Rail Engineer - Issue 126 - April 2015

Engineer

by rail engineers for rail engineers

APRIL 2015 - ISSUE 126

Monte Carlo

OR BUST

CARMUIRS CANAL CLEARANCE

STRATEGY TO BECOME SECTOR 12

DRIVING HIGH PERFORMANCE TRACK

Removing a tunnel and rerouting a canal

The Rail Supply Group sets out its stall to

Developing and testing higher-hardness

to provide clearance for electrification

become the latest strategic industrial sector

steel rails to increase life and reduce cost

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Rail Engineer • April 2015

3

Contents

Carmuirs Canal Clearance

Don’t Do What We’ve Always Done…

7

David Packer of PWI’s opinion on the definition of permanent way.

News 8 Borders train, Cornish IEPs, Fuel Cells, Brussels Trams, Mail Rail and Waterloo.

Monte Carlo or Bust

14

Scarborough Bridge was just worn out after 140 years.

23

Improved Efficiency in CP5

31

The rush to electrify the railway drives major investment in new plant.

Level Crossings Come of Age

Pedestrians and trains meet head-on at level crossings, so they need to be safe.

National Electrification Conference

34

Network Rail and its supply chain tackle the challenges of electrification.

Finding the Real Causes

38

When it all goes wrong, the RAIB finds out why.

The Transition to ERTMS in the UK

43

Not another ERTMS article? Oh yes…and an interesting one too!

46

Strategy to Become Sector 12

48

What is the Rail Supply Group, why does it exist and what does it do?

Capability & Competency

Fifty Shades of Progress Rail UK

52

The railway needs skills, it needs the right skills, and it needs them now.

Excavator track shoes and bollards – what do they have in common with railways?

Helping Rail Organisations to Stand Out from the Crowd

56

Even the best railway companies need to get their message across.

Driving High-Performance Track

58

Developing harder rails to give better performance under load.

66

Sustainable Ballast

Keeping Things Warm in Winter

Abandoned Railways are Havens for Wildlife

62

High-output ballast cleaners generate a lot of waste – then what?

68

Improving the efficiency of points heaters.

Shear Brilliance

70

Cutting up tens of thousands of tonnes of scrap rail is not a simple job.

Five Into One Does Go!

72

Combining five conferences with one exhibition at Olympia.

Realising Rail Ambitions in the Gulf

76

A look at the enthusiasm for rail projects in the Middle East.

78

One Careful Owner Every good heritage railway wants, and needs, a turntable.

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 816 445 NOW!

80

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Rail Engineer • April 2015

5

Editor Grahame Taylor grahame.taylor@therailengineer.com

It’s always conference season!...

Production Editor

Grahame Taylor

Nigel Wordsworth nigel@rail-media.com

Production and design Adam O’Connor adam@rail-media.com Matthew Stokes matt@rail-media.com

Engineering writers chris.parker@therailengineer.com clive.kessell@therailengineer.com collin.carr@therailengineer.com david.bickell@therailengineer.com david.shirres@therailengineer.com graeme.bickerdike@therailengineer.com jane.kenyon@therailengineer.com mungo.stacy@therailengineer.com paul.darlington@therailengineer.com peter.stanton@therailengineer.com simon.harvey@therailengineer.com steve.bissell@therailengineer.com stuart.marsh@therailengineer.com

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Conference anyone? Yup, we’ve plenty to chose from this month. From ERTMS to Electrification, there has been much wisdom expounded over the past few weeks.

Clive Kessell revisits ERTMS and a conference that dealt with the transition from conventional to ‘unconventional’ signalling. Can it be done? Well, everything’s possible - it’s just a matter of time and ...cost. There is plenty of heavy thinking going on out there if that’s any comfort.

MetroRail, LightRail, RailTel, RailPower and AirRail five conferences all at once, but which one to choose?

Luckily Rail Engineer had two writers available and sent Nigel Wordsworth and Clive along to report back for us.

As always, there were a number of fascinating insights rarely making the light of day except at such events.

Take for example the thorny problem of what to do when GSM-R runs its course - as it surely will do.

Marc Johnson went a bit further afield to his conference.

Middle East Rail was held in Dubai, and he found a lot going on out there. The conference featured metros, and trams, and freight, and even a Rail Media stand!

For years there has been talk of a shortage of skills.

But Paul Darlington’s account of the recent conference on skills and capacity has a stark analysis of the situation. The shortfall of schemes being developed can be quantified, and expressed in monetary terms.

The long and short of it all is that rework just can’t be afforded these days.

Then there was the National Electrification Conference, attended by our Peter Stanton, dealing with the exciting mix of new schemes already authorised and the logistical challenges of concurrent delivery.

A fascinating morsel hinted at the possibility of DC distribution of high voltage power, another area where technical innovation in the industry is emerging.

Polly Rivers has been off to see Keltbray which has made a huge investment in electrification plant and equipment. Sourcing from several countries has its challenges, not the least of which is making sure that all the parts of the new wiring unit fit together when they arrive in the UK. Nigel Wordsworth has been talking to the co-chair of the Rail Supply Group (RSG) Terence Watson who, as country chairman of Alstom, has a clear view of the supplier end of the railway industry. He also sees that, whilst there are many moves to coordinate and collaborate in other parts of the industry, there has been nothing put together to help the supply chain. It’s probably been too difficult, but in the end, everything hangs around suppliers.

York is, of course, photogenic. Images of the Minster are familiar, but maybe not as they are presented by

Graeme Bickerdike in his article on the renewal of the Scarborough branch bridge over the river Ouse.

Trundling down Marygate with the Minster in the background is a substantial chunk of steelwork on its way to the works compound. Civil engineering bits of kit seem to grow when they occupy our ‘normal-sized’ world.

Engineering the correct clearances for electrification can pose considerable challenges. Track lowerings, bridge reconstructions and general hacking about at the margins. David Shirres tells us of a remedy at the extreme end of the scale. When confronted with a couple of pokey tunnels under a canal, the solution involved digging up the canal and removing the tunnels completely.

David has also been hearing about the first ten years of the RAIB - the Rail Accident and Investigation Branch.

Acting in similar ways to its maritime and aviation counterparts, the work of the RAIB is diverse to say the least. At a recent presentation to the IMechE Railway Division in Glasgow, Carolyn Griffiths, RAIB’s chief inspector of rail accidents, outlined some details of a couple of potentially disastrous incidents - neither of which hit the mainstream media.

Isn’t it odd? For years we have been treating spent ballast as contaminated waste. Carefully processing it and carting it around. No doubt it contains some nasty substances, but how nasty one wonders? Melanie Oxley’s summary of the flora and fauna associated with abandoned lines tells us that many locations are havens of wildlife. Some are even SSSIs. But these are the very places that have contained over a century of dodgy substances - the very substances that we no longer tolerate. Nature doesn’t seem to read the regulations.

From a coffee machine conversation - although we’re not party to what was actually said(!) - to a new rail steel that is giving significant benefits to the UK rail system and potentially around the world, Daniel Pyke of Tata Steel gives us a roller coaster ride in product development.

In our latest opinion piece, David Packer, CEO of the Permanent Way Institution, puts forward a logical argument for reinterpreting the definition of the permanent way engineer. There is some considerable merit to his thoughts but they may cause a sharp intake of breathe from some in the industry. In the end, it shows that engineering in a railway environment is more complicated than many would like to imagine.

It won’t be long before Railtex is upon us. Make a note of the dates, 12 to 14 May in Birmingham and plan your trip now. We’ll be there and look forward to seeing you and maybe at the first Rail Exec Club outside London in Birmingham on 23 April, too.

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OPINION

Rail Engineer • April 2015

7

Don’t do what we’ve always done… or we’ll get what we've always got

DAVID PACKER

A

colleague of mine once said: “Track can’t be that difficult. After all, there are only four basic components: rails, fastenings, sleepers and ballast.”

I’ve got a few issues with that. There’s a basic tension at the heart of track engineering. The components are generally large, heavy and unwieldy and they have an extreme duty cycle.

If they are in the open air, they are subject to all the vagaries of the weather. If they are in a tunnel the environment is either too dry (London Underground) or too wet (some main line tunnels). In light rail, the track system is often part of the road surface with all the challenges that presents.

In every case, track components have to carry severe repeated dynamic loading without failure in fatigue - track is, very definitely, not a fail-safe asset. The inbuilt tension is that the track has to be installed and maintained to millimetre-perfect accuracy. So don’t let anyone ever try to convince you that it’s not challenging. When you bear in mind that the skill of the engineer is to ensure that this is all done safely and at the lowest whole-life cost, it gets even more interesting.

If plain line is difficult, switches and crossings are even more so. The dynamic loads are more severe and the geometry, both overall and of components, is much more complex. The interfaces with the signalling system bring a potential disparity in working tolerances. Then, to all these technical considerations, add the network traffic impact of taking units out of service, even for a short while for maintenance.

It’s not difficult to see that installing and maintaining these sensitive bits of kit needs excellent engineering and first-class engineers at every level.

treat ‘track’ and ‘permanent way’ as interchangeable terms. Track is a shorter word. It ‘does what is says on the tin’, while permanent way is industry jargon. But they aren’t the same and we need permanent way engineers as well as track engineers. So what is the permanent way and what is a permanent way engineer?

The nineteenth-century railway builders used a temporary way to build the railway.

Once they had finished their work the permanent way was the finished job, the completed railway. It was, and still is, everything from boundary fence to boundary fence. Looking at the railway this way ensures that engineers take a holistic view of the fixed infrastructure.

Who could dispute that an understanding of track support systems is vital? Consider the formation, embankments, cuttings, bridges (in all their various guises) and slab track. The variation in support stiffness, track restraint and the transition between different conditions really matters. All have an effect.

What about water management? Not just drainage, but understanding the challenges presented by climate change and the need to keep the railway safe and operable in as wide a range of conditions as possible.

Next we turn to interfaces with the public. No-one could dispute the challenge of maintaining safe boundaries and level crossings. Nor how to manage lineside vegetation; steering the right course between conservation, clearance and costeffectiveness. All of these areas - and more, no doubt - have always been the area of interest of the permanent way engineer. But what about the future and what opportunities will the Digital Railway bring?

Back to the future?

Is OLE permanent way?

Track engineering has many excellent people who understand the complex interplay of all these factors. Their input to system safety, reliability and efficiency is vital. But vital as their work is, it’s not enough. We need to bring back Permanent Way. Recently, there has been a trend to

The relationship between the overhead line and the track is a close one. Each has constraints on its geometry but they have never been considered to be part of the same engineering discipline. Standing back from the history, one is tempted to ask why that is. Certainly, each area needs its experts, but

shouldn’t both be part of the permanent way?

When faced with a challenge, good engineers will find a solution that has the best overall result for the system, not just the best result for an individual, narrower area. With the nationwide expansion of 25kV electrification, surely the time is right to include overhead line in permanent way.

Following on from Clive Kessell’s article last month, the development of train control brings further opportunities. As we move to the digital railway, large elements of train control will depend on data transfer and smart software - ‘Train Control and Communication’ as Clive termed it. But there’s a danger that something will get left behind in the journey to this future; the switch operating mechanism - left out in the cold and rain to do its job in the worst of conditions. The digital railway will need more, not fewer, switches, so we must ensure that they are completely reliable.

In-service failures must be eliminated and degraded operating must be a rare thing.

We must resolve the challenges presented by track and signalling which meet at switches.

It’s one system with one duty cycle, not two functional specialisms that happen to meet at a critical piece of equipment. For radical improvement to happen, switch operating mechanisms need to be thought of as part of the permanent way. If we do what we’ve always done, we’ll get what we’ve always got and that’s nowhere near good enough.

This edition of Rail Engineer has a focus on track and that’s right, as it is a complex and challenging area. However, we need tomorrow’s railway to be much better than today’s. Unifying our approach under permanent way engineering, or fixed infrastructure engineering if you prefer, must be part of the way forward.

David Packer is CEO of the Permanent Way Institution The comments expressed are the writer’s own and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the editor, management and staff of Rail Engineer.

8

NEWS

Rail Engineer • April 2015

IS IT a train?

IS IT an advertising hoarding?

Transport Scotland is so excited about the forthcoming opening of the Borders railway that it is advertising the fact with a giant mobile hoarding. A complete 70 metre long train has been wrapped in specially-designed livery to promote some of the top attractions of those areas served by the new railway.

The artwork has been designed to catch the eye of “train-loving kids and rail enthusiasts” as 170414 travels between Scotland’s seven cities. It features illustrations of Edinburgh Zoo’s pandas, Midlothian’s famous and historic Rosslyn Chapel and the Scottish Borders’ breathtaking scenery.

The Borders railway will become operational for passengers in September. Construction of the 30-mile line is progressing well to be complete by June, when Network Rail will hand it over to ScotRail for 12 weeks of driver training ahead of the grand opening.

At the unveiling of the three-car Class 170 train,

Scottish Borders council leader David Parker, said: “This eye-catching train wrap will help us to encourage people from across Scotland to come to the Borders and see what we have

to offer. We are grasping this opportunity with both hands and extend a warm welcome to all of our visitors in 2015 to join us at this exciting time.”

NEW TRAINS BETWEEN London and Cornwall As part of a new franchise agreement for First Great Western that will run until at least 2019, the company plans to introduce 29 new trains to run between London Paddington and Plymouth and Penzance.

These will replace the old High Speed Trains that currently operate the route from Summer 2018.

Agreement has been reached with Hitachi as preferred supplier to manufacture seven nine-car and

22 five-car type AT300 bi-mode trains with an option for 30 more. The new trains will be similar to those already on order for the IEP programme, although this is a separate and privately-financed order which, it is hoped, will be finalised by June.

While closely related to the Class 800 bimode (electric/diesel) trains already on order for the London-Bristol route, the new trains will feature higher diesel engine operating

power to cope with the gradients in Devon and Cornwall and be equipped with bigger fuel tanks to cater for the long distance journeys to Plymouth and Penzance.

The mixed fleet will allow for flexible use, including 10-car formations (two five-cars coupled together) for through-services to/ from the capital. They will run as electric trains between London and Newbury and then as diesels for the rest of their journey.

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NEWS

Rail Engineer • April 2015

Fuel cells for Germany The UK has electric trains and diesel trains.

There are even some ‘heritage’ steam locomotives that work on the network and the new IEP trains will be bi-mode – both diesel and electric. And of course there is Bombardier’s IPEMU battery train described in this magazine recently.

But Germany is going even further. It has ordered some fuel-cell-powered trains, based on Alstom’s successful Coradia platform.

Fuel cell drives convert chemical energy from a fuel (hydrogen) into electricity through a chemical reaction – a proven technology used in the automotive industry. In addition

to being completely emission-free, the only waste product is water. The trains will use less energy, thanks to the use of an intelligent energy management system, and the noise level will be drastically reduced compared to conventional diesel trains.

While having tanks of flammable hydrogen on board trains might be a worry, decades of research have already gone into hydrogen technology. According to the German Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Association (DMV), high-pressure reservoirs with hydrogen or even natural gas are actually safer than petrol tanks in comparable hazard situations. In addition,

220 trams for Brussels Brussels transport authority STIB (Société des Transports Intercommunaux de Bruxelles) recently took delivery of its 220th Bombardier Flexity tram, giving the city the world’s largest, single-type tram fleet.

The first order for 46 Flexity Outlook trams was placed in October 2003. STIB then exercised its option for an additional 22 vehicles in September 2005. More orders followed for 87 (2008) and 65 (2010) giving the total of 220 trams. In total, STIB now operates 70 seven-module trams and 150 five-module vehicles.

The unique Flexity Outlook tram combines Bombardier’s proven 100% low floor technology with conventional wheel-set bogies.

For two months in 2010, Bombardier operated a demonstration service in Vancouver, Canada, to coincide with the Winter Olympics. This ‘Olympic

Line’ service ran on a 1.1 mile route normally operated by heritage trams. However, during the Winter Olympics and Paralympics, two Flexity Outlook trams borrowed from Brussels carried over 550,000 passengers running 18 hours a day between Cambie Bridge and Granville Island.

Lutz Bertling, president and chief operating officer of Bombardier Transportation, said: “Over the last ten years, we have delivered to STIB 220 Flexity trams, the world’s biggest fleet of a single type of trams. We are very proud that our 100% low floor trams contribute to providing efficient, passenger-friendly and comfortable public transport in the capital of Europe.”

approval of the vehicles will include extremely strict checks covering all aspects of safety.

The trains are developed and will be manufactured in Salzgitter, Alstom’s competence centre for regional trains (EMU & DMU) in Germany. The first two trains will be used on the network operated by Landesnahverkehrsgesellschaft Niedersachsen (LNVG) and will be incorporated into its train fleet in Lower Saxony starting in 2018.

50 trains are likely to be ordered, and letters of intent have already been signed with the German states of Hesse, Lower Saxony, North Rhine-Westphalia and Baden-Württemberg.

NEWS

Rail Engineer • April 2015

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Railtex exhibitors top 430 The number of exhibitors taking part in Railtex 2015 has risen to more than 430, making this the biggest of these shows for many years in terms of floor space. With companies present serving every sector of the rail market, this will be an event that really does offer something for everyone in the industry.

As well as having a great opportunity to learn about the latest on offer from suppliers, everyone attending Railtex will also be able to listen to keynote speeches, presentations and project updates and join discussion forums taking place throughout the show, including Rail Engineer’s own series of industry seminars. The three-day programme is almost finalised, with plenty of high-ranking names preparing to

share their insights into developments in the rail sector.

To help plan your visit to the show, full details of all these activities plus everything else taking place during this busy and friendly event, including the second Railtex Awards dinner, can be found at www. railtex.co.uk. The website also features the latest list of exhibitors, to which new names are still being added.

Railtex 2015 takes place at the National Exhibition Centre in Birmingham from 12 to 14 May. For free entry to the show, register in advance via the website. Pre-registering avoids payment of a £20 entry fee on the door and gives much quicker access to the exhibition and the many activities taking place.

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NEWS

Rail Engineer • April 2015

3D scanning of the Mail Rail system It may come as a surprise, but London Underground doesn’t have the only underground railway network in the nation’s capital.

Running directly under the feet of millions of unsuspecting Londoners and passing many of the city’s most recognisable landmarks, the Post Office Underground Railway - Mail Rail ran between 1927 and 2003 from Whitechapel in the east to Paddington in the west. Shut down over a decade ago, the world’s first driverless, electrified railway has been frozen in time – until now.

As part of plans for the Postal Museum, a new national museum coming to central London in 2016, the British Postal Museum & Archive (BPMA) intends to open up Mail Rail. A loop of the old railway that runs under and around the Mount Pleasant sorting office has been leased for a period of 25 years.

Some changes – new entrances and fire escapes – will have to be built in order to open the railway up to the public. However, to create a permanent record of Mail Rail as it is now, and was the day it was closed in 2003, the BPMA has been exploring the use of 3D data capture. ScanLab Projects, a 3D scanning

and visualisation company based in East London, has produced some impressive imagery that shows Mail Rail in a way that isn’t possible through traditional 2D photography and enhances understanding and appreciation of the space.

The data collected not only forms a detailed record of Mail Rail before construction but could also be used in many ways to further improve the visitor experience. For example, the use of virtual reality technology could enable a full 3D walkthrough of hidden parts of the network or an app that enables layers to be peeled away to see the original industrial detail beneath.

Mail Rail should be open to the public sometime in 2016.

Rail Engineer • April 2015

13

Major changes due at Waterloo

S

ince Eurostar moved from Waterloo to St Pancras, the International platforms have lain mostly unused. This despite the fact that Waterloo is London’s busiest terminal with 98 million passengers in 2013/14 and a train arriving or departing virtually every minute during peak times so it could badly do with the extra capacity.

However, that will soon be put right as an agreement has been reached between the South West Trains-Network Rail Alliance, Skanska, Colas Rail, AECOM and Mott MacDonald to scope out plans to boost capacity at London Waterloo and other inner London stations. These detailed plans will then be submitted to the Office of Rail Regulation and Department for Transport.

The agreement aims to develop detailed plans, including the reopening of former Waterloo International Terminal, to be used regularly by commuter services, and lengthening Platforms 1-4 to allow 10-car services to run on suburban routes for the first time ever. The aim is to boost peak time capacity by 30 per cent by 2018.

Skanska’s James Richardson, speaking on behalf of the consortium of contractors, commented: “An investment of this size is excellent news for rail passengers in the region and, of course, an exciting opportunity for our alliance team. Working through a unique collaboration model, we will be able to combine and integrate the skills and expertise of a strong supply chain to deliver this challenging programme.”

RailVac - Not just for plain line, but the complex and really difficult stuff as well Fixing maintenance issues on plain lines is relatively straightforward. Sorting out really complex stuff like S&Cs, working in tunnels, on bridges and structures, along platforms and in areas with buried installations: we do all that as well, just as efficiently, and always with the track itself kept in situ.

The RailVac is by far the most efficient machine for excavation in any confined area and it’s ideal for heavy refurbishment, drainage repair, track lowering, trial holes and cable management projects.

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Rail Engineer • April 2015

Monte Car o or bust

Rail Engineer • April 2015

15

GRAEME BICKERDIKE

PHOTO: MULHOLLAND MEDIA

I

t was a very ordinary structure, comprising two spans across the Ouse to the north of York Station. Its replacement, installed over the February half term, is also pretty average. You might wonder then why I’m wasting your time telling you about it, or indeed why the project cost £6 million. Thing is, this wasn’t a typical bridge reconstruction. The key to its delivery - overcoming the site constraints - had been turned in advance of the nine-day blockade which saw the new steelwork craned into place. That’s why I can write this beforehand, leaving the project’s denouement to be conveyed in a few dramatic pictures. And given the size of the crane, I’m confident they will be very dramatic. Judge for yourself.

Rail Engineer • April 2015

PHOTO: FOUR BY THREE

16

(Above) Typical corrosion afflicting the bridge’s ironwork prior to its reconstruction.

(Below) Some of the old deck timbers are lifted out.

Comings and goings Head towards the coast from York and the first structure you’ll encounter - just 40 metres off the end of Platform 4 - is Scarborough Bridge, unsurprisingly identified as YMS/1. When the route opened in 1845, trains crossed the river on timber arches, the sockets for which are still visible in the masonry pier and abutments.

The latter incorporate archways allowing pedestrians free access along the banks. The spans were rebuilt in 1875 to comprise four 22 metre wrought iron main girders, ornamental lattice girders to both sides and a timber deck. The east side features a footbridge, tied to the main structure but effectively independent.

Corroded ironwork - for which the city’s vast pigeon population must bear some of the blame - and rotting timbers are only to be expected after 140 years, but there eventually comes a need for intervention. The bridge is not heavily trafficked (two First TransPennine Express services use it every hour) but its RA0 load rating meant bridge examiners had to be in attendance whenever a steam special crossed. And its movement was not kind - often fatally so - to the bats which roosted in its nooks and crannies. Studies concluded that the baseline effort involved in doing any major work on the structure made reconstruction the most cost-effective option, rather than just strengthening what was already there.

The four new weathering steel decks, manufactured in Chepstow by Mabey Bridge, are U-shaped in section and each is supported by a pair of plate girders. Whilst not aesthetically pleasing, the decks will demand no substantive maintenance for 60 years. In any case, they are screened by newly-fabricated latticework on the west side - emulating the original - and the existing footbridge to the east.

Story Contracting, the principal contractor, pinned down the buildability early by working closely with Network Rail’s in-house design team. The decks are swan-necked, sitting on shallow (200mm) cill units from Moore Concrete and thus avoiding the need to break out any stonework. The arrangement brings with it full RU loading. The pier and abutments remain in good condition although they have benefited from some stitching. Added on the west side is a cantilevered walkway to provide a safe crossing route for track staff.

And that’s it, except…

17

Rail Engineer • April 2015

The final frontier York’s central area is compact - a function of its historical roots - with tight streets and space at a premium. Valuable railway land PHOTOS: MULHOLLAND MEDIA

has been sold off for housing development, a reality which prevents larger vehicles from reaching the triangle between the East Coast main line and the York-Scarborough. This area could then only act as a secondary compound for the works, with bulk materials driven onto site during possessions of the ECML. The main focus was on Marygate car park, a council-owned facility north of the river which was taken-over in phases. The railway fortunately forms its western boundary. Network Rail’s project team established a ‘command room’ here last November, cohabiting with Story. Although the car park is fairly generous, access can only be gained via a narrow street off the A19 and involves negotiating a sharp right-hand turn with buildings on each corner.

Separating the south side of the car park from the river is a row of houses and wide pedestrian walkway. Alongside the end-terrace now a bed and breakfast - is a gap of about 10 metres to the toe of the bridge’s approach embankment. It was in this gap that a crane would have to operate, the longest lift being 75 metres over the river to place the cill unit onto the southern abutment.

(Above) One of the new decks is reversed into Marygate.

Under the microscope

A19

activities such as the erection of a scaffold, supplied by the Wood Group (formerly Pyeroy). This comprised a footbridge onto which the lengthened S&T cabling was slewed as well as providing access across the river when the footbridge was blocked off; working platforms were also wrapped around the pier and abutments. To combat the threat of flooding - one of the project’s two biggest risks - debris boards were installed around its base, designed to cope with a river level reaching the top of York’s flood defences.

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Forget the Romans; York is a railway city. The train operators and Network Rail have a substantial presence here and those members of their workforce who use the footbridge were no doubt inconvenienced by the need to close it. So the job was very visible, adding to the burden on the project team’s shoulders. Arguably, the temporary loss of the footbridge was felt more keenly than that of the train service.

It is a busy thoroughfare, forming a key route to the station and nearby businesses. In mitigation, there had to be a big hit of publicity in the York Press, together with signage on the ground and letter drops.

Also affected from time to time was the Ouse, with a full closure in place during the main works and partial closures for specific

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Rail Engineer • April 2015

For years, trains have being sharing Scarborough Bridge with a 16-inch main owned by Yorkshire Water. Typically, stats companies charge substantial sums for the removal of their services and rarely do so at a pace in sync with a project timeline. However an agreement was already in place here that allowed Network Rail to request the main’s prompt removal, at Yorkshire Water’s expense. To fulfil this obligation, the sections at either end were disconnected and removed, leaving the remainder to be lifted out with the lattice girder.

In the railway’s early days, members of the public accessed the bridge by stairways within the abutments, emerging between the two tracks and then crossing whilst trains passed on either side. The inevitable happened on more than one occasion, eventually prompting the installation of the footbridge. But the stairways left voids within the abutments which have now been filled, not with foam concrete but a structural resin called Benefil, produced on-site from a liquid base. A bit like Heineken, it gets into places other materials cannot reach.

PHOTOS: MULHOLLAND MEDIA

High hopes Identified as the right machine to fulfil the big lifts was Ainscough’s Demag CC 2500-1, configured with an 84-metre boom and thus reaching 14 metres higher than the central tower of York’s nearby Minster.

A crawler crane, it boasts a 500-tonne capacity and superlift attachment which, for some loads, can itself weigh up to 250 tonnes. It comes to site on the back of 17 wagons and takes three days to build with a 200-tonne crane. You can understand then why this process was begun a week ahead of the blockade to minimise the possibility of disruption due to high winds, the project’s other big risk.

For the crane to reach its two operating positions, a ramp had to be provided from the corner of the car park, requiring the railway embankment to be cleared of vegetation over a distance of 75 metres.

However, as all the trees were covered by preservation orders, consent had to be sought from the Council and a replanting

(Main picture) A spectacular overview of the worksite from the station side.

(Left) Ainscough’s Demag CC 2500-1 with its superlift attachment.

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PHOTO: MULHOLLAND MEDIA

Rail Engineer • April 2015

scheme developed in liaison with Bootham 2025, a group which oversees the local conservation area. A crane mat was installed at the top of the ramp comprising 200 piles, sunk 12-18 metres and arranged in two strips to accommodate separate pile caps for each of the crane’s tracks.

To ensure optimum efficiency, the sequencing of lifts for the bridge removal and installation was planned methodically by the Story team to minimise the number of changes in the crane’s position and loading.

A merry dance The four bridge decks journeyed to site two days before the blockade got underway. To help this difficult operation, they were jacked up on their trailers, allowing them to sit further forward than would otherwise be the case. Even then, as a result of their 24-metre length, they had to be reversed down Marygate - the narrow street off the A19 - for 300 metres in order to take the right-hand turn as a left-hander, approaching it face first. Marygate was matted

(Above) One of the weathering steel decks is lowered into place.

Deck Slabs │ Platforms │ Cill Units │ Ballast Units │ Bespoke Units

028 2565 2566 │ info@moore-concrete.com │ www.moore-concrete.com Caherty House, 41 Woodside Road, Ballymena, BT42 4QH

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Rail Engineer • April 2015

(Right) New S&C is installed at the south end of the bridge.

out for these manoeuvres, stripped of lighting columns and other furniture, and a dwarf wall dismantled in front of a pub.

Careful consideration had to be given to choreography within the compound. As well as the new decks, the Demag CC 2500-1 and its service crane, there was a need to carry the old decks away to be cut in half and loaded onto wagons for removal from site, involving the use of a third crane. This was added as an insurance measure relatively late in the planning process to ensure nothing impacted on the main crane’s activities.

Nailed down The project’s preparedness for the blockade was the subject of regular reviews from a year out. Each element within the programme was analysed using Monte Carlo simulations to calculate the probabilities of different outcomes occurring. From this, a confidence level could be established for the job finishing on time.

Scarborough Bridge passed the 95% threshold despite the uncontrollable concern of crane operations being brought to a standstill by wind speeds exceeding 25mph, common features of a British winter.

At the start and end of the blockade - which ran from 23:40 on Friday 13 February to 05:25 on Monday 23rd - Rules of the Route periods were used to make signalling modifications, ensuring the occupation of track circuits by the project’s RRVs did not affect movements on the East Coast main line. The points were clipped and scotched.

Beyond that, I’ll leave the pictures to tell the story. There was nothing unique to report about the removal and installation sequence: it was a bridge replacement like many others. If all went to plan (and someone turned up with a camera), this story should look rather eye-catching. I will, though, report the high praise of Story by Network Rail’s scheme project manager, Darryl White: “The magnitude of this project has brought with it sizeable challenges and the Story team has lived up to its reputation of a superb standard of delivery.”

Coming together Two other things are worth flagging up.

The York-Scarborough meets the line up from Hull at Seamer, 40 miles away; the blockade encompassed all of it. To maximise the opportunity afforded, the call went out to find other projects that could be achieved over the nine days, with around two dozen going ahead: canopy cleaning, culvert relining or reconstruction, point-end replacement, level crossing works, spot resleepering and wholesale vegetation clearance to reduce leaf-fall problems.

The cost of these jobs was significant around £3 million - but by pulling them into the blockade, this price tag came close to being covered by the £2-3 million worth of efficiency savings that would otherwise have been spent on access arrangements and piecemeal overnight/weekend working. The ambitious intention now is for no additional possessions to be needed on the route during the whole of CP5.

And then we should take our hats off to team member Eamon McAuley who literally built the bridge single-handed…albeit in Lego. It was remarkably detailed - including the track layout and little orange men with chainsaws - and could be deconstructed and rebuilt to follow the lifting sequence. Sitting as a centrepiece in the conference room, it proved more useful than a PowerPoint when explaining the challenges to visitors and stakeholders.

Yes, this really was a model project.

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Rail Engineer • April 2015

1,200 tonne crane installing key walls on 22 February 2015.

Rail Engineer • April 2015

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Carmuirs Canal Clearance DAVID SHIRRES

Britain’s canals formed the country’s first high-capacity transport network. In their day, the raw materials they carried laid the foundations for the industrial revolution.

In some places, they also transformed passenger travel. Hundreds of thousands of passengers took the eight-hour Swiftboat journey between Edinburgh and Glasgow, hauled by galloping horses on Scotland’s lowland canals.

The alternative was a slower, bone-jarring stagecoach over the rough roads of the time.

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Rail Engineer • April 2015

Damming the canal on 1 November 2014.

Railway canal crossings Canal engineers faced significant challenges but at least had the advantage of a country almost free from man-made obstructions. Roads carried minimal traffic and could be crossed by simple swing bridges. For this reason, the Forth and Clyde (F&C) canal was able to carry tall-masted ships bound from Glasgow to European North Sea ports across the centre of Scotland. Opened in 1790, this canal was the world’s first sea-to-sea canal.

Railway builders had the canals to contend with. In London, the need to cross the Union Canal resulted in a steep descent from Camden into Euston, a tunnel under the canal before Kings Cross and an elevated station at St. Pancras. The tall ships of Scotland’s F&C canal required railways to pass under it unless a railway swing bridge was provided. When

Replacing the tunnel the Scottish Central Railway to Perth was opened in 1850, its passage under the canal at Carmuirs required cuttings and two 40 metre long single-bore tunnels.

The F&C canal was closed in 1963 and re-opened in 2001 as part of a Millennium project which also re-opened the Union canal to Edinburgh and connected the two canals by the Falkirk Wheel which is adjacent to Carmuirs. Unfortunately, in 2002, shortly after the Wheel and its canal basin were opened, there was a slope failure, depositing tonnes of rubble which almost blocked the mouth of the tunnel. This was due to saturated ground and resulted in the line being blocked for 16 days.

EGIP, the Edinburgh Glasgow Improvement Project, will electrify the Edinburgh to Glasgow route and associated lines, a total of 220 route miles. As with all electrification projects, this requires route clearance to replace or modify large numbers of historic structures well in advance of the electrification works.

In December 2011, BAM Nuttall was awarded a £27 million contract for EGIP clearance works. Since then, it has undertaken route clearance work on 41 structures, including some heavily used road bridges such as the five-span Shore Road for which the company received a commendation at the 2014 Saltire Civil

Carmuirs canal tunnels.

Carmuirs canal tunnels being demolished on Christmas Day 2014.

Transforming the landscape and improving people’s lives by building better infrastructure since 1865.

2015 celebrates 150 years of BAM Nuttall connecting communities.

Across the UK we are delivering challenging engineering projects such as re-opening Borders Railway, clearing the route for future electrification on the Edinburgh to Glasgow Line, modernising Cardiff Station and building the complex Acton Dive Under.

Our values and culture are the driving force behind everything we do. Delivering more by delivering together.

Creating a sustainable future by bringing engineering to life.

BAM Nuttall Ltd St James House, Knoll Road, Camberley, Surrey, GU15 3XW

Tel: 01276 63484 Fax: 01276 66060

www.bamnuttall.co.uk BAM Nuttall Limited is an operating company of the European construction group Royal BAM

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Rail Engineer • April 2015 Work at Carmuirs and Falkirk Wheel on 18 January 2015.

Rail Engineer • April 2015

Engineering Awards. Carmuirs is the last EGIP clearance job and presents quite different challenges.

Unlike double-track tunnels that have centre space which can normally provide room for overhead line equipment, the single bore tunnels at Carmuirs do not have sufficient electrification clearance.

For this reason, the solution originally proposed in the 2007 GRIP 1 report was to lower the track by 150 to 200 mm and provide slab track.

It was later decided to replace the tunnels with a canal aqueduct. This avoided drainage problems and also the need for slab track. Together with clearance work at eleven other structures, this will achieve W12 gauge on the line and allow freight trains to carry ‘big box’ containers to and from Grangemouth docks.

The aqueduct consists of 36 portal units placed on five cill units on each of the original tunnel abutment walls with wingwalls built in-situ over new bases.

These units form a deck over which 34 key wall units are laid to form the canal channel. There is some dead space over this deck as the canal crosses the railway at a 50° angle. To minimise the loading, foam concrete is used for infill behind the portal frame. Outside the wall units, class 6N granular fill provides the base for the towpath and landscaped slopes.

On either side of the canal, ducts are provided for existing and future services.

With the new structure and its increased electrification clearance,

it is no longer possible to provide a one-metre thickness of puddle clay as required by Scottish Canals. To maintain the required 2.1 metres draft over the portal units, the aqueduct’s canal channel has a waterproof membrane bonded to the concrete face on which there is 400 mm of puddle clay laid on top of a Bentomat sheet.

Getting ready to start BAM Nuttall’s senior site agent John Edelsten explained that a significant amount of work had to be done before work could start on the aqueduct.

Two site compounds were required.

One, of around 4,000 square metres, immediately adjacent to the canal crossing, includes the base for cranes of up to 1,200 tonnes. The other, 150 metres from the canal, is of around 20,000 square metres. John advised that there was initially some doubt that a compound of this size was required.

However, it was proved to be necessary with the requirement for trial assembly of portal units on the cill beams and storage of general demolition material, removed masonry and puddle clay as well as site accommodation and parking.

The first key milestone was the provision of a temporary footbridge. This was put in place by a 450 tonne crane in August last year as a replacement for the canal towpath during the works.

This bridge also carries high voltage (HV) and low voltage (LV) electrical cables that have been temporarily diverted

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from the towpath. Also diverted were BSkyB’s fibre-optic cables although, as a permanent diversion was possible, these were not routed over this bridge.

An earth dam had initially been considered as a way of blocking the canal on either side of the tunnel - the same type of dam which had been used to block the canal for the repairs in 2002.

However, with a much longer four-month canal blockage, it was felt that a more robust solution was required so dams formed of sheet piles were used. These are a cantilever design with eight metre deep piles that requires six metres of undisturbed canal bed on the dry side of the dam.

When the canal is re-filled, the piles will be extracted by a vibro-remover with no requirement to repair the canal bed as the puddle clay layer is self-healing.

The canal’s catchment is such that, at Carmuirs, there is a significant flow of water from its summit pond to the sea.

Once the canal was blocked, this flow was something else for the temporary bridge to carry. Pipes and pumps were provided for a maximum flow of 400 litres per second - the actual flow at any time is regulated according to weather and Scottish Canal’s requirements.

Fish rescue Works of this scale required the normal environmental mitigation. As de-vegetation was carried out within the bird-nesting season, it was done in stages and subject to a watching

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Rail Engineer • April 2015

brief by environmental specialists. The tunnel was surveyed for bats and, although none were found, cavities were filled in to prevent nesting immediately prior to the works. No badgers were found during the survey that had been undertaken.

For a railway project, an unusual requirement was the need to rescue fish trapped in the canal once it had been dammed either side of the tunnel. This was undertaken by EcoFish consultants, using a combination

of electrofishing and netting under licence issued by Marine Scotland. This was done from a boat that was lowered into the blocked canal section by a heavy-duty fork lift.

As a result, approximately 750 fish, mainly roach, perch and pike, were rescued from the drained 120 metre long section of the canal and released downstream. A further mitigation measure is the fish mesh system on the temporary pumps that maintain the canal water flow.

Immediately north of the compound are thought to be the remains of a temporary construction camp for the nearby Roman Antonine Wall.

There are no visible remains of this camp which required no archaeological mitigation measures as the project did not excavate any previously undisturbed ground.

Demolition After months of planning, the stage was set for the tunnel demolition.

John advised that, amongst many other things, risk readiness reviews had identified the requirement for a trial assembly of the portal unit /cill beams and the provision of extra pumps to prevent protective mats floating away in the event of flooding. This possibility was raised as there are known to be existing drainage problems at this location.

The staged demolition sequence had been assessed on the basis of a finite element analysis of the tunnel undertaken by MHB Consultants - designers of the temporary works associated with the tunnels replacement. Demolition contractor was S Evans and Son from Widnes.

Prior to the demolition, the headwalls and towpath had been removed as well as the overburden to within 300mm of the tunnel barrels. This represented around 8,000 tonnes of material, about 35% of the total.

Demolition took place during a 54 hour possession on 25 and 26 December. After the last train on Christmas Eve, a signal north of the tunnel was removed and protective mats laid over the track. During Christmas Day, the tunnel arches and wingwalls were demolished and all spoil removed to expose the tunnel barrels which were demolished overnight with the lower tunnel walls left in place. These formed the abutments on which a total of 10 cill beams were placed on 26 December. After all material had been removed from the track bed and the signal by the tunnel reconnected and tested, the possession was given up ready for the first train on the following day.

The tunnel demolition was a carefully choreographed operation involving around six excavators. As well as demolishing the structure, these machines passed the 16,000 tonnes of excavated spoil to tippers for transport to temporary storage at the adjacent larger compound as landfill sites were not open over the Christmas holidays. This spoil included sandstone masonry from the tunnel portal which is to be re-used by the local landowner.

One legacy from the 2002 cutting failure was that, as part of the tunnel repair, the cutting retaining wall north-east of the tunnel was of reinforced

Rail Engineer • April 2015

concrete . As a result, this required much more effort to remove than the other masonry retaining walls.

Construction The possession over 1 / 2 January required a 1,200 tonne road crane, one of the largest in Europe, supplied by Mammoet. It was used to install the lower wing wall bases and numbers 36 portal units, each weighing between 25 and 40 tonnes. As the smaller compound by the canal was not large enough to accommodate them all, most of the units were placed in the larger compound where a 200 tonne crane lifted them onto lorries for transport to the 1,200 tonne crane.

The precast concrete units were supplied by Macrete of Northern Ireland which had also supplied units for many of the EGIP project’s reconstructed bridges. Delivery of the 46 large heavy units was arranged to a tight possession timeframe over the Christmas and New Year period - an achievement in itself.

After the New Year possession, work was double-shifted due to poor weather and the amount of work required to ensure that the canal would be re-opened on 27 March. Before then, around 1,000 cubic metres of foam concrete backfill was put in place, wing walls were constructed insitu, the canal walls units installed and waterproofing undertaken. During the weekend of 21/22 February, Mammoet’s 1,200 tonne crane again returned to site to install the 33 key wall units to form the canal wall. The few lifts that would impact on the operational railway were undertaken during normal overnight possessions.

John Edelsten felt that some of the biggest challenges were the interfaces with other concerns. There was a significant amount of utilities work and the project also liaised closely with Scottish Canals both to ensure

Macrete Macrete NCENCE 1-2 page 1-2 page Feb Feb 15-paths.indd 15-paths.indd 1 1

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that the design met its standards and to facilitate inspections at hold points before the canal is re-filled. During maintenance of the Falkirk Wheel the canal water flow had to be carefully regulated as the outlet pipe for the Falkirk Wheel basin is adjacent to one of the sheet pile dams.

John commented that the Carmuirs tunnel work had generated a lot of interest from the passing public who had great views, not the least from the temporary bridge. BAM Nuttall has provided good information boards to keep everyone advised of progress including overhead photographs taken by drones.

Railway and canal revival 165 years ago, the contractor for Carmuirs tunnel and other original bridges on the Scottish Central Railway was Thomas Brassey, in partnership with Robert Stephenson. Their structures were well built and could have remained in place for many years to come had it not been for the need to modernise the railway. As part of the EGIP programme, BAM Nuttall has provided modern replacement structures, of which the Carmuirs aqueduct provides W12 clearance for container trains and overhead electrification due to be energised here in 2018.

Just 200 metres from the new aqueduct is the Falkirk Wheel, opened in 2002 to connect Scotland’s two lowland canals. It replaces eleven locks which were closed in the 1930s. The Wheel is one of Scotland’s most visited tourist attractions and plays an essential part in the revival of its once-derelict canals.

The new Carmuirs aqueduct may not have the tourist pulling power of the Falkirk Wheel. Yet, for those with an interest in modern transport, it is good to see these adjacent modern structures as part of a railway and canal revival.

27/01/2015 27/01/2015 14:23 14:23

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Rail Engineer • April 2015

Rail Engineer • April 2015

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IMPROVED EFFICIENCY IN CP5 POLLY RIVERS

The buzz around electrification is rife, with no sector receiving more attention in CP5...

Network Rail released plans at the beginning of CP5 committing funds to major electrification projects, including the Electric Spine, Great Western, North West and the power supply upgrade of the West Coast.

But, with such big plans, not to mention the prospect of the conversion of London and the South to 25kV in CP6 already a rumour, the big question is - are the suppliers ready to cope with such technically demanding projects?

Electrification has required significant planning, and not just in the purchase of appropriate plant. Training, recruitment and even longevity planning to ensure that CP6 doesn’t come around too quickly is vital to ensure that the power doesn’t cut out halfway through delivery.

Keltbray Electrification Plant, part of the Keltbray Group, has worked to ensure that it is completely ready to take on the challenge.

Director of Keltbray Rail Electrification, Martin Brown, has been preparing for the onset of CP5 since 2012, when the company was awarded a £46 million upgrade contract for the West Coast main line, carrying out works from Wembley in the South to Crewe in the North West.

Shaping the industry’s plant Over the past two years, Keltbray has invested more than £8 million in state-ofthe-art rail plant and equipment, increasing its

existing rail fleet to nearly 100 vehicles.

The team aimed to build a fleet that suited Network Rail’s requirements for both CP5 and the projected requirements for CP6. Four specially-tailored RRVs, a high-output wiring unit, a Colmar piling unit and a specialist HGV-mounted crane have added to Keltbray’s existing fleet and helped ensure that it is fully switched on to electrification.

“We predict that 70% of our rail work in CP5 will be within the electrification sector,” said Martin Brown. “We’ve definitely designed our fleet with the client’s requirements in mind. Effectiveness, together with flexibility, has been the key. For example, our crane can work 'adjacent line open', in line with the CP5 cost-saving model that Network Rail has implemented. It allows us to work at full capacity and still permit the TOCs to run trains.”

Introducing so many machines that haven’t been seen in the UK market before is bound to be fraught with ups and downs. Keltbray’s core machines were built in Sweden by SRS Sjölanders and Martin Brown notes that, although the result has been a new fleet of vehicles entering into the UK market, the procurement wasn’t always smooth sailing.

“There were naturally some cultural differences to overcome, but we’ve nurtured a really strong relationship with SRS,” he said.

“Over the course of lots of contact between the team, and several trips to Sweden, we

have managed to build ground-breaking new innovations into the vehicles that come from a constant cycle of improvements and different view-points.”

The Keltbray wiring unit, which is due to reach the UK in the coming months, has posed particular challenges. Half of the machine has been fabricated in Sweden and half in Germany but it is now at the stage where the two parts are due to meet as one for the very first time.

“It’s nerve-wracking,” laughed Martin, “but all of the engineers involved are great, so we have no doubt that it’ll all fit together beautifully!

This machine will be the very first of its kind in the UK, so we are keen to get it put together and working so we can see exactly how well it performs. It’s challenges like this that has made preparation for electrification so exciting!”

As well as taking the opportunity to extend the technology available to the market, a new Control Period heralds an ideal opportunity for a round of upgrades and refurbishments.

Keltbray has undertaken a substantial programme, helping to repurpose its existing rail fleet to suit the new electrification slant.

“We’ve invested £1 million in a rolling upgrade programme, taking place over 18 months.

We are refurbishing a substantial amount of our existing kit, ensuring that not only does it comply with all current legislations, but it also suits the changing needs of our customers,” said Martin. “Elmec is doing all of the upgrades,

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Rail Engineer • April 2015

and everything bar the chassis, every nut, every bolt, is being replaced, so every machine is in line with RIS-1530-PLT Issue 5. The first of the upgraded machines has just come back into circulation and it’s looking great.”

Green power The new vehicles certainly have all the gadgets.

But can such innovative new products provide a cost effective option to the customer? Martin Brown believes so, and feels that this dynamic new fleet provides the very best option to both the client and supplier.

“All of the new electrification vehicles drive on the road, so there is no additional transport costs to the client,” said Martin. “Our operators are all HGV trained, so they will drive and operate the machine on the same shift. This approach helps us deliver obvious cost-efficiencies and environmental benefits by taking additional vehicles off the road, and hopefully gives a smoother service to the customer by cutting out a transport division.”

Taking vehicles off the road is a key point

to the fleet, with many of the new machines’ selling features offering opportunities to provide this option. Additionally, the new vehicles are all capable of carrying 1.5 tonnes of material, meaning they are able to transport much more to site over fewer trips - further reducing the amount of vehicles on the road and easing the pressure for both customer and supplier.

In addition to metaphorically lightening the transport load, the vehicles are designed to physically lighten loads for the operators too.

All machine baskets are designed to hold three people - one operator and two operatives rather than the traditional two. This provides a safety benefit with regards to manual handling and reduces the risk of one person overstretching their lifting capacity. The manual handling lift capacity is set at 25kg, but many tools/materials weigh considerably more so having two operators on hand to share the load minimises the risk of any unsafe lifts.

Passing on the buzz With so much new kit coming in, Keltbray was faced with the situation many organisations are wrestling with at the moment - lots of work, great new machines and the desperate need for an injection of fresh talent to help complete the projects. With this in mind, the team launched a successful apprenticeship programme from its electrification base in Crewe. The organisation currently has 38 apprentices working within the scheme.

“We’ve developed a very good relationship with the South Cheshire College, which works very closely with our Crewe depot. They allow us to take our machines in and go and talk about electrification and raise interest among the students. We’re very proud of it,” said Martin.

The team at Keltbray is keen to ensure that apprentices are not just sat behind a desk, watching the action happen all around them. Not only do the apprentices move around internal

departments throughout the course of their 18-month stint, allowing them to get a thorough overview of what both Keltbray and a career in rail are all about, the training team also ensures that they gain real life experience.

“The West Coast main line contract has provided us with a great training ground for our apprentices,” Martin explained. “We’re working with brilliant teams there, and the work usually isn’t too complex as the teams are all very competent, so the apprentices are really able to get involved on site. It gives them a well rounded view of how we operate as a company within a busy infrastructure, which isn’t something you get from ‘ordinary’ training.”

What’s next?

With a brand new fleet, an apprentice scheme producing the new rising stars of the industry, and even a new OHL training centre due to open its doors at the Basildon depot in August, the power switch is definitely turned all the way up on Keltbray’s Electrification division. However, there’s more to come.

“We’re aiming to become the Amazon of electrification,” laughed Martin. The organisation’s new venture is to break into materials fabrication, with a team based out of the Crewe depot.

Customers will be able to order parts online, then the Keltbray team will pre-fabricate them and ship them out. Becoming a bespoke manufacturer of the component parts involved in major electrification projects would ease the pressure of sourcing non-standard parts and ensure that spares or repairs can always be sourced.

“Due to our innate understanding of this market, and our quality of staff, we think this is a logical next step,” said Martin. “We really think we can provide a great service, and save our clients a lot of money.”

Efficiency and service, could we be foreseeing the buzzwords of CP6 already?

Innovation in Engineering Keltbray is a leading specialist engineering, construction, decommissioning and environmental services business.

Keltbray Aspire specialises in overhead line electriďŹ cation of rail infrastructure, and takes pride in providing innovation, quality, productivity and continuity using dedicated, experienced and directly employed people.

Keltbray Aspire Unit 4a, Crewe Hall Enterprise Park Weston Road, Crewe, Cheshire CW1 6UA T 01270 254 176 F 01270 253 267 E rail@keltbray.com www.keltbray.com

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Rail Engineer • April 2015

Network Rail

National Electrification Conference

N

etwork Rail recently held a National Electrification Conference at its Westwood facility just outside Coventry. The event gave an interested group of engineers and others the opportunity to learn about current developments in railway electrification and participate in best practice sessions that covered a wide spectrum of electrification matters.

The subjects were many and varied and the event started off with an important keynote message from Saleem Mohammad, programme director for the National Electrification Programme Team (NEPT). His opening remarks set the scene for the day: “Collaboration will be the key to our success.”

The team prides itself on connecting efficiencies, enablers and knowledge sharing. Bearing in mind the relative shortage of those experienced in new electrification works, sixteen ‘converted’ engineers have been taken on board and the qualifications to practise electrification engineering have been enshrined in OLEC (Overhead Line Electrification Competencies).

Organisationally, the NEPT sits over the Rail Electrification Delivery Group (REDG), a collaborative arrangement between Network Rail and industry partners. Progress has been made since the last conference - typically in the areas of materials, design quality, right first time and productivity. Now, work is underway to maximise the amount of equipment which can be preassembled offsite.

Going west from Paddington A major feature of the National Electrification Programme is the Great Western scheme and this is very much a subject of national interest. Robbie Burns, director, was very candid about the project and the lessons that are emerging as construction progresses.

The audience was reminded of the development of the high-output construction methodologies and the implementation of those methods of working. As in all new developments, there is a learning curve and that curve is now being climbed.

There is a big push to increase production rates, particularly the installation of piles which will act as foundations for OLE structures.

The project is also piloting the new range of overhead line equipment designs on a high-profile live scheme. This is challenging engineering standards but without compromising safety.

Understandably, there was plenty of discussion on safety and continuous improvement. There had been some safety-related incidents and these were the subject of close attention - all of this taking place in a world where the press and media

PETER STANTON

had a strong focus on disruption over Christmas.

Programme management had, for instance, ensured that sufficient allowances had been made in the planning of potentially-disruptive works such as bridge reconstructions, which could have a high impact on neighbours.

The regulator’s view An integral part of the railway is the Office of Rail Regulation (ORR) and the director of railway planning and performance, Alan Price, is a man of vast industry experience who is therefore able to take a broad view. He reflected on the development of the electrification programme and its re-emergence as the core traction strategy for the UK railway. Control period five can be seen as a huge opportunity emerging from the High Level Output Statement (HLOS) of 2012.

The electrification programme must be seen as a whole industry business case (but not at any cost!), crossing all sectors including infrastructure and rolling stock.

Despite relatively short-term fuel price trends, diesel is expensive so electrification is very beneficial to the industry. There are risks - a major delay to electrification would take the rolling stock issue out of phase with the power supply and, should new diesel traction be considered, then thirty years could be lost until renewal opportunities came round again.

The ORR takes a close interest in safety so the subject was discussed once again. Safety problems pose a risk to productivity if the actions arising from them are not managed in the best way. Programme slippage has occurred on several current schemes which is not acceptable in the longer term.

Supply chain management and innovation was another area tackled, and connected to better possession utilisation. It is vital to maximise production time so resourcing, both of material and labour. This is an area of management that requires close attention.

Once a project approaches completion, the submission of the technical file (referenced in ROGS legislation) is key both to effective implementation and delivery into service. The ORR quite clearly feels that there is some room for improvement, both in quality and the timely delivery of the file, as

PHOTO: CHRIS CHEESMAN

Rail Engineer • April 2015

PHOTO: NETWORK RAIL

non-acceptance could halt the entire process.

The digital revolution A prime example of how the industry could make really significant changes to itself is in the area that Patrick Bossert, transformation director of Network Rail, called the ‘Digital Railway’ - the digital enablement of the system.

Studies on the growth of rail travel have shown that physical infrastructure improvements would not, in themselves, meet the capacity challenge. Even constructing new lines will not necessarily result in enough capability and, in any case, funding would be in competition with many other areas of the economy.

Patrick defined digital enablement, under which customers and operators will be joined by ‘digital journeys’ feeding into the ‘digital capacity’ of the railway system. As an example, Patrick referred to signalling where removal of the large fixed safety ‘blocks’ would result in a huge gain in capacity. This, of course, does not mean an uncontrolled system but the introduction of flexible, modern, digital methods of control allowing trains to run closer together in complete safety. ETCS will be the heart of that digital railway, with significant gains in capacity and also energy efficiency through more effective control.

Opportunities exist in electrification in terms of sophisticated management of the system, providing greater power to the train itself and taking even more advantage of regenerative capability.

Considering alternative forms of rolling stock, the tram-train offers considerable opportunities to move rail customers directly into town centres without a change of mode.

Wiring up the system The conference had been arranged to involve delegates in various subject areas but probably one of the most relevant was the session on OLE wiring. Ian Alsop and Mark Brown of Network Rail’s own internal unit, OCR, put forward a most positive view of wiring erection outside the new-technology high-output trains. New construction can involve the erection of four wires: catenary, contact, ATF (autotransformer-fed) and aerial earth wire. Competent, experienced people and appropriate, reliable plant were seen as the base essential to a production capability able to erect a 1,500 metre tension length of wire onto pre-installed structures in 2.5 hours.

Careful analysis has shown that the best solution is for the OCR team to own its own plant and thus gain familiarity with its use and maintenance. Putting up the wire is, of course, only a part of the job and, to achieve

35

high installation rates, the structures and component parts need to be in the right place at the right time. Overall installation of the wire has changed beyond all recognition from the processes of the 1970s and is offering undreamt-of installation rates for the future, assuming resources are correctly managed.

Other break-out groups covered such diverse subjects as entry into service, engineering assurance, whole life cost and best practice acknowledgement - all grist to the mill for improvement in electrification for the future.

New developments The contact system is the very visible part of an electrification scheme but, of course, driving the whole thing is the electrical distribution system. Mark Worward outlined the considerable development that had been undertaken in developing a new generation of distribution equipment, centred round a modular system. Network Rail experience indicated there was a need to move forward but with little supply chain interest it was left to the infrastructure operator to press forward. The end product that has emerged is a palletised system of switchgear and modules, all fitting into a flexible building/container system.

Another area where technical innovation in the industry is emerging was outlined by Richard Ollerenshaw, senior electrification renewals and enhancements engineer. He treated the conference to a very interesting description of proposals for the DC distribution of high voltage power, obviating losses and also allowing the opportunity to avoid the Achilles heel of OLE systems - the neutral section. A pilot site has been nominated and will allow proper study and development of this novel proposal.

As electrification moves forward at such a pace, it is only right that standards and specifications should be reviewed and challenged, and the professional head of electrical power Richard Stainton put those reviews into the context of electrical safety and emerging legislation. His talk echoed some of the points raised earlier by the ORR and focussed on the role of the safety assessor.

Technical Specifications for Interoperability (TSIs) will influence construction outputs and there was a robust review of clearances and safe working voltages.

Overall Network Rail had put on an excellent day which allowed views to be expressed on the wide area of engineering and operations related to electrification. The day was best summed up by Roger Dickinson as one that had passed quickly due to the robust content and he rounded off with another safety message: ‘Safe by Design’.

Linbrooke Total Network Solutions

Rail Safety Summit 2015

KEYNOTE SPEAKER, DAY 1

LONDON 30/04/15 - 01/05/15

KEYNOTE SPEAKER, DAY 2

Mark Carne

Charles Horton

Chief Executive

Chief Executive

Network Rail

Govia Thameslink Railway

Safety Summit THURSDAY 30th APRIL 2015

FRIDAY 1st MAY 2015

08.00 09:15 09:20 09:45

08.00

Registration, Coffee, Exhibition

09.00

Welcome from Colin Wheeler

09.20

Charles Horton from GTR presents: Keynote

RAIL SAFETY SUMMIT 2015

10:30

Registration, Coffee, Exhibition Welcome from Colin Wheeler Mark Carne from Network Rail presents: Keynote Steve Featherstone from Network Rail presents: Work Staging and Planning Giles Thomas from HS2 presents: Challenges facing HS2 with concept, design and delivery Q&A

10:40

Coffee Break

11:10

12:20

Paul Crowther from British Transport Police presents: How do you lead and motivate a successful team?

Pino De Rosa from Bridgeway Consulting Limited presents: What key behaviours are required for successful leadership and motivation?

Bill Henry from Bechtel Ltd presents: Joint Ventures - how to successfully manage and lead teams from different organisations Q&A

12:35

Lunch Break

13:35 14:05

14:50

‘Actions On’: Safety demonstration by Linbrooke Training Simon French from Rail Accident Investigation Branch (RAIB) presents: Looking at the findings. What can we learn from incidents on the railway?

Trevor Tophill from Permaquip Ltd presents: New equipment challenges Q&A

15:00

Coffee Break

15:20

Paul Clyndes from RMT presents: How the rate of change and development is affecting Health & Safety Johanna Beswick from Health and Safety Laboratory presents: Railway Management Maturity Model (RM3) Sean Elson from Pinsent Masons LLP presents: Law and changes in Health & Safety Q&A Session with speakers The WING Award for Safety

10:10

11:35 12:00

14:30

15:45 16:10 16:30 16:40

CIRAS CONFERENCE

The consequences of incidents happening (part 1) 09.40

Pam Warren presents: Ladbroke Grove Rail Crash 1999 – A Survivor’s Perspective

10.10

Rev Liam Johnston from Railway Chaplins presents: What happens after a life changing incident?

10.40

Coffee Break The consequences of incidents happening (part 2)

11.10

David Leckie from Clyde & Co presents: The legal consequences

11.40

Mike McLean from TES 2000 presents: Workforce Safety

12.10

Lunch Break The opportunity to prevent incidents happening (part 1)

13.10

Paul Russell from CIRAS presents: Are we doing enough?

13.45

Jill Collis from TfL presents: Workforce safety and opportunities within TfL

14.15

Emma Head from Network Rail presents: Intelligence gathering and its importance

14.35

Coffee Break The opportunity to prevent incidents happening (part 2)

15.00

Graham Piggott from VGC Group presents: Contractor/Supplier perspective on reporting

15.30

Paul Oliffe from National Audit Office presents: Government’s approach to handling concerns

16:00

Q&A Session with speakers

Book your tickets now at www.railsafetysummit.com

38

Rail Engineer • April 2015

Finding the real causes DAVID SHIRRES

A

fter nearly ten years of operation, during which it has published 252 investigation reports, the Rail Accident Investigation Branch (RAIB) is well known within the industry. It was formed as a result of a recommendation by the Ladbroke Grove rail crash inquiry, which required the investigation of rail accidents to be undertaken by an independent body as is the case for the air and marine sectors, and became operational in October 2005.

The story of railway safety includes learning from accidents. This is one reason why the industry now has a good safety record with no passenger fatalities in the past eight years.

Paradoxically, as railways get safer there are also fewer accidents from which to learn. This makes it more difficult to assess both levels and areas of risk. Hence the need for a thorough investigation of the rare serious accidents or near misses that do occur from which there may be significant safety lessons to understand.

Different accidents, common themes

Track twist measured at two and 14 metres.

As an independent investigation body, RAIB is well placed to undertake such investigations and also ensure that it focuses on safety improvement rather than apportioning individual blame or company liability. By doing so, it can highlight areas of risk not fully addressed by the industry.

In a recent presentation to the IMechE Railway Division in Glasgow, Carolyn Griffiths, RAIB’s chief inspector of rail accidents, illustrated this point through two quite different derailment investigations. These were a broken axle on a Class 222 Meridian train at East Langton, Leicestershire,

Rail Engineer • April 2015

39

Asymmetrically loaded scrap machines inside 20 ft container – repacked after the derailment to replicate original weight distribution.

on 20 February 2010, and the flange-climbing of a wagon wheel on curved track at Camden Road, London, on 15 October 2013. Fortunately, neither accident resulted in any injuries. However, in different circumstances, both were potential multi-fatality events. As will be seen, Carolyn felt these accidents had common themes.

Twist faults at Camden Prior to the October 2013 wagon derailment, the track at Camden Road on the Up North London line was in a poor condition. It had opposing twist faults and the section manager had recorded that “it is difficult to express on paper how poor and deteriorating the entire patrol (length) is”. The track-recording vehicle (TRV) had last measured track geometry 46 weeks prior to the derailment. A TRV should measure category 3 track, such as the North London Line, at normal and maximum intervals of respectively 16 and 36 weeks.

Derailment by flange-climb occurs when the ratio of

the lateral force of the wheel flange on the rail (Y) to the vertical wheel load (Q) exceeds a critical limit value which depends on both the coefficient of friction and angle of contact between flange and rail head. This occurred at Camden Road due to the combination of twisted track and uneven wagon wheel loadings.

However this was not the only cause. Wear on the gauge face of the rail and the presence of metal particles indicates that the rail lubricator installed 75 metres before the point of derailment was not fully effective. The resultant increase in friction lowered the critical limit value and so increased the probability of derailment.

A further factor was that there was no check rail on the 187 metre radius curve at Camden Road although relevant standards require them for curves of less than 200 metres on passenger lines. A check rail would have prevented the derailment by preventing lateral force on the flange-climbing wheel.

Hidden hazard inside containers Although various infrastructure defects contributed to this accident, the report makes it clear that the derailment resulted from a combination of these defects and an unevenly loaded container wagon. The RAIB report notes two similar previous incidents.

Although, as the duty holder, the operator is responsible for safe operation of its freight trains, it cannot check inside the containers which are often

40

Rail Engineer • April 2015

customs-bonded. It is therefore difficult to control the risk from unevenly loaded containers. This problem is compounded by the way containers are loaded on the 60 foot container wagons which can take combinations of 20ft, 30ft and 40ft containers which may be empty or fully loaded. As a result, the centre of gravity of the wagon and its containers can be a significant lateral and longitudinal distance from the wagon's centre, as was the case at Camden Road in October 2013.

A significant part of the RAIB report is devoted to the effects of this asymmetric loading and how this is controlled. With the load in the 20ft container being disturbed as a result of the derailment, it was not possible to directly determine its original centre of gravity (CoG). To estimate the container’s load offset, it was repacked as closely as possible to its original configuration. An assessment was also made on the basis of measurements from a Wheelchex site over which it had passed prior to the derailment. As a result, the container’s CoG was estimated to be offset laterally by between 0.10 and 0.24 metres. Data from a British port indicated that 2% of containers have similar offset loading.

The derailed wagon was carrying an empty 40ft container of 3.9 tonnes and the previously-mentioned 20ft container which was loaded with scrap machines and had a gross weight of 28.8 tonnes. As a result, the wagon’s CoG was approximately 3.2 metres towards the front from the wagon’s centre line.

The estimated result of all this uneven loading was that the wagon’s leading bogie was carrying 2.7 times the weight of the trailing bogie and the left-hand wheels were carrying between 1.2 and 1.4 times the load on the right hand wheels.

This asymmetric loading, combined with the poor condition of the track and the lack of a check rail, were thought to be the main causes of this accident.

Incidentally, the damage to the track, a viaduct wall and adjacent overhead line equipment that were the result of this derailment, closed the Up and Down North London lines for six days.

Broken axle at 94 mph In Carolyn’s second example, the broken axle on a class 222 at East Langton, in February 2010, occurred on a train travelling at 94 mph when a hollow axle failed inside a final drive. This was the first such known accident anywhere in Europe. This axle had been in service for 920,000 miles.

Subsequent metallurgical analysis showed that it had been subject to a maximum temperature of around 1,100 to 1,200°C at the seat of the gear end (GE) output bearing, causing a loss of axle bending strength and resulting in its fracture.

As this heat destroyed much of the evidence, the investigation had to consider five possible causes. After a process of elimination, it was concluded that the initial cause of the failure was the GE output bearing stiffening up so that it could no longer rotate normally, resulting in

the axle spinning inside the bearing inner race. Computer modelling indicated that this could generate a heat input of around 30kW. After a further process of elimination, it was concluded that the most likely cause of the bearing failure was a loose fit between the GE bearing inner ring and axle.

These conclusions were reached with the assistance of a technical group set up specifically for the investigation comprising of RAIB, ORR, East Midlands Trains, Bombardier Transportation, Eversholt Rail Group, Serco (consultant for failed gearbox strip down and axle investigation) and ESR Technology (consultant for bearing investigation). This group also oversaw various metallurgical examinations and rig testing of final drives with various low GE bearing interference fits. It also investigated six other powered axles with between 0.67 and 1.2 million miles service that were found to have poor GE bearing fits and so could have been potential failures.

Derailed class 222 bogie trailing wheelset with broken axle.

Loss of interference As this was an unprecedented failure of a normally highly-reliable safety-critical component, it was important to understand how a bearing could have lost its interference fit. The design intent was that the inner rings of both GE and non-GE bearings should have an interference fit on the axle of 75 -120µm (1µm = 0.001 mm). However, on this

Calculated temperature distribution at bearing seat 12 minutes after 30kW heat input.

Rail Engineer • April 2015

axle, the GE bearing is immediately adjacent to a gear wheel with a heavier fit of 243 - 309µm. Mathematical modelling indicated that this heavier interference fit would shrink the adjacent seat of the GE bearing by between 24 and 30µm on diameter for a hollow axle. The corresponding amount of shrinkage for a solid axle would be between 5 and 10µm.

When the axle was made in 2004, the manufacturer did not have a company procedure for dimensional checking as it does now. The final drive manufacturer also did not check axle bearing seat dimensions. On the failed axle, the undamaged non-GE seat was found to be undersize and tapered. This indicated that possibly the GE bearing seat, which had been damaged in the failure, may also have been slightly under size.

Although the GE output bearing’s interference fit on the axle was probably less than that specified, the axle had run almost a million miles over six years before its failure.

This is indicative of a progressive loss of interference fit.

The report explains that this could have been caused by a combination of two mechanisms. The first is inner ring growth, a gradual and normal increase of the bearing bore occurring over time due to the bearing’s metallurgy, its operating temperature and loading. The second mechanism is fretting - wear and corrosion that occurs when there are small relative movements between two surfaces in loaded contact.

Evidence of fretting was found on several other GE

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Rail Engineer • April 2015

output bearings in the class 222 fleet. Fretting wear combined with inner ring growth could have reduced the interference fit to a level at which there would be circumferential slip, which then accelerates the loss of fit.

Common themes - whole system Although a broken axle and an unevenly loaded wagon on twisted track are two quite different derailments, they have common aspects. One of these is the requirement for a whole system approach. The Camden Road derailment was caused by a combination of track and train issues for which the infrastructure controller and freight operating company had separate responsibility.

In its report on the Camden Road derailment, RAIB found that neither company had quantified the risk from unevenly loaded wagons. As a result, it suggested that the industry’s approach to the understanding of risk for asymmetrically loaded wagons had not been effectively co-ordinated and, consequently, the level of risk and required mitigation measures were unknown.

The Class 222 final drive involved in the East Langton derailment was supplied to a specification by the train manufacturer which had overall design responsibility for the train. Its quantified risk assessment did consider the risk of axle failure from an overheating final drive.

However, it concluded that having the final drive produced by a reputable transmission manufacturer to industry best practice, a record of satisfactory service on similar fleets, and specified maintenance procedures provided sufficient mitigation.

In fact, while the Class 222 axles were hollow and relatively thin-walled (45 mm), the interference fits for solid axles had been applied. The bearing manufacturer was unaware that its products were to be fitted to a hollow axle and no analysis had been done to assess the effect of the gear wheel interference fit on the adjacent bearing seat.

Common themes - traditional standards Standards are often derived from lessons learnt from previous accidents. However, such lessons do not always remain relevant.

In common with other railways, track twist is measured over three metres. This may have been an appropriate derailment mitigation when there were numerous threemetre wheelbase four-wheeled wagons. However such wagons were discontinued many years ago. The derailed wagon at Camden Road had a 14-metre bogie spacing with two metres between the axles on each bogie. When the track was measured after the derailment its twist, measured over three metres, was found to exceed the seven-day action limit but was within the 36 hour action limit. There are no corresponding limits for twist measured over 14 metres.

For many years, oil sampling has been used to determine potential failures yet, three days before the East Langton derailment, the failed final drive’s oil

Typical tapered roller bearing cutaway.

sample was well within the then-specified iron content caution limits. However, when the oil samples were retrospectively analysed to determine the cumulative iron over the whole life of the final drive, it was found to be significantly greater than other final drives which had loose GE output bearings.

Furthermore, during the investigation it was found that oil samples taken from final drives with loose GE output bearing fits had a significantly darker colour than normal oil samples, which indicated that colour may be a useful additional parameter to monitor in oil sampling. Prior to the derailment there was no requirement to assess the colour of final drive oil samples.

The real lessons For those with a technical interest in the issues that led to these derailments, the 69 and 93 page RAIB reports into the Camden Road and East Langton derailments are a fascinating read. They can be found at www.raib.gov.uk and they include appropriate recommendations to prevent recurrence of the causal and underlying factors.

As a result of the work done by RAIB to investigate these derailments and publish reports that clearly show their causes, no doubt much has been and will be done to prevent the recurrence of similar accidents. However the real challenge is preventing apparently-unpredictable rare accidents that could have serious consequences.

In part, this requires acceptance of the common themes of these derailments. One of these is that the required mitigation measures would have been evident beforehand had a robust analysis been undertaken of the interaction between all associated technical factors. The other is the need to challenge standards that may no longer be appropriate or provide all required mitigation.

In the RAIB 2014 Annual Report, Carolyn Griffiths considered that its investigations may bring new focus to areas of risk that are not always evident to the industry. These accident reports support this view and so demonstrate the value of an independent investigation body.

Rail Engineer • April 2015

ERTMS in use on the Belgian high-speed line.

43

CLIVE KESSELL

The transition to ERTMS in the UK Oh dear, readers will say, not another ERTMS article! Yes, but this is inevitable as the UK gets ever nearer to introducing a main line deployment of the technology. Valuable lessons were learned from the Cambrian line early deployment project but that was limited in scope and many other factors need to be considered before the nation can be confident the system will deliver the predicted benefits and reliability.

A recent conference in London organised by Waterfront managed to attract speakers from all elements of the spectrum, ranging from the advocates who believe that ERTMS will solve all capacity problems, through those that recognise the advantages but see the implementation as difficult, to a few prophets of doom who predict it will be a costly failure.

The up-beat message Andrew Simmonds, the chief rail systems engineer for Network Rail’s Digital Railway, pronounced ERTMS (the European Rail Traffic Management System) to be a major driver for economic growth. Passenger number forecasts are rising by 3% per annum, meaning that the current 1.6 billion journeys per year will have risen to three billion by 2035. Some examples of the predicted increase per route are WCML 201%, Thameslink 171%, GW Suburban 108%, South West Trains to Woking 154%, Southern Suburban to Caterham 149%. Handling this capacity is not

just aligned to signalling but will need to embrace customer interfaces, ticketing, journey planning, infrastructure operations and the whole operational framework.

ERTMS (especially the ETCS - European Train Control System - element) is very much part of this and should yield around a 40% increase in capacity. Spin-offs include a 10% reduction in delay minutes through better reliability, an 80% reduction in SPADs (signals passed at danger), a 50% reduction in the need for lineside work, energy savings from better regulation of trains and improved utilisation of maximum line speed. Needing to go hand in hand with Traffic Management Systems (TMS), ETCS will be introduced on a route-by-route basis with the initial plan covering the period 2019 to 2029, structured around three main phases. »» Phase 1 - development of initial routes; primarily Thameslink plus TMS at Cardiff and Romford and connected driver advisory systems (C-DAS); »» Phase 2 - provision of electronic compatible interlockings, removal of lineside signals, a robust telecom layer in the ROCs (rail operating centres) and provision of ETCS infrastructure and cab fitments; »» Phase 3 - more of the same but progressing to 100% roll out and start of classic train detection removal.

All very impressive but will it go to plan and will

the necessary finance be available in CP6/7 and beyond?

More detail emerged on the ECML rollout, itself covered in a Rail Engineer March 2015 article (issue 125). Whilst that primarily looked at the technical implications, Paul Boyle from Virgin East Coast explained how preparations are underway for ETCS. Visits to Austria, Denmark, Netherlands, Norway, Spain and Portugal have highlighted 13 elements of operation ranging from train fitment and GSM-R provision through to TMS, track worker safety and station operation. The ECML will be the first main line to totally migrate to ERTMS, Great Western being an overlay project.

Four constituent activities have to be tackled operations, safety, fleet and control.

Driver training has already started using simulators with the DMI (driver-machine interface) layout now available on smartphone or tablet screens. A high percentage of Virgin East Coast staff will engage with ETCS in some way and an ERTMS Awareness Day has recently been held at Kings Cross for all operations staff.

Train fitting will require contracts to be let, trains to be released from service and a full change management plan put in place. The programme to fit the Class 43 HST power cars, the Class 91 electric locos and the Class 82 DVTs will run up to 2020 in readiness for the time when lineside signals are removed.

44

Rail Engineer • April 2015

Learning from the Cambrian The Cambrian project, introduced into service initially from Harlech to Pwllheli in February 2010 and on the whole line from Shrewsbury to Aberystwyth / Harlech in March 2011, was reported on at the time in Rail Engineer. It was not an easy introduction and the train service suffered in the early days. Even now, the ETCS system is not as flexible as the RETB technology that preceded it. Matthew Phillips from Interfleet told of the lessons learned and how these will be used for future deployments: »» The project had been engineering rather than operations led; »» Operational changes were underestimated with new rules not reflecting the real world; »» The operational benefits were not optimised; »» Insufficient focus was given to simulation while sub-system integration proved very complex; »» Approvals for on-board equipment need to be phased so as to keep trains in service; »» ETCS reliability (especially on-board equipment) has been worse than expected; »» Whole-life support was not part of the contract.

The cost of retrofitting the Class 158 DMUs (by Interfleet) and the Class 97 (ex-37) locomotives (by Transys) proved very expensive in terms of design and approval costs, especially as the trains had minor variations between units. It took 10 days out of service to fit a Class 158.

ERTMS level 3 cab equipment.

The freight dimension

Passenger train fitment

Whilst much of the ERTMS roll out is focused on the passenger railway, the impact on the seven freight operating companies (FOCs) is of vital importance. Simon Gledhill from DB Schenker quoted the statistics: 950 locos of 19 classes, 20,000 wagons and around 5,000 staff.

It is a growing business, with £2 billion invested since privatisation, but is very competitive, performance sensitive and has changing market dynamics. The annual turnover is £30 billion with 1 in 4 containers carried by rail plus 50% of the fuel used for electricity generation. Thus any technological change that even minutely disrupts this flow is regarded with suspicion.

ERTMS awareness exists but, for freight, it cannot be linked to any one route. It must take account of the variation in the length, consist and weight of trains, plus shunting and banking activities, and the whole freight operation needing to be based at multiple locations. Locomotive fitting will be crucial and should follow the pattern of ‘first in class’ (FIC) fleet fitment, training and driver familiarisation. Braking data variability

This is probably the biggest challenge in the ERTMS introduction. Andy Norris from CPC Project Services and the project director for the ETCS National Joint ROSCO Project (rolling stock company) explained the main elements in determining how fleets are equipped. The national deployment map is the starting point but alongside this are franchise considerations and whether these are existing, direct awards or in the course of development. Any delay to franchise letting will have ETCS implications.

There are no spare trains in the UK so fleet fitment will take many years. Procurement of equipment is needed now for fleet fitting over five to six years. Test facilities will be available

by April 2016 at Old Dalby for electric trains and Tuxford for diesel locomotives. Network Rail is funding the FIC design and installation with fleet fitment funded primarily via franchise arrangements but with Network Rail backup.

Open access operators have to organise their own funding in conjunction with Network Rail.

The progression is to obtain around 30 kits

is vital and needs a major refinement over the individual expertise used at present.

An implementation programme running from 2015 to 2021 is being developed with operating rules revised by 2016 and fitment beginning in 2017. ERTMS teams within the companies are being assembled. The transition from lineside signals to in-cab data will be difficult, but the FOCs and Network Rail are working well together, recognising that freight has to be part of the National Operations Strategy (NOS).

for FIC design and approval, and 1,465 kits for fleet fitment. A maximum of 11 FICs can be handled at any one time, recognising that some classes are essentially similar (such as 158/9, 375/6/7/8, 175/180), and a programme is in place for every class of passenger train. It will be a TOC decision as to whether elderly trains such as Pacers and 313s are fitted.

The TOC requirement is to have no loss of seats, cycle or storage space and thus the kit has to be distributed in roof spaces, under seats or underfloor, which will add cost. The Hitachi product (issue 125, March 2015) is already designed this way. The work will be let competitively and contracts must include aftercare support.

Additional challenges include: »» Getting ETCS software to baseline 3 - Europe is dragging its heels on this; »» Funding certainty and timing; »» Cyber security protection; »» Engaging the supply chain with the urgent need to place orders; »» Skilled resource shortage for both UK and European workload; »» Reliability of the installed kit; »» Technical options for DMI. The Department for Transport will need to enhance clauses in franchises for ETCS commitment. There are many stakeholders including the Government, TfL and Transport Scotland but these and the ROSCOs are working well together currently.

The ORR perception With ERTMS involving many parties, the ORR

Rail Engineer • April 2015

45

On board Network Rail's ETCS test train.

is only too aware of its complexity, so says Anna O’Connor, head of projects. Industry does not have an unequivocal shared vision and, even if it did, implementing ETCS technology would still be a difficult task. There is much uncertainty on the time frame and lots of ambiguity, making the project akin to a patchwork quilt. The main risk seems to be with the multitude of interfaces raising big questions on the ability of Network Rail and its suppliers to deliver the programme, particularly when engineering resources are in short supply.

Safety issues have to be all-important and safety legislation is also complex involving ROGTS, Safety at Work, CDM, Workplace Regulations, EMC, Interoperability and others.

The detail within these is important but should not be used as an excuse for delay.

In-cab computer-based signalling is a major change and requires four basic steps to be understood: »» Need to assess the risk of the change with associated design optioneering; »» How far can the risks be eliminated and use of ALARP; »» Consideration of the specific statutory requirements within the work packages; »» Identify appropriate opportunities ERTMS should not be a digital like-for-like replacement and the integration of level crossing operation and improved worker protection should be part of the package.

Other opportunities should embrace the accuracy of braking curves, maybe with real time monitoring of braking performance. A list of possible applications should be prepared.

Lessons from Europe Anyone who thinks that European railways have had an easy ride with ERTMS should think again, according to Kimmo Oostermeijer from Leigh Fisher. Despite significant funding, the deployment is behind schedule, project management has been un-coordinated and appropriate measures have not been taken to prevent delay.

One key lesson is that ERTMS is more about organisation and economy rather than technical.

The dictate on TEN-T (trans-European transport network) corridors demands safety, system performance and interoperability to yield the benefits for passenger and freight customers.

The risks are higher when implementing the system on an existing railway, mainly due to the retro-fitting of trains, introducing new rules and track worker safety.

The UK may benefit from not being first in the queue. The ORR noted that Sweden has benefited from creating a Systems Authority to make the necessary strategic decisions.

Network Rail has considered this in the past but without making any progress. Maybe it should be resurrected, as the lack of a ‘Directing Mind’ appears to be a significant gap in its organisational structure.

Other factors With the significant number of parties involved, the need for robust contractual frameworks is essential and associated legal safeguards must be in place. Tammy Samuel from Stephenson Harwood listed some of the necessary measures that must be considered and decided:

»» Purchase of equipment; what if it is late and/ or doesn’t perform? »» Liabilities imposed by end customers; »» Funding of downtime of trains through failures and proving of cause, interface between track and train and associated delay attribution; »» Who is the customer and the supplier ROSCO, TOC/FOC, Network Rail? »» Who is responsible for approvals and commissioning? »» How will major system upgrades be managed? »» Intellectual Property and ownership plus issue of licence and the extent of this.

Cyber security is another issue and an assessment should be made of the places where this can occur. Julian Gill from Thales stated that nine possible threats were identified, the main ones being end-to-end communications, train-to-balise interactions, denial/traceability of keys, secure usage of components and the common numbering system within GSM-R. The classic fail-safe criteria of ‘if in doubt, stop the train’ will not necessarily be a workable solution.

Seven layers of defence were identified ranging from data configuration through to policies and procedures.

Overall, the conference gave a fascinating, if not slightly worrying, exposure to the main line introduction of ERTMS/ETCS. If nothing else, it achieved a wider awareness of what might go wrong. Many eyes will be watching the first deployments, both for infrastructure provision and train fitment, and the readiness by which the almost inevitable unforeseen situations will be identified and resolved.

Level crossings COME OF AGE With all the safety measures that are in place on Britain’s railways, including the need for the railway being fenced throughout its length, it is only at level crossings that trains interact with people. Pedestrians, cars, buses, trucks and babies in pushchairs share exactly the same space as 125mph trains.

It is not surprising, therefore, that making level crossings safer is a priority for Network Rail as well as for community leaders and Government. The problem is being tackled by the increasing use of proven technology that offers improved reliability and enhanced safety as standard.

Through its national level crossing framework contract, Infrasig, a joint venture (JV) company that unites Carillion and Bombardier, is renewing level crossings. By utilising Bombardier products and knowledge along with Carillion’s delivery teams, the JV is improving safety and reliability across the UK rail network.

Every installation is different The Infrasig team has recently completed the design and build renewal of a number of level crossings on the Cumbrian Coast - Askam MCB (manually controlled barrier), Parksouth MCB, and Sandscale AOCL (Automatic open crossing, locally monitored) . It is currently in the construction / commissioning stage of St.Bees and Silecroft MCBs. During the delivery of the crossings at Askam, Parksouth and Sandscale, Infrasig worked closely with Network Rail’s IP Central (North) delivery team in a collaborative working approach that successfully delivered the three level crossings within the extremely tight timescale of five months, as opposed to the industry average of nine.

As with all level crossing works, Infrasig had to meet challenges along the way. For example, at the Askam level crossing in Barrow-in-Furness, it transpired that the signal box and adjoining structures were Grade 2 listed and therefore required a different approach from the norm.

Items such as the URX (under road crossing), turning chambers and LCU (local control unit) had to be re-sited and bespoke construction methodologies were introduced including the removal, and replacement, of a large section of the Grade 2 listed wall to allow the installation

of the URX cross-road ducting. This process was time-consuming and the Infrasig team had to work within some very precise and strict working guidelines with each brick being removed, recorded, washed down and then replaced back in its original position.

As well as the design and build contracts, Infrasig is also carrying out single option development contracts in Carmarthenshire (three MCB crossings), Stroud Valley (three MSL - miniature stop light - crossings) and Dovey Jcn to Pwellheli (three ABCLs and one TMOB - Trainman Operated Crossing with Barriers).

A kit of parts For level crossing solutions, Infrasig draws upon Bombardier’s EBI Gate product family. This comprises a number of ‘tools’ that together make up a toolkit from which any particular application can be derived. These tools include EBI Light road traffic lights, EBI Gate 630 barrier machines, EBI Track 200 axle counters for wheel detection and EBI Gate 200 and 2000 level crossing controllers.

Bombardier has been working collaboratively with Network Rail for the past five years to improve crossing safety and reliability through the introduction of new technology. EBI Gate 200 is the first in the UK to achieve product approval for a safety critical PLC-designed level crossing system.

It is now significantly more sophisticated than the early design concept in 2009, with continual data logging, reduced deployment restrictions and the ability to remove restrictive timers.

One of the enhancements to the EBI Gate 200 solution is a more robust auto-restore function that includes a full axle-counting feature.

Therefore the system does not just detect the presence of a train but also fully counts the train in and out of the relevant block section and detects the direction the train is travelling.

The auto-restore functionality means that, during engineering works around the crossing area, there is no requirement to manually restore the system. The first train through the crossing area will restore the system to operational status, therefore improving availability to the crossing user.

These continual enhancements are part of a long-term product road map and Infrasig’s commitment to improve safety and reliability

across the UK rail network. Bombardier is now working with Network Rail to integrate EBI Gate 200 within its Intelligent Infrastructure reporting system, while Carillion is improving the design, installation and testing methodology to achieve delivery savings.

Fully-integrated system The next stage is to bring Bombardier EBI Gate 2000 to the UK. This is a full level-crossing system designed with the flexibility to be deployed as a total overlay solution, or as a renewal for an existing level crossing which can either be interfaced to existing signalling systems or fully integrated within an ERTMS signalling system.

When fully integrated, EBI Gate 2000 is completely controlled by object controller devices, therefore no conventional relays are required, improving reliability and reducing maintenance requirements. The system has a product design life of 25 years and is fully supported

by Bombardier, therefore product lifecycle and obsolescence is proactively managed. The EBI Gate 2000 system is designed in accordance with CENELEC standards to SIL4 and is a complete self-contained factory tested system. In reality, this means removing the requirement for prolonged road closures, hence improving level crossing renewal efficiencies.

The full EBI Gate 2000 system consists of the EBI Gate 630 barrier machine, one thousand of which have already been proven in over one million operations. Deployed throughout Europe, it has the capability to drive 12-metre booms, well exceeding the current UK requirement of 9.1 metres. Its low current consumption, when compared to conventional approved barrier machines, will bring energy savings and deployment efficiencies with significantly reduced cable size requirements.

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48

Rail Engineer • April 2015

Strategy to become sector 12

– The Rail Supply Group sets out its stall –

T

he Rail Supply Group (RSG) recently launched its Vision Statement. This sets out a series of aims for the railway industry which include doubling export volumes, attracting the best talent into the UK rail industry, and encouraging small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to become involved in the global rail market.

But what is the RSG? After all, there is already a plethora of railway industry bodies and acronyms, including the Rail Delivery Group (RDG), Railway Industry Association (RIA), Rail Safety and Standards Board (RSSB), Office of Rail Regulation (ORR) and the Rail Accident Investigation Branch (RAIB - of which more elsewhere in this issue).

To find out, Rail Engineer visited the group’s co-chairman Terence Watson, who is also country chairman of Alstom, and asked him how the RSG had come about.

NIGEL WORDSWORTH

Starting position “First of all, let’s rewind just a little bit and look at the context. We have a railway which by design is private and driven by a franchise process, and Network Rail which is effectively commercially structured but a Governmentowned company. And the Government’s primary devices to run the railway are through statutory management of the franchises and the safety systems and how you pay for all those. They are all connected to the same thing, but none of them connect to the supply chain, so that’s the first point.

“The second point is that the railway, when it was first privatised, was a really immature laboratory experiment. If you look at the last decade, there have been one or two quite significant switches in the way that we’ve operated to try and get the bits of the railway that were working less-effectively to work better. McNulty’s report on efficiency is one example of that, the way that the franchises were run and driven and bid for is another one.

“So there’s been fine-tuning, but really at no point have we had a significant technological change. We’ve not had a period where the questions asked of the railway are going to be answered and addressed by technology and products.

It was more driven by contract forms and developing the here and now - taking up the slack if you like.

“But three things have happened in the background.

The first is that franchisees can’t really have a

Terence Watson, co-chairman of Rail Supply Group.

mature dialogue on long-term technology.

Franchises are too short and they’re not financed to drive a technology investment, which is a risk.

“The second thing is that we aren’t exporting much. Franchises don’t help you export products to sell to overseas markets. And the third is there is little leadership, so that means that it’s not just the hollowed out supply chain at the top level that’s an issue, it’s the sub-structures.

There are 3,500 SMEs and they’re not really sure which way to go to invest in the right way and sell to Network Rail or to train operators.

“The world is now booming in railway terms and technology is also being invested in at a rate as never before, the most obvious of those is new signalling systems. We’ve taken up the slack, but so has the world, so the rail market is growing at about 2% per annum. The UK is probably going to be running at around five times that over a five-year period.”

Increased turnover and exports Does Terence really think that growth in the UK, in railway terms, will hit 10% per annum?

“In a 5-year period I think it probably will.

If I look at signalling, just as a good example, Alstom is probably going to produce, in the next two-year period, twice the value as it did four years ago. And then we’ve got electrification programmes, we’ve got new train building and so on, all at the same time, so yes, the conditions are riper and richer.

“But there are two further changes coming along. The first is that we are now looking longer term. HS2 is a good example of that.

“The second is that, while we want to buy the best, we’d also like it to be local.

“In other words, we believe that projects are more deliverable, more reliably deliverable, if they are supplied from the home base. That doesn’t need to mean what it used to in the old days, but it does mean that suppliers need to bring maximum added value here in the UK - that was probably underplayed in the preceding decade.

Rail Engineer • April 2015

49

“Connected to that is the fact that the overseas markets, the so-called lower cost economies, aren’t. If you add tax and duties and you add shipping costs and shipping time we’re saying we’ve almost reached that reassuring moment where things can be done for about the same cost here overall.”

Difficulties to overcome That’s good news for the UK, but is British industry ready to take advantage of the opportunity?

“That’s the problem. We have a longer-term set of ambitions that are much more strategic in nature, but no machine to do it. The railway is not joined up - we’ve got the franchises and we’ve got a Government and its DfT (Department for Transport) organisation, which is transport, not just railways. The franchisees themselves can be winners or losers on a short-term basis and therefore the supply chain is having to work with all of them. However, they’re not getting any strategic guidance on technology from that dialogue, although there’s a massive amount of goodwill and interest.

“In addition, the supply chain’s balance sheets are not being used, so there’s a massive problem growing which is that there’s less money around, and what there is has to be proved to be value for money before it’s spent.

“Going into a new Government there isn't the ring-fenced money for the railway with absolutely solid projects that would justify all of the spend we currently need, and the balance sheets of the big companies aren’t being energised at all.”

Initial embarrassment The combination of significant growth in the UK industry, taken with growth of the world market, and the lack of joined-up thinking amongst the major suppliers - were they what eventually brought about the RSG? “In a way. It all started a few years ago when the industry gathered for a meeting - a forum it was actually called. I didn’t know what to expect. There were 40 people in the room. There were two Secretaries of State, and senior officials of the department, and I think the ambition for the meeting was for us, the railway, to present ourselves to the Government.

“To say that we were not joined up in the meeting was an understatement. We had absolutely no way to express ourselves, either as suppliers or with clients in the room. So what we ended up with was a general conversation about skill gaps and stuff like that, but nothing came out of it.

“The meeting disbanded and I came away thinking that the Secretaries of State must have thought we were awful fools.”

That sounds like an embarrassing start to the programme. The railway had one chance to make its case to Government and had blown it.

“That’s right. But everyone else felt as I did, so the suppliers went away and sat down and talked this through and decided to write to the Secretary of State and say: ‘Don’t give up on the forum, but it needs to change and there’s something missing.’

“Then we got ourselves busy, along with the Railway Industry Association, the Rail Delivery Group, the rolling stock leasing companies (ROSCOs) and Network Rail, and we wrote to them again saying: ‘If you give us some time we would like to propose something different than a forum that focuses on the supply chain.'

“The Secretaries of State, both of them, were not particularly minded to go along with that straight away because they were just a bit disheartened at what they’d seen. They didn’t want to see us until we’d got ourselves sorted out.“

Vince Cable and Patrick McLoughlin with Terence Watson at the RSG Vision Statement launch.

The railway is not strategic So that was the first task, for the railway industry to ‘sort itself out’. How disjointed was it? Terence was frank in his reply.

“It was all a muddle. The RDG and the train operators (TOCs) were saying they had no connections with the supply chain. The supply chain were saying they had no connection with the ROSCOs and they didn’t run franchises, and the train manufacturers only had connections with the companies who were actually buying trains. Technology was completely out of the window.

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Rail Engineer • April 2015

“So we spent another few months, pulled a small team together and started to look at what other sectors did. We talked to BIS (Department for Business, Innovation & Skills) as well as the DfT and they gave us the steer to have a look at the 11 strategic sectors. I was dismayed when I realised that there were 11 industry sectors which were classed as ‘strategic’ and the railway wasn’t one of them.

“I was not alone in being dismayed because it meant a lot to all of us that the railway, with all the importance that was being expressed, was not strategic. The automotive industry was, and aerospace and offshore wind and so on, but not us. The 11 sectors that currently have strategic status get first call on financing, they get a minister’s interest and attention, they have vision documents, a strategic document, a board and let me say, a very, very clear direction.

“The strategic sectors all had Councils, and the railway didn’t. We had RIA, and the RDG, but they were different - they weren’t an industry council.

There is a standard model - it has no more than 15 seats to represent the whole industry. So we decided to set one up.

“The 15 seats include both Secretaries of State and one official from each department - Clare Moriarty from DfT and Janice Monday from BIS. That leaves 11 from the industry.

“Those 11 are all representatives of the whole industry, not just their part of it. However, we have a good mix and we include a civil contractor, signaller, a ROSCO, a TOC, Network Rail and an SME. The seats rotate every two years.”

pounds of industrial exports from the UK and we want the railways to be a part of that.

“Why is HS2 a workstream? The answer is because it’s about how the suppliers work with HS2, not how HS2 is. Suppliers are not in a position to understand that to become a supplier for HS2 they’re going to need 3D and BIM, but how do they get to that point without being enabled? And what else do they need to do to develop, in order to become a supplier?

“So those are the workstreams. But we’ve gone further than that, we’ve got six cross-cutting themes where we’ve got really serious questions.

For example, we’ve got a cross-cutting theme on a single-railway strategy, because you can’t have two strategies, they all have to join up with what RDG and Network Rail are saying is strategy. It’s all got to be one strategy, brought into the supply chain.”

Taking time to do it properly

Over a series of consultation meetings, the following structure of five workstreams and six cross-cutting themes has been developed:

Rail Supply Group Work Streams

That’s quite a bit of work that has been carried out. How was it done with a team of only 15 people (11 excluding Government)?

“With so few members it was quite a task, but we can bring in help from outside for the working groups.

“Indeed, we were even advised by BIS, through experience, that smaller is better. Some councils have as few as eight members. All the other councils, by the way, have the same issue of having representative bodies working with them, so the automotive council works with the SMMT (The Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders) for example.

“We were warned that we are going to make Getting started mistakes to begin with, and advised to keep it a bit Having set up a council, what were its loose so that we can adapt and not just stubbornly first steps? stick with something that doesn’t work well. And Fast Track for Growth - A Vision for the UK’s Rail Supply Industry | 5 “We have just released our vision document we were told to take our time as we’ve really got in which you’ll see five strategic workstreams. to get this right for the industry and it shouldn’t One individual or two from the council lead each be something that just pops out as an answer in workstream which cover SME development, a small brochure. So we’ve had over 50 meetings, Rail Supply Group Work Streams skills, exports, technology, and HS2. building and refining what we want to do, how it’s “OneOver of our visionof challenges is growing structured and we operate. a series consultation meetings, the following structure ofhow five work streams and sixThe cross-cutting themes has been exports.

Government’s looking for adeveloped: trillion “The Secretariat (RIA and the Rail Alliance) has been

Exports & Inward Investment

Technology & Innovation

People

SMEs

High Speed Rail

Work Stream

Work Stream

Work Stream

Work Stream

Work Stream

Cross Cutting Themes Safety Mapping landscape, identifying gaps & recommending simplifications Single railway strategy Leadership, cultural change & communication Collaboration & alignment Identify & promote UK’s unique selling points

The six cross cutting themes are common threads important to the industry and are an integral

wonderful in producing a planner, in getting people together. We’ve had several councils now with the Secretaries of State present, giving them updates on where we are, what we’re thinking and so on.“

Already making an impact Has there been any contact with the existing strategic industry sector councils, to take advantage of their experience?

“We’ve had all the other councils from the other strategic sectors make presentations to us on their good, bad and ugly and what we should avoid.

They've attended our presentations and they've even adopted one or two things we’ve had as ideas.

“The best one so far is the SME pilot scheme.

This is the big companies nurturing small companies under an arrangement which disallows advantage. So, in other words, an SME would sign up in a binding way with a leading company, which would take them under their wing for a year and help them in specific areas of their business, using all the facilities available to the big company. It could be process support, in the way that they run their business and manufacture things. Or, if it was exports, advice on how to make a product saleable overseas. Or it could be anything - a quality system, health and safety, or even the know-how on contracts. So we sign up and, in good faith, lend a year of our time with the resources needed, including a board director, to bring the SME along.

“As an idea, it’s been taken up by two other councils and has been referred to Cabinet office level by BIS as an example of good practice.

“In each of the sector councils we found a different construct that wasn’t there at the beginning, that’s had to be created by the private side and, in its maturing, has become an enabler.

So could we have done an RSG council before there was an RDG? “I don’t think so, because the fragmentation of the industry had become so wide, so shockingly separated, that there was nothing cohesive about any of it. Without the RDG pulling the TOCs together it wouldn’t have worked.

“Leaving aside Government, we have 11 good and representative members, all CEOs of their respective companies. I am chair (Alstom). Then we have Carillion and Amey (infrastructure), Porterbrook (ROSCO), RDG (represented by South West Trains - TOC), Perpetuum (SME), Siemens (Signalling), Hitachi (train manufacturer), Atkins (designer) and two customers - HS2 and Network Rail.

“We launched our Vision Statement in January.

Now we have to write a strategy, which will be supply-chain focused because that’s the nature of industrial strategies, that the TOCs and Network Rail and the Government will sign off to. And we want to have that ready for the first 100 days of the new Government, whoever they may be.”

The new Rail Supply Group seems well on the way towards becoming the twelfth strategic sector. All it needs now is our support.

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Rail Engineer • April 2015

&

Capability Competency PAUL DARLINGTON

As the railway continues to evolve and change to meet increasing demands on capacity, efficiency and reliability, the industry must meet the challenge of developing skills and capability to match. Increasing automation with signalling control systems is often seen as the solution to deliver these benefits; however it has many implications for

is fragmented with many stakeholders so greater collaboration will be required to face the challenges going forward - a point made by many of the speakers throughout the day.

the people and companies involved with the implementation, operation and maintenance of new systems.

This was the theme of a recent seminar, organised jointly between the Institution of Railway Signal Engineers and Institution of Railway Operators. Rail Engineer went along to hear leading experts explore some of the challenges the industry faces and make proposals for how the industry can develop the skills and capability needed. Looking to the future, what is required to attract exciting young engineers and operators to develop their skills and experience in order to continue to improve the railway system?

The changing demands of the railway are to create greater capacity at a lower unit cost.

A step change in capability will be required to meet this demand and to transform a network that was designed in the distant past. To deliver this challenge will require new ways of providing engineering. The UK rail industry

manager of GE Transportation Systems, discussed automated design and testing.

Christian explained the innovation within GE to develop and build new capabilities within its organisation in order to deliver the next generation of control systems.

Railways are not unique in having complexity. Other industries face similar issues around accelerated life cycles, increased levels of innovation, requirements for safety and safety assurance, spiralling cost of development, cyber security, and long term product support for bespoke systems.

So what can be learned from those other sectors?

Industries such as automotive, aerospace, nuclear and banking (with similar challenges to rail) are turning to commercial-off-theshelf (COTS) model-based design, automated testing, and formal proof.

Model-based design supports collaborative engineering and reduces the impact of change, while making it easier to assess, manage and implement. The process

Opportunities and impact of automation Christian Fry, business development

starts with a textual specification similar to traditional design, but produces an executional specification modelled in a common engineering language. Engineers can use the models to discuss and clarify requirements with the users, operators and stakeholders, and to obtain feedback right at the start of the design process. This review takes place before any detailed coding or implementation commences, followed by automatic production of documentation, then validation and testing of the code to remove errors early in the life cycle of a project.

Formal proof is a method of assuring that safety is satisfied using an automated mathematical-based assurance. The traditional way of removing errors in design and coding is in layers of assurance checking and testing. Unfortunately this can lead to the ‘Swiss cheese effect’ with the holes in each layer lining up, causing data errors and a defect to be allowed through undetected into the final product. This problem becomes greater as systems become more complex.

For a signal engineer, these tools will allow earlier engagement and discussion with operators, segregating the hardware from

Rail Engineer • April 2015

53

The National Training Academy for Rail - currently under construction in Northampton.

software development and resulting in a more efficient and safer process. It also means that signal engineers can focus on the value-added skill of signalling principles and operational requirements and spend less time on finding coding errors and defects.

John Doyle, general manager of London Underground’s Jubilee line, followed with a presentation on his experience of automatic operations. Like all railways, LU is under pressure to provide more capacity. Automatic train operation (ATO) provides an opportunity to create additional capacity using the existing infrastructure. ATO is already used on the Victoria line with reliable operation of 34 trains per hour. Similar increases happened on the Jubilee line going up from the current 30 to 36 trains per hour.

ATO has also increased regularity and reliability with less human involvement

and error. There are also benefits in energy consumption, improving quality of service, better customer information and improved regulation, so further expansion of ATO is planned for other routes. Main line application of ATO is more limited but it will be found on the core section of Thameslink and the central

operational section of Crossrail, both from 2018, with planned headways of 24 trains per hour.

Simulators are vital for maintaining competence but, most importantly, cooperative working between all stakeholders was stressed as the key to success.

54

Rail Engineer • April 2015

Minding the gap: addressing the skills shortage The next part of the seminar focused on the skills required for the future, how to best use the people we have, and how to attract and develop new people.

Steve Collicot from the National Skills Academy for Railway Engineering (NSARE) presented the scale of the signalling engineer skill shortage.

In 2013, NSARE undertook an analysis of the signalling skills available with a forecast of the requirement for the next five years. The first alarming figure to stand out was that only 4% of the railway engineering workforce is female. 90% of the signalling workforce was covered and it was estimated that industry requires several thousands of additional engineers over the next five years. Other countries are also rolling out ERTMS and this will draw on the resources required for UK rail.

Collaborative working was again mentioned, along with the opportunities for graduates and trainees to have learning placements with other companies. The industry needs system engineers, but how do we get well-rounded system engineers if the trainee engineers can’t see and experience the whole system?

With an element of signalling control moving to the train, ERTMS will require a different skill set and job roles. In order to prepare the industry for the change, the National Training Academy for Rail (NTAR) is being established in Northampton to fill the gap and provide other training requirements. The National College for High Speed Rail will be based in Birmingham, with an additional site in Doncaster, and it will provide both specialist vocational training to the next generation of engineers and vital skill training for the industry.

Andy Stringer, head of engineering at Siemens Rail Automation, presented a very entertaining and thought provoking session

(and without power point!) on making better use of the resource we have. He made the point that Siemens had already dramatically increased its training and recruitment and that its mentoring and training resources are full to capacity. Therefore it is a case of making better use of the existing competent engineers.

As an example, Andy focused on a hypothetical signalling scheme taking one year, costing £10 million and requiring 10 designers. Two designers are required for the interlocking, two for trackside design, two for stage works, two for fringe working, and two for ancillary works such as the control centre design or level crossings. Currently, for any such typical scheme, another two designers may be required throughout the scheme for changes and rework.

The first lesson to learn is that projects should not be allowed to commence until the scheme plan has been signed off. While some change is inevitable, rework and change must be avoided as they are wasteful. At a cost of £70,000, two additional designers may only cost £140,000 on top of a £10 million scheme. This may be considered acceptable; however the important point is that it means that the fifth typical signalling scheme costing £10 million will have no signalling design resource at all.

Precious resources Looking to the future, automation will save some design resource but this was cautioned as, when compared to other countries, the UK can have many more types of routes to specify within the data. ETCS and automation may save some signalling design resource as they remove lineside signals, but there will still be a need for routes, flank protection, points, opposing locking and power, all of which will need specifying. In the hypothetical 10-designer scheme, Andy estimated ETCS as saving half a person.

Rail Engineer

Some of the layout functionality currently specified on schemes can be overcomplicated and the challenge for all operators and asset managers is to consider whether all the complicated functionality, which requires design and testing, is required. Interestingly, compared to track circuits, axle counters require less design resource with regards to data preparation. Fringe design can be very complicated due to the historical location chosen for the fringe location and there may be a saving in design resource by taking this into consideration.

Level crossings are another area where design resource can be saved. An example was given of an automatic half barrier crossing located within the strike in of an obstacle detector level crossing. This makes the controls very complicated with extensive design and testing resources required and, in some cases, 90% of the design resource is spent on 10% of the crossings in a project.

While it is not possible to remove all level crossings, taking the design resource required into account (as well as the risk of not delivering another £10 million scheme) may provide the business case to build a bridge, remove the complexity and result in a safer and more cost effective railway.

Andy finished his presentation by giving everyone the challenge to say what they will be doing differently in future to free up design and testing resource. The other point made was that the whole rail community needs to work together collaboratively and take an industry view of the best way to make use of the resources available.

Adam Stead, chairman of the Young Rail Professionals, discussed how the rail industry should attract and develop the best people. Adam opened by making the point that the majority of young people now considering the rail

Rail Engineer • April 2015

industry were born after 1994, so have little concept of British Rail!

The industry already manages to attract some of the best people available. However, the challenge is still to make rail more interesting to the best students and convince them that rail is a modern and an interesting place to work. Companies need to go out and attract the best people and inspire confidence by developing and selling the rail brand, making it stand out against the competition.

Everyone needs to inspire the next generation and to develop the talents required by empowering and giving freedom to explore and innovate.

The journey to competence Phil Davis, director of technical learning and development at Atkins, opened the afternoon's programme with a discussion on beyond personal competence. He focused on how companies and organisations need to demonstrate and manage their corporate competence in addition to personal competency. This needs to cover sustainability, which means making sure the skills and competency are there for the future.

Career paths, skill banks, feedback loops and databases of lessons learned were all identified as components of corporate competence.

Piers Conner discussed operational and operator readiness. The amount of time and resource required to train operators on new systems should never be underestimated and again it was stressed that operators need to be involved right from the concept stage of new projects and systems. Making sure all of the new system is finished and in place, and works, with everyone trained and assessed as competent, is vital to gain the confidence of the operators.

Any new control system needs a fall back strategy in place for when it fails. This can be either another entirely-separate backup control system or reliance on the rule book and procedures to get trains moving, such as ticket working and verbal instruction. The latter is preferable as transition between the

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main and standby system is complex and expensive, and not having a standby system will focus everyone to make sure the main system works correctly and has duplication of critical elements.

Francis How, Railway Industry Association (RIA) technical director, completed the competency session by discussing safety implications. Both Network Rail and London Underground have significant resource requirements which will need managing and implementing safely. Francis outlined the various initiatives in place to improve the management of safety in design and testing as a result of incidents which have included data errors. A working group has been set up, involving Network Rail, RIA, IRSE and signalling suppliers, to look at the issue of signalling design and safety. The working group has already made a number of short-

perspective, John suggested a new way of working was needed in the future for ETCS. He envisaged a freeform start by sketching out the layout on a white board, flip chart or paper. Key items of equipment, dimensions and areas of operational interest should be marked on the plan, followed by production of a base diagram with the ‘scales’ suitable for the amount of information that needs to be recorded. John went on to suggest interactive ways of displaying scheme plans with layers of information and demonstrated different ways of formatting scheme plans in an ETCS world.

The message was to be open to exploring new ways and to be prepared to make mistakes. It will be important to work with the customers of the scheme plan to help them understand what the railway will deliver and to dare to be different!

term recommendations and has just produced a guide to managing signalling projects safely which focuses on “what does good look like?”

Synergy and simulation

Skills for the future George Clark, engineering director of London Underground, led a session to look at which engineering skills will be needed for the future.

In the past, skills were at a simpler level (both mechanical and electrical) than are required to design and maintain the systems of today and tomorrow. Verification and validation methodologies will be remote and virtual and allow the assessment of both the logical and physical railway. This will have a huge impact on the skills necessary to maintain these systems and in the future we will need complex system investigators rather than today’s ‘sequential checkers’.

The engineers of the future will need to be technically literate in current and legacy software system functionality. Examples of the skills needed will include: systems engineers, cyber security interrogators, simulation validators, logical railway map designers, data investigators, system performance engineers and 'predict and prevent' technicians.

John Alexander, principal engineer at Network Rail, discussed scheme plan production for ETCS and demonstrated that a new method was required. The traditional way of producing scheme plans is to draw a scale base and place items to scale, but this can make plans too cluttered for ETCS and it’s difficult to change scale boundaries.

Looking at the fundamental reasons why scheme plans are required, both from an operational, engineering and stakeholder

Tim Gray, sales and marketing director of TRE, discussed the capability and benefits of modelling and simulation for signalling design. It was explained that such tools were used in other sectors and more vigorously than rail. Simulation will bring many benefits.

There is synergy with other industry initiatives and it enhances the existing Network Rail GRIP process.

Having demonstrated some examples where modelling and simulation can be used throughout the project life cycle for rail, Tim concluded that modelling and simulation can provide improved efficiency of the design process, better specification, faster testing, less rework, less live railway access, reduced cost and programme duration and enhanced safety. He also suggested that early adoption will give early benefits.

Finally, Francis How concluded an interesting day, and a glimpse of the future, by saying that the seminar had achieved its objectives. There had been several common themes such as the need to be more efficient, reducing and eliminating rework. simplifying design rules, collaborative working, embracing technology and methods from other industries - such as automatic design and testing and simulation, and introducing new ways of thinking and working.

This will not work without the right people, so organisations must ensure that they have the right skills for the new technology by attracting, developing, inspiring and retaining talented individuals from schools into the modern apprenticeship schemes, and from universities and other industries into the rail industry.

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Rail Engineer • April 2015

Helping rail organisations to stand out from the crowd Great Britain has the fastest-growing railway in the European Union, carrying 1.5 billion passengers and 28 billion tonnes of freight per kilometre every year. Network Rail has invested more than £34 billion in the last five years to improve the rail network and, with a further £38 billion already allocated to CP5 and further investment for projects such as HS2, infrastructure firms must act to ensure their brand doesn’t get left behind in our fast-paced, well populated marketplace.

In order to achieve this, businesses must take steps to raise their profile through effective and proactive marketing and communications strategies. Without expert guidance, the risks of being overlooked and missing opportunities for growth are a real possibility.

Years of experience Mercury, a communications agency with offices in London and Yorkshire, is one of the industry’s leading marketing and communications agencies focused

In what is one of the fastest-growing markets in the UK, businesses operating within the rail industry face a battle to stand out from crowd. specifically on making a positive and profitable difference to organisations in the rail sector.

Managing director Simon Taylor has worked in the rail industry for 26 years and he has brought a fresh approach to rail industry communications, positioning the organisation in such a way as to put it in the gaze of its key customers, both new and old.

With an enviable reputation for securing unprecedented media coverage for his clients, Simon’s business philosophy is built on making a positive difference, whether that is in terms of profit, passenger numbers, industry recognition through award wins or writing winning PQQs and ITTs which are helping

companies to grow stronger and prosper.

Mercury has worked for a wide range of organisations across the industry, including First Hull Trains, the Spencer Group, Pod-Trak, Chase Meadow Signalling and SWGR. As part of its work for First Hull Trains, Simon went beyond the usual media and communications projects to deliver a 24/7 press office and implement a crisis communications strategy. His work was effective to such an extent that the operator was regularly ranked as one of the best in the country.

Effective strategy With regard to the Spencer Group, Simon has adopted the role of its communications director, securing unprecedented media coverage for the tier one contractor and winning a host of national industry awards.

He also played a pivotal role in helping the organisation to secure the recently announced MAFA contract in Scotland.

Simon’s unwavering commitment to his clients is highlighted by his work with the Spencer Group. Unlike most agencies, Mercury’s agility and dedication to service, which allows Simon to take up an in-house role while also ensuring the same level of service is offered to other clients, is a unique selling point.

Raj Sinha, a director at the Spencer Group, said: “The difference that a strong and effective communications strategy can have on any business is incredible. Simon’s work for the Spencer Group has helped to positively

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Rail Engineer • April 2015

raise our profile across the industry as well as helping us to win work in both new and traditional markets. He is a breath of fresh air whose winning approach is good for business.”

Simon has also worked closely with clients in the rail industry to enhance their approach to tendering projects and winning work, focusing of key messaging, added value and clear strategy.

Despite Simon having the knowledge of exactly what industry journalists and media platforms are looking for, he understands that an effective media and communications strategy goes far beyond securing column centimetres. He is supported by a PR and communications team which is made up of award-winning journalists, expert marketing professionals, exceptional graphic designers and dedicated copywriters.

Event planning, securing attendance and guest speaker opportunities at industry events and engaging internal communications are all part of the standard service of Mercury.

Ensuring the branding and marketing position of a company is something that is seen as a priority. This stretches to designing and creating company literature, brand centres, marketing collateral and digital initiatives including websites.

Stakeholder engagement and internal communications are also core disciplines of Mercury as is bid writing and media event planning.

Wider experience Simon’s team works extensively in the rail industry but also has vast experience in other demanding industries such as energy, engineering and construction. Some of its latest work has seen it promote, defend and protect the position of energy firms conducting exploratory drilling works close to residential homes, requiring strategic stakeholder engagement strategies akin to those required for working on the rail network.

Its experience, foresight and ability to

react quickly to situations has meant it has been able to control large amounts of media output, in turn allowing for the respective companies’ key messages to be put across at every available opportunity. Mercury is proof that communications is good for business in a marketplace that has historically seen it as a cost and not a benefit. Its experience within the sector means that organisations can benefit financially by outsourcing the work and ‘calling it off’ when needed alongside the business plan. This allows directors and business owners to get on with their day jobs in the safe knowledge that their communications and marketing partners are promoting their organisations in an advantageous way - one that is focused on profitability whilst promoting a safe and reliable railway.

Ultimately, in the words of Simon Taylor, “using strategic communications and having a great team at the delivery end will help you to get your business where you want it to be.”

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Rail Engineer • April 2015

Driving HIGH PERFORMANCE TRACK DANIEL PYKE

Steel rails form a fundamental part of our industry - which is named after them - and their performance is vital to operating a safe and efficient railway...

Over many centuries, rail materials have changed to give improved performance in terms of rail life and load carrying ability.

From humble beginnings of wooden rails eventually strapped with iron to improve their life, the materials used have developed from wood, to cast iron, to wrought iron and eventually steel rails which form the basis of our railway networks today.

Steel rails themselves have developed over many decades and continue to do so in the quest for better performance. This article hopefully describes some of my experiences taking an idea from a coffee machine conversation to a product supporting a 125mph buffet car.

The need for better steel Historically, the management of rolling contact fatigue (RCF), or head checks for European readers, has presented a challenge for many rail networks across the world. The use of longer-lasting, more wear-resistant rails increased the relevance of this degradation mechanism and its importance was crystallised by the incident at Hatfield in October 2000.

Managing RCF is both costly and time consuming in an industry that has a drive towards lower maintenance costs, shorter maintenance windows and greater track availability.

In response to the industry needs of doing more with less, Tata Steel set out to design a new rail steel that delivered improved rail life whilst also minimising maintenance requirements. This rail steel should be both resistant to wear and also resistant to RCF as a large proportion of track maintenance budget is focused around rail remediation and replacement due to these issues. The rail steel developed to address this need is called HP335, a High Performance rail steel with a minimum Brinell hardness of 335HB, (cf. standard R260 grade with a minimum hardness of 260HB).

Introducing a new and fundamentally critical product to the rail industry, which is traditionally rather risk averse, is always going to be a challenge. However, working in close partnership with Network Rail and other customers, Tata Steel has brought HP335 into use to

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

demonstrate that large cost savings can be made by using the right rail in the right place.

Within two years of track testing, HP335 has achieved full product approval. In less than five years, it has commenced incorporation into both Network Rail and European rail standards and, most importantly, around 600km of it is now in use, delivering large life cycle cost savings.

These equate to a seven-figure cost saving per year, delivered through reduced inspection and maintenance requirements and, of course,

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increased rail life. Key to achieving this product acceptance has been rigorous and transparent evaluation of material performance throughout the development process. It is one thing a company selling a product telling you a product is great; it is quite another when you see the benefits with your own eyes.

Three-stage process Essentially the development was broken down into three main stages: 1. Proof of concept – laboratory testing; 2. Proving real life benefits – trial sites on real networks; 3. Facilitating widespread adoption – standardisation.

The first stage of proving the concept ranged from laboratory tests, carried out on small scale samples of around 50kg of steel, through to producing a pilot-scale seven tonne cast of material from which to make full rails, and then trialling these in our own internal rail network where they are subject to 46 tonne axle loads (sometimes owning the biggest private rail network in the UK has its benefits in rail product development). This stage proved that potential benefits were there to be had and that there

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Rail Engineer • April 2015

Heavily-laden steel torpedoes at Scunthorpe. were no unmanageable risks moving to the next stage of testing - introducing rail into the public network.

The second stage required significant commitment from both Tata Steel and Network Rail to select suitable live trial sites for performance data gathering. These sites were to be monitored intensively for long periods of time (up to five years) to evaluate the real life performance of this new product.

Initially, just two trial sites were identified.

However the significant performance benefits achieved, combined with the confidence built in the product in use, precipitated an expansion in the number of sites to be monitored on Network Rail infrastructure to a total of seven. There is also one monitored site on the Sheffield Supertram light rail network which actually took the honour of being the first customer installation of HP335.

Major performance improvements Whilst it is vital to understand the performance of the new rail steel at a location, it is also equally important to understand how the rails previously installed there performed.

After all, if there is no information on what

HP335 trial sites.

Snow monitoring.

went before, how do you know what better performance looks like?

The trial sites were monitored both before and after the new rail installation, and historic maintenance information for the sites was shared to get a good baseline of standard-grade rail performance. Regular site monitoring with teams from both Tata Steel and Network Rail, and the sharing of all the information gathered, ensured transparency of the material performance. Site monitoring was carried out in all weathers to ensure data was collected at appropriate intervals.

Agreed projections for life cycle costs on one site were made after one year of data had been collected and again revised after four years. The two results were found to be within 1% of each other, giving confidence in the projected cost savings that were achievable. Over a period of five years, and using four years of monitoring information, the rail management costs (rail purchase, installation, inspection and grinding) on one site were reduced by 52%. Rail life spans were commonly doubled from that of previous rails whilst reduction in grinding by a factor of three was observed on some sites.

From the vast quantities of site monitoring data, where HP335 rails had accumulated over 700 million tonnes of traffic, there were clear improvements in performance for every major rail degradation mechanism. Wear rates were greatly reduced, RCF was slowed, plastic flow reduced, spalling of low rails avoided and, last but not least, corrugation growth rates halved.

The confidence built from actual track testing under such close monitoring allowed full product approval to be granted in 2012, just two years after the first rail was installed for evaluation.

So product approval had been obtained, but the process does not end there. Rail maintenance standards needed revision to provide guidance on when to use the product and, of course, the rail product standards themselves require revising to incorporate these new materials. Both the Network Rail and European rail standards are being revised to incorporate HP335 although, as is often the case, the standards tend to lag behind somewhat.

The message spreads Whilst most of the site monitoring information was gathered on Network Rail infrastructure, other infrastructure owners and maintainers have been taking keen note.

Customers are already adopting HP335 for their rail renewals in conventional, light and heavy haul rail applications to resolve different rail degradation issues that they face. In contrast to conventional rail, the key benefits for light rail usage are the improved corrugation and wear resistance, whilst in heavy haul applications it is the improved resistance to plastic flow with good wear

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Rail Engineer • April 2015

Trial site in Finland.

Meadowhall monitoring on Sheffield SuperTram.

Site at Drax.

resistance that delivers the needed performance improvements.

The first installations of HP335 outside of the UK are due shortly, with rails being installed in both Finland and France to address the issues of both RCF and wear, as audiences outside the UK begin to recognise the benefits it can offer over standard grade rails.

Of course, with every new product development, not everything goes smoothly all the time, but I am proud to be part of an extended team that has worked to provide solutions rather than barriers to exploiting the benefits on

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offer, as we all have a common aim – a sustainable and efficient rail industry.

In the UK there is still a way to go to realise the full benefits of introducing this new rail steel. To date around 2% of the Network Rail infrastructure utilises HP335, whilst the European Innotrack project indicates that 30% of the UK network would benefit from using a premium rail (such as HP335).

So it looks like we still have much work to do.

Daniel Pyke is product marketing manager at Tata Steel Europe

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SUSTAINABLE Rail Engineer • April 2015

T S A L L A B

Rail Engineer • April 2015

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B

allast is one of the least-understood elements of the railway infrastructure.

Looking like a pile of stones on which the track rests, it is actually a carefully-engineered structure which supports and locates the track, aids drainage and keeps down vegetation.

It also wears out. The constant pounding from passing trains causes the individual stones to rub against each other, rounding off the sharp edges which are crucial to stabilising the structure, and creating dust.

After twenty years on the main line, it has to be renewed. However, the track itself is designed to last for 40 years so rail maintenance teams need a way to renew it without lifting the whole track.

Enter the high-output ballast cleaner - a long yellow train which cuts the ballast out from under the track while supporting the rails. The ballast is then screened and stones which are still to size are returned while worn ones are fed by conveyor into a rake of empty wagons. The ballast is then topped up from another set of wagons containing new material.

So, at the end of every night, one set of wagons of spent ballast need to be emptied while another has to be refilled with 1,100 tonnes of fresh stock.

Screening now at Willesden One of the locations used for this work is at Willesden in north west London. A one-and-a-

half acre site is operated by Lynch Plant, a plant-hire company with 30 years of experience in the highways, utilities, ground works, demolition, snow clearance and winter services fields as well as rail.

Lynch currently has a nine-month contract for this work and is confident that Network Rail, which has three other high output ballast wagon trains dotted around the country, will come back to Willesden when it needs to operate in this region again.

Three trains a week bring 1,300 tonnes of new ballast from Barton Aggregates in box wagons.

Lynch’s 13-strong rail team then load into the ballast wagons using clamshells.

Five nights a week, the train goes out and lays 800 - 1000 tonnes of new ballast and brings back the same amount of spent ballast for recycling. Once the train has returned to Willesden, the spent ballast is directly taken from the rail wagons and loaded into a large McCloskey International screening machine. This grades the spent spoil material and separates it into three different categories.

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70-30mm ballast mix is used as a sub-base or as a soak away by the construction industry while 30mm-00mm dust mix comes off a different belt and is also used for construction.

Both of these types of recycled material are delivered by road to local construction sites or batching plants as a sub base material for paths and foundations for building sites. Lynch has a large customer base who want raw aggregates so there is a steady but controlled flow of HGVs arriving at Willesden to collect the spent ballast brought back in by the trains.

Oversized waste products from the screener, which include all types of rubbish such as bolts, screws, pieces of concrete and random stones, are then hand-sorted before going off to a separate recycling process by lorry.

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Rail Engineer • April 2015

Containing the clay and mud Being so close to the railway lines, Lynch had to make commitments that none of the clay, mud and ballast they process at this site would contaminate the tracks. Contract manager Ray Cripps commented: “When we took over the site, the biggest commitment was keeping 200 tipper wagons of clay and mud far enough away from the track whilst also maintaining operational safety of the yard. We had to separate lorries from diggers and plant loading the trains whilst keeping the moveable aggregates separate from the railway siding.”

To make sure that the various materials were contained, Lynch contracted A Jansen BV to build a modular wall divider using its Legio Block product. Following a full site survey, Jansen came up with a design that would withstand the pressures of plant rolling over it and working on top of it each day and then installed the design to drawings which they provided.

Keven Pope from A Jansen BV said: “Ray was

looking to have his walls built really quickly.

We surveyed the site, ran some tests to see the design would withstand the pressures and within 48 hours we had 25 lorries carrying in 340 blocks to build the retaining walls, safety walls and separating walls for each grade of ballast. Our engineer was able to construct the walls using the Hiab cranes on the back of each lorry. Within 24 hours, we had finished construction and issued the certificate to say it was safe."

“If, at a later date, Lynch wants to expand the site or move it around or put a roof on the walls, it is simple and easy to do. It provides a safe operating area and keeps staff, machines and trains separate from each other whilst storing, sorting and processing 1,300 tonnes of ballast.”

Lynch, which runs a fleet of 105 lorries in London, takes its environmental and safety responsibilities very seriously and has been able to halve the number of 90-mile round trips carried out by its 38 rigid tipper HGVs since opening the rail hub. It has thereby reduced its carbon footprint as rail produces 70% less carbon dioxide than the equivalent journey as well as reducing road congestion - an average freight train removes 60 HGVs from the roads.

Aiming to be a good neighbour, Lynch monitors and controls arrival and departure of HGVs for safety, accounting and congestion reasons. The site is kept clean and well below air quality limits by having a road sweeper vehicle working dawn to dusk to control dust and dirt while all HGV tyres are washed before leaving the site. The company recognises the safety benefits of using rail to remove HGV miles, especially with regard to cyclists in the capital; in the past five years 55% of cycling fatalities involved an HGV even though they represent less than 4% of London road miles driven.

By offering and running an integrated solution in which Lynch coordinates all the elements, including a full recycling service, Ray is able to offer an attractive package to a range of customers. The new process also highlights the crucial role that rail freight has in maintaining and developing the nation’s rail and road infrastructure.

Fewer lorry movements Lynch has been operating this new method of ballast disposal since April 2014. Previously, the old spent ballast was delivered to Colnbrook, near Terminal Five at Heathrow, irrespective of where the ballast was being replaced on the network. Now that Lynch is sending it direct to local contractors, that leg of the process is redundant. As a result, the operation is much more predictable as it removes a train path and, most importantly, it allows more time for maintenance of the equipment and reduces energy costs and pollution around London.

Director Rob Lynch commented: “We are very pleased to have been approached by Network Rail and to come up with the most efficient solution ever for dealing with the high output ballast train. It is a joy to watch our operation at work, as it is so simple. We expect to be operational at other locations soon.”

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Rail Engineer • April 2015

FiftyofShades Progress Rail UK J

ust because a company makes high-technology components for the rail industry, it doesn’t necessarily mean that is all that it does.

So the sight of a mining track shoe on display outside a major rail components supplier shouldn’t really come as too much of a surprise.

The more likely reaction is probably: “What on earth is that?”

Different sort of track The mining track shoe in question is made at Progress Rail's specialist steel products foundry in South Queensferry, just outside Edinburgh. One shoe weighs in at a striking three tonnes. However, when seen on the finished article - a mining excavator - it pales into insignificance when compared with the sheer size of the overall machine which can be found working in challenging mining

environments around the world.

Progress Rail Services UK Ltd is well known in the UK railway market for the manufacture of switches and crossings (S&C) and ancillary products. However, its versatile approach means it has expanded far beyond the remit of a rail components and systems manufacturer. It has also increasingly sought to use its capabilities outside of the rail industry and has successfully exported products for wider industrial applications.

“Through our aim to provide bespoke solutions for our clients, we have adapted our product range to suit diverse requirements. The track shoe was born from our ability to make large castings in our state of the art foundry with

cutting edge steel making capability and knowledge developed by our grounding in the rail industry. Our expertise allows us to design, manufacture, and develop products to continuously improve the service and range we can offer to clients,” said Adam Todd, head of business development for Progress Rail UK.

It’s just bollards!

Anyone walking along the streets of Westminster, London, will notice cast steel security bollards standing guard along the pavements and outside public buildings. Capable of withstanding a large vehicle travelling at high speed with zero penetration, these bollards, which come in a range of shapes and sizes, are made from high strength manganese steel.

They are used by governments, local authorities, aviation authorities and at other high risk strategic locations within the UK and overseas - another unexpected product from a railway products foundry.

“Providing security solutions was not part of the ‘railway remit,’ but the need was addressed by our skilled team of engineers. We work closely with professional bodies and local universities to research and explore new and exciting ways of working to improve our product offering,” Adam added.

So while its standard range of products can be viewed on Progress Rail’s website for the UK, the team is always keen to hear about new specialist items, whether they be for the rail industry or elsewhere.

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Rail Engineer • April 2015

D

espite Britain having, officially, a temperate climate, it can still get pretty parky at times. And although it snows somewhere in the country every winter, it still catches us by surprise. Countries such as Sweden and Russia cope with snow metres deep on a regular basis. In the UK, just one centimetre brings everything to a grinding halt.

When the roads close down due to drifting snow, black ice, spinning cars and stranded lorries, it is the railways that keep going - most of the time. Infrastructure engineers have developed various pieces of kit to help keep the railway open.

One of these is the points heater. Electric heating elements, clipped to the rails which make up a set of points, prevent ice forming and keep the switch blades moving.

However, they are not very efficient and a lot of the heat is lost to the atmosphere.

That’s where Scotland’s A Proctor Group comes in. For nearly 80 years, the company has been developing and supplying product solutions to the agriculture, building and construction industries, including a 50-year pedigree of providing leading edge thermal and acoustic product solutions.

Working with Network Rail and its contractors, the A Proctor Group developed the Spacetherm® Point Heat Retainer Strip.

This offers improved performance by directing the heat towards and into the rail, reducing the energy consumed in heating the points system and improving response times.

The Spacetherm Point Heat Retainer Strip is clipped into place over the rail and heating electrode. It helps reduce heat loss and the energy from the electrode (typically 200W/m) is dissipated quickly and effectively into the rail.

Energy consumption is generally 25-30% improved and response to temperature can be up to 60% faster. As a result,

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Keeping things warm in winter rail infrastructure managers can now choose a lower power-rated heating electrode to reduce the energy consumption where supply is limited or to save energy.

There are other advantages too. The response time to heat a standard set of points reduces from around two hours to approximately 50 minutes. This has a big impact on the performance of the whole points heating system and saves energy costs. In the same installation, a 200W/m heating strip would consume more than 0.5kWhr/m to heat and subsequently maintain the system at a temperature of about 3˚C. With the heat retainer fitted, the energy required to heat and similarly maintain the system reduces by more than 25%.

Further innovation Once the advantages of Spacetherm were fully

realised, it found other applications as well. One of these was on Network Rail’s latest de-icing train.

The A Proctor Group was asked to develop a thermal solution that would ensure pre-heated air was blasted at the rail from the de-icing train at the original temperature generated by the on-board systems. Bespoke Spacetherm sections were cut at the company’s fabrication facility and supplied ready for wrapping into the ducting work designed to carry the heated air to the rail. This simple and cost-effective solution significantly improved the retention of heat in the system and therefore its performance.

No doubt there are other applications both for the Spacetherm material and for A Proctor Group’s expertise.

Being based in Scotland, the company is perfectly placed to understand Britain’s winter weather.

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Rail Engineer • April 2015

SHEAR BRILLIANCE

Rail Engineer • April 2015

O

ne of Mark Carne’s first actions after taking over as chief executive of Network Rail was to criticise the housekeeping around the network. Speaking to Rail Engineer at the time, he commented that many of the accidents incurred by the company’s staff were trips, slips and falls, often caused by the rubbish that was left behind after works were completed.

It is still a priority - perhaps even more so.

During his recent George Bradshaw address at the Institution of Civil Engineers, Mark Carne reiterated: “To me, it is inconsistent to be talking about caring for your workforce if you then put them out onto a railway which is frankly a bit of a scrap heap.“ “We have a huge programme now to pick up tens of thousands of tonnes of scrap rail, tens of thousands of tonnes of old sleepers and we are cutting down hundreds of miles of buddleia along the railway. It is not just tidying up the physical trip hazards, it is also making the railway look more pleasant for our passengers and more professional for our staff. Anybody who takes the train out of Euston or King’s Cross today and at many other locations will have noticed that the graffiti has been removed.”

Scrap rail Tens of thousands of tonnes of scrap rail is a lot

of rail, and much of it is in unhandy lengths of 50 or 100 metres or more. So there needs to be a way of quickly and easily cutting it up into manageable lengths that can be loaded into wagons and taken away to recycling centres.

After over two years of extensive research and development, Terock Limited has launched the TRS330 Rail Shear which has now gone through the process and obtained Network Rail’s product acceptance for approval to work on the UK infrastructure. The Terock Rail Shear has been designed to dramatically reduce processing time whilst being easy to use. Developed for use both on the railway and in recycling yards, it can fit to both road/rail and standard excavators, eliminating the need for extra machinery and manpower and so saving time, money and resources. With its 1,000 tonnes of cutting force at 320 bar, the TRS330 Rail Shear will break rail sections up to and including 65kg/m quickly and efficiently.

Operational benefits The new design features 360º rotation, allowing the operator to cut the rail in any given position (standing upright, on its side or even upside down).

This eliminates the need for thimbling prior to cutting. It is estimated that the machine has the capability to produce one full cut cycle and then move to the next cutting point every 25 seconds

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(based on cutting into six metre/20 foot lengths).

This will significantly reduce the time needed for the collection of scrap rail, both increasing productivity and reducing the time that personnel have to be out on the network. It will also eliminate the need for oxy-acetylene and friction wheel cutting and their associated risks.

Designed for all-weather operation, the new rail shear will cut all types of rail, both single line and panels, whether in the four-foot, six-foot or the cess. In addition to plain line, the shear has the capability of cutting embedded (tram) rail and, with a quick and simple change of cutting blades, conductor rail.

With its double moving jaw and high cutting force, the TRS330 has been designed to combine strength and durability with low maintenance.

This was borne out by extensive trials that were undertaken with Network Rail as part of the product acceptance procedure.

During trials in Scotland, Stoke-on-Trent, Cheshire and Doncaster, operators reported that the new shear is much more userfriendly than older style Rail Croppers. Its easy manoeuvrability, coupled with the ability to collect rail from vegetation and place it into position before cutting, markedly reduces the need for other equipment and additional manpower.

d o h t e m e v i t c e eff … e t c s n o a r m a e e l c l Th i a r p a of scr IL SHEAR A R 0 3 3 S TR

CING THE 60kg/mtr including INTRODU d n a to p il u types of ra ) rail Breaks all d ‘U’ (tram n a il ra r to uc line, cond Cuts plain osition il in any p Cuts all ra

For more information please contact us or visit the website.

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info@terock.com

W

www.terock.com

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+44 (0)1538 755942

Rail Engineer • April 2015

NIGEL WORDSWORTH

CLIVE KESSELL

PHOTO: WEMAKEPICTURES

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FIVE INTO ONE F

does go!

or the second year running, the 2015 MetroRail conference was actually five co-located events held, on this occasion, at London’s Olympia.

As well as MetroRail itself, LightRail, RailTel, RailPower and AirRail were all at the same place at the same time, making for a very interesting two-day event.

MetroRail was obviously the premier event as its conference space was abut three times bigger than the others and was protected by additional security to ensure that only those who had paid the premium were admitted.

The event, impeccably organised by Terrapinn, certainly attracted both speakers and delegates from around the world. In one of the round table discussions, Rail Engineer was joined by delegates from Bangalore, India, Stockholm, Sweden and Buenos Aires, Argentina - all discussing the application of BIM (Building Information Modelling) to metro systems.

It was a varied programme as well, although many of the projects and topics will have been familiar to regular readers.

Mike Brown, managing director of London Underground, got things started. Then there were presentations from Terry Morgan, chairman of Crossrail; Paul Priestman, director of PriestmanGoode, on the new Tube for London and Miles Ashley, London Underground’s programme director of Crossrail and stations.

That’s not to say there wasn’t a lot of overseas content as well. Andrew Lezalla, chief executive of Metro Trains Melbourne, described how his company was keeping Melbourne moving safely and efficiently. Tom Prendergast, CEO of New York City Transit, addressed the challenges of large scale metro extension and improvement works in the city that never sleeps. Desmond Kuek, president and group CEO of Singapore’s SMRT Corporation, spoke of moving people and enhancing lives.

As well as the formal presentations, there

was a cluster of around 40 exhibition stands in the networking area. Companies as varied as Tata Steel, Alcatel-Lucent and Austrian State Railways (ÖBB) were all showing off their capabilities. London Underground (TfL) had a large stand including demonstrations of virtual reality and 3D representations of stations.

The Belgian arm of thermal camera specialists FLIR Systems had a very interesting demonstration of using analytics software to monitor the presence of passengers and others in areas where they shouldn’t be. Bombardier was showing off a simple analysis tool which predicted whole life costs and energy consumption of a variety of trains.

Hitachi, Siemens, Kapsch, Emtelle, Linsinger - they were all there and too many to mention, so apologies to the ones that haven’t been.

RailTel - the GSM-R succession While MetroRail seemed to concentrate on the big projects, RailTel, an event that Rail Engineer has visited before when it was a stand-alone conference, set out to describe the latest in engineering and technology.

A good example was an interesting paper on a possible successor to GSM-R. This challenge has been raising its head for some years, but keeps getting put back in the ‘too difficult’ box.

However the glimmer of a way forward may be emerging according to Jean Cellmer, the SNCF head of GSM-R. The problem is that GSM-R is now some 25 years old in design concept, using 2G technology that is fast becoming obsolete in the public cellular networks. GSM-R has the advantage of having a dedicated allocation of frequencies (876-880MHz for the uplink and 921-925MHz for the downlink)

but these are adjacent to mobile network operator’s frequencies being used for newer technologies and from which an increasing problem of interference is emerging.

As has been reported on several occasions, the circuit switch technology to connect train-borne ETCS equipment back to the signalling centres is very demanding on bandwidth, and is incapable of being used in heavy traffic areas. The adoption of packet switching using GPRS (General Packet Radio Service) will give much improved capacity and is likely to be universally adopted across Europe by 2020. This will give some breathing space until the 2G system supply market begins to dry up after 2025. It will be possible to purchase GSM-R equipment after that date but the predictions are that the price will rocket. So how is this obsolescence challenge to be resolved?

The European Commission (EC) and the railways do not share the same vision. The EC view is that the mobile network operators can fill the railway requirements by selling services within their overall system offerings and by creating shared networks. This would require common frequency bands and common radio infrastructure plus using national roaming facilities to give mutual economic coverage in the remoter parts.

The EC is also keen to claw back the GSM-R dedicated frequencies so as to use that section of the band more efficiently.

The railway stance accepts that sharing should be explored, particularly in country areas, but that a dedicated or carefully-shared service is essential for the delivery of critical services. The 900MHz band should be kept so as to maximise the use of existing radio infrastructure (masts and towers) whilst accepting that these can be exploited for public services as well.

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PHOTO: WEMAKEPICTURES

Rail Engineer • April 2015

A potential problem is the legal responsibility for providing Railway Emergency Calls. Mobile operators are unlikely to accept this commitment, nor is it likely that they will accept the onus of data transmission associated with ETCS operation and the progression of this for ATO (Automatic Train Operation). Fulfilling a 99.9% coverage requirement may also be contentious.

As a result, the UIC and ERA have been ordered to investigate the way forward with various workshops already underway.

The definition for a new system has to be declared by 2016 and will include: »» Functionality including impact associated with the increasing speed of trains; »» Spectrum allocation and the future of the existing GSM-R frequencies; »» System architecture and associated technology; »» Whether or not video surveillance will be part of the new specification.

This will be something of a challenge but it doesn’t stop there; assigned to the ERA is the development of a new system solution by 2022. Included, in the task will be a plan for migration and maybe this will be the biggest challenge since there has already been a huge investment in GSM-R and the railways will want to see a reasonable return on that outlay with minimum additional expenditure to get to any new structure.

The likely outcome is that there will be no LTE-R but an adaptation of 4G LTE (long term evolution) technology to railway needs.

There is already work being done to define public safety profiles within LTE and the specification for this is expected in 2016.

Satellite technology for low traffic lines may be a possibility but operationally compatible with train borne equipment. All eyes will be watching how all this resolves. There is much

at stake since, without a reliable track to train communication path, ETCS and ERTMS is seriously undermined.

understood and the commercial, operational and public interest applications have to be blended properly.

Continuous communication

WiFi in Moscow

The trend to have a smart phone continually in the hand and in use, no matter where one is or what one is doing, seems to increase unabated. The older generation wonders whether this is really necessary but pandering to the young by increasing the coverage and access is very much part of a modern-day transport organisation’s thinking.

Matthew Griffin, the business relationship manager at TfL (Transport for London), outlined the work being done to provide WiFi provision at underground stations. The requirement for high performance, seamless coverage is being achieved with a GBit Ethernet fibre backhaul but all of this costs money and some kind of business case has of course been necessary. The outcome has been a bid partnership with the leading network operators to produce a plan based on a cost-neutral model to provide the service, with the infrastructure being owned and run by TfL. Charing Cross was the first station to be equipped back in August 2010, increasing to 72 stations in July 2012 (the year of the London Olympics) and 150 stations by March 2013, all offering around 5,000 access points. The facility is not just for the public and linking in the ATMS (Automatic Track Monitoring System) enables awareness of any track problems to be achieved in nearinstant time.

The next step is to provide on-board WiFi which will be trialled on DLR (Docklands Light Railway) later this year. Not all the technical challenges have been overcome; the convergence of cellular and WiFi needs to be

London is only one of many cities where enhanced public communication is demanded. Ron Porter from Radwin gave chapter and verse of the work done on the Moscow Metro to provide WiFi facilities. This metro is the third-largest in the world with 12 lines, 180 stations and 750 trains, all stretching over 300km and handling between seven and nine million passengers daily.

Any communication usage rate will therefore be considerable and a fibre based solution has been adopted giving up to 90Mbps for up to one kilometre per base station per train. Base stations are positioned every 900 metres with two mobile units per train. The result is two million users per day accessing the portal.

Some basic lessons on engineering aspects have emerged: »» Choose a proven technology; »» If unsure about performance, conduct a trial; »» Assure radio spectrum flexibility; »» Make sure the solution is certified for railways, e.g. EMC compliance; »» Provide management tools for ongoing monitoring; »» Have expertise in interference handling from other WiFi systems; »» Ensure long term vendor support; »» Have in place off-load analysis for both base station and train equipment.

Radio planning, system design, site surveys and on the job training are other key elements that have to be there for effective service provision.

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Rail Engineer • April 2015

Keeping passengers informed Giving passengers reliable information on train services, whether for pre-journey planning, at the station or on the move, is never easy. The amount of media criticism of poor information only confirms the shortcomings that exist. However, great strides are being made to improve things and Jason Durk, the head of passenger information at UK National Rail Enquiries, told of some initiatives now coming to fruition. Customer satisfaction is regularly checked - information at station concourse and platforms for scheduled departures yields 80% satisfaction, this drops to 70% for information given during the journey and down to 40% when delays or disruption occur.

The problem is partly due to the complex rail industry structure; lots of TOCs has led to 66 disparate systems across the network, few of which talk to each other. Typically, a TOC will drive information systems only at the stations it operates. Big problems arise for TOCs that operate across a wider area; a Cross Country train running from Manchester to Bournemouth stops at 17 stations passing through 13 different CIS areas, often resulting in silly postings on the information screens.

Project Darwin (so called because it is always evolving) seeks to ‘suck in’ all CIS information from TOCs and create a CIS ‘bubble’ across the country. Darwin was described in Rail Engineer back in September 2011 (issue 83) but it has come a long way since then. Based around the customerfacing timetable, information is derived from the ITPS (Integrated Train Planning System) and the Working Timetable, itself to be vastly improved once TMS (Traffic Management System) goes live.

Originally applied on the West Coast main

PHOTO: WEMAKEPICTURES

PHOTO: WEMAKEPICTURES

line with 17 stations in 2011, and followed by 32 stations on Chiltern in 2012, a bigger roll out in 2014 took in nine more TOCs. System coding updates were needed to integrate the various CIS suppliers and some quirks found within the London Midland and East Midlands operations needed to be put right, thus causing a temporary pause, but a re-start in Jan 2015 will allow the remaining five TOCs to be connected.

Passengers, however, need information as a journey progresses which has to be a balance between the provision of useful data and limiting unwanted intrusion into the journey experience. The technology involves the development of a GPS gateway to give train position and then linking this to Darwin for eventual display on a screen within each coach.

Limited trials took place on the Whitby line in 2013, on the East Coast route in June 2014 and on Scotrail in November 2014. One important factor is to ensure that data on such screens is identical to information found on typical smartphone apps. The solution is to provide a system that repeatedly pumps information from Darwin, via a central server, to the train and then back again to Darwin.

The GPS accuracy is between five and ten metres with positioning information being principally aligned to station timing points, thus displaying real time train progress.

One Hull Trains unit is equipped so far and feedback from customers as to usefulness will be part of the ongoing development.

Funding comes from the DfT as part of the National Stations Improvement Programme.

Keeping travellers informed during major station rebuilds can be another challenge and Paul Dalton from Mace described the methodology during the massive rebuild of Birmingham New Street. With the everchanging concourse layout, a ‘plug and play’ CIS system has been devised such that the screens can be re-sited over a weekend as civil works progress. Volunteers are asked to comment on the layout of CIS banks both for effectiveness of viewing and suitability of information.

Using BIM to produce 3D access and egress models has helped find the optimum CIS positioning for the various stages of work. Use of social media to give updates on changes has resulted in over one million people being better informed. The end game at Birmingham is to have minimum facilities on platforms, keeping people on the new concourse until trains are actually due.

The value of passenger counting Technology to count passengers at stations is relatively commonplace but counting heads on a train is more unusual. Peter Hausken from Norwegian State Railways described recent initiatives in that country. Aimed at nationwide application, the main emphasis is in services around Oslo. Sensors, fitted to all door openings enables passengers to be counted as they enter or leave a train.

Accuracy is within 0.5% - much better than manual methods. The APC (Automatic Passenger Counting) system is linked to the train data network, itself linked by radio to a centralised control.

As doors close, a download is sent to the

central database so that instant knowledge on train loading is available. Every 24 hours, this piecemeal data is downloaded to a central reporting system for ongoing analysis. From this, high and low train occupancy is shown by time of day together with detail on individual door usage, passenger loadings at stations and how many people have to stand. Station dwell time is a vital factor since this impacts on train punctuality. Overall objectives are to: »» Produce radical changes to the timetable; »» Determine how to cater for changing travel habits; »» Establish the correct train capacity before changing the timetable; »» Assist with interchange planning to buses/ metros; »» Inform passengers of the best place to stand on platforms; »» Help manage passenger flows if a train fails; »» Monitor the condition of the train.

AirRail - diversity of approaches Transporting people to and from airports is a logistical challenge and none more so than around London. AirRail seminar sessions examined the rail connections to Heathrow, Gatwick and Luton airports. They made interesting contrasts.

Gatwick has the best rail connections of any UK airport, serving 129 stations with direct train services and 16 million people per year (38%) using the trains. Continual growth has seen the need for an additional platform but now a new concourse is proposed together with new lifts, escalators and luggage handling technology. An ‘air’ presence will be established at Clapham Junction and East Croydon to enable on site check in and ticketing.

With new rolling stock on order for both Gatwick Express and Thameslink services, an increase to 50% of all people using the airport

PHOTO: WEMAKEPICTURES

PHOTO: WEMAKEPICTURES

is expected with linkage to 175 stations by a direct service. The over-long debate on London’s additional runway capacity may favour Gatwick, but other than a small scope change, the final decision will not impact on the rail expansion plans.

Heathrow is Britain’s busiest hub airport, handling 50 million travellers a year of which only 41.2% use public transport. It is London-centric for rail connections, with 4.1 million using Heathrow Express and 8.2 million travelling on the Piccadilly Line. The target is to grow rail and tube usage to 40% by 2040, even then only representing 34 million people.

The additional runway debate features more prominently in the planning process but nonetheless a western rail connection looks set to be built allowing a direct service from Reading/Slough to Terminal 5 and then onwards to other terminals and central London via Crossrail and Heathrow Express.

A longer-term ambition is a southern rail route from the Waterloo - Reading line to allow through services from south west London and the south coast. A feasibility study is underway for this.

Some disappointment exists that HS2 will not directly serve Heathrow but the proposed easy inter-change at Old Oak Common will make places such as Leeds, Sheffield (even Manchester) only two hours away. In the immediate future, new

trains on the Piccadilly Line will enable a frequency increase from 12 to 18 trains per hour and Crossrail, when operational, will allow 18 trains per hour for starters.

Luton is small by comparison, having 10.5 million travellers per year of which 16% come by train. The link from Luton Airport Parkway station is by shuttle bus and this may be a disincentive. Misalignment of train times to the busy early morning/late evening airport traffic is also a problem. However, from December 2015, a minimum of two Thameslink services per hour around the clock will be provided and, from 2017 when the East Midlands franchise is re-let, three long distance trains per hour will call at the airport station.

Much improved awareness of the rail service is needed at St Pancras and the Parkway station itself needs to be made much more of a ‘gateway’. A direct rail link to the airport has been ruled out as impractical but in the longer term some kind of rapid transit connection might emerge.

The AirRail seminar gave only a snapshot of the challenge. Nothing was said on Stansted or London City, nor indeed the important provincial airports of Manchester, Birmingham or Glasgow. Getting cost effective rail connections with the necessary capacity to all airports is an ongoing challenge for all rail operators and the engineering fraternity.

Did five-in-one work?

Most assuredly, the concept of having five conferences did work. Delegates were able to ‘cherry pick’ and see whichever presentations they wanted. Rail Engineer certainly did so.

The central exhibition was good too. For 2016, the show moves again, back to the 2014 venue - the Business Design Centre in Islington. Rail Engineer will see you there.

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Rail Engineer • April 2015

Realising rail ambitions

MARC JOHNSON

H

ow do you drill a rail tunnel through lava? No, it’s not a metaphor or an idea concocted by some sociopathic Bond villain, it’s a genuine challenge that engineers delivering a new metro system in the Saudi Arabian city of Madinah will have to face.

Madinah has a growing population. Within the next few decades, the number of people living in the city will double and each year millions travel to the Al Madinah region to visit its religious sites. It is Saudi Arabia’s second-holiest city, behind Mecca, and yet it has no public transport system, just a congested road network.

The Madinah Metro was approved as part of the city’s public transport master plan in 2014. The system will consist of 92.7 kilometres of new railway, 71 new stations and a connection to the Haramain high-speed rail network.

However, the Harrat Rahat lava field will make boring the railway’s 25 kilometres of tunnel a particularly complicated challenge. Add

to that the difficulties of introducing a non-muslim workforce to such a devout area and the possibility of discovering historic Islamic sites during the metro’s construction.

It’s not the only metro system being planned or built in the Middle East - it’s not even the only one being built in that part of Saudi Arabia. Mecca is hoping to add to its existing Al Mashaaer Al Mugaddassah Metro with another system in 2019 and, further east, Riyadh plans to open its six-line metro system around the same time.

Across the rest of the region there is Doha Metro, which is set to be completed by 2018, and Abu Dhabi Metro, which is scheduled to open in 2021.

The Madinah Metro, which was the subject of talks

by CH2M Hill’s global rail director, Mark Loader,

and Mamdouh M Tarabishi, public transport programme chief executive, Al Madinah Al Munawarah Development Authority, was just one of many projects discussed in March during Middle East Rail 2015.

The exhibition and conference was once again hosted at the Dubai World Trade Centre.

Dubai is a city which has already embraced rail, developing the Middle East’s first automated metro and the world’s first light rail system to run solely on a ground-level power supply.

Middle East Rail brings together transport authorities from around the Gulf states, and naturally much of the focus falls on the creation of the GCC railway - a 2,117-kilometre railway which begins in Kuwait before following the Persian Gulf coast down through Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Oman. Each state is responsible for planning, financing and building its own part of the network, but on

the opening day of this year’s event, HE Rihan Al Fayez, chief of the economic department, the Cooperation Council for the Arab States of the Gulf, said a study will be finalised this year into the creation of a new authority which will oversee the development of the GCC rail network.

Growing in importance The project will celebrate a milestone this year in the UAE with the start of operations on the first phase of the country’s national rail network. In the next few years, the second phase of the Etihad Rail project will add another 628 kilometres of railway, stretching out to the Saudi and Omani borders.

HE Dr Abdulla Belhaif Al Nuaimi, Minister of Public Works and chairman of the Federal Transport Authority – Land & Maritime, Ministry of Public Works, UAE, who officially opened the ninth annual Middle East Rail

Trams at Dubai Marina Station.

PHOTO: ALSTOM

Rail Engineer • April 2015

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in the Gulf conference, said the role of the railway was gradually growing in importance in the Gulf region.

The show, which purports to be the largest of its kind in the region, was an opportunity for business and government leaders to discuss the challenges the Middle East faces in attempting to commission so many complete railway systems in such a short period of time. Speakers at the conference considered the need for the harmonisation of technical and safety standards across the Gulf states, and looked to learn lessons from international partners such as London Underground.

On the eve of the exhibition, Talgo announced that it had been awarded a contract by the Saudi Railways Organization (SRO) for six new 350 series high-speed trains. The new units, which will be almost identical to those the Spanish manufacturer is supplying for the Haramain high-speed line between Mecca and Madinah, will operate between Riyadh

SRO locomotives.

PHOTO: CAF

and Dammam. The diesel trains will operate at speeds of 200 km/h and cut journey times along the route. Like the Haramain trains, the new units will include coatings and films designed to keep out sand and protection from the desert heat.

Also among the rolling stock manufacturers showcasing their involvement in the Middle East region were Bombardier and CAF. CAF is currently coming to the end of production of a fleet of new trains for Saudi Arabia’s North-South railway.

Bombardier’s focus in the region is primarily on complete light rail systems.

The manufacturer is currently testing a 1.3-kilometre people mover system at Dubai International Airport and plans to deliver a similar system for King Abdulaziz International Airport in Jeddah. Another ongoing project is the King Abdullah Financial District monorail - a 3.6-kilometre system being built for what will be a brand new area of the city.

Hyperloop Day two focussed on the future, headlined by chief executive officer of Hyperloop Transportation Technologies Dirk Ahlborn. Hyperloop, which was first mooted by Tesla chief executive Elon Musk, is a solar-powered high-speed evacuated tube transportation system. Picked up by Ahlborn and his crowdfunding platform JumpStartFund, the project now has engineers and academics around the world contributing ideas and research in their spare time for free in an attempt to get the concept off the ground.

Ahlborn said he was receiving five applications a day by people who want to be involved in the project. Their efforts have already proven successful as the developer of the Quay Valley solar-powered city in California plans to build a Hyperloop system for its residents.

Around 6,000 people attended Middle East Rail 2015 by the time the doors closed on the final day. Much is written about the scale of investment in the region and yet, to an outsider, the progress has appeared slow. But now there are spades in the ground on several major projects. Riyadh Metro is well underway, the Haramain high-speed railway will soon begin testing its new trains and Etihad Rail has completed the first phase of the UAE’s national railway.

A region that has relied on importing international expertise is now establishing training programmes to develop domestic talent.

The industry is no longer just gasping at the level of investment being committed to projects in the Middle East, it is starting to see world-class railways being built.

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Rail Engineer • April 2015

Bishop Monkton Railway Cutting Alan Redden

MELANIE OXLEY

Abandoned railways are havens for wildlife O

f all the landscapes from our industrial past, abandoned and disused railways are the perfect places to explore a wealth of wildlife. There are hundreds of secret, forgotten railways which have fallen out of use by people and have since been reclaimed by nature. They are now wildlife highways, bursting with wildflowers, butterflies and birds, just waiting to be discovered.

Since becoming disused, some of these sites have been rich enough to be designated as Sites of Importance for Nature Conservation (SINC), Local Nature Reserves (LNR) and Sites of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) due to their impressive biodiversity.

All over the country, local wildlife trusts and friends groups protect old railway sites, for nature and for people to enjoy.

The London Wildlife Trust manages the Gunnersbury Triangle LNR, Sydenham Hill Wood, bisected by the short-lived Crystal Palace High-level line which served the Great Exhibition of 1851, and Denham Lock Wood and Frays Farm Meadows SSSI which have taken over a barely-used track that was to connect Uxbridge and West Drayton.

Varied habitats In north-west London, Mill Hill Old Railway was opened in April 1872 as a single track to Edgware, and plans were made in the late 1930s to double the track and electrify the line. Although some of this work was started, the Second World War led to the line being abandoned which, with the subsequent extension of the M1 motorway, contributed to its closure in June 1964. The site was acquired by London Wildlife Trust under lease from Barnet Council.

Today, the resulting nature reserve has developed vegetation typical of old railways - a mixture of recent woodland and scrub with grassy glades. A mosaic of gardens back onto the reserve, providing good habitat for Slow-worm London Wildlife Trust

suburban birds, including sparrowhawk, green and great spotted woodpecker, long-tailed tit, Southern Marsh Orchid chiffchaff and blackcap. Butterflies, moths and Michael Symes other invertebrates such as orange-tip, small copper and hoverflies are also common. The reserve also has a population of slow-worms.

Halwill Junction in Devon was once a bustling and important stop on the Great Western Railway (GWR) as the meeting point of four separate lines.

The line was closed in 1966 and the land was sold by British Rail to the Devon Wildlife Trust in 1990.

Over recent years, the old railway track has been converted into a surfaced cycle path connecting Halwill Junction to Cookworthy Forest, while the reserve itself has become a wildlife sanctuary. Various physical and geological conditions have combined to produce a range of plant communities. Goat willow predominates on the railway line Marbled white edges but birch, alder, rowan and gorse are also present. The Naomi Forbes site is also home to the uncommon broad-leaved helleborine.

In the wetter areas a good display of southern marsh orchids can be seen in July. On the dry areas, heather, mosses and lichens have made a home.

Other wildlife highlights include barn owls, which forage for the abundant voles and mice along the wildlife canyon.

Grasslands and marshes Sewell Cutting, in Bedfordshire, is home to a tranquil, flower-rich reserve that has been created within the cutting of the long-since disused railway, now owned by Central Bedfordshire Council. Where once steam trains rumbled along, the site has developed into a magical Management at Sydenham Hill Wood London Wildlife Trust

Rail Engineer • April 2015

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Halwill Junction David Chamberlain

place for chalk grassland flowers. The steep banks of the cutting provide a contrasting sunny south-facing slope, and a more sheltered north-facing bank, allowing for contrasting communities of flowers and grasses.

In summer the scorched south-facing slope is home to deep-rooted plants such as hawkweeds, scabious and knapweed while the north-facing slope is lush with grasses. Blocks of scrub have developed, including guelder rose, a stately berry-forming hedgerow shrub. A large number of butterflies are found here - dingy skipper and small, common and chalkhill blue in spring, followed by marbled white in summer.

Teifi Marshes straddle what was once a GWR line in West Wales, running 14.5 miles between Whitland on the West Wales Line and Cardigan. The line closed to passenger traffic in September 1962, although the tracks remained in use by freight traffic for a while until its final closure in May 1963.

The track was lifted completely by the end of 1964. The route of this old line can be now enjoyed as a circular walk that surrounds the marshes and includes six hides as well as two woodland walks. The old railway line runs past the Welsh Wildlife Centre before descending down through the marsh.

Today, Teifi Marshes is owned by the Wildlife Trust of South and West Wales and bisects the old line, bringing a wealth of wildlife to the scene. A range of habitats is to be found here, from open pasture and well-wooded hedgerows, through alder and willow carr, freshwater marsh with open pools and reed-beds, to tidal mud-banks.

Flooding is extensive in winter, attracting large numbers of overwintering wildfowl, most often teal, wigeon and mallard.

The scarce water rail is present in winter in good numbers and other regular winter visitors include snipe, curlew and lapwing.

Peregrine falcon can be seen hunting over the marshes.

Breeding birds include reed, sedge and Cetti’s warblers, whitethroats, shelduck and moorhen.

Otters and mink are present in the marshes, water shrews are numerous, and sika and red deer graze here. Fish species include lamprey, stickleback, eel, sewin and salmon. Frogs and toads are numerous and grass snakes and adders are present on the reserve. The rich assemblage of dragonflies includes emperor, broad-bodied chaser, and southern hawker.

Rich abundance Bishop Monkton Railway Cutting is a small haven for wildlife, tucked away within an intensively agricultural landscape. Sitting on the now-disused London and North Eastern Railway line, a part of the Harrogate to Ripon line branch, this section became disused in 1967 and is now managed by Yorkshire Wildlife Trust volunteers.

Once the railway went out of use nature began to take the site over, with flourishing wildflowers and the gradual establishment of trees and scrub around the boundaries of the site. The magnesian limestone bedrock provides the perfect conditions for a rich abundance of wildflowers within an area of increasingly rare, unimproved neutral and calcareous grassland, supporting a good range of plants, including cowslip, common spotted orchid, wild marjoram, ox-eye daisy, bird’s-foot trefoil, lady’s mantle, salad burnet and St John’s Wort. These create an attractive swathe of colour in May, June and early July.

Before 1967, when the line was still in use, there was a small hut for the railway workers complete with a garden, plants from which still survive today. Whilst not native, these plants do provide an additional food source for insects and give an insight into the site’s past.

Along with other relics of our industrial past, such as quarries, pits and mines, abandoned railways offer fascinating wildlife opportunities for all to enjoy.

Melanie Oxley is a freelance writer for The Ecology Consultancy

80

Rail Engineer • April 2015

The turntable is its heyday at Hitchen, turning a snow plough made from a converted steam locomotive tender.

PHOTO: KEVIN LANE

One Careful Owner A DISUSED TURNTABLE FINDS A NEW HOME IN NORFOLK

NIGEL WORDSWORTH

M

uch has changed on Britain’s railways since the days of steam. As well as the obvious improvements in passenger comfort and journey times (although the latter is not always true), the landscape is different.

No more do travellers gaze out of the train window and see coaling stages and water towers. There are no water troughs nestling between the rails and no roundhouses with locomotives gently steaming outside.

There are also no turntables, or at least precious few.

Most modern diesel and electric locomotives can drive in either direction so they don’t need to be turned around.

Those that do, Class 91 electrics and Class 43 diesels amongst them, are usually permanently-coupled into trains so the whole consist is run around a loop of track to be turned. No-one needs the humble turntable any more.

Surplus to requirements Apart, of course, from heritage railways. As they still run steam locomotives, they still need to turn them around.

The snag is, not all of them have one. Even fewer have two - one at each end of the line. But, however much they would like one (or two), there are a few snags. There aren’t many still around; uprooting, transporting and installing them is expensive; and they take up quite a bit of room.

As many heritage railways are on what was formerly an intermediate section of line, they don’t always have big yards into which a large turntable can fit.

So when the Mid Norfolk Railway (MNR), based at Dereham in Norfolk, heard there was a turntable in store that was surplus to requirements, they were very interested indeed.

The turntable in question was a 60ft vacuum/handoperated example that had been built by Ransomes & Rapier at its Ipswich factory in 1930. The facility to run

R

PHOT O: T ON Y LY ST E

Rail Engineer • April 2015

81

In store at Quainton Road.

PHOTO: MIKE PAGE

Aerial view of Dereham yard.

off the locomotive’s own vacuum system, connected by a flexible hose, meant that turning a loco was simple and effortless for the crew.

Originally supplied to the Hitchin depot of the LNER, this example had fallen into disuse by the late 1960s.

Dismantled and removed, it had lain at the Quainton Road home of the Buckinghamshire Railway Centre since 1978.

Heritage centre Following inspection by MNR trust board members, an offer was accepted and plans are now being drawn up to restore the turntable and install it at Dereham between Norwich Road and the goods shed. Preliminary plans for the location of the turntable and other tracks have shown it is possible to fit the pit and table into place, while research undertaken during 2014 has shown it is possible to arrive at a suitable pit design to accommodate the local water table levels.

The project is being led by the MNR’s steam superintendent Dennis Howells MBE and the turntable will form the focal point of a new Museum and Heritage centre based at Dereham station. Alongside it, other projects will be carried out such as the installation of a footbridge, restoration of the goods shed as well as rebuilding the last remaining Great Eastern stable block, eventually allowing demonstrations of horse-drawn shunting.

The turntable will be used both in an operational capacity and to provide an educational resource to schools and organisations across the region.

The project will be applying for Heritage Lottery funding to enable the restoration to be completed. The plan is that Dereham station’s East Yard will become a railway heritage focal point and draw tourists to the entire MNR Transport corridor from Wymondham, through Dereham and eventually Fakenham.

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