The results are in...

The Results

On the Sunday, seven of the eight locomotives did their dynamic test runs. Unfortunately, Birmingham had not been able to repair their locomotive despite phoning the original designer in America. Newcastle found a workaround for their software control fault and hastily modified the brake control, though this provided only on or off braking. TfL’s locomotive failed on its way from the station for testing and was hauled back to the station by FSMR’s rescue locomotive. A control circuit had tripped when the new energy recovery status display was switched on. After this was repaired, TfL’s locomotive left the station 45 minutes late for its dynamic tests.

Although the results of the on-track tests were on a notice board, those for the non-track challenges were not. Due to this, and the judge’s assessment of any penalties incurred, the overall results announced at the prize giving ceremony were a genuine surprise. The results for the presentation, reliability, and on track challenges were as shown in the table. The top three places were very closely fought with the winner being Poznan (1648), closely followed by Derby/Alstom (1631), and FH Aachen / Reuschling (1629).

The University of Newcastle’s locomotive was the only operational locomotive on the Sunday that did not win a prize. However, producing a new locomotive that was able to enter at least some dynamic challenges was an impressive achievement worthy of note, particularly for such a small team.

Indeed, Bill Reeve noted at the award ceremony that past participants who are increasingly filling quite senior roles within the railway industry say that the Railway Challenge experience is the highlight of their training.

The Railway Division has plans for this competition to accommodate more teams, though these will only bear fruit if there are more entrants. Whilst the organising committee is considering how best to attract more teams, there perhaps needs to be greater awareness within the industry of the benefits of this event.

When reporting on the Railway Challenge, it is always a pleasure to experience the buzz at Stapleford and see the effort and enthusiasm displayed by the teams. It is also impressive to see how the FSMR, Railway Division volunteers, and IMechE staff ensure the success of this event and its smooth running.

The real prize for all who take part is experiencing the realities of delivering engineering projects to strict deadlines in a risk-free environment. Since 2012, a total of 77 teams have come to Stapleford for this experience which is roughly around 750 developing engineers. In this respect the IMechE’s Railway Division is providing a huge service to the industry.

Mention must also be made of the event sponsors whose financial contribution is essential. These were: Atkins; Angel Trains; LNER & Hitachi; Porterbrook; Railway Industry Association; RSSB; and Network Rail.