crossing renewals• Borders Railway• Bank Station

CAREER OPPORTUNITIES - UKURS is a leading global engineering and environmental consultancy and we are hiring across the UK. If you are an engineer or technician with experience in rail, we would like to hear from you.

If you want to learn more about how you can join a world class team and contribute to some landmark projects visit our website or send your CV to [email protected]

WWW.URS.COM

We are an equal opportunities employer

thinkers. we welcomeideas. we make happenlimits. there aren’t any

To find out more about Frazer-Nash please visit our website: www.fnc.co.uk

Frazer-Nash is a rapidly expanding systems and engineering technology consultancy with offices throughout the UK and Australia. We specialise in delivering innovative engineering solutions to clients across the defence, nuclear, power and transport sectors. We are currently looking to recruit people at all levels of experience to support our continued growth in a wide variety of roles in particular:

Systems Safety EngineerElectrical Power Engineer Rolling Stock Engineer Systems Engineer – Requirements & Through Life SupportRail Systems Modelling Engineer

Our staff are rewarded with a competitive salary, generous benefits package and the opportunity to work as part of a dynamic and successful team. We always look for strong talent in our key business sectors and across all of our locations in the UK and Australia.

To apply for these vacancies, please forward your CV and covering letter to [email protected] quoting reference: RE0914

Offices: Adelaide, Bristol, Burton-on-Trent, Dorchester, Dorking, Glasgow, Gloucester, Melbourne, Plymouth, Warrington. Due to the nature of the work that Frazer-Nash undertakes we will require successful candidates to gain UK security clearance.


Signalling | Telecommunications | Electrification | Permanent Way | M&E | Civils | Project Services +44 (0) 1483 361 061 [email protected] www.advancerailwayjobs.com“together,

we can all advance

Interested?Call +44 (0) 1483 361 061

or e-mail your CV to [email protected]

www. advance railway jobs .com

Project Engineer Crewe £400-450/dayMust have Signalling Project Engineering or Design experience. HND/Degree in Engineering. Risk assessment skills. Customer liaison skills. Valid PTS Certificate.

Signalling Designer Swindon £35k-£40k paOpportunitiesOpportunities for progression. Must hold a valid IRSE Signalling Designers Licence and have a solid understanding of UK Rail Signalling standards.

Project Engineer Waterloo £400-450/dayMust have Signalling Project Engineering or Design experience. HND/Degree in Engineering. Ideally hold an IRSE Licence. Risk assessment skills. Customer liaison skills. Valid PTS certificate.

Construction ManagerConstruction Manager London £450-£500/dayMust have Signalling Project Engineering or Design experience. HND/Degree in Engineering. Ideally an IRSE licence. Risk assessment skills. Customer liaison skills. Valid PTS certificate.

CEM London £500-550/dayMust have an outstanding and in-depth knowledge of the rail industry. Proven history of delivering in a similar role. Management experience to accompany technical knowledge.

Principal Project Engineer Derby £65k-70k paMustMust be degree educated in engineering. Experience of working in Signalling Design, Installation or Testing. IRSE Engineering Manager licence plus module F or Project Engineer.

Senior Project Engineer London £500-£550/dayMust have an outstanding and in-depth knowledge of the rail industry within both design and construction. Proven history delivering in a similar role. Outstanding technical knowledge.

all across the UK. As a result of continued recruitment success, we have been awarded an abundance of permanent and contract signalling vacancies across all levels.

Are you stuck in the wrong role, coming to the end of a contract or simply looking for a change? We’d like to speak to you!

Can’tCan’t see a suitable role below? Please don’t hesitate to contact us or visit our website to find various other roles.

advance Training & Recruitment Services are a specialist rail recruitment consultancy with over 25 years’ combined experience within railway signalling.

advance-TRS are known for their ability to source scarce, highly skilled candidates for various roles within domestic and international rail projects.

WWe are currently working closely with Network Rail and other major signalling suppliers to effectively deliver skilled and experienced staff to major signalling projects

Work in signalling?Interested in new opportunities?

Site Manager / Construction Manager- Track Superintendent - (Track / Permanent Way)

Location SingaporeSalary £48,000 - £50,000 per year

• Salary $8500 per month (Singapore $), Approx £4100 per month (GBP).• Benefi ts Package includes: Paid Accommodation or Generous Accommodation Allowance.• Plus min Bonus of $400 per month (Singapore $) - Approx £200 per month (GBP). • Low Income Tax Rates. • Major National Track Maintenance and Renewals projects work replacing Sleepers and Bearers.• Minimum 32 Days Holiday.

Asia Rail Engineering (ARE) is a privately held rail engineering consultancy, management, training and manpower services group headquartered in Singapore and operating in South East Asia and the United Kingdom. Asia Rail Engineering has the capacity to undertake small to medium rail engineering projects and in addition provides a wide array of services including survey, design, maintenance, construction, project management, training and manpower services at all skill levels.

Due to ongoing existing long term contracts, along with an increase in recent major contract wins, and a growing order book we are now looking to recruit Track Superintendents / Site Managers / Construction Managers with Track / Permanent Way experience. We would like to hear from Rail professionals with a proven Track / Permanent Way construction background to manage our major projects in Singapore. It is essential that you have previous experience working in the Track / Pway Engineering discipline with an established Rail Contractor. We require you to have a solid Track Hand Back / Raising and Removing Speed Restrictions experience.

You will have numerous years of knowledge and experience on Permanent Way construction upgrades and track maintenance / renewals projects, with proven experience at Track Superintendent / Site Manager / Construction Manager level. The role involves maintaining safe working practices and managing large skilled site teams during engineering hours in short track possessions. The successful candidate will be reporting directly to the Managing Director.

Build a career with Asia Rail EngineeringAsia Rail Engineering off ers you a career which is challenging, fulfi lling, and rewarding.

For more information about this position and to apply please email [email protected] or visit www.are.sg

RailwayPeople.comFast track your career

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POWERED BY

Powering the rail industrysince 2001

Based in Eccleshall Total Access (UK) Limited provides structural inspections on Network Rail infrastructure, the Highways and for Facilities Management

companies throughout the UK.

Due to further expansion of our Inspection Department, Total Access (UK) Limited is recruiting:

Structures Examiners

Previous experience of structures examination (STE4) and inspection using using rope access is desirable but not essential. Successful candidates

with suitable credentials will be given the necessary training in structures inspection techniques,industrial rope access and connned

space entry.

All enquiries and CV's to

Total Access (UK) LimitedUnit 5 Raleigh Hall Industrial Estate

EEccleshallStaffordST21 6JL

[email protected]

www.totalaccess.co.uk

Structures Examiners


excellence in train control

A Balfour Beatty and Alstom Company

+44 (0) 1923 635 089 [email protected] www.signallingsolutions.comSignalling Solutions Limited, Bridgefoot House, Watling Street, Radlett, WD7 7HT

Due to our growing reputation within the

industry for delivering major projects we

continue to win new and exciting

contracts UK wide.

We have a number of exciting Design

opportunities in our Newport office:

Assistant Designers

Designers

Design Engineers

Design Verifiers

Principle Designers

If you are looking for a new challenge and

are keen to develop your skills then we

can provide you with a unique

opportunity to get involved in and trained

on the latest cutting edge technology,

such as Smartlock, Modular Signalling,

ETCS and next generation signalling.

Signalling Solutions is a company formed

by combining the complementary

signalling resources and products of

Alstom Transport Information Solutions

UK and Balfour Beatty Rail Projects.

We provide individual products and

complete solutions to any customer

requiring design, installation, testing,

commissioning and product support for

signalling, power and telecommunications

applications in the UK.

If you are interested in joining a forward

thinking company where you can make

a real contribution to the success of our

business and feel part of a growing

team then please find out more about

our opportunities on our website:

www.signallingsolutions.com

We are also interested in

hearing from Project Engineers,

Project Planners, Project

Managers, Quantity Surveyors

and Safety Assurance

Engineers in various locations

across the UK.

All the above positions have the following benefits:

We offer a competitive salary plus a range of benefits including

a contributory pension and 25 days holiday.

SIGNALLING SOLUTIONS

OPENS NEWPORT OFFICE

AND IS RECRUITING

UK Power Networks Services is a leading provider of electrical infrastructure with signifi cant experience of working on high profi le transport projects such as High Speed 1, High Speed 2 and Crossrail.

Infl uencing your energy strategies with integrated solutions

Contact us by visiting: www.ukpowernetworksservices.co.uk

Consulting | Technologies | Engineering | Construction | Operation & Maintenance | Finance

UK Power Networks Services:• Consistently delivers results on the most challenging projects • Can undertake the total requirements of any strategic infrastructure project • Has access to a wealth of international experience in providing fi nance solutions

8137_ UKPNS Rail_AW.indd 1 08/01/2013 10:20

the rail engineer - issue 119 - september 2014

Documents

rail engineering

rail engineerswww

rail survey technology

major signalling project

track access

track partnership

new heights

jon leach of atkins