The Rail Engineer - Issue 102 - April 2013

the rail

engineer by rail engineers for rail engineers

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APRIL 2013 - ISSUE 102

this issue q INSPIRING INNOVATION 28 q A ‘BAD WIRE DAY’ 32 q NEW RAILS IN THE DESERT 38 q RAILTEX SHOW SPECIAL

Doing it on the beach

Sir David Higgins Interview The view from the top. 14 Being Selective How does selective door opening work? 18 Has third rail had its day?

This fascinating question was posed during a recent seminar. 22

Why in late February, should a bunch of engineers choose to transport a bridge deck the best part of a mile along St. Bees’ beach in Cumbria? 8

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

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Contents

The view from the top Sir David Higgins speaks with Nigel Wordsworth. In the first of two articles we learn about his immediate priorities.

14 Your chance to Get Radical

News

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Driller Thriller! and Crossrail Contracts.

Being Selective

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With longer trains comes the problem of platform lengths. So how does selective door opening work and how is it impacting SWT?

Inspiring Innovation

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David Shirres reports from the Rail Industry Association’s (RIA) Technology and Innovation Conference. During the conference the terms ‘Technology Readiness Levels’ and ‘Valley of Death’ were often used.

Smart asset monitoring

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The future of GSM-R - and its possible replacement

A ‘bad wire day’ Network Rail has had ‘bad wire days’ with OLE failures recently causing massive disruption. We have investigated these and other incidents.

New rails in the desert

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The recent run of wet weather has caused problems for the railways. Smart software developments from itmsoil are changing the way railway asset managers make both rapid event-driven and long-term maintenance decisions.

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There has been considerable speculation as to what will eventually replace GSM-R with much talk, principally by some radio equipment suppliers, that Long Term Evolution (LTE) within a 4G service is the answer. Clive Kessell reports.

Rail Comms across Europe

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Clive Kessell reports on last month’s RailTel conference in Vienna. The strategic importance of telecommunications in the provision of rail services cannot be over-emphasised. A new word - Infotainment - seems to have crept into the dictionary but what is it and what does it do?

Xtend-sive coverage

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Vital Technology has exploited recent advances in intelligent scene analysis to develop Xtend - an environmentally-friendly mobile unit, purpose-built to be transportable across difficult terrain to remote locations of high value or vulnerability on railway routes. Xtend offers a flexible, real-time security solution 24/7.

See more at www.therailengineer.com

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

Electrification/Power Plant&Equipment in the June Issue of the rail engineer.

Got a fantastic innovation? Working on a great project? Call Nigel on 01530 56 57 00 NOW!

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the rail engineer • April 2013

Editor Grahame Taylor grahame.taylor therailengineer.com

Production Editor Nigel Wordsworth nigel rail-media.com

Production and design Adam O’Connor adam rail-media.com

Engineering writers chris.parker therailengineer.com clive.kessell therailengineer.com collin.carr therailengineer.com david.shirres therailengineer.com graeme.bickerdike therailengineer.com mungo.stacy therailengineer.com peter.stanton therailengineer.com steve.bissell therailengineer.com stuart.marsh therailengineer.com

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Editor’s choice It is so refreshing that someone can arrive in the railway industry and immediately acknowledge that the whole system is complex.

We’ve known it all our careers but many have arrived and attempted to dismiss such an idea. ir avid Higgins, Network Rail’s Chief Executive has been talking to Nigel Wordsworth and readily embraces the problems of sorting out complexity and fragmentation.

In the first of two articles we learn about his immediate priorities.

Next month he’ll be explaining more strategic issues and evolution.

The OLE (Overhead Line Equipment) has had a mixed press over the past month bad, awful and downright dire. aving the knitting come down on a Friday morning on a main line, along with similar incidents in critical locations is not going to make anyone popular. o, to put everything in context I’ve had a chat with Network Rail’s Reliability Improvement Manager E P Electrification and Plant) to hear how the OLE works and what can go wrong. In the second part of the article due to be published in une, I’ll cover the initiatives under way to reduce the likelihood of wires hitting the deck.

It’s tempting to regard M-R lobal ystem for Mobile Railways) as the UK’s high tech radio solution for the railways.

There’s no denying that it is still high tech by any measure, but as live Kessell reminds us, it is also quite old. riginally designed in an era when voice communications were seen to be vital, we are now in times when the use of data exceeds anything envisaged just a few years ago. o, what to do live outlines the pitfalls of trying to keep pace with technology. M-R was also covered in detail at the recent second RailTel conference in ienna where supporters of

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GRAHAME TAYLOR

Tetra hoped for a revival but Tetra too is old. ifi developments abound with real time passenger information and credit card verification likely to be available soon. And as for the staggering array of ‘Infotainment’ that’s on offer, maybe I’ll revert back to looking out of the window if I can find one.

It’s not that long ago when passengers in a long train stopping at a short platform might just might - have been asked to check that there was a platform outside before opening their doors. Now we’re in the era of elective door opening) where passengers no longer have the opportunity to launch themselves into the inky blackness. has had a chequered history with various methods of control being tried and discarded but, as Clive tells us, technology has stabilised long enough for a successful new approach.

Your Rail Engineer correspondents have been sent to many far away places, but it’s unusual for us to look at a country which, until very recently, had no railway network at all. avid hirres has been to the United Arab Emirates which has embarked on a massive programme of railway building from scratch. That means of course a whole load of infrastructure and rolling stock, but that’s only part of the process.

There’s the whole question of rules and regulations, technology and management practices. It’s a fascinating process of building the best from the best worldwide.

Innovation is truly the buzz word of the year if not the decade.

There’s an almost confusing array of initiatives, many with substantial ‘pri es’ aka grants) being awarded. avid gives us the low-down on who is developing what including a Martian

navigation solution being adapted for possessions .heavily adapted I suspect. oing slightly off-script, you know what really stifles innovation for start-up companies in the railway industry Ideas Nope.

Technology Nope. Money urprisingly no. It’s the elephant in the room insurance cover o it’s time for clients to be realistic in what they demand after all, many innovations specifically aim to reduce their risks.

By modern standards and indeed any standards third rail electrification is a bit of a pu le. ow shall we electrify a railway ust plonk a live and exposed conductor along the ground with people walking all round. That’ll be fine. ould we do it now But it’s not only the safety issues involved in the third rail that are driving forward the prospect of conversion to E. Peter tanton reports that there are energy and efficiency considerations as well as operating and commercial advantages.

Aficionados of popular song culture of the 1 0s and 0s will appreciate the many references to song titles in Mungo tacy’s piece that describes a bridge deck being taken for a walk over the sands of a remote umbrian beach.

There are striking images too with shots that almost imply that the structure has just appeared out of the water ames Bond style having swum from its manufacturer in Ireland.

From the sheer weight of this month’s maga ine you’ll probably guess that Railtex is nigh. If you pre-register you’ll get in for free, otherwise it’s 20 a pop. As usual, The Rail Engineer is running a series of technical seminars throughout the exhibition and these too are free with no need to book. o, see you at Earls ourt in ondon anytime from 30 April until 2 May.

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the rail engineer • April 2013

Driller thriller!

Feedback from train drivers is a useful source of information, and The Rail Engineer recently discussed how reports of ‘bumps’ can warn maintenance teams of deteriorating track conditions. However, a different type of observation recently prevented a potentially nasty incident from occurring. The driver of a First Capital Connect service from Moorgate to Welwyn Garden City noticed that muddy water was pouring onto the roof of his train – inside a tunnel to the north of Old Street station.

All services were stopped and, within an hour, a Network Rail Mobile perations Manager joined another driver on board a special empty train from Moorgate to investigate the problem. As the train approached the area at low speed, two large piling drills came through the skin of the tunnel.

The train stopped in time but the driver was shaken.

Investigation showed that the drills came from a construction site above the railway. The British Transport Police visited the site and the Rail Accident Investigation Branch was notified.

The railway was closed for the rest of the day. Being a riday,

that line is normally shut over the weekend anyway and Network Rail engineers poured a onemetre-wide concrete plug to fill the holes. The route reopened ready for Monday morning.

Managing irector Neal Lawson said: “This is a serious incident that could have ended very differently had it not been for the vigilance and prompt reporting and actions of our drivers. e carry two million people a year on the Northern City Line and whoever is responsible for this must be held to account.”

What the contractor said when he was told he had drilled into a railway tunnel wasn’t reported

Crossrail contracts Crossrail’s tunnelling continues, and the tunnel boring machine Phyllis has now broken through into Bond Street station having completed two miles of boring and having placed 2000 concrete tunnel segments.

Meanwhile, significant railway contracts are now being placed. Network Rail has awarded a major contract, with a value of approximately £130 million, to Balfour Beatty Rail for the construction of a two-mile section of the Crossrail route from Plumstead to Abbey Wood in southeast London.

The contract will include the installation of two new dedicated rossrail lines from Abbey ood to the Plumstead portal, providing access to the new rossrail tunnels.

The Crossrail lines will run alongside the existing North Kent lines, along with works to modify several bridges along the route to accommodate the overhead electric wires and the two new lines. onstruction of a new station building at Abbey ood with a new rossrail platform is

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also included.

At the same time, rossrail has awarded the contract for the provision of traction power, to the Alstom Transport and ostain joint venture A ).

This will be distributed within Crossrail’s central section extending from Royal ak Portal in the west to Pudding Mill ane in the east, splitting at tepney reen unction and running to Plumstead Portal in the southeast.

The works will involve the

construction of a feeder station at Pudding Mill ane where power from the 00 k National rid network will be converted down to 25 k before being fed into the overhead line equipment that will power the new rossrail trains.

A separate feeder station will be constructed by Network Rail at Kensal reen and four high voltage auto transformer stations will also

be constructed at estbourne Park, tepney reen, ustom ouse and Plumstead to maintain the voltage along the line. The value to the A is around 15 million.

Network Rail is responsible for the design, development and delivery of the parts of rossrail that are on the existing network.

Crossrail itself lets contracts for work in the new central section.

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the rail engineer • April 2013

MUNGO STACY

G

etting wet on the beach - sounds like a happy recollection of Things We Did Last Summer. Countless songs and movies tell us that sun, sea and sand is the way if you’re California Dreamin’ or just Surfin’ USA. owever, for most of the year, in this country we approach the water with more caution - even at the height of summer, in a wetsuit, it can be a case of on’t o Near the ater. And we have royal precedent for this caution. In 121 , King ohn showed that you Can’t Wait Too Long when he lost the crown jewels to the incoming tide in the ash. Two centuries earlier, King anute played and lost at on’t Back own when he famously commanded the tide to halt. It didn’t. o why, in late ebruary, should a bunch of engineers choose to transport a bridge deck the best part of a mile along t Bees’ beach in umbria, at a speed slower than King ohn’s baggage wagons No, this wasn’t some bi arre charity event, a pontist equivalent of the akar Rally.

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Neither did someone wake up one morning and think, Wouldn’t It Be Nice ” This was in fact the fully risk-assessed, preferred construction method for Underbridge 1 , part of the 1. million Package 0 of six deck replacements being undertaken by BAM Nuttall on behalf of Network Rail.

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the rail engineer • April 2013

The Nearest Faraway Place Rhiannon Price, scheme project manager for Network Rail, explained “The Cumbrian coastline is very scenic but remote. ere, the railway runs through the dunes beside the beach. There is very limited access.”

The bridge crosses ea Mill ane in a single 2 5mm span with 00mm overall width carrying a single bidirectional line.

“Construction access along this narrow lane was not an option,” Rhiannon explained. The lane leads to a few houses huddled on the sea-front, blessed with an impressive view when the urf’s Up. Richard Atkins, project manager for BAM Nuttall, added e initially looked at using a Kirow rail-crane.

Then one of our engineers suggested using the beach. ver the last thirteen years or so we’ve had a lot of involvement with sea-defence projects all along the umbrian coast. e’ve previously used 35 tonne dumpers and 0 tonne excavators along the beach, and transported rock armour in four or

five tonne lumps. But we’ve never needed to take anything quite this large.” The deck was precast in a single 31 tonne reinforced concrete unit by hay Murtagh.

Mark Billington, project engineer for Network Rail, added: “The advantage to us was that the method removed risk from the railway possession. The deck move was planned for the week before the possession so it would be ready and waiting. Removing the rail crane from the equation simplified the possession work.”

When the time came, that preparatory work passed smoothly and ahead of schedule. It included removal of the old bridge, breakdown of the abutments to level and installation of the new deck.

Reinstallation of the track by tory Rail completed the job, with a 230mm track lift to suit the increased 2 5mm construction depth of the new deck and minimum 200mm ballast below sleepers, compared with the former steel-trough and longitudinal timber arrangement.

Trackway mats were used to distribute the load.

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Richard Atkins confirmed The beach was not such a scary method for BAM Nuttall. e had a good understanding of the risks involved from our previous coast protection work.” orking between tides is the obvious challenge - you could say It’s About Time. But the tide also causes the terrain of the beach to change on a daily basis”.

Take A Load Off Your Feet Regular readers of The Rail Engineer will have followed the adventures of A E’s self propelled modular transporters in previous episodes. I et Around” is perhaps becoming a motto. The transporters have independently controllable axles and are sized to distribute the load evenly. owever, this move was a Break Away from previous experience. e carried out plate bearing tests and checked how the sand performed at different tide levels”, says Richard Atkins. The results showed that the sand was typically harder than the adjacent public car park where we set up our compound”. “ on’t orry Baby” isn’t the typical response you get from a temporary works department. oft spots and liquefaction of the sand under the transporter remained a concern - on the beach, there are no such things as ood ibrations.

However, there was limited value in carrying out further testing, given the twice-daily change of the beach with every tide. e planned to use trackway mats to distribute the load further”, said Richard Atkins. And we also had a winch wagon on standby to pull out the transporter for the worst case of it becoming stuck. The biggest risk to us was using up valuable time”.

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the rail engineer • April 2013 Good Timin’ 19 February 2013 was chosen for its neap tide. This gave the smallest tidal range and most importantly, the lowest high tide, maximising the available time on the beach. High tide occurred at 05:33 with a level of 6.00 metres. Low tide was due at 12:07 with the water dropping to 2.70 metres. By 18:17 the sea would be back up the beach at 5.90 metres.

“We allowed eight hours for the move”, explained Richard Atkins. The Fun, Fun, Fun began immediately with an inch-tight squeeze past the RNLI lifeboat station and down the lifeboat slipway onto the beach.

At 07:30 the message was passed to the lifeboat crew: “Sail On Sailor”. They launched their Sloop John B, ready to respond rapidly to any required rescues. Richard Atkins explained: “The lifeboat has to respond within minutes to any callout - and our equipment on the slipway would have prevented this. We had lots of discussions with the RNLI and agreed the critical few hours when they needed to be at sea to maintain their response times.” The boat, an inshore Atlantic 85, has been called out five times in the last six months.

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By 08:00 the way was clear for the transporter to leave the car-park and descend the slipway onto the beach.

“We had 1450 metres to travel. We had calculated how far we had to go each minute. The team reviewed progress every 50 metres of the move. At times we were making twice the progress we needed”.

Here She Comes Top speed of the transporter was a moderate walking pace - no Little Deuce Coupe here. But the rate of progress was mainly determined by laying out the mats, provided and placed by Eve Trackway. Up to 12 mats were set out at a time. Once the transporter had passed over them the mats were collected and leapfrogged to the front again.

The general line of route was chosen in advance. Initially it needed to steer offshore around six beach groynes. Further along it had to avoid the SSSI-listed cliffs.

God Only Knows there were many other constraints, including the presence of protected species and old structures for collecting mussels.

Then there were the beach features including rivers draining the beach, shingle and boulder fields.

However, it was always recognised that the optimum route would have to be chosen on the day, a real Surfin’ Safari. Indeed, just a few days before, bad weather had significantly changed the terrain of the beach.

The route was reassessed by the team, including the ALE engineers and the environmental consultant Ian Hassle. Ranging poles were used to mark the route.

All the beach works were covered by a license with the new regulatory body, the Marine Management Organisation. The license also specified the environmental controls. “We supplied a 4x4 vehicle equipped with spill kits, first aid boxes, the ranging rods and all the other environmental and safety gear we needed”, Richard Atkins commented.

With the whole beach as a worksite, unusual measures had to be taken for safety. Clearly the beach could not be shut. “Our approach was to have plenty of staff on site”, Richard Atkins added. “They were extensively briefed and were on hand to keep the public away from our activities”. Nevertheless, the circumstances gave a rare orchestration of construction accompanied by Pet Sounds, as the locals walked their dogs, Wendy, Peggy Sue and Barbara Ann.

I Can Hear Music 11:30 was the go - no go decision point, otherwise known as the point of no return. After this, there is no use screaming, Help Me Rhonda.

Progress had been good so the team pushed on. Rhiannon Price added: “There was a lay-down point beyond this above the high-water mark, about two-thirds of the way through the journey. If need be, we could park the bridge overnight and carry on the next day”.

The going became harder beyond this point. To reduce the risk of going closer to low water level, a passage had been found through a boulder field. However, this took more

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work, as a temporary bridge was constructed over the boulders using the mats, with pipes installed below to avoid disrupting the water flow. inally, at 1 30, the transporter gained the high water mark and left the beach, almost exactly at the planned time. Meanwhile, the last of The armth of the un was ebbing away. Kiss Me Baby, said the sun to the sea, as the west-facing coast produced a perfect pink-tinged sunset to end the day.

It’s Over Now The earliest record of King anute’s exploits is given by twelfth-century chronicler enry of untingdon. is account gives clues that King Canute knew that the tide would come in regardless of his command, that in effect he was conducting an early publicity stunt. It served to demonstrate the limits of his power - but also the extent of his wisdom and knowledge in recognising and understanding these limits.

In a modern take on this, Richard Atkins expanded on how the limits of power and control were acknowledged by the project 190x130mm Planning was key. e planned for

every failure, the small things as well as the big things. And because of this, in planning for success by planning against failure, we did succeed”.

Richard Atkins paid tribute to everyone involved: “The site team really pulled together to make this a success. It doesn’t matter how much planning has happened, it is the effort and determination of the workforce on the day which pulls off a project like this.”

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the rail engineer • April 2013

The view from the top And from that I eventually came down to the conclusion it’s about getting more productivity out of our industry and our organisation, and the only way we can do that is to take away the conflict ridden system to try and create more joined up-thinking.

We have got to try and overcome the fragmentation by getting people to work together. o let’s combine everything at route level and take away the barriers.

The next obvious thing was setting up alliances. Rather than fighting with each other, let’s try working at other things that make us stronger because ultimately the public really doesn’t give a damn about all these different, complicated companies. They don’t see the fragmentation, they just see frustration.

Does the greater world, then, see you as a maintainer of Victorian infrastructure rather than a builder of new railways?

S

ir David Higgins has been chief executive of Network Rail for just over two years. In early March, he invited our very own Nigel Wordsworth to his office in Kings Place, overlooking the Regent’s Canal in London. Over the next couple of issues, Nigel’s in-depth interview will cover how Sir David got to grips with the industry from a standing start and his views on the important strategic issues that affect the industry.

The first thing I noticed when I moved into the rail industry was the scale and complexity of the operation.

There are so many different disciplines. There is everything from track to power to structures to signalling. It’s just so complex . and then there are all the multiple stakeholders.

I think the other thing you realise is that you might wish to talk about strategy, but if you’ve just had an overhead line down on East oast, no one wants to talk about anything other than rectifying the train service It’s relentlessly operational, it’s complex and it’s fragmented. aving come from outside the railway industry, I just never realised how fragmented it is. There are so many other parties involved or approvals that are needed.

And everywhere there’s an interface, there’s a cost.

The other surprise is the age of technology.

We have a range of technology going from stuff that is a hundred years old to the latest traffic control systems in our new operating centres - but there’s just a huge variation. e still have track workers with red flags and a hooter, you know, it’s like the Railway hildren Until we brought in M-R, the way that a train driver would report an accident was to stop the train, get off, walk along the track,

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find a signal phone, ring up, and say uess where I am. I think I’m somewhere so many chains from such and such a mile post”. ou think, Really It can’t be like that, can it ” o the railway has survived on tried and true technologies and a failsafe, fingers crossed, system for a long, long time. And unlike every other infrastructure in this country, it’s growing at a dramatically high rate.

Perhaps they do, but the irony is that every year we do two and a half billion pounds of new work, enhancements, rather than just maintaining and renewals. o although we do a huge amount of new work, people just don’t see it.

I’m ama ed at the complexity of the work we are doing. I mean, changing over an existing signalling control system, like we are just doing at estern for example, on a very densely used operational railway - one of the most densely used railway networks in Europe - is an incredibly complex thing to do.

So you sat down on day one having landed in this hugely complex business. How on earth did you decide what you needed to do first?

There was absolutely no point in trying to second guess our experts in the industry or, for that matter, in our suppliers and our train operating companies.

No, the first thing I did was to listen for the first three or four months. I had that white flip chart over there and I just had people come and sit and talk to me for an hour. I would sit here and listen, and whenever they said something I would scribble it up on the board and ask them. Is this what you’re saying ” All I was trying to do was listen and translate what they were saying, trying to understand where there were common threads.

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And all the while there are pressures from all around?

But reliability must be almost your top priority isn’t it?

I think it was day three after I arrived when I went to a elect Committee and I said there is a trade-off between capacity and performance. That was said intuitively, but now the industry accepts the principle.

The more and more trains you put on the tracks will ultimately affect performance. I am quite convinced of that and we have had one or two international experts who have come in and looked at our routes, modelled them and come to the same conclusion. There is not enough resilience in the timetables. ome of these timetables are now so old they’ve lost their value and therefore they need to be replanned.

As for resilience we have 22,000 sets of switches, all with the potential to fail. I would love that they didn’t fail, but they can although such incidents are fewer.

But a feature emerging over the last three years is that the recovery from an incident is now more disruptive than the original issue. o you have an incident at Croydon in the morning peak that takes six or seven hours for the service to recover.

I would like to have fewer and fewer incidents which is why remote condition monitoring is so important. e are able to pre-empt a problem and solve it before a service failure.

If you go back 10 years, the scourge of the industry was defective rails. Nowadays, with ultrasonic testing and measurement trains, we can predict failure risk. It’s not failsafe, but certainly a huge

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amount is picked up showing where intervention is needed. o there’s a move to condition-based monitoring a move to risk-based intervention on the railway line so we can intervene, repair or replace rather than having a disruptive failure. Remote condition monitoring of switches has allowed us to intervene and replace, maintain or repair them before they fail.

But some of our signalling systems are old and the best thing you can do is to leave them alone because inevitably, when you do touch them, some time now or in the future a fault is going to occur because of old cabling. o, what can we do about that Replace the lot ell, we’d like to, but realistically we can’t replace or upgrade all that ictorian infrastructure completely. But we can get smarter about how we manage it, although we are never going to eliminate every incident.

To reduce disruption when a failure does occur means a much closer co-operation with the key passenger train operators. Now that’s complicated on est oast when the biggest operator only has 15% of the route capacity, but we’ve got to have recovery plans that everyone is trained on and is happy to use so that we change the timetable at short notice. espite the pressures and the lobbying, what we have to do is say there is not the money in the country to solve these issues all at once. or example, we’ve got 300 signal boxes that are over 100 years old. I mean, some of them run crucial parts of the est coast. It’s bi arre isn’t it 125 mph Pendolino depending on levers, but that’s where we are.

Ultimately, we would like to have state of the art traffic management systems to get the most effective use of our capacity. e’ve done it in East Midlands. abulous, great We would like to bring everything into the twenty-first century but, realistically, it’s going to take 20-25 years.

There are just not the resources, and the other thing we’ve got to stop doing is turning the tap on and then turning it off again. e lost all the electrification skills in the whole industry, everything from front line troops to design. e did the same

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the rail engineer • April 2013

The level crossing is where you interface with the local council and pressure groups, several of whom have different ideas.

with train manufacturing as well.

Then we wonder why we don’t have that capacity e need to say we have a 20-25 year plan that will go from replacing ageing signalling systems right through to European train control systems through to traffic management and we’ll build up and sustain the expertise from design through to managers.

It is the same with the civils, the structures and the embankments. e’ve just had a terrible time with our civils structures, you know. e had sixty landslides in one day, just on estern alone. It was a really, really concerning time. ithout doubt we’ve got to get a lot smarter in how we monitor embankments.

I noticed in the business plan that drainage gets quite a mention.

I think, as in all things, data quality on assets is crucial. e’ve always had a very strong capacity on track.

In control period we will have saved a billion pounds by a more intelligent way of replacing rail. n drainage, we are spending a substantial amount of money this time round but we are certainly putting in for larger investments, particularly in our earthwork structures, next year and next control period as drainage is essential to maintain our basic infrastructure as well as ensuring high track quality. imilarly with level crossings. There has been a huge campaign on level crossings for the last two years. The more we know about level crossings,

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the more risk we understand about them. ne of the first things our level crossing managers will discover is that there is a higher risk on these level crossings than we thought because there is more misuse.

It is very easy to get a bad press on safety because you get one incident and it hits all the headlines.

Level crossings, and there are around ,300 of them, still remain the highest risk to the train service. e shouldn’t have any at-grade level crossings on high speed lines.

It’s just the wrong way to run a railway, but we do. I’d love to close thousands. In this control period we are closing over 00 or 00 but I would love to close thousands more - particularly user crossings.

But closing level crossings in many cases is a long, tedious legal process because they come from parliamentary bills.

We have many of those cases and we are dealing with one right now.

The coroner said a level crossing should be shut as there was one just down the road. o we shut it. e locked it. alf a do en times the locals have broken open the locks and forced it open. There’s a massive local resident group who are saying that they don’t want to walk 200 metres down the road to the other level crossing which is much safer.

They say that it’s their right and just because two people have been killed there it’s not their problem. Really, I feel that the communities need to take some level of accountability.

I can understand the frustration as we have more and more dense train services. The time that barriers are down increases, and it’s not going to get any easier. But there isn’t the money to build over-bridges and, what’s more, many communities don’t want them, they just find them unsightly And subways are prohibitively expensive, you know, you’re talking ten million plus for those under major lines so, yeah, it’s not an easy story.

But how can you mitigate the risks from the impulsive actions of others?

There is much more we can do, even in suicides and trespass, with fencing and barriers on the stations

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the rail engineer • April 2013

themselves. There are hotspots and we work with British Transport Police very effectively and amaritans on those areas. e run media campaigns and have been very, very active in the last 1 months with campaigns to address intruder issues.

But our railways are a lot safer than they were. e have a safety standard comparable only with off-shore oil rigs and nuclear power stations. e carry people on our service, we don’t carry water or power, and therefore passenger safety is always going to be incredibly sensitive and so the issue dominates our Board, it dominates our management team and everything we do.

Track-worker safety is one particular area which we really are very unhappy about in terms of our performance. It is just totally unsatisfactory that people should be put at risk and our systems of getting track access and our systems of work need reforming to improve safety. e need more training in frontline supervisor and track-worker level but we shouldn’t have a situation where someone is put at risk.

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You’ve changed your safety philosophy recently from the Safety 365 system to this new life saving rules system. Is that partly reactive to this specific problem?

I’m sure you’re aware, the whole idea of league tables encourages a certain level of behaviour and we wanted to stamp that out and say safety isn’t about league tables, it’s about having a safer system of working.

The classic pyramid says that to avoid one fatality we’ve got to have a thousand closecall reports. o we should be encouraging people, we should bring in a culture that when something happens that doesn’t result in an accident there should be no blame. People should be encouraged to report because only by reporting close-calls, near misses whatever you wish to call them - are we going to work out the unsafe events on the railway that we need to correct.

Certainly, the standards and the access to the track and the assessment we use needs to be reformed because it’s not fit for purpose in terms of providing simple, clear direction.

o, we’ve bought in the life saving rules, but we are in the process now of streamlining all of our other rules to come up with, ideally, a hundred rules maximum. Maybe there will be a few more but they will say very clearly what you can and can’t do. Then everything else, the ‘how you do it’, should be advisory, or should be best practice or available as advice, but it shouldn’t be a rule.

In our next issue ir avid will expand on evolution and how it all started on alliances on the new Infrastructure Projects rganisation - and the ’ ” high business plan.

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25/03/2013 18:42

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the rail engineer • April 2013

selective

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hatever the rights and wrongs of rail privatisation in the UK, no one can deny that, in the period since it happened, the number of passengers being carried has significantly increased. Whilst a very welcome trend, it brings its own set of challenges as the increased ridership has to be managed by greater capacity in the form of either more trains or longer trains, although in practice it will come from a mixture of both.

CLIVE KESSELL

Developing Tracklink

There is much publicised activity going on with orders for new trains, many of which are being delivered. n outh est Trains T), a different approach is being pursued as redundant ‘ uniper’ carriages from the erstwhile atwick Express stock class 0) have been transferred to T to lengthen the lass 5 trains. Now re-instated after reliability problems, these are mainly operating on the aterloo - Reading lines. urrently these trains are four coach units but the additional carriages will increase this to five. ith longer trains comes the problem of platform lengths. It can be an expensive business to lengthen them and this may also involve having to re-site signals and other lineside infrastructure. ome stations may be

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constrained between, say, a tunnel mouth and a level crossing so longer platforms become physically impossible to achieve. ightly used stations can pose a problem as the cost of lengthening platforms may be hard to justify. elective door opening ) could be the solution, with an automated system which will only allow the guard to open doors that are actually stopped in the platform. n some T , the relevant doors will automatically release when the train is proven stopped in the right platform. Travellers have grudgingly got used to the automated on-train announcements which ask them to change carriages before alighting from the train. o how does selective door opening work and how is this impacting T

Issue 5 of The Rail Engineer August 200 ) included a description of the development of selective door opening technology by imaella, a tockport-based company specialising in interactive track-to-train communication technology. Early systems were installed on the outh East Networker fleet but never commissioned because a revised train service pattern obviated the need for 12-car trains.

A Tracklink I system was developed from this and partially installed on the T uniper fleet to replace the guard having to do door controls at some short-platform stations. Again, it was never commissioned as the trains were suffering from reliability problems and had to be taken out of service. The next application was on the outhern Railway Electrostar fleet using a new generation of equipment - Tracklink II - and has been successfully deployed. owever, the quite large track loops, similar in si e to TP train protection and warning system) grids, have never been popular with the permanent way engineer as they tend to interfere with the operation of track maintenance machines. ence a Tracklink III has been developed, the first customer being ondon Underground in readiness for the introduction of the tock on the ub urface ines. ith the complication of the fourth rail, mounting the track beacon between the running rails was impractical so a side mounted configuration has been adopted, usually on the platform wall, necessitating readers to be installed on both sides of the train.

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ith a single type of train being deployed on these lines, this did not present too much of a problem. The same logic cannot be applied to T and a reversion to track mounted beacons and undertrain readers is being adopted.

A new design of beacon was developed and 5 were installed at locations on the Readingaterloo line between Nov 2011 and eb 2012. owever, the beacon was found not to be strong enough to withstand everyday track maintenance conditions and a number of the partially encapsulated electronic tags were smashed. A revised design was

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therefore produced with the tags being fully encapsulated, 20 of these being installed for a second trial between eb and May 2012 that has proved successful.

Inside Tracklink III The system works by siting the unpowered beacon with its electronic tag at the entry point to every platform. here reversible lines exist, a beacon is positioned at each end. Every beacon is coded with a unique identifier for that platform using a 0-bit code made up of » Application code - bits

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» tation identifier 3 letter code) - 15 bits » Platform number - 5 bits » Platform length - 10 bits, covering from 0 to 1023 metres » orrect side door enabling left or right) - 2 bits » Approach direction Up or own) - 2 bits » elective door system operative - 1 bit » heck bit code - 1 bits. nce a beacon is coded for a particular station and platform, it is encapsulated into the casing and fixed for life. Reprogramming is possible, but Network Rail have decided against this owing to the risk of errors compromising the safety of door opening controls. The system is rated as I afety Integrity evel) 2. In the event of changed track or platform conditions, a new beacon must be provided. This can be programmed on site by T technicians using a laptop facility.

Power for the electronic tag is derived from the radio signal transmitted downwards by the train, the signal transmit frequency being in the 5. to . M band using frequency hopping radio identification technology. Power levels are low so no radio licence is required and the trials have confirmed that there is no over-read from adjacent tracks. At 5mph, 25 ‘reads’ are achieved between the train and the

25/03/2013 18:42

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the rail engineer • April 2013

beacon. At slower speeds, as would be expected from a train about to stop at a station, proportionally more ‘reads’ will be obtained. The system

made by ortok, based in Plymouth, and the electronic tag has been designed and manufactured by ima- ella in tockport.

“Once a beacon is coded for a particular station and platform, it is encapsulated into the casing and fixed for life.”

meant laying beacons at a large proportion of its stations. Each beacon is around 1.2 metres long and supplied to Network Rail for installation by permanent way staff with signal technicians checking that they are in the right place. A total of 51 plus spares) are to be installed and will be done in three phases, all of which ima- ella has to supply by August 2013.

Train operation and fitment is capable of successfully reading up to 120mph but such line speeds are not available on T tracks.

The trial period of days had 5 days of rain and the beacons were also subject to the accumulation of brake dust, grease and general lineside dirt. No adverse impact on system operation was found.

Three types of beacon are available, i) for E- lip sleepers, ii) for astclip sleepers, iii) for timber sleepers. Each is a slightly different length and weight but the electronic tags are identical. The RP beacon casing is

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Deployment A selective door opening system requires co-operation between Network Rail, the train operator and the vehicle manufacturer, which in turn means the letting of multiple contracts. It requires all parties to be satisfied that the system is robust and fit for purpose, hence a prolonged approval process which took until ct 2012.

T took a management view that it needed to equip both the uniper and esiro train fleets as neither are dedicated to specific routes. In turn, this has

Fitting the trains with underfloor readers has brought its own challenges. The iemens esiro trains of lasses and 50 have a modern Train Management ystem TM ) that services the whole unit and thus a reader has only been fitted to every cab vehicle.

The reader picks up data from the beacon and enters this into the TM via an R 5 communication port.

All readers are active but only one is needed to acquire the platform information. The TM will then know where the train is, if it is due to stop at the station, which side

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the rail engineer • April 2013

the platform will be and which doors to release if it is a short platform.

The stopping accuracy by the driver is based upon 2 metres from the platform marker point. A total of 3 readers are being supplied for the esiro fleet, these being fitted at the Northam depot near outhampton.

The lass 5 uniper trains from Alstom are an older design with only a limited TM which is already full and would be expensive to upgrade.

Thus it has been necessary to fit every carriage with a reader, which will include the additional carriages to be inserted to make the 5 car unit.

The operation will be different each reader will connect to that carriage door control and every carriage that passes over the entry beacon will have the door opening enabled.

Thus the positioning of the beacon and the stopping point of the train becomes more critical since the TM does not provide the same routebased information.

Although not currently used, correct side door opening can be derived from the beacon data. A total of 1 0 readers will be required 3 five-car trains) and these are being supplied to Alstom’s

21

olverhampton premises before being fitted

by Wabtec at oncaster, the company which is carrying out the five-car conversion.

The readers are powered by the standard 110 train supply to RIA 12 and 13 spec and conform to EN50121 and 50155 for EM limits.

The whole project is scheduled to be completed by ec 201 and will be a lot less expensive than lengthening platforms. The Tracklink III specification is likely to become a de facto standard for , this being needed to avoid duplicated fitment if different T s operate services across the same piece of railway. imilar circumstances are about to be encountered on London Overground where the intended lengthening of trains to five-car units will cause problems at some stations. uch is the price of successfully carrying more and more people.

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The Logical Solution for Rail Systems Issue 102 - tre April 2013 FINISHED.indd 21

25/03/2013 18:43

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the rail engineer • April 2013

PETER STANTON

Has third rail had its day?

T

his fascinating question was posed and debated at the Institution of Mechanical Engineers’ headquarters during a recent seminar organised by the Railway Engineers’ Forum (REF).The REF, a grouping of the railway interests of the engineering and associated professional bodies, aims to hold a joint technical seminar once a year. With the emphasis on growing electrification and the possible spread of 25kV into traditional third rail electrified areas, this was felt to be a subject ripe for debate. One can argue that putting wires up is easy while managing the changeover is not. In principle, many trains are dual system or can easily be made so and economics will drive the change which will commence with the recently-announced freight spine.

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An electric spine ollowing the usual opening remarks, first off the line as keynote speaker was Peter earman, head of energy for Network Rail and the man leading the charge towards full network electrification. Peter openly stated that he wanted the UK to be like wit erland with an all-electric railway The outline of the day was set by the fact that Network Rail is to develop an ‘Electric pine’, with high-voltage overhead-contact system electrification, between outhampton and the Midlands. This highlights the need to upgrade the power system between outhampton and Basingstoke, a section of railway which is currently electrified at 50 volts third rail.

AC or DC? A study of history reveals two great protagonists - Nikola Tesla and Thomas Edison Tesla for A and Edison for . In the United Kingdom, the Edison corner won the day as the country has a large proportion of the world’s electrified railway.

However, the situation in regard to energy costs has changed hugely since those early days, as have attitudes towards safety. ould anybody really countenance laying down metal bars, electrified at 50 volt , all over the transport infrastructure nowadays evelopment costs of systems are also high. Peter earman pointed out that the fairly recent spend on power supply reinforcement in the outh only enabled the railway to stand still in traction capability terms.

There is massive technological development in A systems already, and this advance is transferrable to renewal in areas as well as new development in non-electrified regions. A particular example is in the application of IE 1 50 dealing with rationalised feeding architecture.

DC economics The seminar was intended to fully debate the subject and was not confined to purely engineering and technical presenters. Peter earman was therefore followed

by Michael oods who is head of operations and management research at the Rail afety and tandards Board R B). R B had enabled a research project, T 50, investigating the economics of the third rail system compared to other electrification systems. This research, carried out on behalf of the uture Electrification roup a sub-group of TE I - the ehicle Train Energy ystem Interface ommittee), has considered the long-term options for modification to or replacement of the 50 third rail electrified system.

Michael has had considerable experience in managing a third rail railway and also has a useful eye for history. e came up with a very relevant quote from ilvanus P Thompson R , president of the Institution of Electrical Engineers in 1 0 , who said ‘live rails will soon be a thing of the past’. ollowing that historical interlude, Michael then moved on to set the agenda for the rest of the day by presenting a list of the potential benefits of changing to

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a 25k E system which could include » Reduction in the capital cost of renewal » Reduction in energy consumption and carbon footprint on a ‘like for like’ basis » Reduced sensitivity to ice and snow » Reduced track maintenance and renewal costs » Increased system performance enabling reduced journey time, reduced fleet si e and increased route capacity » Increased line speed above 100mph in some specific cases » Reduction in risk of electrocution of lineside workers and trespassers » Reduced distribution charges and costs of electrical control » Energy and operational cost savings from the electric operation of freight and cross-country passenger services.

Nevertheless, the potential shortcomings of 25k overhead electrification schemes were not ignored.

Events during the week before the seminar had reminded delegates what can happen when things go wrong with major disruption on the East oast main line at t Neots and the Midland main line at Radlett. ee A ‘bad wire day’ in this issue on page 32.)

An operator’s view The wider range of the day was then emphasised by Tim hoveller, managing director of the outh est Trains Network Rail Alliance. Tim put the point from the business angle and was at pains to point out that he would concentrate on the revenue line.” is early point was “If we don’t get the electricity to the train, the train does not run.”

Tim is well-aware of the shortcomings of the existing system and expressed his concerns regarding traction cable lugs degrading and coming adrift together with other symptoms of a railway seriously overloaded in the traction sense. owever, Tim had promised he would surprise the assembled multitude and he did so by reminding us that his railway was full (standing customers inbound from inchester on occasions) and that his preference would be to put up the wires to outhampton by way of Andover, the averstock loop and Romsey

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the rail engineer • April 2013

And now - technology!

Input on infrastructure

Having discussed the business and operating angles, the seminar moved on to the technological one. Next up was Shamil Velji, energy engineer at the RSSB. Project T950 was again visited, and it is worth quoting part of the output from that report as this helped to shape further debate on the day: “The conclusion of this research is that replacement of the 750V DC system with 25kV AC appears to be both feasible and economically desirable. The economic case is likely to improve as energy costs increase over time. The affordability of the change has yet to be determined, but an opportunity exists to start the replacement process within the next industry control period so that the advantage can be taken of the relatively large quantity of DC equipment becoming life expired at that time. To make such a change is a very significant decision to be taken by industry and government (as funder), and would require a large amount of further work to develop a whole industry business and implementation plan to take account of the impact on train operators and the industry’s customers.”

The undoubted advantages of electrification were quickly confirmed with the power output of a Class 92 electric locomotive being around twice that of a diesel Class 66. The T950 report initially reviewed two example routes (Basingstoke to Bournemouth/Weymouth and East Croydon to Brighton) with a high level examination of the entire network.

A major feeding diagram for the Brighton line configured in a 50kV autotransformer system was fascinating.

The debate then looked at possible economies - for a similar duty, the energy consumption on an AC system is around 15% less than for a DC system.

Railways are a system, so an important part of the agenda for the day was to examine the effect of electrification on various aspects of the railway’s infrastructure. This was reviewed first of all by David Weedon, principal signal engineer for the Thameslink programme.

His role is to lead signal engineering activities across the programme as the ‘Technical Authority’ for signalling; and thus he is well placed to appreciate the interaction between electrification and signalling and telecommunications. The S&T function has developed alongside electrification for many years but one task that remains is to develop suitable standards in connection with autotransformer systems.

Generally, the interface with electrification is less of a problem with the more recent signalling technology and moving AC electrification systems into an existing DC electrification area is seen as a preferable option.

However, David reminded us that dual AC / DC system areas are much more challenging. Robust, relevant standards should be introduced as soon as possible in order to avoid having to demonstrate interfaces and compliances every time a technological item comes along.

Bill Free then entered the ring to give the civil engineer’s view. Bill is head of business development for Carillion Rail. The impact of overhead electrification is, of course, significantly different to that of the DC system, but the provision of improved clearances has been part of the civil engineering structural workload in recent years. Appropriately Bill has been closely involved with clearances for freight movement on the very route we are looking at as a case study, including the major works in Southampton tunnel. He emphasised the need, and the ability, to undertake structural works with the minimum of interference to day-today rail movements.

Other examples included gauge enhancement works on the North London Line and the way in which partnering and early contractor involvement, with everybody working with aligned goals and no ‘man marking’, could improve performance. Bill’s emphasis was also on the encouragement of innovation and clear remits with less preferential engineering - all vital lessons for the industry.

Don’t forget the trains!

No analysis of the subject of the day would be complete without the rolling stock angle and Euan Smith, head of fleet at Angel Trains, was asked to lay out the facts that relate to the issues of traction conversion.

In summary, the rolling stock provider needs to take on board operational fleet requirements and flexibility when making a valid efficiency comparison between modes. The pros and cons of new build and the complexity of modification have to be considered, along with the vital question of the timing of the change. The proposals being discussed affect only a small percentage of the route on which Angel Trains’ Siemens units are used and questions were raised about maintenance requirements and the effect that any modifications would have on availability. Euan pointed out that on the class 440 there was a low level of preparedness for conversion to AC while class 450 was likely to involve less work.

Back to electrification Last but not least, we moved back to the electrification function with a thought provoking presentation from Graeme Brindle, technical director for electrical and systems engineering at Amey Consulting.

Graeme revisited the subject of electrical clearances but also drew attention to the practicalities of the availability of grid connections and power supplies. He also introduced the quaint term ‘vagabond currents’, currents which leave the surface of conductors where they

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25/03/2013 18:54

the rail engineer • April 2013

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PHOTO: UKPN SERVICES

are positive with respect to their surroundings and carry metal with them. They travel via unintentional routes creating conductor heating and electromagnetic interference.

The question of availability of 400kV and 275kV grid lines in the south of the UK needs to be tackled but his core message was that the track is not earthed in DC systems whereas, in AC systems, it must be earthed.

These circumstances do not sit happily together.

Electrolytic corrosion is likely to appear - the effect is a function of current density and time and an interim situation could be analysed and risk assessed to allow proper management of the phenomenon.

Lineside installation earthing is an issue that is transient during changeover but needs to be carefully assessed for impact. Most lineside installations and structures, such as stations, signalling power distribution and switch heating, will require traction bonding. Supply authorities will also raise concerns about use of their earthing terminal and this could be dealt with by combined earthing, earthing to traction or an isolating transformer interface. However transformers are costly and take up space.

And that brought the session to a close. As well as practical angles and some technical challenges, the day included some illuminating insights into railway

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history; both blind alleys and opportunities missed. The conference had achieved its aim of promoting robust debate during the question and answer sessions which, allied with much good-natured questioning of figures and data, had produced some very useful inputs and opinions. Both the Railway Engineers’ Forum and delegates agreed that the seminar had contributed to the debate on the future of railway electrification in the UK. It will be interesting to see plans develop further over the coming years.

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the rail engineer • April 2013

Your chance to Get Radical

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ithin the rail industry and among its customers, there is broad recognition of the need to innovate in order to improve efficiency and reduce cost. This brings an important opportunity for the UK to promote growth in its supply chain. Engineering consultancy, FrazerNash will be working with the Enabling Innovation Team (EIT) to stimulate both innovation and British business in a new project known as the ‘Radical Train’ which is aiming to demonstrate the train of the future.

Other UK industries have benefitted from a long-term vision and developing the innovations necessary to deliver on it. The automotive industry for example, recognised the need to invest in innovation several years ago. This recognition led to the identification of technologies in which the UK could excel and, as a result of this focus, the UK is now a leader in low carbon vehicle technology.

The rail industry in the UK can learn from experience in other sectors and the vision developed in the Rail Technical Strategy 2012 is an excellent place to start. It is at this point that the EIT begins to move things forward.

The Enabling Innovation Team The Enabling Innovation Team has been established to accelerate innovation in the railway. In particular it focuses on moving business solutions and technologies from prototype through to demonstration and eventual implementation. It has

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backing from across the industry at the highest levels, including the Rail Delivery Group, Technical Strategy Leadership Group, Planning Oversight Group, Rail Standards and Safety Board (RSSB) and the Department for Transport. Hosted

by RSSB, the EIT is funded initially by a grant from fT. The 2012 13 grant of £16.7 million will be used as a Rail Innovation Fund to support innovation demonstrator projects.

The EIT is actively working to secure and leverage additional funding.

With a clear understanding of the challenges facing the industry, the ability to connect potential innovators with these challenges and, where necessary, provide potential funding, the EIT wants to see innovation embedded as part of everyday business and will stimulate UK Industry and Universities to meet the challenge. Innovation is often held back by a circular argument that investment is needed to prove that an idea works, but there is a perceived risk in investing until that idea can be shown to work.

Demonstration projects therefore take innovation out of the lab and onto the track to prove that they work and make the case for further business led investment.

The EIT will be working with organisations around the UK to help innovators navigate the complex industry landscape and identify the most appropriate route to market. The EIT is seeking to help the rail industry and its supply chain increase capability, reduce cost, reduce carbon and improve customer experience. The McNulty Rail Value for Money study estimated that such investment in innovation could generate whole industry benefit cost ratios of between 3 1 and 5 1.

To maximise the funding available for rail industry innovation, the EIT team will be collaborating with other funders. So, in general, funding for each of the projects will need to be matched by industry contributions. If you have an interesting idea addressing the identified challenges that you are unable to progress but you are willing to invest typically 50% of the cost, then the fund may be able to help. Projects will be prioritised against the whole portfolio of applications before any funding decision is made.

EIT director David Clarke,

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the rail engineer • April 2013

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commented: “The EIT is a really exciting opportunity for industry to deliver new concepts to the rail market in a meaningful and efficient way. We are looking forward to working with all types of companies to contribute to the vision of the future railway”.

Radical Train The Radical Train project is exploring the potential to develop a new train which will offer a measurable step change in performance on UK railways and develop train systems and sub-systems with international market potential. Importantly, there is no set correct answer for this competition as the outcome of this project could be a whole vehicle and/or radical developments in major sub systems. It really is that open. David Clarke continues, “The Radical Train challenge is an exciting opportunity to seek out and demonstrate game-changing innovations to the UK railway, proving not only that the idea can become an innovation, but also that there is a real benefit to implementation.”

Richard Jones, business manager for rail at Frazer-Nash, added: “This is a unique chance for innovative organisations, and not just those within the rail industry, to put forward their ideas for radically improving trains in the UK. We are delighted to be managing this exciting initiative and we are looking forward to receiving some inventive proposals.”

Other EIT projects The EIT will be building a portfolio of demonstrator projects and will drive new concepts through to demonstration to bring implementation within reach. The strategy includes consideration of projects that can deliver benefits to the railway and foster economic growth in the short, medium and long term.

The portfolio consists of a range of targeted initiatives addressing innovation across technology, supply chain and business process.

In addition to the Radical Train, there are plans to include a Remote Condition Monitoring pilot and a Customer Experience prize competition at a later date.

All EIT projects will be developed and managed through a five-stage process. Additionally, there is an on-going open application route for concepts which have a demonstrable business case.

This is an exciting time for the rail industry and a singular opportunity to make a leap forward. Radical Train is the first of several EIT projects that have the potential to stimulate real innovation while also encouraging growth and diversity in the UK rail industry supply chain.

Get involved!

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Getting Involved If you think you could contribute to the Radical Train project, you can register your interest at radicaltrain@ futurerailway.org. urry, the final deadline is 3 May. Frazer-Nash will carry out a technological assessment of the ideas submitted and, in conjunction with EIT, shortlist a minimum of three to be taken forward to demonstrator stage.

An animation of what the Future Railway could look like and how it could perform can be seen at www. futurerailway.org > RTS > Vision > On Video. The Future Railway concept is based on the Rail Technical Strategy RT ), the 30-year look ahead published in ecember 2012 and which also drew on Frazer-Nash’s work in the area of whole-system reliability.

In addition to the outlined targeted calls, the EIT also has a funding route available to innovators for ideas outside of our other projects. If you have an innovation that you believe could have a significant impact on the industry and would benefit from a demonstration project, please contact the EIT via innovations@futurerailway.org.

All correspondence will be considered non-confidential until an appropriate confidentiality agreement is in place.

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the rail engineer • April 2013

Inspiring (or:Innovation Acronyms Abound) DAVID SHIRRES

T

he 177 delegates attending the fifth Railway Industry Association’s (RIA) Technology and Innovation Conference were treated, amongst other things, to a mix of success stories, blue sky thinking and guidance on the current maze of technology initiatives. With such wide ranging topics there was certainly a buzz about the conference. Rail innovation is certainly a hot topic but do the current range of initiatives offer real improvement or is it just so much hype? The Rail Engineer was glad to accept RIA’s invitation to this conference to find out more.

Francis How, RIA’s technical director recalled that whereas a few years ago innovation was barely mentioned, it is now raised at every opportunity. RIA is certainly doing its bit to keep innovation on the rail

agenda. As well as this conference, which followed publication of the industry’s Rail Technical Strategy in December last year, RIA is managing an “unlocking innovation” scheme which runs workshops to promote a dialogue between suppliers and clients.

Flying in close formation With rail innovation now so topical, there are many agencies promoting it which include EIT, London Underground, Network Rail, RSSB, RRUKA, SPARK, TSB, Transport Systems Catapult, TSLG and T-KTN. The most recently established agency is the Enabling Innovation Team (EIT), set up last year by TSLG, funded initially by the Department

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for Transport (DfT) and hosted by RSSB. It is the only cross-industry team that matches longer term business challenges to innovative solutions and provide initial funding if necessary. Speaking at the conference its director, David Clark, acknowledged there is a bewildering array of initiatives but explained how they were “flying in close formation”.

The Technology Strategy Board (TSB) was set up in 2007 to promote UK business innovation. TSB fielded two speakers to the conference: Richard Kemp-Harper who explained Knowledge Transfer Partnerships and Daniel Ruiz described how and why the Transport Catapult was being established. He emphasised that one of TSB’s key aims was to develop UK expertise in global markets so the UK transport industry wasn’t its sole concern.

The work of TSB and its Catapults is explained in The Rail Engineer issue 95 (September 2012).

During the conference, the terms TRL (Technology Readiness Levels) and “Valley of Death” were often used. TRLs range from establishing basic principles (TRL1) to widespread proven application (TRL9). As technologies are developed the curve on a cash flow graph / TRL graph shows increasingly negative cash flow until the technology is well proven. This curve is the “valley of death” and the reason why potentially successful technologies fail. EIT’s David Clark puts it another way. He feels there is a “show me” culture that holds back innovation.

Investment is needed to prove something works but there is a reluctance to invest until it has been shown to work.

Blueprint for the future TSLG’s 2012 Rail Technical Strategy (RTS 2012) was published in December. It provides a long-term vision of the future railway’s technology and has six themes (Control, command

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the rail engineer • April 2013

and communications; Energy; Infrastructure; Rolling Stock; Information and Customer experience) for which objectives, strategy and enablers are described with a timeline for developments.

RTS 2012 also explains the seven common design concepts applicable to each theme: Whole-system reliability, Resilience, Security and Risk Mitigation, Automation, Simplicity, Flexibility and Sustainability.

At the conference, Network Rail’s Steve Yianni advised how RTS 2012 was the result of a two year consultation. He also explained its three common foundations to support a cultural shift towards technical development: taking a whole-system approach, supporting innovation and ensuring the industry has sufficient skilled people. He advised how NSARE (the National Skills Academy for Railway Engineering) had identified that the industry required an additional 10,000 skilled people over the next 5 years with traction and rolling stock (T&RS) accounting for half this shortfall. As a result, in a collaboration between NSARE, Government and Siemens, a National Training Academy for T&RS is being set up which will open in 2014.

Andy Doherty of Network Rail believes that is a huge range of possibilities if one is prepared to think outside the box to embrace new ideas, materials and technologies. Explaining the implications of a whole system approach, he felt the big challenge is to achieve the RTS 2012 vision whilst running the railway, an example being conversion of the third rail network to 25kV OLE which could take around 20 years.

His presentation included some radical ideas including novel ways of constructing slab track, predictive traffic management and convoying trains.

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29

EIT Enabling Innovation Team - a cross industry team matching longer term challenges to innovative solutions.

London Underground Has a portal which seeks innovative ideas for its key challenges.

Assisted Innovation Presentations on DMU flywheel storage and digital imaging for condition asset management (DIFCAM) showed how TSB’s stimulation of innovation works in practice. Both these projects were winners of the TSB / RSSB “Accelerating Innovation in Rail” competition. However, TSB’s support is more than just prize money as it helps form the consortia developing these projects. From discussion with the presenters, it was clear that their projects would not have happened without TSB support.

In a feasibility study, sensors attached to a class 158 DMU on Edinburgh suburban routes established that braking accounted for 52% of all energy losses. This established the case for the flywheel energy storage project now being developed by a consortium of Ricardo, Artemis Intelligent Power and Bombardier. Ricardo’s flywheel operates in a sealed vacuum chamber at 60,000 rev/min and transfers torque directly through

the chamber wall by a magnetic gearing system. Artemis’s digital displacement hydraulic transmission has high efficiencies at low power.

Bombardier’s contribution is system integration to fit this equipment to a DMU drive train. Initial work indicates a 3.5 year payback on stop-start routes and thereafter savings of 13,000 pa for each MU fitted.

DIFCAM assesses asset condition by comparing digital images taken at different times to detect changes invisible to the eye. It does so by comparing pixel blocks at very high resolution and is being developed by a consortium of Ominicom, National Physical Laboratory (NPL) and Atkins. Initially this will be used to inspect rail tunnels, of which there are 20,000 km worldwide. However, it has possible applications for asset inspection in many hazardous and confined areas. In this consortium, Ominicom provide imaging and measurement platforms, NPL offer measurement science facilities and Atkins offer asset management expertise.

Network Rail Introduced a new innovation process in 2011 (as reported in The Rail Engineer issue 84 October 2011) with a website seeking ideas for its challenges.

Network Rail also has a Rail Innovation and Development Centre.

RSSB The Rail Safety and Standards Board undertakes research on future rail needs.

RRUKA Rail Research UK Association - established in 2010, is a group of UK universities and research institutions (currently 29 members) working in partnership with the rail industry.

SPARK An interactive web tool from RSSB for the rail industry to share and find information to drive innovation.

TSLG Technology Strategy Leadership Group - a cross-industry expert body of senior executive staff which champions implementation of the Rail Technical Strategy.

TSB | Catapult | T-KTN Technology Strategy Board stimulates innovations to boost UK productivity. Includes industry-specific Knowledge Transfer Networks including one for transport (T-KTN). TSB is establishing Catapults - sector specific innovation centres.

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the rail engineer • April 2013 PHOTO: JIM W GILLIES

Three SRS road rail vehicles, operated outside their cabs and moving backwards, dispense and fix catenary and contact wires at 75% final tension.

DIY innovation Whilst it is good to see how TSB promote innovation, many companies develop innovations on their own. This point was made clear in presentations by FirstGroup’s Kenny Scott and Pandrol’s David Rhodes.

As far as Kenny Scott is concerned, the recipe for innovation is people, process and culture. Kenny

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explained FirstGroup’s suggestion scheme and advised that he never failed to be impressed by ideas from front line staff. He stressed the need for directors to support an innovation culture and ensure staff ideas are progressed. This includes the need to formalise schemes to ensure ideas are not lost. Another message was that innovation was not just about technology. In

FirstGroup, the Kaizen technique is used to continuously improve processes. Kenny described Kaizen as improvement through hundreds of small things. In his presentation he gave the HST re-engine, Class 3 0 reliability and cotRail’s winterisation as examples of successful innovations.

For a different business, David Rhodes had another recipe. He advised that Pandrol’s success was due to main board commitment to product development, seeing background R&D development as an overhead and involving R&D engineers in market and product support. Suppliers have to identify a need before the customer. As an example, he mentioned the FastClip that Pandrol had developed for use with track laying trains.

Development of this clip started in 1990 when there were no such trains in the UK. This was five years before Railtrack’s West Coast project recognised the need for this clip, large scale use of which started in 1996.

Exhibitors at the conference also had their innovation tales to tell. SRS International’s display featured the road-rail plant used for the Paisley Canal electrification.

This included a cable drum carrier that simultaneously dispenses catenary and contact wires at 75% tension. However, SRS advised that this required 18 months development in Sweden before it could be used on Network Rail, perfectly illustrating a barrier identified at one of the group sessions - that project managers are understandably reluctant to use unproven products.

Park Signalling won last year’s conference competition for their virtual lineside signalling, something the company had developed in-house. Another DIY initiative was Hima-Sella’s radio frequency identification systems for use on London Underground and South West Trains. One exhibitor that had taken advantage of TSB’s Knowledge Transfer Partnerships was the LPA Group which produces rail vehicle connectors and is working with the University of Essex to develop Ethernet connectors.

25/03/2013 18:55

the rail engineer • April 2013 Blue Sky Thinking Conventional ideas were challenged by presentations of RRUKA case studies. Chris Ward described Loughborough and Salford Universities work on the Half Cost Trains project with its “Design for Control Conceptâ€?. He described how control engineering has transformed automotive and aerospace design and compared the stable Hawker Hunter with Eurofighter Typhoon, an inherently unstable aircraft requiring computerised control. In contrast, the 1951 Mark 1 coach and the 2004 Class 350 share the same two-stage passive suspension system. His project was considering how control engineering could transform rail vehicle design. Using the Typhoon analogy, he explained how active suspension and steering systems could result in rail vehicles with flangeless non coned wheels by 2063. A challenging concept indeed for those who will be around to see it!

Peter Muller of University College London described how his project was considering the application of autonomous command and control systems developed for navigation on Mars for use in possessions. Part of this work involved the development of a sensor suite to avoid low speed (under 40km/hr) collisions and a positioning system to give PICOPs the location of all vehicles in the possession.

Innovation Competitions Henry Ford’s comment that “Competition is the keen cutting edge of business� also applies to innovation. In April last year TSB / RSSB announced the 19 winners of their “Accelerating Innovation in Rail� competition, two of which were present at the conference.

TSB / RSSB have announced that a further competition - “Enabling the digital railwayâ€? - would open on 25 March with a ÂŁ5 million prize fund. EIT has two competitions on its website. The Radical Train competition (see page 26 in this issue) was launched in March and is being run by Frazer-Nash. A Customer Experience competition will open in April with a ÂŁ1 million prize fund.

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Ricardo Flywheel cutaway.

Not to be outdone, the RIA conference held its own competition, sponsored by RSSB, with shortlisted finalists giving presentations to the conference.

These were Interfleet (Driver’s Companion using tablet technology to further develop their Timetable Advisory system), Bombardier and Frazer-Nash (an “Iron Bird� test rig for integration of train systems in a collaborative working environment), URS (Rail Trackbed stiffness testing by Rail Falling Weight Deflectometer) and Atkins / Unipart (use of US Electrolog IXS Vital Logic Controller to eliminate level crossing REBs).

The joint winners were Interfleet and URS which will receive funding to develop their innovations.

Plenty to think about RIA’s conference was successful in promoting innovation and certainly gave everyone plenty to think about. Practical engineers might find some of the more radical concepts a little academic, but there’s nothing wrong with challenging the status quo.

However, some might think that asking whether rail wheels need flanges is a question too far!

The conference showed that there are many ways to innovate.

Many companies have the commitment and ability to drive their own innovations whilst, for some, external help to bridge the valley of death is essential. When such assistance is needed is not always clear. However, what is clear is that the rail industry must make full use of increased funding from Government for technical improvements.

Perhaps the most important point was emphasised by Kenny Scott and Steve Yianni. The railway needs to recruit, develop and listen to its people to make innovation happen.

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26/03/2013 08:58

32

the rail engineer • April 2013

GRAHAME TAYLOR

A

‘bad hair day’ - a short phrase known to many that suggests that everything that can go wrong does go wrong. It hasn’t been in common usage for very long. It didn’t exist before about 1988 but then it rapidly inveigled itself into the US vocabulary followed soon after by global adoption. All this, of course, comes from that great fount of knowledge - the internet so it must be true!

This magazine is about to coin a new, but related expression - a ‘bad wire day’. There!

It’s now coined. Why? Because Network Rail has had several recently and so we thought we had better provide some background to how Overhead Line Equipment (OLE) works and what can go wrong. We’re not trying to be particularly ghoulish. It’s just that, as in any engineering system, there are risks, but there are also many mitigation measures in place.

Friday morning!

Two particularly awful bad wire days stand out. One was at Hanslope Junction on the WCML and the other near St. Neots on the ECML. To make matters even more ‘bad’ the Hanslope Junction episode happened on a Friday morning - probably the very worst time to happen causing massive and sustained

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disruption to traffic. The national press had a great time and everyone waded in with their particular slant on the industry.

We’ve been looking at these and other incidents, and the whole issue of OLE inspection and maintenance, with Nigel Edwards who is Network Rail’s reliability improvement manager E&P (electrification and plant) working in the maintenance services reliability team. His main focus is OLE and signal power supplies, but he and his team of two cover other E&P assets like points heating and distribution equipment as well.

Right at the start we have to say that any diagnosis of the high profile failures has to be viewed as provisional. There are ongoing technical investigations and these may confirm initial views or throw up new aspects.

A bad wire day Your guide to all that fizzes and crackles So, how do the period 12 dewirement figures compare with other years? (And dewirement is the technical term for when all the OLE knitting hits the deck and causes a bad wire day).

Well, as Nigel pointed out, period 12 in 2012 had the same number of dewirements. It’s just that they occurred in locations that were far less sensitive.

And what causes the wires to come down? This is where we try and give you a brief summary of the OLE system and its components. This is The Rail Engineer spotters’ guide to all that mass of inexplicable wiring that fizzes and crackles on a misty day as you wait for your morning train, the noises off being caused by electricity “leaking” across insulators due to dirt and moisture.

Starting from the top and working down is the catenary wire from which everything is suspended. Then there are droppers hanging off the catenary wire and at the bottom end of these are clips which clamp onto the contact wire. The contact wire is a copper extrusion which has grooves formed in the sides of the wire for the clips to fit into. Both wires are tensioned with the tensions either being constant (auto tension) or varying with temperature (fixed termination). Auto tension equipment is used on higher speed routes and has tensions of between . and 13.2kN depending on the OLE system used.

Registration arms set the horizontal position of the contact wire, the stagger, which is alternately either side of the centre line of the track by up to 230mm on straight track and

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the rail engineer • April 2013

380mm on curves. The purpose of this is to ensure even wear of the pantograph carbon.

The contact wire height varies because of tunnels and bridges and at level crossings where road vehicle clearance is needed. So, overall it varies between 4.165 metres to 5.94 metres contact wire height.

Below the contact wire (hopefully!) runs the train pantograph which collects the electrical current and which normally exerts an upward force of 90N, but this can be as much as 250N.

OLE versions There are three basic types of OLE on the system, although there are dozens of sub types.

There’s the Mark I version (there were versions before Mark I, but they were for DC and have either been converted to AC as on the Great Eastern, or removed Manchester - Sheffield - Wath) which you’ll see on the West Coast from Euston to Crewe, around Glasgow and in East

Anglia. The structures are cantilevers in two track areas and cross-track portal structures in multi-track areas, with brackets, called small part steelwork, from which all the wiring is suspended.

Then the next major version was the Mark III, principally in use on East Coast Main Line, East Anglia and the West Coast Main Line extension to Scotland. This uses a system of headspans - basically two big masts either side of the track with cross span wires and then the headspan wire holding the equipment. It’s cheaper, but the disadvantage is that each line is not mechanically independent.

So whereas you might get isolated damage on a portal structure which doesn’t affect the other lines, with a headspan you affect the whole lot.

The third type is what is known as UK1 which is the design range developed for the West Coast route modernisation as an upgrade to the existing systems for higher train speeds.

There are also systems designed by Siemens around

Glasgow and Furrer+Frey on the Great Eastern Main Line.

New designs, Series 1 and Series 2 which eliminate failure modes from all the preceding

33

designs are being developed for new electrification schemes including the Great Western and North West Electrification projects.

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25/03/2013 20:28

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the rail engineer • April 2013

Three failures modes cured Nigel explains that the biggest problem has been catenary wire failure. If the catenary wire fails, the whole system’s going to fall because that’s what holds it all up. This used to be a real problem on older versions of the Mark I equipment because the catenary wire passed over the top boom of the portals and was kept clear of the steelwork by being carried over a small pulley wheel. In turn, the mounting of this wheel was from a short bracket connected to an insulator mounted on top of the boom. The pulley wheel allowed the catenary wire to move longitudinally as it heats up and cools down. The problems arose from wear and fatigue at the point where the wire passed over the pulley, from problems with insulators and from bird strikes.

All three failure modes were eliminated when the inverted cantilever principle was adopted. In this arrangement the catenary wire is suspended from an arm attached to a vertical pole clamped to the portal. There’s no pulley, there’s no ceramic insulator and there are no bird strike issues because of the increased clearance between the structure and the inverted cantilever catenary wire position.

Insulator issues Nigel acknowledges that insulators are a known problem area although, keeping in mind the thousands of insulators on the network, failures are comparatively rare.

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One of the recent high profile incidents was likely to have been caused by a failed insulator.

Porcelain insulators are susceptible to hair line cracks where the insulator is attached to the end castings. If water gets in and then freezes and expands it’ll just burst the insulator as porcelain is very brittle. The impact the failure has on the train service depends on where it is in the system. An insulator failing in a live drop vertical on a Mark III headspan will result in a major dewirement because everything will get tangled up with a pantograph.

Despite such failures being rare, Network Rail has conducted campaign changes in the past.

In the Preston and Carlisle areas, all the insulators were replaced with polymeric types and in Scotland about £1 million worth are being changed. It’s a question of identifying the highest risk locations and spending money to best effect.

Contact wire types Contact wire can fail. The contact wire is nominally ‘thick’. It’s pure copper or a copper alloy and, as you would expect, it wears over a period of time with the passage of the pantographs although it normally lasts at 25 to 40 years.

Side wear in crossover areas, where the pantograph on the main line hits the cross over contact wire, has caused a couple of dewirements in the past year and short circuits - such as a tree branch causing a short - can part

the wire. At the point of contact there is high resistance and so the wire will heat up during the passage of fault current and fail.

There are two types of catenary wire. There’s the copper catenary on the Mk1 on west coast and there’s an AWAC catenary on Mk III, which is an aluminium conductor with two aluminium coated steel cores for strength. AWAC uses a different suspension arrangement at the pulley wheels where stainless steel bridles are deployed as the aluminium would wear rapidly if it ran over a pulley.

Rolling stock changes?

The introduction of Pendolinos was probably one of the biggest changes to rolling stock usage on west coast. When the Pendolinos

first came on line, there were problems with chipped carbons on a regular basis. Because they were higher speed and they had higher uplift, it found out locations on the system which could cause problems and those had to be identified and corrected.

Before any new train is introduced it will go through a safety validation process as one would expect, but even then there are things that occur that hadn’t been anticipated.

Going forward with the Ten Point Plan Nigel has outlined a broad view on where the main OLE risks occur.

But this is not the end of the story by any means. In our next article, to be published as part of our June electrification and power issue, we will be looking at how all the known risks are being controlled along with many initiatives that are encapsulated in what is called the “Ten Point Plan”.

But in the meantime, you should now have some idea of what you are looking at as you gaze up at the knitting. And despite a series of really awful bad wire days, just take comfort that Network Rail really has got the system under control and remember, dewirements can be caused by ‘other factors’ such as defective pantographs - but perhaps that’s another story!

25/03/2013 18:56

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ERECTING CATENARY AND CONTACT WIRES - THE SRS WAY

THE BASE VEHICLE SRS wiring ‘trains’ are based on a single 26 tonne SRS road rail wiring unit. It carries two hydraulically operated cable drum carriers and is fitted with wire manipulating rollers both fore and aft. The drum carriers are designed to dispense wire at up to 75% full tension. They can push wire out and reel it in. The manipulating rollers move both laterally and vertically, and horizontal rollers within the roller assembly allow two wires to be dispensed simultaneously, one above the other.

This versatile vehicle may be used for many different wiring tasks. Typical is its incorporation in an SRS ‘train’ for putting up catenary and contact wires together.

Using four vehicles, the SRS wiring train eliminates the need for temporary rollers and slings. The vehicles are: One 26 tonne SRS wiring unit Two 17 ton SRS mobile elevated platforms (MEWPs) One 17 ton SRS scissors platform They proceed, at half span intervals, as follows: 1. The base vehicle carrying two cable drums, one with catenary and one with contact wire. This moves along the track dispensing both catenary and contact wires simultaneously, the catenary above the contact wire.

2. The first MEWP with the catenary wire running in a purpose made grooved roller which is fixed to the MEWP basket. It can be positioned precisely by moving the basket so that the linesman can clip it directly into the catenary clamp on the contact registration arm.

3. The second MEWP follows. This time the contact wire is running through a purpose made grooved pulley fixed to the MEWP basket.

Again it is positioned by moving the basket and, if the span is long, fixed to the catenary by a temporary wire.

4. Finally, the scissors platform follows closely, carrying droppers to be clipped to both catenary and contact wires

Using this SRS procedure: Kinks and wire deformation are virtually eliminated because wires are run at 75% full tension. Also wire run at 75% full tension is unlikely to roll over. Thus the task of chasing and flushing out twists is removed.

A single run through to check the groove is usually sufficient.

Sag between rollers and temporary tie wires is minimised by running near to full tension reducing the risk of kinks and protecting the wire from the damage or contamination which may occur if it touches the ground.

Flaking is made easy by the variable resistance of the hydraulic drum, particularly at the start of a new run.

Correct positioning is ensured by hydraulically controlled guide rollers which may be manipulated both vertically and horizontally so that wire may be run out as close to the required route as possible Pulling or towing wire out is eliminated because the drum can ‘pump’ wire out.

Safety is ensured by guide rollers which completely encompass the wire so that it cannot jump free, important for the safety of following linesmen.

It is possible to dispense wire at 5 kph. Speed is usually limited by the rate at which linesmen can work.

This is just one of many wiring tasks which SRS vehicles can perform with their highly trained and motivated operators.

Tell us the task. We will provide the tools and the people.

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To hire road rail at its best call: +44 (0) 870 050 9242, email info@srsrailuk.co.uk, or visit our website www.srsrailuk.com

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the rail engineer • April 2013

Smart asset monitoring T

he recent run of wet weather has caused problems for the railways, with floods and landslips both shutting lines and delaying passengers.

Infrastructure managers need to keep a constant watch on some of their assets and be alert to any changes to conditions that could affect the safe running of the railway.

To help them in this task, smart software developments from itmsoil, leading designers, manufacturers and installers of monitoring instrumentation, are changing the way railway asset managers make both rapid event-driven and long-term maintenance decisions. The company is bringing together data from sensors and cameras monitoring key assets into an easy-to-view online format so that isolated data can be assimilated with other sensor readings and verified before an alarm notification is sent.

Batching information If one sensor on a slope, embankment, bridge or cutting exceeds a trigger level, and sends out an alert, the decision-maker has a much clearer perspective of the incident because of ‘batching’, an innovation from itmsoil which aggregates individual data readings. Where an alert might once have triggered instant closure of a line, with ramifications across the network, the batching of data reduces the likelihood of false alarms and enables users to make more informed decisions about the performance of their assets. It might, for example, only be necessary to order a reduction of speed in the vicinity while a problem is resolved.

Business development manager at itmsoil, Nick Slater, said: “Sensors and cameras from itmsoil are already proving themselves effective in delivering data about the performance of slopes, embankments, bridges and cuttings. The next step is to provide the data more intelligently and our Smart Asset Monitoring software will make this possible.”

Heavy rainfall over the last few months has led to water levels being a particular threat to performance of the railway network. Watchmen are

still used where flooding poses a significant risk. They are primed to raise the alarm when water levels reach a certain height but deploying these watchmen has significant implications for cost and health and safety, particularly where 24-hour monitoring is needed.

However, there is a smarter alternative - an automated monitoring system which can detect rising water levels and send alerts as trigger points are reached. This could include the amount of rainfall at the exact location - rather than from the nearest met office weather station exact water levels at the specific location, and pictures from a camera on the site. itmsoil’s Smart Asset Monitoring would batch the up-to-date information making it easily accessible to a decision-maker so that services could be kept running safely for as long as possible.

Catching it on camera The most hi-tech solutions aren’t always needed to provide answers to questions asked by asset engineers, and instrumentation doesn’t have to remain in one place permanently. It can be moved once it has served the initial purpose.

Camera systems, a low-tech option, play an invaluable role in monitoring assets. They are proving particularly useful on bridges enabling engineers to make preliminary inspections, after notifications of vehicle strikes, by remote viewing of cameras over the web via a bespoke website which allows the user to compare ‘live’ images against stored reference images. If the trained user sees fit, these can be used to get trains moving at caution speed over the bridge before a Mobile Operations Manager reaches the scene.

This system proved its worth, when prior to the Olympics 19 bridges were fitted with camera systems by itmsoil. Their role was purely to improve performance of the railway. Network Rail was committed to minimising delays over the 17-days the Olympics lasted. The cameras were used a number of times and are still in use and delivering significant performance benefit.

Helping at Hooley Elsewhere, at Hooley Cutting on the London to Brighton main line, state-of-the-art instrumentation was used to monitor ground movement after a number of slope failures. One, following heavy rainfall, left debris on the track and a train was derailed.

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After this a watchman was employed to sit at the top of the cutting and monitor movement but this was considered neither the most effective nor reliable of methods.

Network Rail thought about instrumentation but was unsure what would be best suited to the location because the deep cutting was made through gravel beds and weathered chalk. It is up to 30m deep in sections and about 1km long. The steep sides have an overall angle of 60 degrees, but are locally vertical.

Engineers sought advice from itmsoil and sensors were chosen which worked effectively for three years and which now may be moved to a different section of the cutting. Nick Slater commented: “The system certainly reduces risk, to safety, operational performance and the reputation of the client.

“This is an example of how our instrumentation has been used to monitor an asset to help manage risk until a more permanent solution could be implemented.

The data our sensors gather is useful not only for enabling rapid decisions to be made during an incident but also for determining the need for maintenance and even for indicating solutions to long term problems.

“Our monitoring enables engineers to understand how their assets are performing.

It helps with safety and it has the potential

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Hooley Cutting.

to extend the life of an asset while long-term solutions to problems are put in place.”

This section of site has now been stabilised through remedial works as reported in issue 97 of The Rail Engineer (November 2012).

Meantime, the itmsoil engineers have moved on to another site to keep a 24/7 watch on the state of the nation’s railway infrastructure.

Remote monitoring equipment has to be

reliable, and itmsoil prides itself on offering excellent after sales support, making sure systems work effectively whether they are needed several times a day or for less frequent incident management.

So next time you see a large embankment or deep cutting, and it is pouring with rain, you never know, someone from itmsoil may be keeping an eye on it…

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New rails in the desert the rail engineer • April 2013

O

ver the years, The Rail Engineer has reported on hundreds of projects. But it has never before published an article on the construction of a country’s entire rail network. In the United Arab Emirates (UAE), oil is fuelling rapid development. In what was desert only a few decades ago, the large, modern cities of Abu Dhabi and Dubai have sprung up. Etihad, the country’s airline, is only ten years old and has become the fastest growing airline in the history of commercial aviation. Yet, despite all of this modern infrastructure, the UAE has no railways other than the Dubai metro which opened in 2009.

This will not be the case for much longer with Etihad Rail set to open its first railway by the end of 2013, part of a three stage project to construct the country’s rail network.

The Rail Engineer wanted to learn more and so was grateful of the opportunity to visit Etihad Rail’s office in Abu Dhabi to learn about the challenges of building a railway in a desert country with no previous rail experience. As an example, whereas most countries grow around their railways, in the UAE it is identifying a suitable alignment through existing modern infrastructure that is a particular challenge.

Diversifying the economy A key objective of the UAE’s national charter is the diversification of its economy. For this, the new railway is a key element. Unlike oil and gas, there are other mineral resources under the desert that cannot be transported by pipeline. In addition, there is the requirement for improving the transportation of containers.

This new railway is also part of a plan to construct, by 2018, a regional rail network in the Arabian Gulf from Kuwait to Oman through

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DAVID SHIRRES

Saudi Arabia and the UAE. This plan is being coordinated by the Arab Gulf Co-operation Council (GCC) whose member states are Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Oman, Qatar, Kuwait and the UAE. In 2009, Federal Law No 2 provided the mandate to construct and operate a 1200 kilometre long railway network within the UAE at a cost of £7.4 billion. This was originally named the ‘Union Railway’, but it was re-launched in 2011 as ‘Etihad Rail’ with a new logo which incorporates the colours of the UAE flag. Etihad Rail’s memoranda of understanding with 14 companies in the chemical, logistics and agriculture sectors show the potential demand for rail freight within the UAE. Once the network is complete, it is expected to carry 50 million tonnes and 16 million passengers each year.

Three stage programme Construction is being undertaken in three stages. The first is a 264km freight line from the port of Ruwais. This line runs along the coast for 117km and heads inland for 20km to the Habshan gas field. From there, it goes

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further inland for a further 144km to the Shah gas field. Its construction requires 10 underbridges, 29 overbridges, 12 pipeline crossings and 30 culverts. The bridges include significant structures crossing major coastal highways.

With construction almost complete, the first trains are planned to run from Habshan late in 2013 and from hah in 201 . Trains will transport up to 22,000 tonnes of sulphur per day from these oil fields to Ruwais. Sulphur is a valuable by-product from oil extraction and is currently transported in liquid form by approximately 300 lorry movements per day.

New plants will produce granulated sulphur for transportation by train.

Things moved quickly after Federal Law No 2 was passed. Atkins was appointed as preliminary engineering consultant to undertake outline design and a joint venture of Parsons and AECOM was appointed as project managers in 2010. The following year, the construction contract for stage one was awarded to a consortium of the Italian firms Saipem and Tecnimont together with

UAE-based Dodsal Engineering. This was a design and construction contract for the civil engineering, communication systems and the construction of a depot.

In January 2012, the consortium appointed Ansaldo to supply communication and signalling systems to ETCS level 2. PCM Strescon Overseas Ventures is manufacturing the estimated 540,000 sleepers required in a brand new factory. The Indian company has already set up two factories in Saudi Arabia, with the world’s highest production capacities, to supply 2.6 million sleepers to the Saudi Arabian Railways (SAR) North-South Railway Project.

Stage two, planned to be completed by 2017, is 628km long and extends phase one in both directions to the Saudi Arabian and Oman borders with the addition of a new line to Dubai’s Jebel Ali Port. The remainder of the mixed‐traffic network in the Emirate of Abu Dhabi and the connection to Jebel Ali Port is safeguarded and preliminary engineering for this stage is complete. Tendering is in progress.

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the rail engineer • April 2013

The final stage of the project, due to be opened in 2018, will cover 279km to the northern emirates and the strategically important port of Fujairah. Here, ships can be loaded and unloaded without having to pass through the straits of Hormuz. Etihad Rail is working closely with each of the Emirates involved to define and safeguard the route. Preliminary engineering is well underway.

The new railway In a country with no mainline railways, one of the challenges of constructing and operating a new network is the requirement for a new rail legislative framework and a set of standards and rules.

Etihad Rail is working closely with the UAE government to advise on the legislation required and is developing the necessary management systems as it is developed. Etihad Rail will have to ensure compliance with these systems once the railway is operational as it is both the developer and operator of the railway, working with

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leading industry partners to ensure it uses the best available technology and management practices.

Engineering standards are essentially UIC above the axle box and a mix of American and Australian standards below as the new railway is primarily heavy haul. Operating standards will be based on UK practice.

The new railway network will be a mainly double track 1200km standard-gauge network controlled by in-cab signalling to ETCS level 2 with GSM-R radio. The twin tracks will typically require a 20.3 metre corridor to accommodate a walkway, cable routes, passive provision for catenary masts and an access track. Structural clearances will be provided for double-stacked containers and possible future electrification. It will be a mixed-traffic network with long passing loops. Freight trains with axle loads up to 32 tonnes will operate at 120km/ hour and passenger trains at 200km/hr.

Challenging terrain Building and operating a railway across the desert’s shifting sands has its challenges. There are three basic types of terrain, each with its own issues. By the coast is sabkha, mostly flat land with a salt crust just above the water table (about a metre below the surface) which is very aggressive towards construction materials. Below the salt crust are unconsolidated silica and carbonate sands around 10 metres deep.

A little further inland is a lowamplitude high-frequency dunes system. These dunes are mobile with loose surface sand. Beyond these are high-amplitude lowfrequency dunes, typically 80 to 150 metres high with loose sand and an inter-dune surface crust.

As a result, special consolidation techniques are being used for the track bed together with an estimated 15 million cubic metres of fill material. Geomorphologic studies were undertaken to understand the behaviour of the sand dunes and the wind

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deposition of sand. These studies identified those areas most likely to be affected adversely and were used to determine the optimum track alignment through the desert. They also were used to specify where mitigation measures such as berms (raised banks) and wind monitoring stations were required.

In operation, sand contamination of ballast will be controlled by specialist on-track plant with sand vacuums and monitored by ground penetrating radar. Derailment and operational disruption caused by sand is a major ongoing concern and Etihad Rail has looked at the way Saudi Arabian Railways deals with sand to determine the best way to mitigate sand problems.

Desert construction Construction in the desert presents significant health and safety issues with heat stress being a major concern, particularly during the extreme temperatures of the summer months. Driving is also a significant risk given the dust, the large concentration of construction traffic and the distances involved. Many of the workforce have never worked on railways and, as a result, much time has been spent on training, including the risk of train operations. Etihad Rail has already attained 9 million lost-time accident-free hours worked, which is a significant achievement for a project of this scale.

Environmental measures specific to desert railway construction include a dewatered management plan to protect groundwater in coastal areas and protection of the desert eco-

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system. This includes avoidance of work at night (an active time for desert wildlife), relocating species outside construction zones and the construction of animal crossings. For phase one this includes 10 camel, 22 gazelle and 78 reptile underpasses.

Rolling Stock Etihad Rail anticipates that its network will eventually require 100 locomotives and 5000 freight wagons. For stage one, seven locomotives and 240 covered hoppers will provide one train a day from both the Shah and Habshan oil fields, each consisting of three locomotives hauling up to 110 wagons carrying 11,000 tonnes of granulated sulphur.

The locomotives are 3, 00k SD70ACS models designed and manufactured by Electro-Motive Diesel of North America. These have AC traction motors and are custom-built for desert conditions with pulse filtration

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and ventilation systems to control fine blown sand. Similar locomotives are already in use on Saudi Arabian Railways.

The 100-tonne capacity wagons for phase one are top loading / bottom discharge with sealed hatches. They are supplied by the China South Locomotive and Rolling Stock Corporation Limited (CSR). The first of these wagons arrived in the UAE in December last year.

World records The UAE’s rapid economic development has resulted in various world records. Etihad is the fastest growing airline in the history of commercial aviation; the Dubai metro is the world’s longest fully-automated passenger metro system; the Burj Khalifa Tower is the world’s tallest building and the Burj Al Arab is the world’s first 7-star hotel. Yet, up to now, the UAE is one of few countries without a heavy rail network.

Scheduled for completion in 2018, the new network will provide additional stimulus to the country’s economy. Etihad Rail considers that “once complete, the railway will redefine logistics and transport in the regions to support the government’s mission to build a diversified economy”. It will be interesting to see if its railway will give the UAE any more world records.

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CLIVE KESSELL

G

SM-R (Global System for Mobile - Railways) is now well established as the radio system of choice for trackto-train voice communication in Europe and many countries beyond. A comprehensive description of the system was given in issue 48 of The Rail Engineer (October 2008). It is also a constituent part of ERTMS (European Rail Traffic Management System), being the transmission link between the control centre and the ETCS (European Train Control System) equipment on the train. Its use in that role is much less understood, mainly because ERTMS deployment is still somewhat limited.

GSM-R is, however, an old technology by current standards and, unlike its public network equivalent (GSM-P or 2G), the railway radio system has not been developed into 3 or offerings. o how long can GSM-R exist and what are the implications for the longer term? This subject was extensively discussed at the recent RailTel conference in Vienna with some illuminating facts emerging.

GSM as a standard Whilst newer technologies have emerged, GSM-P or 2G systems continue to be used by a significant proportion of the population worldwide. There can be no escape from this and the European Radio Licensing authorities, under instruction from the EU, have to keep the technology supported until 2025. The mobile radio supply industry must equally continue to supply products for this period, meaning that these radio sets will continue to be made and sold. The same situation should exist for GSM-R where there remain two suppliers of infrastructure (Siemens and Kapsch, the latter acquiring the erstwhile Nortel business) plus sufficient makers of train radio equipment.

The UK GSM-R network is now fully operational in the south of the country and has replaced the National Radio Network (NRN) between the Wash and the Severn. It will be extended to the whole country shortly and, whilst the Cab Secure Radio systems operating in the South East will remain for the time being, eventually these too will transfer to GSM-R. Other countries are also moving to nationwide networks so a lot of capital has been invested. Railway management would not be impressed if it were to be announced that GSM had to be switched off within, say, five years!

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GPRS and ERTMS GSM was designed primarily for voice communication, this being foreseen as the prime need at the time - early 1990s. Its capacity for sending data has always been somewhat limited and the growth of texting and internet connections meant that some improved data capacity would be needed. Within the GSM standard has thus been developed the General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) which, instead of establishing a connection to a mobile and holding it, sends data in small packets to different mobiles near-simultaneously. The GPRS service has been available on the public networks for some time, much use of it being made by people needing internet connectivity.

The ERTMS programme has similarly encountered data capacity problems with its GSM-R bearer and only a circuit switched connection (i.e. the connection to a train is held continuously) is currently approved for ETCS operation. This has meant that, in busy traffic areas such as terminal stations and complex junctions, there is insufficient capacity to have all the trains connected to the system. As such, railways have resorted to conventional lineside signalling in these localities. So why not use GPRS? Tests done so far might have indicated some evidence of packet loss but this is being disputed. Signal engineers, being a conservative breed, thereby declared GPRS as ‘not proven’ and have insisted on keeping circuit switching, a decision that is unsustainable.

Mindful of the problem, the ERTMS Users Group based in Brussels has commissioned a new set of trials that have progressed beyond the laboratory testing stage and are now progressing to field tests. These will be conducted firstly on a typical suburban line, secondly

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The Future of GSM-R

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and its Possible Replacement on a high speed line and finally on a line that crosses a country border. The trial will include the Hertford Loop section in the UK, where a lass 313 EMU is being equipped for extensive ERTMS proving trials before a final commitment to rolling out the technology on the Great Western main line. Tests will also be done on a TGV Unit in France to prove the high speed element.

In parallel, the ETCS specifications are being modified in anticipation of GPRS operation which will impact on the delay performance for timely packet delivery, modifications to the coding criteria and a network assisted cell change.

Every indication is that GPRS will be successful. No evidence of packet loss has so far occurred. The final outcome is crucial as, without GPRS, the whole ERTMS program is at risk since circuit switching will not enable any national roll out right to the ‘buffer stops’ and a mixture of signalling technology will continue to be necessary. The data demands of ETCS are not great but they need to be continually available otherwise movement authority data will be lost. Calculations indicate that a GPRS based service will be adequate for the task within the present dedicated frequency allocation of 4MHz uplink and downlink of the GSM-R band.

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Another twist in the situation is whether GSM-R networks should be migrated to IP (Internet Protocol). Existing GSM-R networks rely on TDM (Time-Division Multiplexing) infrastructure that is not IP compatible. Jochen Nowotny from Kapsch suggested that preparation for a transition to IP needs to happen since the telecom industry will progressively standardise around secured mobile IP access, a process that was conceived more than ten years ago. Above all, safety of connection must be maintained since both voice calls and the ETCS bearer have safety implications.

IP interfaces should follow the adoption of GPRS. A sensible plan will be to prepare the infrastructure first, leaving the mobile radios as the ‘last mile’ of the transition.

If achieved, this will converge with the evolution of other standards used for secure communication that potentially could make GSM-R a workable system for long after the 2025 date proposed.

Beyond GSM-R There has been considerable speculation as to what will eventually replace GSM-R with much talk, principally by some radio equipment suppliers, that LTE (Long Term Evolution) within a 4G service is the answer. Detecon, a specialist consultative firm based in Germany which has studied and advised on railway radio technology for many years, has investigated the possibilities. Certainly, LTE has a much higher data handling capability than GSM. A high peak data rate, greater than 100Mbit/sec with 150Mbit/sec maximum, will be possible. Using an IP based flat architecture, flexible bandwidth allocations of 1.25MHz, 2.5MHz and up to 20MHz will be available. High spectrum efficiency for both uplink and downlink ‘round trip’ times will be much better than GSM - typically 10msec as against 150msec.

The word ‘evolution’ is important as LTE is a mixture of well proven techniques combined with other standards and technology. Duplex operation can be either in separate frequency bands or a single time-shared band. LTE spectrum in Europe will initially be in the 0.8GHz, 1.8GHz and 2.6 GHz bands. As other

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the rail engineer • April 2013

Signalling interlocking

Telephone concentrator

Office telephones

Signaller’s telephone

GSM-R Mobile Switching Centre (MSC)

Telecoms Engineering Control

mobile services are closed, additional spectrum in the 0.85GHz, 0.9GHz and 1.9GHz bands is likely. Applications such as on-board CCTV surveillance, passenger entertainment and information, and maintenance diagnostics will all be possible. Products are not yet readily available but, as the service takes off, so the price will fall. Backward compatibility with existing networks and enhanced interoperability will be a requirement.

There is a downside: LTE has been conceived as a data highway and voice services may be difficult. Although voice over IP (VoIP) is reasonably well established, it is not readily useable on LTE at the present level of maturity. oice calls remain currently on the 2 and 3 networks. Since GSM-R was conceived for track to train speech, this situation is a show stopper in the short term. Group call and call priority requirements, also back to back radio operation and local call routing, are all under consideration but it will be some time before they become available. The specifications for voice services in LTE, even in the public sector, are not due to be finalised until mid-2014 with roll out unlikely before 2016.

So, whilst LTE will offer many advantages over GSM-R, migration is probably not going to be a practical proposition until 2022. This will give some comfort to railway management in terms of getting a payback on the considerable investment already spent.

So where are we?

GSM-R has taken a long time to get established. With GPRS it can do the job it was designed for, including supporting ETCS operation, and should remain in service until at least 2025. By sensitive negotiation with the licensing authorities, it may well be able to continue longer than that. As such, the lifecycle should be much more aligned to what railways expect for technology.

When change does come, there are a number of questions to answer: » Will there need to be special features built into LTE to satisfy railway requirements if that is the eventual chosen system, such as an LTE-R? The consensus seems to be ‘No’, since deviating from standard products means higher cost and long development times.

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» Will there need to be a dedicated frequency allocation for railway use? Opinion is divided on this, although some moves are already being made to reserve spectrum for ‘public services’ operation including fire, police and ambulance. If this transpires, the railways could well be part of it. » Will there need to be a dedicated railway radio infrastructure - masts, towers, base stations, etc?

Again, opinion is divided with one vision being to build networks on a shared basis with other operators. alculations indicate this would lead to a 30% cost reduction. » How would a future LTE network operate for the railway? If a shared network proposition were to be established could this create an ‘IP cloud’ that would connect a network control centre to the relevant group of base stations. » It is likely that Gateways will be designed to link LTE to earlier radio systems. How will this work with GSM-R and will this be the solution for a migratory path?

So, there is some comfort in the short term but time marches on. It only seems like yesterday that GSM-R was first thought about but it is in fact 20 years ago.

In less time than that, it will be necessary to decide what will replace it, so resting on one’s laurels would be foolish. Railway telecom and radio engineers need to continue collaboration at a European (actually worldwide) level to keep abreast of what is happening and actively plan for the future.

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the rail engineer • April 2013

Rail comms across Europe (RailTel 2013)

GSM-R performance

CLIVE KESSELL

T

he strategic importance of telecommunications in the provision of rail services cannot be over emphasised. Keeping abreast of all that is happening can be quite a challenge, hence the recent second RailTel conference in Vienna. A gathering of the great and the good discussed and learned the latest updates and offerings on a European-wide perspective, much of which was revealing in more ways than one. A new word - Infotainment - seems to have crept into the dictionary but what is it and what does it do?

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The performance of GSM-R tended to dominate the proceedings and the consequences of combating unwanted interference on this supposedly guarded radio network made for some surprises. Every country seems to be experiencing this in weaker signal areas including the UK where radio lock ups on the East Coast and Great Western routes seem to be caused by erroneous signal emissions from O2 and Vodafone. Fixes in Sweden have centred around the provision of filters on the train equipment and, although successful, these have raised concerns that interoperability could be impaired.

A new version of GSM-R software is to be launched that should cure the lock up problem.

The use of GSM-R beyond track-to-train voice calls and as a bearer for ERTMS has long been a goal. RFF (the Network Rail of France) has carried out tests at Metz to see whether GSM-R handsets can replace the present station and depot local

radio systems. From a coverage perspective, and this will depend on the proximity of base stations, the results are good. Radio traffic on the present systems is, however, quite heavy and the constant radio messages would seem to equate to about 8 GSM-R traffic channels, which is not a practical proposition.

One solution is to provide a low cost local Tetra system with a gateway to GSM-R thus affording onward operational connections. By implication, this would mean designing dual mode radio handsets, unlikely to be financially viable in view of the very small market. Obtaining additional GSM-R spectrum to give an extended band would also seem to be a pipedream.

It therefore looks likely that standalone radio systems for major station and depot control, with their inherent advantage of allowing open channel communication, will remain for the foreseeable future.

The future of GSM-R and its possible future replacement is discussed in a separate article.

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the rail engineer • April 2013

Tetra rumbles on Despite GSM-R having been adopted as the standard for main line track-to-train radio communication for nigh on 15 years, there are still those who advocate a change to Tetra. The latter has become the de facto standard for metro systems and good performance is being obtained. The investment in GSM-R has, however, been made and it is too late to contemplate a change. So please, Tetra manufacturers, pipe down and accept that when the time to renew GSM-R arrives, it will be to a more modern radio specification. As someone said: ‘Do not replace one old technology with another old one’.

WiFi to all trains This subject has been aired before in The Rail Engineer with growing numbers of UK train fleets being equipped for passenger WiFi usage. 21 Net using predominantly satellite coverage and Nomad Digital employing the extension of terrestrial networks have been the dominant players. Similar roll out is happening elsewhere and Finnish Railways (VR) are implementing a countrywide service.

Some interesting challenges have emerged. Apart from its fleet of Pendolino trains, VR continues to operate locomotive hauled stock where train make ups are not consistent; coaches can be added or removed according to traffic needs.

How then to get reliable WiFi signals throughout a train?

The VR solution is to ensure the end carriages of a train are equipped with a Cisco router that have the capability and logic to connect to adjacent carriages by means of a 5GHz wireless modem link. In effect, a WLAN (wireless local area network) is created in each coach (WiFi hotspot). Thus each router is connected to the WLAN, which in turn connects to mobile devices via a 2.4GHz signal. Connectivity with the trains is achieved via the commercial mobile operators of which there are four, and permits the simultaneous use of 2G, 3G and 3.5G networks, each of which combines by mutual consent to provide continuous service.

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Thus emerges the concept of ‘Infotainment’ for both train operator and passenger use. Initially free to First Class and chargeable to Standard passengers, the decision has now been made to make it free to all. The bandwidth available allows reasonable service applications and includes in house train diagnostics and passport checks. Still to come will be real time passenger information, credit card verification, automatic ticketing on suburban routes and some on board entertainment. Realism is needed, however, and video streaming will not be permitted. There is a 78% satisfaction rate. Roaming between different operators is a problem at high speed and negotiations with operators to invest in more base station coverage are difficult.

A second scenario on the WiFi theme was provided by Nuovo Trasporto Viaggiatori (NTV), one of the new Italian High Speed operators. Started in 2012 from Salerno via Rome to Turin and

47

Venice, each 11-coach train provides 450 seats in three class categories - Club, Prima and Smart, the latter being the equivalent of standard.

The onboard WiFi is satellite derived for up to 70% of the time but embraces three external connectivity technologies for maximum coverage.

A fibre optic backbone is employed for cross carriage access. In Club, passengers have an individual 9” screen, elsewhere there are coach mounted screens plus a dedicated cinema coach. Infotainment includes provision of movies and e-books but the main thrust is access to the internet, where traffic levels are growing fast. Coverage in tunnels is limited to 3G services.

Closely linked to WiFi is the provision of public mobile services to trains where normal coverage is deficient, typically tunnels. The public increasingly demands continuous communication and call drop out is becoming unacceptable. The Rail Engineer (issue 95, September 2012) reported on the work by Eurotunnel

Infotainment includes provision of movies and e-books but the main thrust is access to the internet, where traffic levels are growing fast.

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the rail engineer • April 2013

to provide GSM-P although this needed bilateral agreement with mobile operators on both sides of the Channel. To date, the situation remains that only the south tunnel (France to England) is equipped - hopefully the north tunnel will become operational later this year. Early results are encouraging with 00, 1 00 and 2100Mh services working well. At least the technology is proven.

Infotainment to the extreme A visionary view from Siemens suggested that, in a few years time, the course of the average person’s day will be steered by access to smart phones and tablets. Already, indications are that 50% of internet traffic is video, 0% of family entertainment budgets are spent on video and games, and 55% of mobiles are smart phones. In the rail sector, such technology is well established in ticketing and reservations, but could it be extended to other things?

Maps and positioning could be one application whereby travellers would be guided by their device to the right station, the right platform and the correct on-train seat. Online web services will accompany the passenger for the whole journey with reliable updates on progress, train delay, connections at ongoing stations, news and, of course, entertainment.

Payment and bonus systems (akin to buy one, get one free) will be part of the equation, but can the systems provide all this and will there be enough bandwidth? One could not help thinking as to the future need for a normal human brain; the ability to think for oneself seems to be in danger and what happens when the device battery fails?

The importance of customer information A back to basics approach on CIS was needed, so said Jason Durk from National Rail Enquiries, part of ATOC. What do passengers really want and expect, what is the industry vision and what strategy should be adopted?

Surveys have indicated that information on train times and platforms yields 3% satisfaction, during journeys this drops

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to 72% and providing train running details during disruption scores only %. f 30 priorities, this latter ranked only fifth which is somewhat surprising. Timely, relevant, accurate and consistent information is the plea. No-one pretends that this is easy, but ATOC and the TOCs are working to make things better. Project Darwin (named because of its continual evolution) was also described in issue 5 of The Rail Engineer (September 2012) and aims to » Interface resource allocation in the Network Rail timetable and train running data; » Interface Network Rail data into the customer timetable; » Develop train location awareness and feed into Darwin; » Provide Darwin data to all stations; » Provide a Darwin feed for use in on-train information systems.

Above all, there is a need for honesty. When things are going badly wrong during periods of major disruption, don’t give false hope by making unrealistic predictions on train arrivals or services, and suppress systems that operate in automatic mode to say next train is on time. If the train service is having to be planned on a minute by minute basis, then say so.

So where does the future lie?

So where does all this lead us? Hans Bier from the European Railway Agency (ERA) observed the dichotomy between the telecom industry with its high rate of innovation and rapidly changing technology and the rail industry that needs a higher stability of product with interoperability, sustainability and standardisation being high on the agenda.

Compromises will be needed to protect the investment already made in rail operational systems whilst allowing the demand for growth in infotainment to keep pace with emerging concepts. GSM-R based systems should expect a 15 year life minimum but further development should be restricted only to protect against cyber and security attacks

and to ensure data integrity is maintained in any recovery from a disaster situation.

The principles for migration to a future system must be: the maintenance of interoperability, the use of ‘off the shelf’ equipment, a demand for higher availability and reliability, and a lifetime cycle of 20 years.

To obtain credibility within the manufacturing community, the licensing authorities and the EU regulators, the railways must act collectively to produce a common specification using workshops and questionnaires to determine requirements. Just how the railways in their increasingly fragmented state will be able to produce a collective voice may well have to be the first challenge The UK take on all this was given by Tom Lee from RSSB who described the Rail Technical Strategy, jointly prepared by Network Rail, the TOCs, ORR and DfT, which has a telecom element that sets out the need for real time intelligent traffic management systems. High speed, high capacity voice and data systems must be there to support the growth of traffic. Mobile comms are calculated to be 11% operational and 89% infotainment.

GSM-R investment, including provision of 2500 towers and masts, has had an underpinning business case and must be allowed to give a financial return. With potential gateways to other operators in the future, the infrastructure requirement might reduce if shared services can be agreed. 3 different applications for on board mobile services have been identified, but can both safety critical and infotainment be combined on a single link?

The antenna system for on train coverage needs early investigation: will a single aerial, maybe with onboard fibre distribution, suffice or will it require a distributed aerial system on all coaches? With migration from GSM-R likely to begin in 2023, firstly for safety services and from 2025 for other applications, there is much thinking and trialling to be done.

There can be no doubt that telecommunications services are core to the operation of trains. Outsourcing has been tried before in the UK and Germany with both rail authorities having to rebuild or claw back their own telecom networks. The public sector service providers have far easier ways of achieving business success without having to enter the complexities and complications associated with the provision of services to the operational railway. A joint approach to the infotainment business may be the only way of delivering passenger expectations for the total journey.

Whatever happens, the next few years are going to be interesting.

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the rail engineer • April 2013

Preventing signalling power failures

T

he UK rail industry is experiencing unprecedented growth with twice as many passengers and a doubling of freight expected by 2035. The need to maintain a reliable service is paramount, and signalling power failures can be one of the primary causes of train delays.

The 50 legacy power network was first built in the 1 50s with signalling power feeders extending up to 10 kilometres with a single supply point with a fuse at source, and multiple location cases distributed trackside. In the event of a cable fault or theft, the fuse will rupture and the signals will turn black, causing trains to stop and delay minutes to start. During this time a maintainer will be called to site to locate the fault, repair the cable and restore supply, which can take up to five hours. While the severity of the delay may be minimal on rural routes, on key routes such as the West Coast main line (WCML) the delay costs can easily run into hundreds of thousands of pounds with a direct impact on route reliability and customer satisfaction.

Major routes

Improving reliability and availability

SIGNET is a ‘smart grid’ that is designed to maintain the supply of power. In the event of a fault, or even when a section of the power cable is stolen, the SIGNET switches first open in order to protect the power system and then re-configure the network in order to isolate the faulted or missing section and provide continuity of supply. Once the fault has been repaired or the missing cable replaced, SIGNET will put the network back into its original configuration.

Designed, developed and implemented by Camlin Rail nearly ten years ago and installed strategically on the West Coast Main Line,

Major routes can more readily justify the capital expenditure for a signalling renewal scheme to replace unreliable legacy networks.

However, this is not always the case for minor routes.

Solutions to the problem of quickly and safely restoring power to failed sections are a speciality of the Lisburn-based company Camlin Rail, the only Network Rail approved supplier of automatic reconfiguration for signalling power - SIGNET. This technology can provide cost effective solutions for all types of routes:

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SIGNET - Fully automatic re-configurable power system with SIGNETs located throughout the feeder.

Minor routes SIGNET - Partial automatic re-configuration with SIGNETs deployed at strategic locations throughout the feeder.

TRANSFLEKT - Fixed intelligent fault technology to automatically report the location of a cable fault or theft. Suitable for radial feeders operating at any voltage below 50 .

Major and Minor routes REFLEKT - Portable, fast and simple fault location for power and signalling cables.

But what is SIGNET?

SIGNET is available as a Class I or Class II product and is suitable for 00 or 50 signalling power feeders.

SIGNET is applicable to double or single end fed feeders but double end fed is more common.

A double end feeder is powered from both ends via a PSP (Principal Supply Point) with an open point in the middle to prevent joining two independent power supplies together. FSPs (Functional Supply Points) are installed trackside and they distribute the power to the signals and points. The feeder is completely intelligent as each FSP contains a SIGNET to dynamically control the flow of power throughout the feeder.

SIGNET is the last line of defence on signalling power feeders so it is absolutely critical that it operates first time every time in order to maintain signalling supply. In order achieve such high levels of performance, SIGNET underwent several months of rigorous testing and scrutiny by leading Network Rail power and software engineers.

Protecting the West Coast main line Cable theft is a national issue, unpredictable in nature, and causes widespread disruption on key routes. SIGNET has proved to be an invaluable tool in countering the problems caused by cable theft by automatically isolating the missing section of cable and re-configuring the power to maintain supply to the signals with no effect on train movements and no delays. Following a fault condition, SIGNET provides intelligence to asset management through automatic alerts including feeder location and the identification of the faulted section.

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camlinrail.com

SIGNET

Automatic Re-configuration for Signalling Power

Eliminates train delays Automatic restoration of supply Counteracts cable theft by re-configuring power supply Saves time and money Over 550 SIGNETS installed on West Coast Mainline Available for 650V and 400V, IT or TN signalling schemes. Class I & Class II compliant Only Network Rail approved supplier of automatic re-configuration Network Rail PADS approval numbers: SIGNET 650 - 086/047605 SIGNET 400 - 054/212640

Please visit us at Railtex 2013 Earls Court, Stand number E111 Don’t miss our technical seminar on 30th April, 13:10 at Railtex 2013 ‘Automatic re-configuration for signalling power’

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the rail engineer • April 2013

ver 550 I NET units are currently installed and operating on the West Coast main line, the busiest route in the UK which connects ondon to lasgow and carries over 30 million passengers annually. SIGNET is responsible for ensuring power is continually delivered to the signalling systems and, over the last ten years, has performed thousands of successful operations saving time and money for the route operator while improving the reliability and quality of train services.

There are several variations on the SIGNET theme, using the same tried and tested technology.

TRANSFLEKT - automated distance to fault Radial feeders on minor or rural routes largely sit untouched year after year until a fault develops or a theft occurs which stops trains. The majority of these feeders do have some intelligence with insulation monitors but is this enough for today’s busy network?

Insulation resistance tends to drop in wet weather so maintenance knows there is an insulation breakdown somewhere on the feeder but where? If a cable fails completely, either a short or open circuit, how do you locate it safely and efficiently and minimise the impact of a delay?

TRANSFLEKT, using Camlin Rail’s unique fault location technology, solves all of these problems by reporting the location of a fault directly to an engineer’s smartphone, enabling the user to locate the fault more effectively, restore power and get trains running again.

TRANSFLEKT only needs to be installed at the end of the feeder, in the last location case, which keeps installation time to an absolute minimum. In addition, no specialist skills are required to install a TRANSFLEKT so it can be easily installed by the local maintenance team.

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REFLEKT - Fast and simple fault location REFLEKT, a portable and intelligent fault locator, has been specifically designed to locate a cable fault by fully automating the fault location process. REFLEKT is robust and can be connected live so there is no requirement to power down a feeder which may isolate a major junction and cause further delay.

Even an inexperienced user simply has to connect a REFLEKT to the cable conductors, pre-select the cable data from the REFLEKT database, and press ‘start auto’. A distance to fault will automatically be provided within three minutes.

Service, training and support Product training is available for the complete Camlin Rail product range and support packages can be tailored to suit any specific customer requirements. It is vital that maintenance teams are professionally trained and certified to manage automatic reconfiguration from a system level, safely and effectively.

Each training course is held in a stateof-the-art low voltage test network which incorporates two live signalling power feeders, with multiple Ps, operating at 50 and 00 . This unique test facility provides maintenance teams with the opportunity to learn about the SIGNET system in a safe and controlled environment. The course is Network Rail certified with each maintainer gaining certification on successful completion which is added to their Oracle training record.

Camlin Rail, part of the Camlin Group, supplies a range of innovative products to the global rail industry.

The Camlin Group, with its subsidiaries Kelvatek, Camlin Rail and Camlin Power, is a privately owned holding company with a distinguished 30 year history within the global utility and rail sectors.

Camlin headquarters are based in Lisburn, Northern Ireland, with engineering and customer support facilities located around the world.

Due to the continued growth of its UK rail business Camlin has formed a dedicated subsidiary, Camlin Rail, in order to ensure continued innovation and support for the UK rail sector. The railway team remains unchanged under Paul Fleming and we look forward to meeting all our customers at Railtex.

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Common Safety Method Risk evaluation and assessment on the UK railway 4RAINING s 3AFETY ENGINEERING s )NDEPENDENT ASSESSMENT

If you are managing an engineering, operational or organisational project on the UK mainline railway you are now required to comply with the European Regulation for a Common Safety Method on Risk Evaluation and Assessment (CSM RA), which came fully into effect in July 2012.

In response to increased demand, we are hosting an extended programme of CSM RA training courses to help guide rail professionals through the requirements and implications of this regulation.

For course information: www.lr.org/commonsafetymethod Or call: +44 (0)1332 268728

Stay in touch with developments by joining the Common Safety Method on Risk Evaluation and Assessment (CSM RA) group on LinkedIn.

Lloyd’s Register is a trading name of the Lloyd’s Register Group of entities.

Services are provided by members of the Lloyd’s Register Group, for details see www.lr.org/entities

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the rail engineer • April 2013

Xtend-sive coverage V

ideo analytics is the use of computer intelligence to perform repetitive surveillance tasks. Typical applications include monitoring a site for intruders (for example depots and track for cable thieves) or unusual behaviour at level crossings where pattern and direction of movement of people and vehicles should conform to prescribed norms.

environmentally-friendly mobile unit is adapted from the industry leading, Network Rail approved M T - 0 mobile lighting tower.

Xtend has been purpose-built to be transportable across difficult terrain to remote locations of high value or vulnerability on railway routes. These can include storage depots and temporary work locations where plant and assets remain in situ overnight. The product can create a sterile zone or ‘virtual tripwire’ around significant targets containing copper cable and other valuable metal components during engineering works.

Protecting worksites

ALEX RENTON, SENIOR SYSTEM ENGINEER, VITAL TECHNOLOGY

To date, this technology has been underused in the rail sector.

However, take-up should now increase with the introduction of a mobile rapid-deployment tower system consisting of CCTV cameras mounted to a hydraulic extendable mast, onboard analytics, integrated power supply and the ability to send email alerts straight to a smart device or Alarm Receiving Centre.

More than just motion detection One must not confuse video analytics with cruder ‘motion detection’ systems. These generate

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alarms on movement but are unable to distinguish more complex target behaviour such as legitimate train traffic and therefore they can create nuisance alarms.

Vital Technology has exploited recent advances in intelligent scene analysis to develop Xtend. This offers rail infrastructure operators and TOCs a nine-metre high, 3 0 of rotation tower with four CCTV cameras operating from a ruggedised trailer unit. The trailer is manufactured in Lincolnshire by Vital’s collaborative partner, Morris ite Machinery. The M Eco- 0

Any current observer of the UK rail network will have noted extensive cable-pulling projects and the running of new fibre and copper along the lines themselves.

Plant and cable are being left trackside and great demands are being made of manned guarding resources. Route managers can now protect cable-pulling and troughing equipment, with the Xtend trailer units simply moving down the line as works progress.

Network operators will appreciate that Xtend can be used at railside locations prone to flooding where fixed mounting poles are impractical. Engineers and site safety managers should therefore consider using the unit at locations with varied topography where CCTV has never been contemplated before. At hazardous locations including earthworks, Controllers of Site Safety (COSS) now have a new means of supervising operations and implementing safety codes, with convenient playback of highresolution footage for instructional purposes. eighing 50kgs, tend can be taken to virtually any location accessible by a vehicle or it can be winched into cuttings.

Alarms are not limited to intrusion. Xtend differentiates between a range of target types

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the rail engineer • April 2013

and behaviours, performing analysis according to specifications that include filters on direction, presence and speed of movement.

Detecting no motion The system can also generate an alarm if a target is stationary where it should not be (e.g. a vehicle stalled on a level crossing) or at crossings where pedestrians behave in an irresponsible manner.

Another scenario is ‘loitering’ where a target is taking too long to move through an area, e.g. a person contemplating suicide from a bridge.

Here, the analytics generates an alarm on the situation, prompting human intelligence to assess the atypical movement pattern which can of course be for many reasons.

Statistics collated by the Rail Safety and Standards Board (RSSB) show that there were 2 5 suicides on the UK rail network in 200 , this being four percent of the national total. Video analytics is proving increasingly successful in alerting on suicidal behaviour. There are, of course, limitations to how artificial intelligence interprets human behaviour, but the inevitable false positives are a small price to pay in terms of the humanitarian cost, which may include driver trauma.

Rapid deployment Xtend can be delivered to a location that has temporarily become hazardous or the target of anti-social behaviour (e.g. a railway station) in a matter of hours and the presence of the unit can act as an immediate deterrent. Facilities

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managers will be aware that the process of researching a CCTV installation, buying cameras, carrying out groundwork for poles/masts takes a minimum of six weeks.

Network operators should also note that Xtend can prove invaluable when new station projects are at an intermediate stage or when stations are being refurbished.

As with rail suicides, Xtend can also protect the public by creating alarms in the (surprisingly common) scenario of misguided would-be cable thieves attacking live overhead line equipment (OLE), behaviour that is more common in the tram sector than on railway networks.

The Xtend system requires absolutely no local infrastructure for implementation; it is fully selfpowered and will operate on its diesel generator for over 250 hours using the CCTV only. A battery option is available and if the site is near permanent infrastructure, Xtend can be mains-powered.

Incidentally, at an additional cost in terms of fuel consumption, engineers can use the trailer to power tools, lighting and welfare facilities.

Talking back A core feature of Xtend is that notifications of unusual and potentially threatening situations can be sent via email to a PC or any ‘smart’ device including mobile phones. This functionality can be combined with the more traditional method of review at Alarm Receiving Centres (ARCs). Video transmission can be a local-wired connection

55

or via point-to-point wireless allowing links of over one kilometre. tend also exploits 3 and satellite transmission so it can be used almost in the middle of nowhere.

The extent of the views from the four cameras with the hydraulic mast extended to its full nine metres means that large premises and sites can be protected. Cameras can be high-definition and up to 3 x oom, while rail operators who need to secure extensive perimeters may opt for a combination of conventional (day/night) cameras with thermal imaging cameras which will detect heat signatures. The daylight cameras can also switch to mono after nightfall, improving image quality during the hours of low light, especially when combined with infrared illuminators.

Xtend relieves management of the obligation to ensure that hours of eventless video footage is monitored by security guards. The system only processes meaningful data i.e. unusual situations that may pose a security or safety threat. In this way, the product optimises use of computer bandwidth and storage space.

For rail clients who need to respond promptly at lineside hotspots in difficult locations or protect their assets at depots, yards, halts and stations, Xtend offers a flexible, realtime security solution 24/7.

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the rail engineer • April 2013

One month to Railtex HEIDI COTSWORTH, EXHIBITION MANAGER RAILTEX 2013

F

inal preparations are now being made for our eleventh Railtex exhibition, which takes place at Earls Court in London from 30 April until 2 May. By the time the show opens, we will have more than 400 exhibitors taking part, including many of the industry’s best known names. Advance details of some participants’ plans for the show appear on the following pages, adding weight to our own findings that there will be plenty new on offer for all sectors of the market.

A key innovation in the exhibition hall this year will be The Yard. This display area for larger items of equipment such as road-rail vehicles was very well received when we introduced it at Infrarail 2012 in Birmingham and promises to be a highlight of Railtex.

Also new is the Derby & Derbyshire Rail Forum Hub, grouping together stands of some of its East Midlands members.

QUALITY / SAFETY / RELIABILITY MECHAN RAIL DEPOT EQUIPMENT We design, manufacture, supply and maintain a comprehensive range of equipment for use in Rail Depots and Workshops. Standard and bespoke designs are available to suit customer requirements. Customers include Freightliner, Direct Rail Services and Electromotive.

RANGE INCLUDES

• Locomotive Lifting Jacks up to 45t capacity • Bogie and Wheelset Changing Systems • Turntables and Traversers for Locomotives • Bogie Rotators • Equipment Handling & Storage solutions • Shunting Vehicles Davy Industrial Park Prince of Wales Road Sheffield S9 4EX

info@mechan.co.uk www.mechan.co.uk +44 (0)114 257 0563

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There will be a similar presence by members of the Rail Alliance, and the now familiar On-Track Display sponsored by Tata Steel will again see lengths of track laid in the hall to showcase rail-mounted products.

As well as providing an opportunity to meet the industry’s suppliers and learn more about their latest technologies and products, Railtex includes many extra

features to make your visit worthwhile. The programme for the seminars hosted by the rail engineer magazine appeared in last month’s issue. There is no need to pre-book a place at these sessions - they are open to all and are free.

In addition, in the Project Update Theatre visitors can join briefings on several of Network Rail’s key projects and on HS2 and the IEP rolling stock programme, as well as presentations on international themes. Participation is again free, as it is at another new Railtex feature, The Platform with daily interactive discussion sessions on current industry topics.

You might even take the next step on your career path after checking the skills needs of Railtex exhibitors on the Recruitment Wall. And if you have been lucky enough to get a ticket for the first Railtex Awards dinner, we hope to see you there.

Remember that if you preregister via the show website www.railtex.co.uk entry to the exhibition is free. Online

registration is open until 29 April.

Non-registered visitors will be asked to pay a 20 entrance fee on the day. The website also gives show opening times, a full list of exhibitors and details of all activities taking pace during Railtex.

We look forward to welcoming you at Earls Court and hope that everyone taking part has a successful and enjoyable show.

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RailwayPeople.com Fast track your career

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HR, RECRUITMENT & SKILLS AWARDS

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the rail engineer • April 2013

GRAND OPENING

» Rt Hon Simon Burns MP Minister of State for Transport » Stephen Brooks Chairman, Mack Brooks Exhibitions » Jeremy Candfield Director General, Railway Industry Association

The Scope of EMC Assurance in Rail EMC in Railways is more than just meeting the European EN50121-x series of standards. This presentation will describe the scope of EMC assurance for Railway projects.

The following will be considered: The operating environment must undergo a hazard identification. When analysed this will form the EMC hazard log, inform the overall EMC specification and the EMC Management plan for specific requirements. Hence a formal EMC assurance programme is required for all railway projects. In addition each railway may have its own standards/guidance e.g. Network Rail and London Underground.

Because EMC is dependent on the earthing and bonding strategy employed, this activity is very often within the

Keynote: Minister of State for Transport With investment in the railways at record levels, both in the UK and elsewhere, Minister of State for Transport imon Burns will use his keynote speech to Railtex 2013 to address some of the big issues facing the industry.

Much has been spoken of in the national press about the need to increase performance and capacity, and the Minister will take time to outline the Government’s ideas on how to do this. Mindful of his audience, Simon Burns will also look at what this could mean in terms of possible opportunities for suppliers.

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The eleventh Railtex exhibition opens and reflects the vibrancy of the railway industry in the UK today.

A panel consisting of the Minister of State for Transport, the Director General of the Railway Industry Association and the Chairman of exhibition organisers Mack Brooks will comment on opportunities for the rail sector and welcome visitors to Railtex 2013.

CHRIS MARSHMAN

DEVELOPMENT DIRECTOR YORK EMC SERVICES

scope of the EMC section of an ITT requirement and, in consequence, structure touch potentials. Poor earthing and bonding can lead to stray currents, these occur when the return current collector system does not provide the lowest impedance to earth. These effects are worse when DC and AC railways are in close proximity and track circuit immunisation is inadequate.

At the outset of a project such as HS2, EMC should be considered within the Environmental Impact Statement and may be a factor in any public enquiry.

It can be seen that EMC affects the ‘RAMS’ of a project.

Last but not least the ‘S’ is for Safety and it is vital, for example, that rolling stock should not interfere with signalling systems.

RT HON SIMON BURNS MP

MINISTER OF STATE FOR TRANSPORT

One way to work more efficiently is to work differently, and the Minister will include his thoughts on how to encourage innovation and challenge existing thinking. But effective work on the railway needs the right skills and capability, and this is another area that Simon Burns will address as being fundamental to the Government’s plans for investing in the railway.

25/03/2013 19:04

the rail engineer • April 2013

G-RASTx

59

GIOCONDA

The New Process for Route Assessment & Signal Sighting with Automated SSF Creation

Q Driver’s POV Filming Q Route Assessment & Logging Q Q Automatic SSF Generation Q Full Signal Sighting Service Q Signal Immunisation Q Q 3D Modelling Q Driver Briefing Packages Q Gioconda Limited Telephone 01622 872512 email mail@gioconda.co.uk www.gioconda.co.uk

PROVIDING ASSURANCE FOR THE RAILWAY INDUSTRY An established market leader for EMC Consultancy, Testing and Training services.

Years of expertise, experience and a solid track record of solving EMC problems and demonstrating EMC for railway projects in the UK and worldwide.

Visit

www.yorkemc.co.uk

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+44 (0)1904 324440 AD0002A

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the rail engineer • April 2013

Signal Sighting Forms: Taking the pain out of creation Signal Sighting Forms (SSFs) have long been regarded as a pain to produce by their creators and invariably take an age to get signed off by SSC (signal sighting committee) members.

With this in mind, and with the growing acceptance of Desktop Signal Sighting and the development of other design tools such as Intelligent Scheme Plan, Gioconda has responded to the many comments from SSC chairmen and design engineers by adding automated functionality to their Windows G-RASTx software in order to create and manage these forms.

SIMON GARDINER

MANAGING DIRECTOR GIOCONDA LIMITED

Gioconda’s presentation will take you through their integrated G-RASTx process for efficient form production covering: » Current and future G-RASTx developments; » Where the data can/should come from; » Auto form production, updating and maintaining; » Integrated diagrams and obscuration charts; » Linking to web hosted data; » Standalone form production and editing using the G-SSF editor.

The demonstration will cover data from several real projects including the recent East Kent Phase2 Re-signalling.

PAUL FLEMING

Automatic reconfiguration for signalling power Camlin Rail is the only Network Rail approved supplier of automatic re-configuration for signalling power – SIGNET. With passenger numbers reaching record levels and the requirement for more capacity on our trains growing by the day, it is essential that the network has a reliable supply of power. Power outages, failures and instances of theft are all too common on today’s network. SIGNET is completely tolerant to theft, cable failures and power outages by automatically configuring the network to maintain supply. With over 550 I NET installed and operating every week on West Coast, SIGNET automatically restores power to keep trains running resulting in no delay costs.

This seminar will cover why automatic re-configuration is

Applications of positioning and scanning technologies Track construction, track maintenance, asset management… all areas reliant on precise positional information, delivered with speed and accuracy. Trimble® Railway Solutions combine measurement with data management, communications and customised software to deliver in these key areas.

But how can positioning and scanning technology keep your operation running smoothly and safely?

This presentation will review how Trimble technology is being applied across the United Kingdom and the globe and why these solutions have been adopted. It will also take a comprehensive look at what the technology has delivered in each case. The overview will cover alignment planning projects in Australia, GPS/GNSS-machine guided railway

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GENERAL MANAGER CAMLIN RAIL

critical for key routes and why it is important to continually innovate and deliver new technology to the rail industry.

MATTHEW MOSS

RAILWAY APPLICATIONS ENGINEER TRIMBLE

RON BISIO

GENERAL MANAGER TRIMBLE

construction in Scotland and high precision slab-track construction for a high speed line on the border between France and Spain.

The presentation will then move across the Atlantic and examine the use of GPS/GNSS mapping in a U.S. Class I freight railroad and mobile scanning for ballast management at a North American railway services provider.

From feasibility studies through construction and operation, Trimble Railway Solutions have been developed to provide important benefits that enable advanced process and workflow integration for a more streamlined operation.

This presentation aims to show you how.

25/03/2013 19:04

Signalling Solutions is a leader in the provision of train control solutions in the UK, offering a complete range of services from design to full project delivery.

Our systems are capable of meeting the demands of modern railway networks, allowing safer and faster project installation and reducing whole life costs. We give you complete visibility and control over

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your network operations in real-time, increasing reliability and traffic flow.

Our solutions are ERTMS ready, in successful commercial operation and delivering significant benefits to operators across Europe.

Our expertise and experience in supporting the UKâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s rail network has placed us at the heart of innovation and technological development within the sector.

+44 (0) 1923 635 000

info@signallingsolutions.info

www.signallingsolutions.com

Signalling Solutions Limited, Bridgefoot House, Watling Street, Radlett, WD7 7HT

a Balfour Beatty and Alstom UK company

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the rail engineer • April 2013

Thermal imaging technology and analytics In this presentation, David Dorn discusses the application of thermal imaging technology and associated analytics as one of the main emerging trends in IP video security.

The deployment of thermal imagery in the rail industry provides many benefits over traditional CCTV technologies. Using self emitted energy, as opposed to visible video using reflected light, there are many fewer false alarms. Providing a much higher contrast of people to background, drastically improved analytics can be derived in any extreme light challenged application or location. Amongst the emerging use cases for thermal are public transportation, tunnels, platforms and storage areas, all of which are key areas

Wide Area Traffic Management Combining the technology and resources of Signalling Solutions, Alstom, ATOS and Parsons Brinckerhoff, Signalling Solutions Limited presents the Traffic Management system that provides wide area monitoring, co-ordination and view of train operator resource deployment and exceptions.

Its solution allows flexible integration with existing and future systems allowing a low risk migration to Traffic Management.

The system increases automation, enabling proactive and preventative disruption management to normal traffic flow.

Fewer delays are achieved through automatic route setting and proactive conflict detection and resolution allowing a greater consistency in service delivery.

Engaging with the rail industry Achilles Link-up, the UK rail industry’s supplier registration and pre-qualification scheme, is making an important transition to a new generation platform, ‘Link-up Engage’, as a result of collaboration in the industry. ‘Link-up Engage’ has been created ‘by the industry, for the industry’.

In this session, Annette Gevaert will discuss how buyers and suppliers have been working together to influence and develop how suppliers are pre-qualified and audit protocols are formulated to meet the needs of the entire industry. She will also discuss how ‘Link-up Engage’ will make it quicker and easier to enter company information, as well as search and find data. In addition, Annette will talk about how the pre-qualification questionnaire and product codes have been cut-down to reduce time.

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DAVID DORN

APPLIED TECHNOLOGIES MANAGER PELCO BY SCHNEIDER ELECTRIC

of the railway infrastructure. or the past 20 years, avid orn has led efforts that have advanced both the engineering and applications associated with camera system development at wavelengths from the ultraviolet to the thermal infrared.

In his role with video security industry leader, Pelco by Schneider Electric, David applies new technologies to build state-of-the-art cameras for some of the world’s most demanding security applications.

In a previous position, David led teams that built space-based cameras for scientific instruments aboard the Hubble Space telescope and camera systems for planetary missions to Mars and Pluto.

PIETRO ZINGARELLI

PROJECT MANAGER SIGNALLING SOLUTIONS LIMITED

The automation of traffic management enables the control of larger areas from a smaller number of operating centres, allowing flexibility in signaller and controller functions.

Identification of future risks such as path conflicts are achieved through real time monitoring as is proactive intervention and the system integrates an operations view across network and operator resources.

In summary the Traffic Management solution provides automation/integration, a reduction of reactionary delay, management of perturbations (including emergency possession), wide-area real time information and coordination, business continuity, reduces costs and is a fully integrated solution.

RICHARD SHARP CHAIRMAN RISQS

ANNETTE GEVAERT

DIRECTOR RAIL AND TRANSPORT ACHILLES INFORMATION LTD

Link-up Engage will result in lower prices for more than 0 per cent of suppliers on the community and will reduce time and effort spent on procurement activities by the 3,500 suppliers and 115 buying organisations already using Achilles Link-up.

A RISQS (Rail Industry Supplier Qualification Scheme) Board has been set up to govern Achilles Link-up with representation across the industry. Richard Sharp, RISQS Board Chair and Rail Compliance Manager at J Murphy & Sons Ltd will also join the stage to talk about the future vision of the scheme.

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We’ll keep you on the right track.

One surefire way to keep your business on the right track is to partner with the best. WVCO Railroad Division is the industry leader in innovative products and application systems for wood and concrete sleeper remediation.

We’ll keep your railway on the right track.

Call Trackwork today: +44 (0) 191 526 2114 • enquiries@trackwork.co.uk

For more information about WVCO WV CO R CO Railroad, aaiilr lroa oad, oa d, vvisit: isit is it: wvcorailroad.com it: wvvccoora raililrooaadd.ccom

Our products are the trusted solution for major railways all over North America (Burlington Northern Santa Fe, Canadian National, Canadian Pacific, CSX and Norfolk Southern), the United Kingdom, with distribution by Trackwork (Tube Lines and Metronet on The London Underground Network and The Tyne & Wear Metro), and in Europe (Infrabel, Belgium).

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the rail engineer • April 2013

Network Rail on the move: Looking forward to CP5 Network Rail is now making, indeed has already made, detailed plans for the five year period from 201 to 201 otherwise known as ontrol Period 5 P5). The programme will include a combination of planned maintenance and renewals, a degree of catching up from the earlier backlog, and a few exciting new projects. However, it is certain that Network Rail will once again be asked to deliver more for less money.

This is nothing new. Network Rail had to make substantial efficiency improvements to have any hope of meeting its targets in CP4, and that challenge is set to continue. Network Rail’s chairman, Richard Parry-Jones, will look forward to the challenges of P5 and the opportunities that it brings for both the company and the industry.

RICHARD PARRY-JONES

CHAIRMAN NETWORK RAIL

One way to keep improving efficiency and reducing costs is to continuously innovate and introduce new techniques and technologies. This in itself has sometimes been a challenge, but steps are being taken to streamline the system and make the introduction of new products and working practices quicker and easier to achieve.

However, the innovation process has to be driven by research and development, both by Network Rail and outside suppliers and contractors. Richard Parry-Jones will stress that, to enable Network Rail to hit its targets, the pace of development needs to increase. Doing so will bring huge benefits, not only for the railway, its owners, operators and suppliers, but for the travelling public as well.

Safety Relevant Human Machine Interface with Vital Data Indication and Safe Data Entry A typical ERTMS system places a speed display screen in front of the driver. For this application, TFT-based HMI (human machine interface) screens are very common. In a Fault-Tree-Analysis, the HMI is a crucial factor. The driver makes decisions based on information on his display (cab signals) which affect the safety of people and property.

In order to display safety relevant information, or for data input, the HMI may require complex systems such as monitoring and checking circuits in order to comply with safety standards. As well as the main application software, other software tools may need to be assessed and modified. Any change request needs an expensive and time-consuming new verification, validation and assessment process.

Increasing the useful life of sleepers using Polymers All railways are faced with increased capacity demands, both for passengers and freight. These put pressure on both existing and new infrastructure. Railways constantly analyse their assets in the network to provide safe, cost efficient transportation.

There are 2,500 to 3,300 sleepers per track mile, mostly wood or concrete. They all are assets and they all have a useful life. Sleepers undergo both natural degradation and physical degradation. In wood, splitting, decay, spike kill, etc. occurs. In concrete, rail seat abrasion occurs.

Willamette Valley Company, a polyurethane formulating and manufacturing company, has 0 years of experience in polymer science. In the last 15 years, , has championed the development of polymers that put new density into

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DR. KARL-HEINZ SCHOMAKER

HEAD OF KEY-ACCOUNT MANAGEMENT DEUTA-WERKE GMBH

A new solution is to integrate a separate supervision board, Icontrust, into a TFT display to achieve SIL2 compliance. This board evaluates the TFT signals and compares it with the input data stream. This approach is not affected by the specific display hardware or software and application software or obsolescence issues do not affect the safety assessment.

There is an upgrade for touch-operation TFT displays, SelecTrust, which ensures that the visible content is correct and calibration faults do not affect safety.

MICHAEL LAND

WVCO RAILROAD DIVISION

JOHN MURRAY

WVCO RAILROAD DIVISION

wooden sleeper spike holes and onto the rail seats of concrete ties.

This presentation will expand the discussion of wood sleeper and concrete sleeper remediation using SpikeFast® and TR-100. Both technologies are 100% solid, two component polyurethanes.

WVCO will also discuss the advantages of how both technologies extend the life of the sleepers, improve lateral plate movement, improve gauge holding and restoration of cant. Pre-coating new concrete ties with TR-100 will also be discussed.

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the rail engineer • April 2013

65

Visit us at RailTex 2013 stand No. G35 Do not miss our session Wednesday 1 May - 11:10: „Safety Relevant Human Machine Interface with Vital Data Indication and Safe Data Entry“

Dependable products for your safety systems up to SIL 4!

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www.deuta.com

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the rail engineer • April 2013

Asset Condition Monitoring: The key to operational service improvement Telent worked together with a major metro operator to develop a programme to focus on the maintenance of critical assets such as lifts and escalators and increase the MTB mean time between failures) and reduce the MTTR mean time to repair) and therefore drive significant customer service improvement and reduced cost.

The primary driver was the operational experience with lifts and escalators which showed that with increased use over time there was a significant risk of asset failure leading to passenger entrapment, service delays and abatements.

This seminar will outline the process and the development of a solution in the UK rail environment. » An Asset ondition Monitoring system to remotely

monitor the critical components and advise early warning of issues and failures. » Users can check the status of each asset through Red Amber reen RA ) traffic light style alerts. They are further advised of impending issues through immediate text alerts and simple web based trends. » The system is accessible on any web browser including P s, Tablets and mart Phones so users on site have the ability to interrogate the system.

Experience in other transport locations has also shown significant benefits in remotely monitoring other physical asset groups.

Signalling upgrade on the London Underground sub-surface railway This seminar will provide an overview of ondon Underground’s 1bn Automatic Train ontrol Programme, part of the ub urface Railway R) Upgrade being undertaken on the Metropolitan, istrict, ircle ammersmith and ity ines. This major package of works includes installing the Bombardier ityflo 50 cab based automatic signalling system throughout the 310km of R railway and power upgrades.

The presentation will describe the benefits that the new signalling will deliver to ondon when combined with new tock trains that are now being rolled out across the network. It will also describe ondon Underground and Bombardier’s collaborative approach to delivering this major signalling project based upon lessons learnt from major

Monitoring Practices for the UK Railway Topcon is an innovative and global market leading company, developing and manufacturing precise measuring, monitoring and mapping solutions for challenging rail environments.

Topcon’s Track Measurement evice TM ) is the perfect way to monitor the

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ALASTAIR NORMAN

HEAD OF ASSET CONDITION MONITORING TELENT

MATTHEW STEELE

PROGRAMME DELIVERY MANAGER, ATC LONDON UNDERGROUND

metro re-signalling projects. elivering complex, state of the art systems in such a demanding operational environment requires the highest levels of collaboration between customer, suppliers, operators, Network Rail, Tf and other major stakeholders.

This will be followed by a discussion on the delivery methodology and key challenges faced by such projects.

SIMON CROWHEN

GEOMATICS AND RAIL PRODUCT MANAGER TOPCON GB

state of your track. hen coupled with a Robotic Total tation it allows the track to be surveyed in quick time, recording accurate track eometry such as position, ant and auge at millimetre level. ata processing provides lifting and slewing results in formats recognisable to most Tamping machines for realignment of existing tracks and calculates ‘real-time’ differences of the track from the existing design.

The Topcon TM offering is provided with a fully robotic total station so it is also possible to use this instrument for topographical surveys and for setting out purposes. ollect data accurately and quickly in the field improving your efficiency and changing the way that you can monitor your track for the better.

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Providingg precise ppositioning oning and heading so solutions for challenging rail challe ail environments.

www.topcon.eu on eu

Simon Crowhen Rail/Geomatics Product Manager simon.crowhen@topconsokkia.co.uk 07710 858417

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the rail engineer • April 2013

NICHOLAS KAY

Innovation and Collaboration Maximising the potential of existing train fleets and achieving long term, and sustainable, value from investments is essential. elays caused by faults and additional track charges incurred as a result of track damage can significantly increase an operator’s running costs, whilst passenger expectations and capacity challenges are on the rise.

The advent of second generation trains, such as the esiro ity, will see iemens leading the way in the UK rail industry, but what of current fleets This seminar, using real life examples and case studies, explores how the UK rail industry can incorporate innovative technologies and solutions that drive down costs, drive up efficiencies, increase passenger

BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT MANAGER SIEMENS RAIL SYSTEMS UK

satisfaction and keep trains at the leading edge of technology for our busy rail network.

PAUL SHARKEY

arc-flash clothing protection In order to help protect rail workers from the significant risk of serious injury when working around live electrical equipment, selecting the most appropriate PPE for staff and keeping them safe at work is of paramount importance to the industry.

P Besafe has the solution. orking with leading fabric and garment manufacturers, P Besafe has developed a technical garment layering system that not only protects workers from heat and flame, but also from electric arc flashover. ight and comfortable for workers to wear, this innovative Arc ear clothing system recently received a % approval rating with rail industry workers.

In line with the Arc ear garment offering, P Besafe, which specialise in the cleaning, maintenance and full service

NATIONAL SALES MANAGER PHS BESAFE

for high visibility workwear, has also developed a unique, 12-point wash process specifically to maintain its innovative workwear range. The premier Arc wash process is designed to preserve hi-visibility, remove the heaviest of soiling and maintain the effectiveness of Arc ear clothing.

Paul harkey, National ales Manager for P Besafe has played an instrumental part in both the development of the Arc ear range and the Premier Arc laundering process. Paul will take the opportunity at Railtex 2013 to present Arc gear and the features and benefits of the complete, managed workwear solution that P Besafe offers which greatly improves worker safety whilst prolonging the life cycle of specialist garments.

Open Data: Driving control room innovation In 2012, Rockshore worked with Network Rail to help release its real-time train running information through the ata eeds service. This marked an important step forward in Network Rail’s wider transparency initiative and commitment to sharing information in order to improve both network performance and passenger experience. ollowing the release of this information, there has been an industry-wide shift in opening up data and granting access to valuable, real-time information. Rockshore’s Nathan ay will be discussing how the release of open data in the UK rail industry has developed and how it can help drive innovation and operational efficiency, by providing train and freight operating companies with a real-time view of exactly where their trains are.

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NATHAN DAY

BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT DIRECTOR ROCKSHORE

Nathan will also demonstrate how the release of data in UK rail is already producing applications that could displace those currently in use within the control room, without any adverse impact on existing systems.

The plethora of available train running data has removed traditional barriers to innovation. Now amateurs, professionals and enterprises alike are able to participate in shaping the future of information services on the railway.

The pace of innovation is accelerating come and join Nathan at 3 50pm on ednesday 1 May to learn by how much.

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the rail engineer â&#x20AC;˘ April 2013

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the rail engineer • April 2013

Crossrail: The Railway Is Coming rossrail will deliver a brand new, full si ed railway that crosses ondon from est to East, mainly underground.

Now, as a group of huge tunnel boring machines dig 2 kilometres of new tunnels under ondon, attention is turning from the civil engineering phase of the project to the next one - construction of the actual railway.

Track work, signalling, electrification, telecommunications, station fit-out and, of course, a new class of trains. These will all be needed before the new cross- ondon railway can open in 201 , and it will all have to interface seamlessly with the Network Rail infrastructure on either side.

ANDREW WOLSTENHOLME

CEO CROSSRAIL

The chief executive officer of rossrail, Andrew olstenholme, will use his keynote address at Railtex to look forward to the building of the new railway. The intention is to run 2 trains per hour in each direction through the central section, making rossrail the most significant railway project currently underway in the UK. And, with the prospect of rossrail 2 following on behind, it is likely to provide work for the industry for years to come. ome contracts have already been let, but many more, including a host of sub-contracts, have still to be finalised, so many opportunities remain for the railway supply industry to get involved in this ground-breaking project.

Improving the environmental performance of rolling stock Energy efficiency is a major priority for today’s rail operators, both from an environmental and a cost perspective. Rail transportation is already the most environmentally friendly mode of mass transport - it has existed as a form of electric mobility for more than 100 years and produces significantly lower 2 emissions than other modes of motori ed transport.

Bombardier has been at the forefront of developments in environmentally friendly technology and pioneered E -a portfolio of products based on the four principles of energy, efficiency, economy and ecology, which the company believes form important priorities for today’s train operators.

This presentation highlights ways in which Bombardier looks at integrating energy-efficient technologies in the development of its new rolling stock as exemplified in the

JON SEDDON

DIRECTOR BOMBARDIER

evolution of A ENTRA - its latest flagship EMU. By meeting ambitious targets for weight reduction, increased capacity and improved energy efficiency, while offering outstanding reliability, the innovative A ENTRA EMU delivers a step-change in performance. esigned specifically for the challenges of high capacity commuter services and the needs of today’s passengers, the A ENTRA train is 20% lighter than Bombardier’s existing awardwinning UK EMU platform and provides a reduction in net energy consumption of up to %. The company’s philosophy of proven innovation - using systems that are proven in the global arena - will demonstrate how it is possible to achieve radical improvements in energy efficiency and performance together with reliability that operators can fully count on.

More Life: less maintenance

DANIEL PYKE TATA STEEL

Innovative rail products reducing lifecycle costs Tata teel has responded to the needs of railway infrastructure providers to reduce the life cycle costs of their infrastructure by developing an innovative range of rail products that extend track life and reduce maintenance costs.

Today’s intensely used mixed traffic railways are under extreme pressure to perform. Rails may suffer rolling contact fatigue R ), side wear, plastic flow, and even excessive corrosion in certain areas, necessitating maintenance or replacement in increasingly constricted maintenance windows.

Tata teel’s Prail has proved itself in combating R and wear in the UK national rail network, whilst Railcote is providing essential corrosion protection on short length rails used in aggressive environments including third rail areas and

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DAVID BENTON TATA STEEL

level crossings. Next generation Railcote is under development for long length rail applications.

Tramway networks wind through city centre streets containing many tight radius curves often embedded in road surfaces. tandard grade rails show short lives with excessive side and head wear, necessitating costly and hugely disruptive replacement. Tata teel’s new high performance grooved rail grade offers increased wear resistance combined with in-track restorability, offering significant life cycle cost savings. ome and hear how Tata teel can help you do more with less. ‘Together we make the difference’.

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*Trademark(s) of Bombardier Inc. or its subsidiaries

GAME-CHANGING INNOVATIONS

Leading the way into the future Innovative technical solutions increase the efficiency of rail transportation, making it even more competitive.

To meet the changing market conditions and customer needs, Bombardier Transportation has developed a new generation of TRAXX locomotives, setting new standards: the TRAXX Diesel Multi-Engine and the TRAXX AC with Last Mile.

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the rail engineer • April 2013

Industrial Safety PLCs for modern future-oriented railway infrastructure A huge and aging population of relay interlocking systems exists in the UK indeed throughout Europe). omplex wiring, expensive components, bulky installations...relays represent an expensive-to-maintain legacy. As time and technology advance, the replacement of electromechanical relays becomes more critical. avid ollier makes the case that industrially tried and tested, highly adaptable, commercially-available-off-the-shelf safety P s programmable logic controllers) are suitable for the substitution of previously used proprietary relays.

Pil produces a compact and modular T Rail certified safety P system, P 000-R, meeting the requirements of rail standards for communication, signalling and processing systems such as EN 5012 reliability, availability, maintainability, safety), EN 5012 software), EN 5012

How to deliver and manage ‘Total Value’ across your organisation ollowing years of underinvestment in the rail sector, ‘Total A UE’ represents the challenge of delivering higher capacity and better connectivity, improved value for money, higher levels of customer experience and a rail infrastructure that delivers improved asset values into the future. The challenge to the UK rail network is significant. The industry is not broken, but it does require everyone to be involved and realise there is real potential to grow jobs in a crucial and vibrant, yet highly fragmented industry.

In complex environments with multiple interfaces amongst people, systems and processes the existing tools and processes can only take you so far. ou need to look beyond traditional responses to develop innovative new capabilities for the future.

The future of railway investment in Wales In his presentation, Professor tuart ole BE I T will compare the management options for new and future development of elsh railways. e will look at the conventional plc franchise, not for dividend companies, state owned not for dividend companies and co-operatives.

In addition, Professor ole will look at the advantages, the financial benefits competitive franchising objectives as well as the current rail fleet and the fleet that is needed. e will look at the development of electrification - outh ales Main line, alley lines and North ales main line. e will look at the upgrading of the Marcher line and the type of trains ales should be looking for.

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DAVID COLLIER

BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT MANAGER PILZ AUTOMOTION TECHNOLOGY

safety-related electronic control and protection), EN 50121 EM ), EN 50155 rolling stock). This enables P 000-R to be used in rail safety applications - such as level crossings - with confidence that it meets harsh requirements for temperature e.g. - 0... 0 ), vibration, EM and mechanical load, and providing standard-compliant solutions up to I .

Powerful P software can replace complex relay logic wiring and create certifiable function blocks which can be used and re-used in new safety cases. afe Ethernet communication using fibre optic infrastructure allows long distance communication and diagnostics) for remote signalling via decentralised I . avid ollier will make the case for safety P s as a safe, economic way to modernise the railways.

ADRIAN TERRY

PRINCIPAL CONSULTANT THALES

ANDREA PARKER

HEAD OF PROGRAMME SYSTEMS ENGINEERING NETWORK RAIL

hole system thinking provides this common sense approach to the Total A UE challenge - making this practice far more difficult. Importantly, it cannot be the province of a few experts. To be successful the understanding and application of Total A UE has to be widespread within Network Rail and amongst its partners. This requires a significant shift in mindsets coupled to a new skill set and improved toolset.

Total A UE is a whole systems approach led across Network Rail to stimulate the necessary change in approach support better client leadership and embed the essential capabilities.

PROFESSOR STUART COLE CBE,

EMERITUS PROFESSOR OF TRANSPORT UNIVERSITY OF GLAMORGAN

Professor ole is currently the Professor of Transport and former irector of the ales Transport Research entre based at the University of lamorgan. ith over 30 years of experience in transport he has undertaken numerous transport studies covering transport strategies at both local and national levels, covering public transport and investment appraisals. e is currently advising the elsh overnment on the igh peed Rail and electrification of the reat estern Main ine together with the planned national bus and coach network.

25/03/2013 19:09

the rail engineer • April 2013

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The PSS 4000-R System has the essential CENELEC & TÜV approvals to critical standards for railway applications – keeping overall verification and validation work to a minimum.

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the rail engineer • April 2013 A150 B150 B152 B154 C150 C152

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the rail engineer • April 2013

Acorel - Stand C30

Anderton Concrete Products - Stand A67

A

A

Keeping count

corel, established 25 years ago, has become the international leader of accurate automatic people and passenger counting solutions, with over 35,000 installations spanning 20 different countries.

Acorel’s counting technologies include infra-red, laser and its new digital stereoscopic sensors. ith these new technologies and architectures, Acorel is becoming the preferred solution across many international tram, train and bus manufacturers.

To complement its sensor technology, Acorel’s ocus oftware uite now provides dedicated real-time reports including load, fare evasion, vehicle and stop usage and many more.

Innovative retaining walls nderton Concrete Products will be promoting its range of innovative retaining wall systems and rail products at Railtex.

The range of dry-laid retaining wall and soil reinforcement solutions include tepoc, which is a direct alternative to shuttered concrete. or larger structures that require a more aesthetic finish, Keystone is a system of modular retaining wall units that can be used in conjunction with a geogrid to provide tall walls or to accommodate high surcharges ideal for railside, roadside and bridge locations. lope- oc is used for similar applications to Keystone also using geogrid, but offers a sloped face finish which is ideal for railway embankments.

Anderton oncrete’s name is also synonymous with the supply of quality cable troughing and railway products including

platform copings and oversailing blocks) throughout the network.

They have successfully supplied many prestigious schemes, including rossrail, Thameslink, ixed Telecom Network, igh peed 1 and the est oast Main ine Upgrade.

Be-Ge Seating UK - Stand B57

Bernstein - Stand G60

Seats with memory

Safety solutions on show

B

e-Ge Seating UK’s new memory seat for train drivers will be launched at Railtex. It is fully electrical and has a memory function that can store hundreds of driver seat positions on board the seat. Each driver is issued with a key fob which, when presented to the seat, automatically adjusts the headrest, backrest, lumbar, slides and cushion to the desired driving position.

It is especially useful in rail applications as it not only reduces time during driver changeover, it ensures that each driver gets the exact seating position to suit their posture reducing the possible risks of back-related injuries. etup is via a program on a standard laptop. nce a driver has adjusted the seat to the most

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comfortable position, it is stored on the key fob and the seat remembers the unique setup for that driver.

B

ernstein has developed a number of ‘safety solutions’ specifically designed for the rail industry including blind spot safety sensors, dual door monitoring and dependable detection switches for platform doors. It also offers IP68 enclosures suitable for trackside and train-borne use, as well as ventilated enclosures and enclosed connections to prevent water penetration.

Aldridge-based Bernstein will also be demonstrating its IP rated enclosures, cables and glands by submerging an enclosed digital display screen under water. The screen will host a rail themed qui which visitors to the stand are invited to enter one lucky entrant will win an iPod Touch and iPod huffles are also up for grabs for two runners-up. orking models of Bernstein’s switches and sensors will also be on show for visitors to see the technology in action. Bernstein also offers a ne top olutions service providing contract

manufacturing and assembly.

Typical examples include pre-wired switches sensors, customised enclosures, bespoke enclosures and ready to install electro-mechanical assemblies.

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the rail engineer • April 2013

Alstom - Stand G11

More than just Pendolinos

I

f you were to ask anyone in the UK rail industry - or indeed most rail passengers - what ‘Alstom’ meant to them, the first thing they would be likely to say would be ‘Pendolino’. There is a good reason for this. Since coming into service with Virgin Trains at the start of the new millennium, the Pendolino has become an unmistakable sight as it travels on the West Coast main line at 125mph. However, Alstom is so much more than just the manufacturer of the Pendolino.

Trains and partnerships Alstom has supplied around a fifth of all railway passenger vehicles operating in the UK today and half of the trains operating on the ondon Underground.

This means that around a third of daily passenger journeys use an Alstom train. oon, trams will be added to the list, with the arrival of the first itadis model in Nottingham as part of the city’s expansion of its extremely successful tram network. owever, Alstom is not just a rolling stock manufacturer, and its stand at Railtex will showcase partnerships, project delivery, infrastructure capability and modernisation.

Along with its partners, Alstom is involved in signalling and electrification with and AB respectively. It is also in the consortium building the NET phase 2 tram extension in Nottingham. Add in partnerships with ostain and T for rossrail and it is clear that Alstom is about much more than a single, very advanced and comfortable trainset.

A signalling solution A partnership with Balfour

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Beatty created ignalling olutions td ) in 200 , a joint venture designed to combine the best of Alstom’s signalling technology products with Balfour’s experienced signalling team. has introduced the martlock Interlocking platform to the UK which has been selected by Network Rail for sites all across the country. also commissioned the first modular signalling system in the UK, on the Ely to Norwich line last year.

The success of martlock has led to the introduction of other technologies, such as the Integr Modular ignalling olution, the Atlas ERTM system and the I NI Traffic Management olution. The integrated nature of the products means that is able to meet the needs of not only the current UK rail network but also future demands.

Electrifying partnerships AB Electrification was formed

by Alstom, Babcock and ostain in order to leverage the companies’ expertise as part of Network Rail’s unprecedented investment in the electrification of the UK network. The partnership won its first contract, worth million,

earlier this year for the est oast Power upply Upgrade package 3B. The scope of works will allow the 200 kilometres of line between hitmore and reat trickland to safely support the heavier timetables and longer trains that are planned for the est oast main line. AB will be on site for nearly three years, until the end of 201 .

The line’s fault current level will be raised to 12kA and new containerised autotransformers and substations will be installed along the route.

In addition, AB Electrification intends to work with the National kills Academy for Rail Engineering to support the national electrification recruitment and training programme that has been launched with Network Rail. AB Electrification will establish a training centre for rail electrification at existing training bases in Manchester and Blantyre in order to increase the skills and experience of the teams working on the project, and for the future.

Internationally, Alstom’s decision to buy Italian electrification component manufacturer ariboni last year has given the company access to over 100 years of global experience in that market, experience that Alstom is bringing to the UK through its partnerships.

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the rail engineer â&#x20AC;˘ April 2013

79

Maintenance and modernisation Alstom is well-known for maintaining the Pendolinos that run on the est oast main line at traincare centres in embley, olverhampton, Manchester, iverpool and lasgow. It also looks after ondon Undergroundâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Northern ine trains from centres at olders reen and Morden, as well as the ublin and Nottingham tram systems. In addition, Alstom supports a fleet of trains in the UK, offering full maintenance regimes or technical support for, amongst others,1 vehicles for outh est Trains, 120 vehicles for cotRail, 0 vehicles for Arriva Trains ales and 1 lass 1 0 trains with various operators. ne current project is the conversion of lass 5 trains into 3 five-car sets by incorporating 0 extra vehicles from lass 0s to create lass 5 5.

This work includes stripping much of the cab deck equipment from the lass 0 desks and refitting it to the newly built 5 5 cab desks. Behind the cab, on the van doors, the freight spec interior and roller doors will be stripped, with window apertures being cut to create a complete saloon.

The lass 5 is currently the most reliable train in the UK and the new lass 5 must maintain this level of reliability, despite the dramatic changes.

In order to achieve this, over 0,000 engineering hours have been invested in this fleet by the highly experienced team based at the xley depot in olverhampton. It is with projects such as this that Alstom views modernisation as key to the rolling stock market in the UK over the next five years.

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Railtex o, if you want to talk about Pendolinos, rolling stock, partnerships and projects - or you just want to see a great under floor model railway - then visit Alstom at Railtex. tand 11 will be the place to discuss signalling, electrification, maintenance, modernisation and so much more.

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the rail engineer • April 2013

Bombardier Transportation - Stand D61

Camlin Rail - Stand E111

Smart transport solutions Automatic fault finding

B

ombardier Transportation will be presenting its technologyleading range of trains, rail equipment and asset life management services - creating better ways to move Britain.

ighlights will include the latest A ENTRA Electrical Multiple Unit EMU), offering best-in-class commuter train performance for the UK market. Also on display will be the E IR ery igh peed train technology, combining the world’s fastest rail speeds with ground-breaking aerodynamic and environmental performance. ther rolling stock exhibits will include the M IA metro, the TRA P200 A locomotive and the E IT 2 tram, which made its world premiere here in the UK. Bombardier will also exhibit its IT 50 automatic train control system, currently being delivered to ondon Underground as part of the world’s largest

signalling upgrade as well as its INTER 50 ERTM and its EBI ab 2000 systems. In addition, Bombardier will showcase its portfolio of ‘smart transport solutions’ which are improving urban flow and passenger comfort from Bra il to Riyadh. ast, but by no means least, Bombardier will demonstrate how its market-leading fleet management services teams, based at 30 locations across the UK, provide the technical support, tools, skilled people and backup that helped ondon’s train operators to achieve exceptional reliability and availability during the ondon 2012 lympic ames and attract praise from the world’s visitors and media.

C

amlin Rail is making its debut at Railtex 2013. The company’s philosophy is to automate the fault location process to eliminate or minimise the impact of a cable fault or theft. On its stand, Camlin Rail will be showcasing a number of innovative products: I NET - nly Network Rail approved supplier of automatic re-configuration for signalling power TRAN EKT - ixed T R for instantaneous reporting of cable faults or theft for signalling power feeders RE EKT - Portable and

robust T R for fast and simple automated distance to fault for power and signalling cables PR I E P3 - andheld device to capture circuit breaker ‘first trip’.

There will be live demonstrations available for all products.

Cleshar Contract Services - Stand C15

Columbus McKinnon Corporation - Stand A45

Integrated solutions

Jacks and hoists

leshar Contract Services Ltd, in over 20 years of trading, has developed a strong reputation in successfully delivering a comprehensive range of projects linked to all aspects of the Rail Infrastructure industry.

C

C

ith activities covering design, construction, maintenance and renewals projects, leshar ontract ervices td works with its clients to provide innovative, integrated and economic project solutions underpinned by an unswerving commitment to core values both in respect of QE and relationships.

The company’s strengths lie in the quality of its people, both technically and practically, who bring many years of experience and professionalism to the

M ’s comprehensive range of products and systems for the rail industry include under-floor lifting systems for the assembly and disassembly of bogies or wheel sets, along with lifting jacks of up to 50 tonnes capacity. In addition, the company produces manual and electric turntables and drop tables for handling bogies or

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table. Their entrepreneurial skills constantly drive innovation. leshar ontract ervices td is on track to becoming a leading infrastructure services company in its operational market sectors in the United Kingdom.

olumbus McKinnon Corporation (CMCO), in an industry where quality, safety and reliability are paramount, provides the security and confidence in lifting and clamping tasks the rail industry demands. The company’s diverse range of products including rail jacks, mobile lifting jacks, hoists, ratchet jacks, rail clamps and actuators, is ideally suited to operations in rail maintenance and repair, in the workshop or on the track.

wheel sets inside the workshop. amlok single and multi-rail clamps and ale Pul-lift lever hoists are also in the range.

25/03/2013 19:10

the rail engineer • April 2013

Commend UK - Stand D70

New help points

CRC Industries UK - Stand D40

Aqua Paint Marker

C

C

Fully IP-enabled, allowing remote maintenance access and with a 6mm toughened glass front panel, this unit has been designed to fulfil the current and future requirements of all train operators and end users. It includes a 15” touch screen to display the train operator’s website. This will give passengers such information as live departures, delays and journey planning to aid their journey and provide more ‘self find information’.

Up to two fully-programmable buttons (Emergency and Information have been used for this example) allow calls to be routed through to an

Based on water, and removing all solvents considered harmful, AQUA PAINT MARKER drastically reduces solvent emissions, minimises health and safety concerns, and still delivers uncompromising product performance and will produce temporary marks for use on almost any surface including: concrete, asphalt, stone, brick, grass, soil, and wood.

The water based formulation replaces 35% of the solvents and substitutes the remaining solvent for IPA a ‘gentle’ solvent that is non-aromatic and means that the product does not contain acetone or xylene either.

The evolution continues

ommend UK’s new SR1002 Help Points provide the latest technologies in completely redesigned and updated housing suitable for the rail market.

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appropriate control centre should the Passenger require further assistance.

A built-in IP camera can also be included if required. This will give the option of one or even two way video between the user and the control room.

81

RC Industry UK’s AQUA PAINT MARKER is an innovative product development that specifically addresses the problem of solvent discharge into the environment from traditional survey/spot marking paints. These solvents are not only harmful to operators, but are not particularly good for the environment either.

with a valve and formulation development that negates the requirement for users to clear the valve after use by spraying the product in the air. The No-Purge valve saves on wasted propellant and product which is great news for the environment.

25/03/2013 20:37

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the rail engineer • April 2013

DAC - Stand C76

Vandal-resistant SPTs

D

AC have combined their highly reliable Network Rail approved RA708-CB trackside telephone with a No1 BR lock to produce an anti-vandal signal post telephone.

Traditional solutions when installing telephones in areas where there are high instances of vandalism utilise a fabricated anti-vandal housing. hilst this is a perfectly acceptable solution, procurement and installation costs are obviously high.

The approved A solution, PA No. 0 000 51, will fit on a standard P TN Public witched Telephone Network) mounting post, resulting in reduced cost of procurement and a significantly lower cost of civil engineering and installation.

A will be demonstrating their Network Rail approved trackside M telephone as well as exhibiting its wide range

of weatherproof and vandal resistant telephones. isitors to stand will be able to take a look at A ’s newest developments and to discuss, learn about and experience the latest products that A has to offer.

Dold Industries - Stand A41

Reputable Relays

D

old Industries is a leading ISO 9001 approved European manufacturer of measuring relays, timers and interface relays for industrial and safety applications with a hard-earned reputation for service, product reliability and performance. urrently used throughout Europe and the U A, several train manufacturers and maintainers specify and install old relay products. As a direct result of this, many products in our range comply with the current UK rolling stock requirements for EM , voltage and transients, temperature and shock and vibration.

Test and reliability data is available to customers on request, with the option of additional performance testing if required our railway compliant products are also E approved for railway applications.

As old is the designers and manufacturer of internal relays,

enclosures and P B assemblies, it has the ability to offer cost effective and flexible technical solutions to replace many of the old and discontinued relays and timers currently in service on UK rolling stock.

Dorset Woolliscroft - Stand D42

DuPont Performance Coatings - Stand G43

Anti-slip floor tiles

Eco-friendly coatings

D

orset Woolliscroft, part of the Original Style group, will be showcasing its extensive range of slip-resistant floor tiles at Railtex.

As a result of UK and European legislation, increasing importance is being placed on specifying and sourcing the most effective antislip flooring. It is imperative that the product specified performs to the required standard for the long term. The latest tations ode of Practice document for station flooring stipulates that ‘All floors should have some slip resistance when wet or dry’. rom platforms to ticket halls, walkways to footbridges and entrances to exits, the orset oolliscroft brand includes a choice of non reflective flooring solutions. orset oolliscroft tiles are suitable for a broad range of applications where durability,

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cleanability and safety are important, especially in larger public areas. They have recently been specified for use in many station projects, including Newcastle Metro, ondon auxhall, Richmond, Basingstoke and taines.

D

uPont Performance Coatings, the experienced coatings partner of choice for the rail industry, is exhibiting at Railtex 2013 stand G43.

urability, high resistance to wear and low maintenance costs, coupled with pleasing aesthetics and exceptional antigraffiti properties, characterise the uPont oating olutions eco-friendly technologies and innovative product offerings.

At the show, the brand will highlight its extensive experience in coatings for both new and refurbishment projects by showcasing its internal and external coatings ranges, in particular a vast range of colour choices including metallics, and a wide variety of gloss level finishes. uPont oating olutions will also demonstrate its sustainable,

technology-driven paint solutions for any application through its technical and global supply solutions. isitors to the stand can also expect to learn about the uPont oating olutions’ training courses, which have been designed to meet any requirement for applicators.

25/03/2013 19:10

the rail engineer • April 2013

Ellis Patents - Stand D72

Taking the fight to copper thieves

E

llis Patents, the world’s leading cable cleat manufacturer, will be launching a tamper proof cleat at Railtex 2013, which it says will go a long way to eradicating copper cable theft on Britain’s railway network.

This well documented problem is estimated to cost the UK economy 0 million pounds per annum, and according to Richard haw, managing director of Ellis Thieves are currently able to disconnect and remove long lengths of copper cable quickly and far too easily.”

By installing our tamper proof cleats at regular intervals along the cable their task will be made significantly harder, meaning they will no longer have sufficient time to remove the cables before they are apprehended.”

Ellis will also introduce at Railtex, Pegasus, a range of lightweight composite cable hangers which have been

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designed specifically for use in rail tunnels. The company will also showcase a wide selection of existing solutions, many of which are U approved.

Based in orkshire, all Ellis products are designed and manufactured in the UK.

83

Erlau - Stand B112

Platform furniture

E

rlau outdoor furniture offers customers a great degree of functionality and design combined with versatility and durability.

Its furniture range consists of a variety of innovative benches, seating systems, litter bins, bicycle parking systems to planters and bollards to name a few.

All Erlau furniture is manufactured to I 0 001 in ermany. It can be expanded, extended or completely refurbished even many years after being purchased and comes with a 10 year anti rust protection guarantee.

The user-friendly railway platform bench range was developed in accordance with the specifications of eutsche Bahn and tailored to meet the requirements of railway stations. Resistance to vandalism and durability, paired with appealing design, were the key specifications that Erlau managed to fulfil, according to a statement

from the product development department of B A .

Erlau’s long-term contract confirms its quality. A ten-year anti-rust guarantee, a brake dust-resistant and solventresistant surface with a 350 Rilsan coating and concealed wire ends are just a few of Erlau’s quality criteria.

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the rail engineer • April 2013

Bosch Rexroth - Stand G71

A well kept secret

T

he railway market makes special demands on its suppliers. Standards that cover difficult environmental conditions or electromagnetic conformity need to be met. Products also have to last the lifetime of the train, with ongoing engineering support.

or years, Bosch Rexroth has been supplying a multitude of components and subsystems for use in rail technology. Branded ‘the drive and control company’, Bosch manufactures across a range of technologies, including electric, hydraulic and pneumatic, and therefore can put forward the best solution irrespective of the base technology.

This provides clients with a truly objective perspective to enable them to consider and select the best solution for their needs. Bosch Rexroth has a huge product programme across a wide application field including hydrostatic auxiliary drives, electric or hydraulic driven cooling systems for trains and locomotives, hydrostatic traction drives for special vehicles and ball screw drives for rail switches, to mention only a few.

Cross-industry solution Bosch Rexroth also offers factory automation products to provide a versatile and very effective base to manufacture from small to very large products. or example, the Airbus A350 B wings, 33 metres in length, are manufactured using Bosch Rexroth platforms that provide variable height, ergonomical design for access points and integrated point of use for electrics, air and pneumatics close to the operation. These factory automation products could be used to improve the manufacturing process of locomotive and rolling stock.

There are many functions that can improve the performance of the locomotive and train, and Bosch Rexroth has long experience and the product range, including the newlyintroduced filtration product line, to provide

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expert advice and assistance in developing new ideas to improve design and overall performance. or example, fan drives can include controls to improve efficiency by controlling fan speed in relation to the actual need of engines and exhaust systems. These fans can either be electrically or hydrostatically driven using roof modules, or even custom made. nce the technology is chosen, a cooling study can be systematically validated using an internally developed model combined with wind tunnel testing and structure simulations.

Keeping it compact A regular challenge is to produce a design which uses the minimum amount of space, either on, in or under the vehicle, weighs as little as possible, is as quiet as legislation stipulates and, of course, is reasonably priced.

In this connection, and with the aid of simulation of heat transmission and flow, the ‘ luid Mechanics’ entre of ompetence is in a position to examine and optimise in advance the various designs ‘virtually’, taking into consideration the cost-benefit aspects. It is precisely this introduction of high performance computing technology and the enormous calculation resources available with Bosch Rexroth that forms the basis and advantages for evaluating the design at the earliest possible stage. inear actuation for wipers, door couplings, ventilation ducts and doors can be supplied in all technologies including hydraulic, pneumatic and electric to suit the best design requirement and efficient operation considerations.

Group benefits Bosch Rexroth develops, produces and sells components and systems in more than 0 countries. As part of the Bosch roup, it has access to the vast range of tried and tested components, sensors, security equipment and instruments. or example, driving aids such as systems to improve night vision provide a broad field of view using infrared lighting, giving an extremely clear image irrespective of light conditions. This improves safety by giving excellent visibility of objects and persons in the dark or in shadows.

Bosch is also involved in braking systems and controls. Its brake slipper discs have low cost and good thermal properties thanks to the lamellar phosphorus cast that is self lubricating, providing consistency of braking performance. Indeed, brakes were one of the first products Bosch Rexroth supplied into the rail market as early as 1 53.

All of these ways to select the best products and systems, whether to improve safety, efficiency or performance, will be on the Bosch Rexroth stand at Railtex.

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A drive towards competitive advantage Drives, actuators and controls from Rexroth provide compact, powerful and versatile systems that can be supplied from a common power source. Flexibility and choice of technologies opens up great freedom of design. The forces and speeds are accurately controlled and even in difficult operating environments provide a truly user friendly, safe and reliable operation.

Our extensive product development ensures we provide energy efficient systems for increasing environmental requirements.

Rexroth supply components and systems into metal industries, mining, energy, transport & mobile plant, civil engineering, marine & offshore technology and special purpose technology such as staging, motion simulation and machine tools. This experience has produced a depth of knowledge in heavy systems engineering incorporating hydraulic drive systems, servo drives and controls, pneumatics, linear and factory automation.

The scope of Rexroth products for engineering projects is unrivalled and with our expertise in applications engineering we provide a comprehensive service to all industries to give you maximum benefit from your investment. Rexrothâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s product range is complimented by their high quality after sales service and training offering.

Active, variable, energy efficient cooling systems Hydraulically-driven fan systems allow safe and efficient cooling of diesel and electric trains. Modern fan systems combined with intelligent control electronics deliver cooling proportionally and only when required, reducing power consumption and helping to keep the planet green. They are also used for alternator/compressor drives to maintain an efficient constant speed, irrespective of how fast the engine is being used.

Proven technology - actuators, controllers and components Pneumatic actuators and control systems to control windscreen wipers, doors, ventilation ducts and braking systems. We also provide linear drive technology in extremely compact aluminium profiles and servo drive motors and systems.

Bosch Group offer a vast range of proven automotive components, instruments, sensors and also filtration products that you can take advantage of knowing the design is robust, safe and efficient.

Wide range of hydraulic products and transmissions The product range from Bosch Rexroth is unrivalled and therefore it is possible to select hydraulic components to exactly match the needs of your application and budget making the design, functionality and efficiency easier and better. A portfolio built on many years of dedicated engineering excellence gives you the reassurance you need that you have chosen the right products to engineer safer systems.

Bosch Rexroth Ltd. 15 Cromwell Road, St Neots, Cambridgeshire, PE19 2ES Tel: + 44 (0)1480 223 200 industrial@boschrexroth.co.uk www.boschrexroth.co.uk/rail

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Federal-Mogul Friction Products - Stand F41

Organic brake pads

F

ederal-Mogul Corporation will display its range of Ferodo® organic brake pads and blocks on stand F41. The friction materials have been designed for a comprehensive range of applications, including freight, high speed, locomotive, light rail and passenger coach.

The company will display its extremely high-grade organic and hightemperature brake pads and blocks. The products provide good frictional stability and friction material flexibility, which reduces the formation of hotspots on the brake discs.

These characteristics improve the durability of the brake pads and brake discs, ultimately saving the operator money in maintenance costs and downtime. erodo has been producing

friction materials for more than 100 years. This experience enables us to produce the broad range of organic brake pads and blocks that our customers need,” said r. Tim odges, ederalMogul’s hief Engineer Railways).

Flexicon - Stand D74

Fiberweb Geosynthetics - Stand H62

Trouble-free trackway stability

F

iberweb Geosynthetics Limited will be showcasing its TERRAM permanent way Geosynthetics at Railtex 2013. Alongside these it will also launch its new product HYDROTEX, a permanent way solution for trackbed stability that substantially reduces laying costs by eliminating the need for a sand layer and performing as an effective filter/separator for the prevention of clay pumping.

R TE is a strong blanket consisting of two opposing robust non-woven layers sandwiching a thermally bonded central filter layer. This effective three layer geocomposite allows upwards and downwards water transmission through the permeable layer, but prevents the upwards passage of particles even as fine as 0.002mm. The greatest advantage of TERRAM R TE is in obviating the need for a sand layer and the consequent saving in labour not only for pouring the sand but also for the prior excavation required.

Approved by Network Rail,

R TE has already established a reputation in the industry for its winning combination of cost efficiency plus speed and simplicity of laying.

FP McCann - Stand A107

Approved Conduit Systems Concrete troughs

F

lexicon will be showing its latest LUL ‘approved for use’ liquid tight flexible conduit LTPLFH for the first time on its stand D74.

As a low fire hazard product, LTPLFH is highly flame retardant, has low smoke emissions, low toxicity, is halogen, sulphur and phosphorous free and is self extinguishing.

It has a galvani ed steel core, which provides a high mechanical strength and a low fire ha ard ) polyolefin outer sheath that is oil resistant. The conduit has also been vibration and shock tested to EN 13 3 and can withstand temperatures from -25 to 0 . ays Tim reedon, sales and marketing director for lexicon lexicon has more U approved flexible conduit systems than any other manufacturer. Also, because we manufacture in the UK, we can respond more quickly with product and technical help and can accommodate specials

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F

P McCann, manufacturer of precast concrete cable troughs and other railway-related items, will be showing the parts it is currently supplying to the Peterborough station project.

Peterborough railway station is undergoing a 3 million redevelopment which will see new platforms built together with the extension of existing concourses to accommodate longer and more frequent trains. Additional to the platform works, is a new freight line loop to allow greater goods capacity from the docks at elixstowe. Main contractor arillion is expected to complete the works in ecember 2013.

As a nominated ink-up and upply ine company, P Mc ann is supplying the ‘ ’ series precast concrete cable protection troughs onto this section of works.

P Mc ann has to date delivered in excess of 1,000 precast concrete straight troughs and lids comprising mainly 1 and 1 3 sections. A smaller quantity of 1 1 and 1 23 ‘Tee’ pieces have been supplied to form the junctions.

more quickly, whether this is to supply cut lengths or perhaps even ready made assemblies.”

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the rail engineer • April 2013

FUCHS Lubricants (UK) - Stand G40

87

GAI-Tronics - Stand H37

Spike protection

Silent Trams

F

T

UCHS Lubricants (UK) plc, first time exhibitors at Railtex, manufactures a full range of high performance lubricants and greases for the rail industry. Through close work with OEM’s and industry bodies, FUCHS researches and develops tailor-made lubricants, including specialist noise reduction products.

he Kestrel Emergency Telephone System – KETS - has been developed to provide an alternative to the existing Public Emergency Telephone System (PETS). It uses an entirely different method of operation to the existing system but it has been designed to offer similar control functions and indications in the Signal Box.

ith increasing legislation, railway companies have to fulfil much stricter requirements regarding noise preventing measurements than they had in the past. Based on more than 20 years of experience in the area of environmentally harmless lubricants for railway traffics, U has developed TRAMI EN E noise reduction paste - a highly-viscous silver paste with a biodegradable base oil which contains a special package of solid lubricants to provide excellent noise reduction. Tests, conducted with a velocity of 5 km h and in a curve of 150m radius, showed noise reduction

KET is line powered, thus avoiding the need for local power and UP facilities at the crossings. It has constant alarm monitoring facilities which provide effective real time status of the condition of all telephones and the circuit at all times.

It is designed to integrate in the Kestrel awk oncentrator system which itself is fully approved and extensively used in Network Rail and ondon Underground.

The system uses Kestrel’s enhanced version of the standard TM signalling system to provide a more secure technique of operation over noisy analogue

was found to be up to 10 dB A) compared to the untreated rail surfaces.

TRAM- I EN E has been developed to create a stable friction level which, together with its excellent adhesion properties, guarantees that even small quantities have a remarkable noise reducing effect without affecting the operational safety.

lines. It also uses extensive frequency analysis to overcome misinterpretation of possible TM patterns which can occur in speech communication.

Garrandale - Stand D15

GSP Sparchtechnologie - Stand H64

Problem solving

Intelligent passenger information

G

arrandale Limited will exhibit its capabilities in engineering, rail and chemical technology. The stand will play host to a 2:1 scale, fully operational train wash module, interactive models of projects undertaken by the engineering division and examples of waterproofing and graffiti protection from the chemical division.

The aim is to show visitors the breadth of arrandale’s capabilities and ability to solve problems. arrandale Rail designs, develops, installs and maintains a wide range of

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carriage wash, fuelling, controlledemission toilets, lubricating systems and depot protection for rolling stock across the UK and Ireland.

It also designs and installs on-board train equipment from ET tanks to cab air conditioning, M antennas and carries out corrosion repairs. arrandale’s Trion and raffstop products provide graffiti removal and protection for a wide range of surfaces, whilst its lexi top polymer coating offers an inexpensive means of preventing leaking on carriage roofs, bellows and buildings.

G

SP Sprachtechnologie GmbH (GSP) offers reliable and functional passenger information systems that are an essential part of modern local passenger trains. The core of the passenger information system (PIS) is the on-board computer, which features an Ethernet interface and optional modules such as GPS, GSM, WLAN and MVB. All components are intelligently controlled from this computer.

The various displays show visual information, including passenger destinations, the train’s destination, the train’s route, interior displays as well as T T info displays. tate-of-the-art public address systems with announcement units and amplifiers complete the total system.

In addition, the ongoing communication of real time information between the P train system and the control

centre ensures that passengers are always continuously kept up to date with the latest information.

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the rail engineer • April 2013

Harmill Systems - Stand C111

Innovative train mover

H

armill Systems, the specialist depot plant and equipment engineers, will be exhibiting its new innovative road rail Train and Bogie Mover (TM300). A 4-wheel-drive vehicle with 4-wheel-steering able to run on road and rail, the vehicle is remote controlled and is able to pull a 300 tonne train with ease.

Highly manoeuvrable, the vehicle weighs 6 tonnes and each of the four wheels is driven by a 6 kW motor. For maximum manoeuvrability, there are three steering modes: rail, crab and four wheel steering.

Other equipment manufactured by Harmill includes rail mounted inspection vehicles both powered and self propelled together with pit manipulators, side pit manipulators, autocoupler removal tools and a vast range of depot plant solutions

Harmill Systems also carries out specialist design and build contracts in the railway environment such as centralised vacuum cleaning systems, dust removal systems and de-icing systems.

Healthcare Connections - Stand F61

Online medical service

H

ealthcare Connections, established in 1998, is a highly experienced and trusted provider to the railway industry and beyond. The company operates a nationwide service specialising in drug & alcohol screening, industry-related medicals, preventative health schemes, health surveillance programmes, medical consultancy, absence management & medication checking.

Details of their new, innovative web-based bookings and administration system will be highlighted at Railtex. The secure interface provides clients with their own portal in which to make/manage bookings and receive results. Benefits to the client are numerous: » Clients will be able to login securely to perform a range of operations - make online bookings and appointments, complete online medical questionnaires, view/amend existing bookings, manage referrals and deliverables such as laboratory results and

certification » Instant client access to realtime and historical reporting and printing of certification copies » Employers can view the live status of a job or referral » Reminders of appointments via email or SMS messaging, reducing costs and avoidance of ‘did not attends’.

The system is intuitive and simple to use - the map search facility makes finding a medical centre easy.

Henkel - Stand G94

Henry Williams - Stand J60

2 new Loctite products

Classy and functional

H

enkel, the world leader in engineering adhesives, sealants and surface treatment products, is introducing two brand new systems at this exhibition.

The first is the new Loctite® Axle Corrosion Protection System that has been developed to extend the life of axles and reduce the high cost of premature replacement.

This new introduction comprises a suite of proven Loctite® products that pre-treat the substrate to inhibit corrosion and promote adhesion and a flexible sealant to prevent corrosion at the axle transition and wheel overhang.

This is topped by a fast-curing 2-part paint system that provides impact resistance and a very smooth surface finish. All products have been tested in accordance with CR/PE 0102.

The second highlight at Railtex is a new system for lubricating

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slide chairs. Originally developed for SNCF, the Loctite® LM416 is central to this new method.

Following track trials at Norwich, Banbury and Penzance, this highly effective and cost saving product gained its Network Rail Certificate of Acceptance in September last year.

H

enry Williams continues to lead the way with their Class II products.

They were the first to not only comply with but exceed the requirements of the Class II specifications written by Tahir Ayub and his team for “non-earthed” Signalling power distribution. They received Product Approval months ahead of any other suppliers in this field.

“Our products are blue sky thinking solutions, starting with a clean sheet and a wish list and engineering a bespoke product that fulfils all of the requirements, not just of the specification, but also of installers and maintainers whilst being mindful of the harsh environment that the equipment is being used in,” says, Sales and Marketing Director, Steve Cotton.

“The company has of course got the benefit of over 130 years knowledge of manufacturing products for the railway from permanent way products such as fishplates and G-clamps, through wiring of signalling Location cases

and REB’s to train detection and signalman’s panels. This knowledge of the network literally from the ground up, allows our engineers to design a Joined up solution, they know what the equipment is for and how it will interact with equipment both up and down stream of the piece they are working on, because we make that piece too,” said, Managing Director, Andrew Nelson.

Henry Williams manufactures all of its products in the UK from the same Darlington site they have operated from for over 100 years.

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the rail engineer • April 2013

89

Westermo - Stand B81

Secure communications

A

t Railtex this year, Westermo will be exhibiting a range of rail approved, Network Rail Certified, industrial data communications products such as the Ethernet Extenders, a great problem solver enabling businesses with legacy copper infrastructure to carry large amounts of Ethernet traffic. For newer infrastructure, where fibre networks are available, the Lynx Industrial Ethernet Switch has one the lowest power consumption and some of the highest MTBF figures in its class and so help to play a small part in the rail industry’s target of reducing its carbon footprint and building a sustainable, easily maintainable railway for the future.

Following Railtex, on Wednesday 12 June, Westermo will once again be holding a Rail

Seminar for those interested in the topic of Signalling and Data Communications. For the third year running, Westermo will be supported by industry leaders as the event moves to the Science Museum and the topic will be ‘The Three Ss - Sustainability, Security and Safety’.

Network Rail’s Strategic Business Plan, published in January, identified sustainability as essential in making the business more efficient, protecting the value of its assets

and delivering a railway that is fit for future generations. The aim of Westermo’s Seminar is to provide an understanding and insight into how industry expects to achieve

these goals whilst maintaining safety standards and ensuring the security of the rail network’s critical data communications infrastructure.

Compact powerful Ethernet switch Build complete Ethernet networks with daisy chains and ring topologies. Suitable for use in extremely harsh industrial environments. Device functionality, including VLAN, Static Routing, Layer 3 switching, IGMP Snooping Firewall, SNMP V3 and VPN support all help improve bandwidth support and network security.

WeOS

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See us Railtex at Stand J on 34

… Phone: 01489 580585 … www.westermo.co.uk … sales@westermo.co.uk

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the rail engineer • April 2013

Houghton International - Stand G31

Hurst Green Plastics - Stand H13

Longer life traction motors Kanban storage

S

pecialist traction motor and MA set repairer Houghton International will be highlighting HiTRAX™, its solution for life extending traction motors and MA sets, and HiTRANS™, its patent pending transient dynamic MA set test process.

HiTRAX™ is claimed to be the only life extension insulation system in the world developed and marketed specifically into the traction motor market by a traction motor repair company, while HiTRANS™ electrically simulates full load conditions on any type of MA set, replicating exactly what happens in service.

The company is currently

undergoing a £1.5 million expansion plan which will double capacity and see the installation of new balancing and undercutting machines along with a new silicone VPI plant, providing multiple VPI and TIG welding technology to ensure the comprehensive range of operations required for high quality AC and DC traction motor rewinds.

Ixthus Instrumentation - Stand J56

H

urst Green Plastics has worked with many of the world’s largest aerospace companies such as Airbus, BAE Systems and Lufthansa and has supplied them with their unique TwinBin kanban storage system. It has now developed a heavy duty system, specifically designed to work in the rail environment.

The TripFlag system allows companies to store and dispense any type of part, consumable, fastener or fixing required by engineers to build or maintain rolling stock. Being highly visual, the TripFlag and TwinBin systems enable users to manage their stock levels very efficiently, and by incorporating RFID technology, stock management can be done remotely and in real-time.

The TripFlag dispensers have two compartments; an in-use stock compartment and a backup safety-stock compartment, and have a visual “trigger” when re-order is necessary.

Other benefits include reducing

inventory levels, reducing man hours, reducing administrative costs, environmental contamination and reducing stock-outs.

Jewers Doors - Stand B97

Speedy wheel diameters Increasingly Swift doors

I

xthus Instrumentation can now achieve accurate wheel diameter measurement in under 30 seconds! The simple to use Riftek IDK is a robust tool for maintenance engineers. Its three point measurement principle offers averaging of multiple readings to give one clear number.

The design is easy to use, either trackside or from a pit below.

It offers excellent resolution to 0.01mm from an LED display, is powered from integral rechargeable batteries and weighs only 0.5Kg. The optional bluetooth output for connection to PDA and

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PC based software provides for data storage and wear tracking.

Ixthus Instrumentation provides full technical support and calibration services for this and the other Riftek railway gauges - IKP wheel profiler and IMR back to back gauge.

J

ewers Doors will be displaying its Swift sliding and folding doors, which are increasingly being specified for train and tram entrances to maintenance depots, and other vehicular openings to depots, wheel lathes, train washes, train assembly workshops and a variety of industrial buildings.

Designed, manufactured and installed by UK-based Jewers Doors, Swift doors are designed to open and close safely around live overhead-line equipment.

Rail tracks are not affected by the operation of the doors, as the leaves sweep across the tracks without the need for a bottom guide channel in the threshold.

Opening horizontally, Swift doors provide full-height visibility to the train driver at all times, and can easily be interlinked with the depot protection system to prevent accidents.

Swift doors are simple to design into new-build projects or can be

retro-fitted into existing buildings to replace tired roller shutters or overhead doors.

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the rail engineer • April 2013

KOREC Group - Stand F34

Kwik-Step - Stand F71

Lasers and ‘copters

Kwik refuge

K

OREC specialises in the provision of construction, machine control and rail survey solutions for the Rail Industry. The KOREC team will be on hand to chat about the full range of equipment on display. Centre stage will be the GEDO rail trolley equipped with laser scanning capabilities. This provides accurate asbuilt survey documentation and clearance information for railway track maintenance and modernisation.

The Aibotix Aibot X6 hexacopter will also be on the stand, allowing delegates a first hand view of the product which featured on Channel 5’s The Gadget Show last year.

Representatives from Trimble - Ron Bisio, the General Manager

for the Railway industry, and Matthew Moss, Railway Applications Engineer - will also be presenting during the Railtex show. Their seminar will be on Applications of Positioning & Scanning Technologies in Railway Construction & Operations.

LB Foster Rail Technologies (UK) - Stand J126

Friction management

L

B Foster Rail Technologies (UK) is based in Sheffield, UK and part of the LB Foster Group of Companies. It is a leading supplier of railway friction management solutions and track component products to the global rail industry.

Providing solutions at the wheel/rail interface on five continents, the company’s inhouse R&D, customer support and technical teams have a wealth of industry expertise ensuring that products and services remain at the forefront of innovation. LB Foster’s friction control solutions manage friction at the wheel/rail interface whilst reducing costs and improving performance.

The company is also established as Europe’s foremost manufacturer of both Glued and Dry Insulated Joint Kits, and enjoys core alliances in specific markets across Europe, the

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91

T

he Kwik-Step Modular Refuge will be showcased at Railtex 2013.

Made with lightweight GRP composites the Kwik-Step Modular Refuge is designed to be installed quickly and safely by your own teams at the trackside.

With pre-assembled base frames the installation is very quick and simple, requiring only basic hand tools and minimal site preparation to assemble. Once installed the Kwik-Step Modular

Refuge is ready for immediate use.

Kwik-Step Modular Stairways continue to provide the safe and simple access solution to the railway infrastructure.

Enhancing the performance of rail networks worldwide…

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Part of the L.B.Foster Group of Companies we are a leading supplier of railway friction management solutions and track component products to the global rail industry. With extensive experience of High-Speed & Urban Commuter, Tram, Metro and Freight railway markets L.B.Foster Rail Technologies offers unrivalled expertise in these core areas of operation.

If you want reliable, innovative products and cost-effective services, L.B.Foster Rail offers a single source solution for all friction management requirements, insulated joints and railway track products and services.

t In-House Design & Manufacture t Installation & Commissioning t Preventative & Reactive Maintenance t Operator Training t Fault Detection t Surveying t Consulting For further information please contact us on

Middle East, Africa and Asia.

With unrivalled knowledge of rail joints, track fastening systems and track accessories, LB Foster has developed a series of heavy duty products for freight and high traffic environments including metro and transit systems.

+44 (0)114 256 2225 or email

uksales@lbfoster.com

www.lbfoster.co.uk

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the rail engineer • April 2013

Lucchini UK - Stand B21

Maxim Power Tools - Stand C33

Wheels and wheelsets

Four new ‘Maxim’ tools

L

M

ucchini UK will be exhibiting a concept wheelset, christened ‘Freiset’ by its creators at Lucchini RS Group headquarters in Lovere, Italy. This is sure to attract anyone with even a passing interest in wheels and wheelsets.

While the name suggests that this new wheelset is aimed at the freight market, certain aspects of this unique patented design are also appropriate for passenger vehcles. With Freiset, Lucchini RS is responding to calls from customers for a wheelset that offers a high payload allied to low maintenance and a clearly ‘green’ pedigree. Essentially, it combines an axle rated at 25 tonnes, a new wheel design with a high safety coefficient, the ‘Lursak’ axle protection system that requires almost no maintenance for the design life of the axle, a hollow axle for easy in-service ultrasonic inspection, and Lucchini’s patented noise-damping system,

‘Syope’, which cuts vibration noise down to a murmur.

All this and Italian hospitality too...

axim Power Tools will be showing four new products in addition to its well known Master Petrol Impact Wrench and Accessories.

The Air Driven Rusty Clip Remover is ideal for removing rusty E and P clips in tunnels, under bridges and on track in coastal areas. It can be used hand held or in the future trolley mounted.

The Laser Align Track Gauge is easy to use and robust in design. It provides a simple way to speed up the task of switch tip alignment without the use of a tape measure and calculations.

A Havi Meter can be fitted to all types of small plant and records the time it is being operated and calculates the resultant vibration exposure level.

The new Master Trolley with Braking System, which is undergoing approval can be used with the Master Impact Wrench and Rusty Clip Remover. Small enough to fit into a car boot, it can be assembled without the use of tools within a few minutes.

Mechan - Stand D56

Multipulse Electronics - Stand G57

Developments in jack controls and wheel measurement

New equipment and a driving simulator

M

echan, the rail depot equipment specialist, will be showcasing the latest updates to its lifting and handling products at Railtex 2013.

The Sheffield-based manufacturer will have a working version of its Microlink controller on display, along with the innovative CALIPRI-Wheel measurement device.

Microlink has revolutionised the way rail carriages are lifted by enabling just one operative to manage the entire network safely. Recent updates have increased its capacity to 44 jacks and introduced a colour touch-screen panel that provides constant feedback.

Visitors can also view the CALIPRI-Wheel from NextSense.

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Mechan is the official UK supplier of this handheld, non-contact measuring device, which records geometrical data for any complex-shaped object.

Richard Carr, Mechan’s managing director, said: “Reaction to the Microlink updates has been extremely positive and we are looking forward to showing Railtex visitors how the system has evolved. We offer a number of third party innovations to UK clients, including the CALIPRIWheel, and the event is an opportunity to raise the profile of these products.”

M

ultipulse Electronics Ltd is the partner selected by Network Rail to supply GSM-R installation kits and Test Equipment for the national roll-out of this major programme. It includes the delivery to depots nationwide of some 8000 installation kits and equipment across 150 train classes.

At Railtex, Multipulse will focus on other aspects of its activities aimed at providing a broad range of services to the rail industry which will include; » Introduction of a GSM-R LRU radio test unit with a ‘live’ demonstration; » Programmable logic controllers for rail applications for HVAC, doors, lighting and fire protection; » Electro-acoustic products including industrial and emergency services headsets, handsets and microphones,

from Holmco; » Flat-pack trackside/depotbased communication shelters, ideal for protecting electronic communications equipment; . » TPWS trainborn, trackside and calibration services.

For the fun element and any budding train drivers, Multipulse are running a full train driver simulator on its stand…there’s maybe even a prize if your skills are up to the task!

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the rail engineer • April 2013

93

Peli Products (UK) - Stand D30

New LED work lights

P

eli launches the new 9420 LED work light on stand D30. Weighing only 3.81kg, it is ideal for trackside maintenance, particularly in difficult to access areas. Offering instant, silent illumination the 9420 is compact and easily carried, folding down to just 74cm long. The mast extends above 1.5 metres allowing a wide area of illumination.

Existing models have been upgraded; the popular 9430 area light now features a powerful 3000 lumen output. The Peli 9460 and 9470 area lighting systems are now 50% brighter with a longer battery burn time, an amazing 40 hours. These larger units feature an “intelligent control” panel which adjusts the light output according to length of light duration required providing a real-time display, ensuring you never get left in the dark.

Peli Area lighting systems offer powerful, rechargeable, LED lighting - a safe, economic and convenient alternative to generator powered units.

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Rail and Road Protec - Stand E70

Smaller Heading

R

ail and Road Protec GmbH (R2P) is a German based company which is expert in the design and development of intelligent transportation solutions: Mobile CCTV, Infotainment, Passenger Counting, Fleet and Data Management Solutions. R2Ps advanced integrated system solution is one of the market leaders in Germany, Scandinavia and UK. The core offering to the rail market is on-board CCTV, counting saloon surveillance, forward facing, rearview, and pantograph cameras, such as driver-only-operation cameras and displays. On top of this, remote video transmission enables the control centre to view incidents live, and status to be reported for pro-active maintenance.

Saloon CCTV is used for the safety of passengers and railway staff, whilst forward-facing cameras provide video evidence in the event of on-track incidents,

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SPADS, etc. Pantograph cameras monitor the overhead power line and to provide evidence in the event of broken cables and damage to vehicles or infrastructure. Remote video transmission makes it easy for the train operator to see what is happening live, and to access recordings in the event of an incident.

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the rail engineer • April 2013

Tata Steel Projects - Stand H123

Modular marvels

T

ata Steel Projects offers a full range of engineering services covering the entire life cycle of a project, from consultancy, planning and design through manufacture, installation, construction and site management.

A solutions business that provides design, build and installation services to a variety of clients, the company operates in a number of different sectors including: » Rail & Transportation » Construction » Defence & Security » Energy & Power (including Nuclear and Renewables) » Manufacturing » Steel » Industrial Client value is delivered through 600 engineers and support staff based across five UK sites.

Tata Steel Projects’ engineers are experienced designers of all types of infrastructure, particularly buildings, energy infrastructure and rail infrastructure. All core engineering disciplines are covered and allows the coordination of complete designs in-house.

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Modular platforms One of the areas of expertise of Tata Steel Projects is offsite construction techniques and the Railtex display will include a section of the Tata Steel Projects’ Modular Platform System.

This provides a swift and cost-effective solution to platform construction, even in the most challenging of site conditions.

Standardised, lightweight components mean the system can be installed quickly and without the need for long possessions.

The cantilevered design allows the support structure to be built in a green zone.

Galvanised steel and high quality prefinishing ensures a robust and long-lasting system that is suitable for all profiles including curved or tapering platforms.

This system addresses a number of lineside build issues through its key features and benefits which are: » Unique system adjustability – ensuring onsite buildability and potential to respond to

re-gauging; » Lightweight structure – ensuring ease and speed of installation and enabling costeffective construction over poor ground; » Designed for construction by a single-trade crew using minimal mechanised plant – reducing timescales, costs and safety risks and making the system ideal for use with third rail or OLE lines and on sites with difficult access; » Standardised, pre-finished components – minimising installation time and providing built-in adaptability for future growth and changes; » Off-site design and manufacture – minimising track access requirements and enabling accurate prediction of installation costs and timescales; » On-site health & safety benefits – The reduced time frame on site, single trade platform assembly and majority green zone work all contribute to a statistically safer and reduced risk work environment.

Tata Steel Projects has the experience of constructing nearly ninety platforms using the Modular system. As well as the quality and health & safety benefits, the nature of the construction means it is also an inherently sustainable form of construction.

Overall the Tata Steel Projects’ Modular Platform System offers adaptability for changes as its design holds a number of adjustable features.

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the rail engineer • April 2013

Railway Vehicle Engineering - Stand F15

RuggedCom - Stand C31

Effective rolling stock maintenance

Industrial strength networks

R

R

ailway Vehicle Engineering Ltd (RVEL) specialises in engineering work on railway traction and rolling stock. The company is based in Derby, at the heart of the UK rail industry, and its modern, well equipped workshops offer customers a full range of rolling stock engineering solutions; from train servicing through routine fleet maintenance to the heaviest of vehicle and component re-engineering projects.

The reliability of a customer’s fleet determines the effectiveness of its operation and its reputation in the market. RVEL takes pride in having a positive working relationship with fleet owners and their engineering teams, so whilst many competitors may talk of project to specification, on time and on budget, RVEL actually delivers!

RVEL’s business model blends innovation with lean techniques whilst striving for exemplary safety and environmental performance. At Railtex, you will be able to discuss how the UK’s

fastest growing T&RS engineering business can meet your needs.

uggedCom Inc is a leading designer and manufacturer of industrial strength networks for mission-critical applications in harsh environments. It recently announced the launch of a utility grade computing line module for the RuggedBackbone™ RX1500, known as RuggedAPE™ (Rugged Application Processing Engine).

RuggedAPE™ is the ideal product to increase performance and functionality of the RX1500 multi-service platform.

Leveraging the built-in switching and routing capabilities of the RX1500, the RuggedAPE™ is a utility grade computing platform that plugs directly into any member of the RX1500 family and enables customers to run security, smart grid and other software applications on the RuggedBackbone™ device.

Another new release is RuggedMAX 4.3 firmware.

This latest firmware brings new enhancements to the RuggedMAX product line,

Schenck Process UK - Stand E67

Semmco - Stand G140

Automatic sand resupply

Safer access

Schenck Process is exhibiting the unique MultiRail SandPiper machine which automatically fills the sand tanks on trains and trams to aid braking and traction. The MultiRail SandPiper range is the only UKdesigned and manufactured sand filling pumping system and includes mobile and static sand filling stations for greater flexibility. Recent projects include London Underground and Southern Trains depots in south London.

The refilling of sand boxes or hoppers on trains and trams is an important factor to ensure the correct operation of the vehicle’s braking system and to assist with traction when there are slippery track conditions.

The SandPiper product range also includes larger-scale static systems with multiple fixed dispensing points, enables several vehicles to be re-filled with sand at the same time.

Schenck Process also supplies precise weighing for rail and road transport in static or dynamic

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modes with the Schenck Multi Rail system. These systems provide monitoring and diagnostic systems for rail applications and testing and documentation for production and maintenance work.

including improved scalability, an enhanced security feature set, handover capability, tighter frequency reuse and expanded frequency range, among others.

RuggedMAX 4.3 has been tested by customers in the rail market with excellent results.

S

emmco’s comprehensive range of cost effective platforms and access equipment keeps the workforce safe and reduces the risk of accidents and injuries. Products include:

» Pitboards - lightweight, modular with handrails, safety gates or pit access ladders; » Steps and working platforms - fixed or height adjustable, manoeuvrable with handrails configured to suit; » Front Access Solutions - fixed or variable height, track or depot-mounted, profiled edge for close fit; » Roof Access Platforms - mobile or fixed solutions. Options for fold-out or fixed roof protection; » Gantry Systems - full range available, incorporating fixed or electronic sliding fingers.

Semmco has streamlined its business and relocated from

multiple units into one large factory. Historically, Semmco developed organically so a new ergonomic layout was needed to improve manufacturing output and efficiency. The move still allows the business to benefit from Woking’s transport links, retain the excellent workforce and operate in a more cost effective manner through the implementation of MRP and 5S manufacturing initiatives.

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the rail engineer â&#x20AC;˘ April 2013

Signalling Solution - Stand E21

Steel Line - Stand C72

Exciting Opportunities

Stainless furniture for whole-life economy

D

ue to our growing reputation within the industry for delivering major projects, we continue to win new and exciting contracts UK wide. To deliver our projects, Signalling Solutions currently has a range of exciting career opportunities available now across Design, Project Management, Project Engineering, Systems Engineering and Testing.

Our recruiters Orla Oâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;Connor and Gemma Taylor will be attending Railtex to speak to you about our opportunities and the benefits of working for Signalling Solutions. Please come and visit

us at Railtex on stand E21 or drop us an email to recruitment@ signallingsolutions.com if you want a chat and to find out more.

See vacancies on page 107.

S

teel Line public realm furniture is crafted specifically to work in harmony with the urban environment. Products are manufactured from only the highest grade stainless and are hand finished to ensure the perfect balance of aesthetic elegance and durability A train station is the gateway to a town or city; just like social circles, the first impression is crucial to any traveller and getting it right first time is something Steel Line can help you with.

Durable yet elegant, Standup and Metro station furniture will not only stand the test of time, but also offer comfort and practicality. Satin and beadblasted polished finishes with blended â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;invisibleâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; welds are just three of the features that balance aesthetics with functionality, whilst the quality of the stainless steel products offer an indeterminable life span

Strainstall - Stand G90

S

Monitoring systems are often automated for long-term unattended monitoring. These can have their own power supplies (solar panels, fuel cells) and are generally fitted with remote communication capability.

The data can be downloaded from site automatically and presented in the form of regular reports or displayed on our secure website.

Usually working through consulting engineers or main contractors, many projects

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have been undertaken on behalf of Network Rail, London Underground and overseas LRT authorities.

Recent projects include monitoring of strengthening tie bars in the piers of Coldrenick Viaduct during remedial works to establish the loads they were supporting, strain gauging of fishplates to monitor oil lubrication, and on-going rockfall monitoring of two sections of cliff face at Dawlish.

with their resistance to corrosion, vandalism and graffiti.

Metro and Standup stainless steel products have been engineered and designed as whole life products to align with the rail industryâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s objective of achieving 40% savings in operational and maintenance costs by 2017.

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Sophisticated structural monitoring trainstall specialises in structural and geotechnical monitoring and testing by providing various instrumentation systems and services to help engineers better understand the performance and condition of structures. Typically, a variety of sensor technologies are employed in the measurement and presentation of data related to strain, displacement, inclination (tilt), temperature, environmental conditions, acceleration (vibration).

97

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the rail engineer • April 2013

Visul Systems - Stand B66

Keep in touch with Tactiles

V

isul Systems is the UK’s leading manufacturer, supplier and installer of surface-mounted tactile paving systems and stair nosing profiles for the visually impaired and partially sighted. Visul Systems also undertakes minor civils works that include anti-slip surfacing and concrete repairs to rail platforms and stations.

Station Equipment/Furnishings

Stair nosings

Visul’s platform edge warning surface systems alert visually impaired pedestrians when they approach the edge of all railway platforms. Surface mounted tactile systems from Visul outperform all other tactile products available for durability and cost and have been widely adopted and approved throughout the rail network.

The ‘Section 12’ platform edge warning is a new arrival to the range. This acrylic resinbased methyl methacrylate (MMA) tactile system has been specially formulated to with stand heavy foot and vehicular traffic, as well as meet high levels of wear, impact and slip resistance. The system has been extensively tested and proven to meet all of the relevant fire safety requirements as detailed in the London Underground Limited Standards and Building Regulations (BS 476 parts 6 and 7) in compliance with Section 12 of the Fire Precautions Act, 1971.

Visul Systems’ bespoke range of anti-slip stair treads complies with the requirements of the Disability Discrimination Act (1994).

The Visuline range of stair nosings utilizes the smallest number of supply profile options to provide a durable, hard-wearing anti-slip solution to all types of steps and stairs.

Unique to the stair nosings market, Visul Systems offers a supply-and-fit solution through sister company USL StructureCare, which has 25 years’ experience in the civil engineering and construction sectors.

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Anti-slip systems Visul Systems supplies and installs a full range of high-performance anti-slip surfacing products manufactured by the world’s leading flooring specialists. The range of anti-slip products offers a colourful, joint free positively textured floor finish with exceptional chemical, wear and slip resistance.

These systems are ideal for use in areas subject to high foot and vehicular traffic where health, hygiene and fire-safety are paramount, particularly on underground rail networks.

Infrastructure maintenance Sister company USL StructureCare has established a reputation for engineering expertise, cost-effective project performance, innovation and aftersales customer care, making it the deal partner for refurbishment contracts.

As it is not always feasible to use one contractor, Visul Systems has a network of fully trained and certified approved contractors. The company’s technical department is on hand to give advice and assist contractors on tactile paving related issues.

25/03/2013 19:20

A USL Group Company

Sustainable Solutions For Rail Infrastructure A Full Design & Build Service: Platform Upgrades · Station platform extensions and reconstruction · London Underground, ATOC and Network Rail upgrades · Groundwork, formwork and reinforced concrete · Minor civils works · Maintenance, repair and refurbishment of car parks

Products: · Surface mounted tactile paving · Retro fixed studs – polyurethane and stainless steel · Stair nosings · Recessed concrete copers · Concrete and substrate repairs · Anti-slip surfacing · Anti-carbonation paints Products approved for use by: Accreditation logos:

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the rail engineer • April 2013

Tata Steel - Stand H123

Techpol - Stand G43

Premium rail products and services

Specialist paint systems

T

ata Steel believes that the secret to developing rail products and services that address the demands of today and tomorrow lies in a lasting relationship with customers. The premium range of mainline and urban rail products is designed to combat wear, rolling contact fatigue and corrosion, responding to customers’ requirements for lower life cycle costs.

Tata Steel’s associated services range from consultancy, design and engineering to manufacture, installation and onsite project management.

The company works in partnership with customers and specially selected partners to deliver high quality, innovative

and responsive solutions to meet their individual requirements.

THJV, a joint venture with Halcrow, is part of Network Rail’s Professional Services Support Framework, aiding the early development stages of investment and renewal projects.

T

echpol specialises in supporting the rail market with certified paint systems for rolling stock OEM and refurbishment. These are used for the exterior, interior, roof and underbody and are fully supported with a stock management system encompassing every conceivable consumable used. Techpol strives towards exceeding client’s expectations in all areas through continuous investment in staff training and product development.

Continually pushing the creative boundaries of paint systems with bespoke colours and new technologies, all sourced from world-leading paint manufacturers, Technopol’s expertise is available to clients both large and small.

As well as paints and coatings, Technopol specialises in corrosion protection as well as graffiti protection and removal, all backed up with quality assurance certified to ISO 9001 and ISO14001.

Customers of Techpol don’t just buy a tin of paint. Onsite support,

introductory demonstrations and on-going tailored training programmes come as part of the package.

Thomas & Betts - Stand E100

Trackwork - Stand E75

Specialist conduits and more

Single source for infrastructure

T

homas & Betts, renowned as a major supplier to the world’s railway industries, will be highlighting the extensive range of Adaptaflex specialist conduit systems for the rail infrastructure sector at Railtex. These include the Type PF non-metallic, flexible conduit system. Its mechanical properties make it ideal for both external and internal applications in infrastructure applications where low temperatures are encountered. In addition, Type PF conduit can be used as an alternative to separate interior and exterior conduit systems.

Type PF has an operational temperature range of -50ºC to 110ºC and, combined with its flexibility and high impact resistance, offers optimum cable protection in external low-temperature applications.

It is based on a flame retarded Polyamide 12 material and is selfextinguishing.

Adaptaflex is just one of a number of Thomas & Betts brands that serve the rail industry. Others include the Emergi-lite and Furse product

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ranges that cover emergency lighting, earthing and lightning protection.

T

rackwork Ltd, one of the UK’s leading rail infrastructure specialists, is delighted to be back at Railtex. With a dynamic and forward thinking approach, the company has steadily grown since its inception in 1976 to become a significant contributor to the UK’s rail infrastructure and related industries.

From its Doncaster base, Trackwork provides a wide range of products and services including railway construction and maintenance, track material supply and disposal, switch and crossing

manufacture, rail plant, labour hire, signalling and training services.

This unique and diverse portfolio enables Trackwork to offer a ‘single source solution’ to the UK Rail Industry.

25/03/2013 19:20

You know what to expect from Invensys Rail. UK and global capabilities. Experienced and talented employees.

Innovative solutions.

The only surprise is...that there isnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t one.

Find out more about what you can expect at www.invensysrail.com or call 01249 441441

Come and see us at Railtex, stand D21

Expect the expected

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the rail engineer • April 2013

WEC Rail - Stand G61

Werner - Stand B81

Access For All bridges a speciality

Fiberglass ladders for safety

W

EC Rail is a leading force in providing innovative design, fabrication and installation services to the rail sector.

WEC Rail benefits from over 10 years’ industry experience manufacturing rail signal structures and gantries across the UK, and takes credit for various station regeneration projects including walkway bridges and essential trackside upgrades.

With access to extensive manufacturing facilities, including an expert in-house design team, over 100 skilled welders, and a PTS-trained installation team, WEC Rail can manage entire projects from start to completion, ensuring that the same team takes the project from its manufacture and fabrication to final installation.

Since 2009, WEC Rail has specialised in the manufacture of ‘access for all’ bridges for various station regeneration projects across the UK, including Audley

End, Canterbury West, Forest Hill, and Cambridge Stations.

WEC Rail also provides generic and bespoke products for any application within the industry including pedestrian bridges, signal structures & gantries, rolling stock metalwork, electrical enclosures and CCTV products.

W

erner, the world leader in ladders, will be showcasing its range of fibreglass ladders and accessories, providing effective working at height solutions for the rail industry.

All Werner fibreglass ladders have electrically non-conductive stiles that are ideal for working in the proximity of electricity and durable, seven-layer fibreglass stiles which retain their smooth surface even after weathering.

The range includes fibreglass swingback and platform stepladders in both ‘trade’ and ‘industrial’ versions, available in a range of heights and all featuring Werner’s high performance Holster Top®, with specifically designed paint, tool and equipment holders. The Werner® line up also includes a ‘utility’ fibreglass extension ladder which features a heavy duty external rope pulley system and Werner’s patented Alflo® rung joint offering

‘twist proof’ performance.

Continuing the safety theme is the Werner Lock-In System™ designed to keep trips up and down the ladder to a minimum.

These accessories expand the work surface available at the top of a Werner ladder and provide a safe and secure repository for tools and materials.

Wilcomatic - Stand B40

Windhoff Bahn - und Anlagentechnik - Stand F31

Why not front and rear washing

Special vehicles for particular applications

W

ilcomatic Rail Division will be exhibiting information on its installations of wash equipment for rail, trams, monorails and APM systems throughout the world.

The strategy of Wilcomatic Rail Division is to select key countries and work with turnkey providers of rail systems. The company has provided a number of units to Bombardier, Scomi and Siemens.

So successful has this been that Wilcomatic has now opened an overseas office to develop a number of opportunities.

Unlike many of its overseas installations, Wilcomatic Rail Division has found that UK mainline companies are reluctant to adopt front and rear washing.

Says Mark Prockter, general manager of Wilcomatic Rail Division: “This is a shame since the front of the vehicle is what

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passengers see first. The issues have traditionally been the time it takes to wash and the reliability of the systems. We believe we have a system that can address both these issues, which we will be featuring at Railtex.”

W

indhoff Bahn - und Anlagentechnik GmbH is well established as a global supplier of systems and equipment for railway depots and commuter train operators. Windhoff supplies railway depots with mechanical equipment such as lifting systems, work platforms and turntables as well as planning and project management for complex new or refurbishment projects.

The product range includes rail vehicles and accessories for main lines operators, sidings, commuter companies and metros. Windhoff vehicles are used world-wide for the construction and maintenance of rail nets and overhead catenary systems, for freight forwarding as well as for firefighting and rescue services as well as attachments for track construction works using excavators.

Windhoff shunting systems range from compact rope-winch devices to rail-road shunters which have been designed specifically for in-house shunting in workshops and on industrial, factory and dock railways.

Drawing on its long experience, Windhoff specialises in overcoming technical problems, no matter whether they require a one-off or series production solution.

25/03/2013 19:21

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Morson International is a market leader in the provision of specialist technical and engineering personnel worldwide.

We are the UK’s No.1 provider to the rail industry and currently have opportunities for:

Project Managers – OLE, S&T, Pway and Civils Project Engineers – OLE, S&T, Pway and Civils

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Design Engineers - OLE, S&T, Pway and Civils Traction Power Engineers

To speak to an expert consultant in your area, contact us by phone or email.

T: Manchester 0161 707 1516 London 0207 633 2040 Woking 01483 748 200 E: rail@morson.com

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the rail engineer â&#x20AC;˘ April 2013

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the rail engineer • April 2013

S&T Technicians (x3)

105

12 month temporary contract

Greater Manchester, £29,316.50 - £36,645.75 per year Metrolink by RATP dev, are looking for committed individuals to join their team on an initial 12 month contract with the possibility to extend. You would be based at Queens Road depot or Trafford depot.

The roles available are: • S&T technician-faults and maintenance team x 1.

• S&T technician-network expansion team x1.

• S&T technician-NMC technician x1.

The S&T department is responsible for the performance of preventative and corrective maintenance on the Signalling and telecommunications infrastructure including but not limited to: • •

SCADA and Control Systems Telecommunications and transmission systems

• • · •

CCTV systems Passenger Information Systems Alcatel LAN Railway signalling systems and PLC based tram management systems

You will ideally be qualified to minimum of ONC (BTEC National Diploma) level in Electrical/Electronic Engineering. You must also be in possession of a full current driving licence and maintain this throughout your period of employment.

Previous experience in railway signalling working to SMTH and (or) telecommunications would be an advantage, additionally for the post of NMC technician, systems knowledge and strong IT skills are required.

The hours of work will be based on 37½ week and will require shift work and flexibility. The F&M team covers 7 days a week, 24 hours a day and 365 days a year.

The salary for the positions is £29,316.50 and this will rise to £36,645.75 after a six month probationary period (if applicable) and up to 12 months integration into the team to enable you to attain the competence required.

To apply for this position please send a covering letter and your CV to the HR department. Closing date will be Friday 19th April 2013.

Get on track with Atkins Our permanent way design engineers make a lasting impression on the UK railway.

Having recently won a series of high profile resignalling, electrification, remodelling and National S&C Framework contracts we have a number of exciting permanent way design opportunities available in York, Birmingham, Swindon and Croydon.

To find out how you can shape the future of the UK railway visit: www.atkinsglobal.com/careers/railcivils

As committed to Diversity as we are to Excellence

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the rail engineer • April 2013

We deliver market leading, turnkey network engineering solutions to the world’s leading businesses. We have an enviable reputation spanning over 30 years, gained working on some of the world’s most technologically advanced communication networks. ur services include development and design, installation testing and commissioning supported by asset maintenance and management services. ur services are deployed both nationally and globally, 24 . ur expertise is deployed across fixed networks and wireless applications in all industry sectors including, utilities, oil and gas, highways, rail, MoD and local government authorities.

We have the following vacancies in locations ranging from Sheffield, Manchester, lasgow and other UK sites.

inbrooke Services td Sheffield 35a Business Park Churchill Way Chapeltown S35 2P

enio nstallation nginee s o e t nginee s ail ele o ni ations est an o issioning nginee s nstallation nginee s For information please visit: www linb oo e o

t: +44 (0) 44 00 09 3 f: +44 (0) 44 00 09 4 e: paula.bailey@linbrooke.co.uk

a ee s

Join our winning team.

Following the recent successful delivery of a number of projects, McNicholas have recently been awarded a number of multi-disciplined contracts on Network Rail infrastructure in the South East.

McNicholas will be responsible for design and implementation of these schemes. The works typically include lineside civils, electrical installation, telecommunications, testing and commissioning.

www.mcnicholas.co.uk/careers

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We are now looking to further develop our team and are looking for the following positions: » » » » » » » » »

Senior Project Managers Engineering Managers WPP Planners SSOW Planners Possession Planners P6 Planners On Track Plant Managers Electrical Construction Managers Electrical Site Managers

25/03/2013 19:21

Great opportunities with a fast moving company

ARE YOU LOOKING FOR SOMETHING NEW? Come and visit us at Railtex stand E21 or book a time to have a chat with us!

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.

Due to our growing reputation within the industry for delivering major projects, we continue to win new and exciting contracts UK wide. In order to deliver these projects Signalling Solutions has a range of exciting and demanding career opportunities.

If you are looking for a new challenge and want to make a real contribution to the success of our business, we have opportunities in the following disciplines: • Design • Project Management • Project Engineering • Systems Engineering • Testing

We’re seeking candidates who are keen to develop their skills and who can match our enthusiasm for success. In return for your commitment and contribution, you can expect an excellent package and the opportunity to shape your career the way that you want, with training, development and career planning.

Please apply by sending your CV to recruitment@signallingsolutions.com

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.

For further information, or to make an application: Tel: +44 (0)1923 635 093 email: recruitment@signallingsolutions.com

a Balfour Beatty and Alstom UK company

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Influencing your energy strategies with integrated solutions UK Power Networks Services is a leading provider of electrical infrastructure with significant experience of working on high profile transport projects such as High Speed 1, High Speed 2 and Crossrail.

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 finance solutions

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

Consulting

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Technologies

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Engineering

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Construction

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Operation & Maintenance

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Finance

08/01/2013 21/03/2013 10:20 17:36