Rail Engineer - Issue 136 - February 2016 by Rail Media

Engineer

by rail engineers for rail engineers

FEBRUARY 2016 - ISSUE 136

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HIGH SPEED HANDBACKS

MONITORING TRAIN FLEETS

HEALING WOUNDS

Handing a work site back with a speed restriction of 80mph or more creates its own set of challenges.

A look at worldwide advances in remote condition monitoring which can reduce the cost of train maintenance.

The history of a long-buried tunnel in South Wales which has recently been unearthed and could become a cycle route.

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Rail Engineer • February 2016

Contents

Edinburgh to Glasgow works

It All Comes Down To Planning 7 Network Rail IP managing director Francis Paonessa on Christmas working.

David Shirres looks at EGIP, Anniesland and Haymarket.

News Queen Street, New Tube, Merseyrail, Infrarail, Snow, Stockholm.

24 Purley - Planning Pays Off

34 High Speed Handbacks are not just for Christmas

Thwarted by Frank Bob Wright on why Old Lodge Lane was cancelled.

Banbury Blockade Peter Stanton reports on a layout change at this strategic location.

Pressure Points Graeme Bickerdike discovers extensive track renewals at Doncaster.

Stairway to Ealing Broadway Chris Parker explains why a second footbridge is needed.

Resignalling North Lincolnshire Paul Darlington covers a 17-day closure to speed freight on its way.

From Paddington to Stockley 54 Chris Parker works his way along the Great Western’s Crossrail preparations.

12 Days of Christmas 16 Reviewing work over Christmas and New Year, and some individual projects:

Extreme Collaboration 52 Jamie Coulson details the first major collaboration between NR and LU.

Steve Featherstone tells Grahame Taylor about handing back at 125mph.

Monitoring Train Fleets

Healing Wounds Graeme Bickerdike finds a buried tunnel in South Wales.

Powering Britain’s Railways 74 SSE brings its long experience as a multi-disciplinary contractor to rail. Gresty Lane Resignalling 78 Paul Darlington examines this major resignalling project around Crewe.

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Rail Engineer • February 2016

Laying the ghost(s) of Christmas(es) past

Editor Grahame Taylor grahame.taylor@railengineer.uk

Production Editor

GRAHAME TAYLOR

Nigel Wordsworth

There were more than 500 projects that took place over the Christmas and New Year period and, judging by the weight of this month’s Rail Engineer, we seem to have covered just about all of them. But don’t worry, we haven’t.

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Engineering writers bob.wright@railengineer.uk chris.parker@railengineer.uk clive.kessell@railengineer.uk collin.carr@railengineer.uk david.bickell@railengineer.uk david.shirres@railengineer.uk graeme.bickerdike@railengineer.uk mungo.stacy@railengineer.uk mark.phillips@railengineer.uk paul.darlington@railengineer.uk peter.stanton@railengineer.uk stuart.marsh@railengineer.uk

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There are still a fair few to read about nonetheless and we kick off with Graeme Bickerdike in Doncaster. “It’s Crewe, but the right side of the Pennines”. (Next month we’re covering Crewe, so there will be a chance for a mirror image comparison!) My, how the railway has changed in the Banbury area! With heavy freight flows it was never really a sylvan idyll. It’s changed even more, as Peter Stanton tells us, with a major blockade that couldn’t start until everyone had done their Christmas shopping. Seventeen days is quite a large extension of the Christmas period. But the resignalling of the North Lincolnshire area was a large scheme by any comparison. Paul Darlington’s list of signal boxes and level crossings closed, of new signals and S&C commissioned along with new telecoms links, explains the complexity. With flooding in York taking out all the BT lines to some of the key players, the successful completion was all the more satisfying. There’s a new junction in Scotland that cost £15 million to install and will be used by passenger services for just 30 weeks. An expensive, but vital, diversionary facility, it will allow slab track to be laid in Glasgow Queen Street High Level tunnel. Although the junction is a relatively simple piece of infrastructure, it is on the boundary of two signalling centres. A good reason, as David Shirres explains, for a Christmas blockade. Of course, it’s almost obligatory for the weather to have a go at the Christmas blockades. Sure enough, it didn’t disappoint. From floods in the North to high winds in the south, there were indeed some difficulties - including some disruption to Clive Kessell’s Boxing Day trip to the Ffestiniog railway. But the floods weren’t everywhere and neither were the high winds. Chris Parker’s piece on the work at Ealing tells us the lifting in of a new footbridge was achieved despite the weather. Just a few miles away to the west, engineers were not so fortunate. But almost everything was completed at Stockley viaduct in preparation for Crossrail services. Bob Wright has another story of frustrated engineering at Old Lodge Lane. These were the same winds that did for Stockley and they weren’t just in it for the short term. With forecasted strengths of 18 to 20m/s over four days (40-45mph in old money), this was a postponement nobrainer. So, despite five years in the planning, this bridge replacement had to be set back for a few more years. This was just one of the many items of work (around 27 of them!) being carried out on the Brighton line which was closed from Christmas Eve until 4 January around the Purley area. Mark Phillips outlines the complexities.

Collaboration is the name of the game these days, but we have an intriguing example at Paddington, again over Christmas. Jamie Coulson tells us how, for a few days, valid PTS (Network Rail) and LUCAS (London Underground) certificates had equal credence - the only visible difference being that LU staff were identified by wristbands, while Network Rail staff were identified by stickers on their helmets. And to round it all up, Nigel Wordsworth has done a mammoth survey of the host of other work that went on while the general public tucked into their Christmas lunches and argued. Summing up his thoughts on Christmas possessions generally, and this year in particular, Dr. Francis Paonessa, Network Rail’s managing director of infrastructure projects, is pleased with the way that the railway planned and executed the many projects, handing back 99% of possessions on time with an almost imperceptible number of delay minutes incurred - a significant recovery from last year. I’ve had a chat with Steve Featherstone, Network Rail’s track programme director, about how the current generation of engineers are tackling the challenges of high speed handbacks after possession work. Now, don’t jump out of your seats! I know this was being done thirty years ago, but direct comparisons are not straightforward…… Imagine scratching the surface of the ground and revealing the buried headstone of a tunnel that formed much of your childhood. Graeme Bickerdike relates the tale of Stephen Mackey whose mission it has been to not only dig out the Rhondda tunnel mouth, but also have the tunnel opened as a long distance cycle route. Welcome to Malcolm Dobell who, in his first article for Rail Engineer, reports on the fourth Annual Fleet Maintenance Congress. Remote Condition Monitoring (RCM) and Condition-Based Maintenance (CBM) were discussed at length. But, as one speaker put it, unless people, process and technology receive equal weight supported by excellent leadership, there is a good chance projects will, at best, not deliver the expected benefits and, at worst, fail. Never a truer word! Paul Darlington lives in Crewe - handy for covering the recent resignaling project at Gresty Lane. Christmas is over. Easter’s next (27 March). Then it’s Infrarail from 12 to14 April. It’s not strictly in the Church calendar, but it is in ours - and perhaps in yours too.

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OPINION

Rail Engineer • February 2016

It all comes down to planning

ver Christmas, Network Rail successfully invested more than £150 million to improve the railway across the country. The Orange Army built new signalling, new bridges, new track and new facilities - all to give passengers better, more reliable journeys. The investment will benefit millions of people. Commuters, families, friends; young or old, north or south, urban or rural; the impact the railway has on this country cannot be overstated. Whether you use the railway regularly or rarely (and more people than ever are using it regularly with passenger numbers having doubled to 4.5 million per day since 1997 and are set to double again in the next 25 years) the railway plays a vital role in our lives. As well as passenger trains, rail freight carrying everything from cars, fuel for our power stations and the latest technology gadgets to your weekly grocery shop contributes £1.6 billion to the UK economy. That figure is predicted to rise to £2 billion by 2023. The demand from passengers and businesses to get more trains on the tracks brings with it immense challenges. For some, Christmas might be the only time in a year they travel by train, but figures show (and the rest of the industry agrees) it is the quietest time of the year, and therefore the best time to work on it. Network Rail has no rights to shut the railway and carry out our work when it feels like it, we need to consult and agree with the train and freight operators. However, train operators tell us that passenger numbers drop by up to 50 per cent during bank holidays such as Christmas and, while the reality is that there is no good time to do the essential work that is required, doing big projects and pieces of work over the Christmas and New Year period causes the least disruption and enables operators to offer decent alternative transport arrangements, especially as fewer people are travelling. But we know from hard experience, of more than a year ago now, that getting it wrong and not ensuring that passengers are properly looked after has disastrous consequences. The chaos, confusion and anger at Finsbury Park the Christmas before last remains etched on the minds of all of those who were involved. The awful experience endured by the thousands of passengers who turned up expecting to travel on 27 December 2014 was unacceptable and one the entire rail industry never wants to see repeated.

What could have gone wrong, did go wrong, and the result was one of the worst experiences in my working career. We care deeply about those people who depend on the railway and, although the pictures on television screens, in newspapers and on social media sometimes tell a different story, I know from travelling the length and breadth of the country, meeting hundreds of members of the Orange Army, that our frontline staff feel the same way. They take a huge amount of pride in their jobs. They want to succeed and to return the railway in a better state than they found it. The reality about major engineering work on the railway at Christmas is that, while 95 per cent of the network is unaffected, the five per cent takes years to plan. We started planning for Christmas 2015 back in 2012, firstly to identify what needed improving, then prioritising which areas needed more work than could be completed over a normal night or weekend shift. Some people think that we save all our work up to do at bank holidays and wonder why we can’t do it at nights or weekends, but the reality is we’re out maintaining and improving the network every night of the week, not just bank holidays last year alone LNE route did 16,000 jobs during evenings and weekends. Bank holidays allow us more time to do the biggest, most complicated pieces of work - such as demolishing and rebuilding bridges - while impacting the fewest people. The Railway Upgrade Plan delivered this Christmas was the biggest yet, with over 8,000 worksites located in some 2,600 possessions on over 500 individual projects. We had well over 20,000 employees and contractors’ staff working over the ten days. The lessons of Christmas 2014 have now become part of our DNA and have proven their effectiveness with some £250 million of investment in hundreds of projects successfully completed in the four bank holiday work programmes since then - Easter, the two May bank holidays and August bank holiday. Plan A was for all 500 Christmas projects to go exactly to plan. But things happen and then it becomes about contingency - plan B. What if work falls behind? What if a machine fails or a train breaks or a driver phones in sick? What if the weather plays a part and we get blizzards or floods or gales that stop cranes working? How do problems at one site impact another? At what point can we stop the work or scale it back?

FRANCIS PAONESSA

Our planning and operational teams across the country spent months analysing every scenario, what the consequences might be, and how we would deal with it. No stone was left unturned. Plans A and B were supported by an entire alphabet of alternatives and, like the railway itself, the decision-making process has been vastly upgraded. The one thread that ran through every project, every review and every decision was simple; what might be the impact on passengers? In the past year we have changed how we deliver major upgrades and are working even more closely with train operators to make sure that every engineering decision is made with full sight of what that will mean for passengers and, importantly, how we are going to communicate with them. You may have seen our ‘Working For You’ advertising campaign featuring track section manager Barry Robinson from Leeds. Despite the atrocious weather conditions, virtually all of our work was handed back safely and on time, with all our ‘top 20’ projects - the biggest and potentially most disruptive - handing back early. Over the period there were no major injuries and from the 2,600 possessions taken there were just 14 incidents of possessions overrunning and impacting operators. Most of these were very minor with the total number of delay minutes for the entire duration at under 400. As such, 99.02% of all possessions were handed back without impact to customers and we lost only 1% of our planned work owing to weather or decision to scale back to ensure right-time handback. Thanks to all the preparation and planning, incorporating the lessons from Christmas 2014, the 2015 Christmas and New Year investment programme was a great success. A huge ‘well done’ and ‘thank you’ goes out to the tens of thousands of railway workers, planners, engineers, signallers, S&T staff, traincrew, crane operators, welders, station staff and numerous others who made this possible and should feel proud of all that has been achieved. And a lot of this was done in some truly awful weather conditions where, once again, our people responded and put back together a railway that the weather had broken in hundreds of locations across the country. Francis Paonessa is managing director, infrastructure projects, Network Rail.

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Rail Engineer • February 2016

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Glasgow Queen Street station is Scotland’s third busiest station, with 20 million passengers a year. Those numbers are set to grow by nearly 10 million over the next 15 years as the station becomes the Glasgow terminus for EGIP – the Edinburgh-Glasgow Improvement Programme. In preparation, a £112 million tender has been issued to rebuild the station. The station’s platforms and concourse need to be extended to accommodate the faster, longer (eight-car) electric trains being introduced as part of EGIP. Due for completion in 2019, the redevelopment will create a landmark, modern station which reflects Queen Street’s role as a gateway to the city and as an important departure point for visitors heading north and east. The project will also see the demolition of the Millennium Hotel’s 1970s extension above the

station, and of Consort House. The station concourse, and its south and west façades, will be redeveloped and station buildings extended. There will be new entrances from George Square and from Dundas Street, where the canopy over the footway will be removed. New lighting and public address systems, as well as a new ticket office and staff accommodation block, will complete the transformation. Once the tendering exercise is complete, the contract will be awarded in autumn 2016.

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Rail Engineer • February 2016

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Alstom, Bombardier, CAF, Hitachi and Siemens will be bidding to supply 250 new trains which will feature air-cooling for the first time on the deep tube as well as attractive internal styling that echoes the Underground’s heritage. In addition, the new trains will feature improved accessibility and safety features including walk-through carriages and wider doors. The trains, which will run on the Piccadilly (100 trains), Waterloo & City (10), Bakerloo (40) and Central lines (100), will be designed and built to be ‘future-proofed’, which will include the capability for fully

automatic operation, given that the New Tube will serve London for around 50 years. Along with modernised signalling systems operating alongside them, the trains will boost capacity on all four deep-level lines. In the case of the Piccadilly line, capacity will increase by 60 per cent (the equivalent of up to 21,000 customers per hour), by 35 per cent on the Waterloo & City and by 25 per cent on the Bakerloo and Central lines. Bids must be made to LU in summer 2016 with the contract to build the new trains awarded in autumn 2017.

NEWS

Rail Engineer • February 2016

New trains for Merseyrail The long-delayed process to replace the Class 507/508 trains that run on Merseyrail has shown signs of coming to fruition as a shortlist of bidders was revealed recently. First announced in May 2012, the original plans were to have new trains in service by 2017. Now, it is expected that a preferred bidder will be identified

towards the end of 2016 and only then will city region leaders, through the Combined Authority, be asked to commit to the project. New trains by the early 2020s

is the best estimate that can be given. The tender has gone out to Bombardier, CAF, Mitsui, Siemens and Stadler. As well as purchasing new trains, major infrastructure improvements are planned to stations, depots, and traction

power supplies. The whole project is likely to cost around £400 million. The faster journey times and increased capacity will give a significant economic boost to the City Region, worth an estimated £70 million per year and stimulating the creation of around 1,000 jobs.

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NEWS

Rail Engineer • February 2016

Infrarail registration now open

Registration to visit Infrarail 2016 free of charge is now open via the show website www.infrarail.com. A link from the home page provides a quick way to register for the event, which opens its doors at ExCeL London from 12 to 14 April. Access to the exhibition also gives visitors the chance to attend the busy programme of activities taking place during the show, including keynote speeches (see panel), industry seminars hosted by Rail Engineer, updates on major projects and panel discussion sessions. There will be new features at this year’s show aimed at helping suppliers. The Rail Alliance will be presenting its Rail Mentoring Scheme for the Rail Supply Group, aimed at assisting SMEs to join the industry’s supply chain, and a new Business Matching Service allows key buyers and decision makers to attend pre-booked meetings at exhibitors’ stands. Entry to the show additionally includes the opportunity to move across to the Civil Infrastructure & Technology Exhibition – CITE 2016 - which will be sharing Halls N1N6 at ExCeL London with Infrarail. Focusing on the civils products and services needed for transport projects, utilities and communications networks, CITE will feature plenty of familiar names serving the rail market. The number of Infrarail exhibitors continues to rise, with more than 160 names on the list of participants by mid-January. Among the latest organisations to reserve stands are rail manufacturer ArcelorMittal Europe, Ashtead Plant Hire, hard landscaping products supplier Marshalls and TPA Rapid Rail Access. Pre-registration for Infrarail speeds up entry to the show and avoids a £20 entry fee on the day.

David Waboso to address Infrarail David Waboso CBE, director of capital programmes at London Underground, will be the keynote speaker at Infrarail, the UK’s national railway industry exhibition, at London’s ExCeL on Thursday 14 April. Responsible for a £1.3 billion annual upgrade programme, the biggest in London Underground’s history, David’s portfolio includes completing the upgrade of the Victoria line as well as overseeing the ongoing delivery of the upgrade and resignalling of the sub-surface railway, a signalling upgrade on the Northern line which will increase capacity by 20 per cent, the programme of works to rebuild several key London stations and plans for the ‘New Tube for London’. David has advised governments and agencies around the world on Railway strategy. He is a recent President of CoMet (the international organisation of Metros), working to share and benchmark best practice. A Chartered Engineer, he is a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering, a Fellow of the Institution of Civil Engineers, a Fellow of the Institution of Railway Signal Engineers, and a Fellow of the Association for Project

Management, and also holds a Fellowship to the City and Guilds Institute. With so much under his control, David’s address at Infrarail will be free to attend and is sure to attract a crowd. Infrarail, the UK’s definitive railway infrastructure exhibition, takes place at ExCeL, London, 12-14 April 2016.

NEWS

Rail Engineer • February 2016

After the floods… To complete a trying start to the year for infrastructure engineers, no sooner had the floods subsided (or even before they had), snow arrived. Network Rail operates a special winter fleet – complete with snowploughs, hot air blowers, steam jets, brushes, scrapers and anti-freeze – to clear snow and ice from the tracks. The infrastructure owner has also fitted over 100km of special heating strips to prevent ice building up on conductor rails which power trains in the south east of England. High-grade insulation and special heaters have been fitted to thousands of sets of points to prevent ice forming at

key junctions, monitored by a combination of smart technology and helicopter-mounted thermal imaging. When snow is threatened, train operators run empty trains throughout the night to help keep tracks clear, while Network Rail’s maintenance teams patrol the tracks day and night clearing snow and ice from junctions and tunnels to keep railways across Britain running. It's hard work, but it does make for some stunning photographs.

Line blocked at Kyleum, Scotland.

NEWS

Rail Engineer • February 2016

Stockholm’s first City Line train Running beneath Sweden’s capital, the Stockholm City Line (Citybanen) is due to open in 2017 (see issue 119, September 2014). Six kilometres long, the double track electrified railway will run between Stockholm South station, under the bay, through new stations at Stockholm City station and Odenplan, joining the East Coast line at Tomteboda. Although still incomplete, a party of politicians and invited guests has taken the first trip along the new line. In a diesel-powered railcar - the electrification is not yet complete – the first run went

the whole length of the line from Stockholm South to Tomteboda. Minister of Infrastructure Anna Johansson was pleased to see the new line progressing well. “City Line is of great importance

As two new stations open, at Coventry Arena and Bermuda Park, locals are asking the obvious question: Why aren’t there any trains to catch? The answer is less obvious than the question. Both stations are on the Nuckle line, which runs (or will run) between Nuneaton and Leamington Spa via Coventry. The route is being upgraded at a cost of £13.6 million, a project which is being carried out in several phases. The opening of the two new stations, at Coventry Arena, which is next to the Ricoh Stadium – home of Coventry City football club and Wasps rugby – and Bermuda Park in Nuneaton, is the culmination of phase 1. Delivered by Coventry City Council, Centro and Warwickshire County Council, it is funded by the three partners, the Department for Transport (DfT) and the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF). Phase 2, due in 2017, will include a new bay platform at Coventry, so that Nuckle line trains don’t block

the West Coast main line, and a crossover at Coventry Arena so that match-day trains can shuttle between the two stations. So, without either the crossover or the bay platform, all the first phase delivers is the ability to run trains between Coventry and Nuneaton. It is a lightly loaded line with only 10-20 passengers on the hourly service, except at rush hours. The line is operated by Class 153 single-car units. Once the second phase is complete, the timetable can be ramped up and match-day shuttles will be possible. All the operator London Midland will need then are some more trains – currently a national shortage of DMUs is also limiting its ability to run a reasonable service. Still, there are two years yet to try and find some.

to commuters in Stockholm,” she said, “but it is equally important to improve the punctuality of all of Sweden’s train systems. Now it is approaching completion, we may soon see a real boost to rail services.” The Minister’s reference to the whole network is because eight out of every ten rail journeys in Sweden begin or end in Stockholm. When the City Line is

finished, there will be room for twice the number of trains on the tracks through the city. This means that it will also be possible to improve rail connections with the Mälaren Valley and the whole of Sweden. Construction is due to finish by summer 2016. After testing and driver familiarisation, commuter services will commence in July 2017.

Train to nowhere?

Rail Engineer • February 2016

NIGEL WORDSWORTH

Christmas. A time for family, presents & coloured lights. Christmas. A time for bad weather, orange PPE & coloured lights.

Which was yours? Shenfield.

PHOTO: PHIL ADAMS

ver the recent Christmas and New Year period, over 20,000 members of the Orange Army (Network Rail and its contractors) were out and about on the railway network, on 8,300 worksites in 2,600 possessions within 524 unique projects, undertaking work valued at almost £150 million. And that’s just on the mainline network. There were more men and women working on London Underground, tram systems and local metros around the country. So far as Network Rail was concerned, there were two main workstreams. 824 of the worksites related to work by Infrastructure Projects, conducting major enhancements to the network that couldn’t otherwise be carried out overnight through the rest of the year. Significant bridge replacements, extensive trackwork alterations or renewals, major work at stations. It all took days, and the Christmas and New Year break was just the time to do it.

PHOTO: NICK MANN

Old Oak Common.

The other worksites belonged to Network Operations, the railway’s maintenance team. This year, routine work on switches and crossings, overhead wiring, signalling and telecommunications was made more onerous by the need to pull in repairs to infrastructure damaged by severe weather. Flooded track, damaged bridges, collapsed embankments – they all had to be repaired ready for train services to recommence on 4 January (in the main). At least Infrastructure Projects (IP) had been given the luxury of planning its work in advance. That planning had been done with more care this year, and with more oversight, following the embarrassingly poor performance by Network Rail in 2014. To be honest, it hadn’t actually been that bad. Only a handful of possessions had overrun, delaying the return of parts of the railway to passenger service. However, two of those had shut King’s Cross and Paddington stations and inconvenienced a great many passengers. These were very public failures and the senior management of Network Rail had been held to account – very publicly. There was naturally no appetite to have that repeated. So all the planning was conducted according to Delivering Work Within Possessions (DWWP). The likelihood of any job to overrun was assessed, and those sites carrying a greater risk of overrun and/or a more significant impact in the event of overrun were classed as RED sites. It total, there were 80 of them, spread across 30 projects.

Rail Engineer • February 2016 Christmas and New Year - Map of RED Sites Christmas & New Year T-16 review

Dock Street – Track Renewal and Drainage works

Haymarket – S&C Renewals Craigentinny Depot – Works to accommodate IEP Trains

Anniesland - Crossover Installation

Doncaster Station & Marshgate Junction – Track Renewals

Northern Hub - Track Renewals Doxey Brook / River Meece – Bridge Reconstruction

North Lincs - Re-signalling

Stafford & Norton Bridge Commissioning Works

Immingham – A160 Bridge Works Sand Bank Junction -Track Renewals

Birmingham New Street – Points Conversion

East Coast Main Line – Overhead Line Works

Crewe – Signalling Renewals

Kettering to Corby - S&C Renewal/Installation

Bromsgrove - Culvert Reconstruction

Langley – Track Renewal

Banbury - Plain Line Track Renewal

Great Eastern Mainline - Overhead Lines Renewal Shenfield - OLE works

Finsbury Park - Track Renewal Acton Wells Junction - Track Renewals

London Bridge – Major station works

Parsons St – Bridge works

Waterloo – Signalling decommissioning & S&C renewal

Cardiff Central – Track Works

Old Lodge Lane - Underbridge Reconstruction

Crossrail West - Various Major Works

Purley – S&C Renewals Brockenhurst – Track Renewal

Avon/Stour Viaduct Reconstruction

The result of all that planning was a success. No parliamentary enquiries this year as, despite the bad weather, only 14 possessions overran slightly, four of them IP ones, and the total train delays for the entire period amounted to less than 400 minutes. That’s not to say there were no problems – there were. However, contingency planning allowed project managers to alter their programmes to make sure that the railway was handed back on time. For example,

a couple of track renewals that were planned as having 300mm of ballast depth replaced only had 200mm skimmed off, saving time although the sites may need revisiting in ten years time rather than twenty. But the priority was to ensure train delays were minimised, and in that the robust contingency planning worked well. Only one RED job was cancelled completely, when the winds got up and prevented an old bridge being

removed, and a new one installed, at Old Lodge Lane. However, the railway remained intact, preparatory works were undone, and everyone will have to go back on another, hopefully calmer, day. Some of the more significant works over the holiday period have their own articles in this issue. However, one mustn’t forget the sheer volume of work carried out around the country.

Central England

Romford.

PHOTO: PHIL ADAMS

Teams around the region successfully completed 280 worksites within 127 possessions, including bridge and culvert reconstructions, signalling renewals and works on Northern Hub and by the Staffordshire Alliance. All work was completed in full and handed back on time with no accidents. On the Northern Hub, work took place over New Year (00:40 on 2 Jan to 04:40 on 4 January) to strengthen bridge arches and install signal gantry foundations. Plain line renewal on the Middlewood Viaduct, 180 metres on the Up Chat Moss line, took the alignment to almost its final position. At Stafford, as part of the £250 million improvement programme, two underbridges were demolished and reconstructed on the West Coast main line during a 102-hour

/ 4

RED work sites at Christmas and New Year.

Rail Engineer • February 2016

Cardiff.

Western & Wales The Cardiff Area Signalling Renewals scheme includes a series of multi-funded enhancements, such as significant station improvements, track renewals and remodelling. It is being delivered in five distinct phases, four of which are now complete, and is required for the Great Western main line electrification programme. Over a 76.5-hour possession, track contractors installed two point ends at the east end of Cardiff Central station, as well as new ballast retention over the underbridges. Panel installation works were significantly slower than anticipated due to unforeseen buried services within the station area and time taken to pass panels under gantry structures and over underbridge structures. Non-critical welding was curtailed, in line with an agreed mitigation plan, to allow all other works to be completed and the possession to be handed back on time. Signalling contractors supported these works as well as undertaking an MCS equipment firmware changeover, Westlock data change and ARS data change. These corrected a number of testlogs from previous commissionings and uploaded new data in readiness for CASR Phase 5.

Great Western and Crossrail A large programme of work was carried out over the holidays on 372 worksites within 107 possessions which included some for the Crossrail project. There were no lost time injuries although there were three engineering train derailments and six points run-throughs, which are under investigation.

PHOTO: RICHARD SCOTT

possession. This has allowed the line speed to be increased on this stretch of line as the new structures can withstand the higher loads imposed on them. A little further north, signalling sighting has been causing a problem with several SPADs (signals passed at danger) having taken place. Two signals were converted to LED and the signal heads were lowered. This involved renewal of part of the signal gantry structure and the installation of a new cable route. Work is underway to provide an increased frequency of train services into Birmingham for those passengers using the new Bromsgrove station, installing 4.5 miles of new OLE and undertaking significant track remodelling. A culvert (underbridge 94), one of many running beneath the construction area, was in poor condition and had partially collapsed in 2011. IP Central, in collaboration with its CP5 framework supplier VolkerRail, replaced 23 metres of this culvert during the Christmas period (59-hour possession of the main lines). This involved the removal of three sections of track (Up, Down and Down Goods) and one set of points, the excavation and removal of the old culvert and installation of 20 new precast concrete sections. The new culvert was then backfilled, the track re-instated and tamped. In Northamptonshire, based on future passenger and freight requirements, the minimum future timetable requirement over the Kettering-Corby-Manton route is for two passenger trains and one freight train per hour in each direction, with the potential for one additional passenger train path and two additional intermodal train paths also being considered. Working with Carillion (track) and Siemens (signalling) one pair of existing points were replaced and a new crossover installed, with new SPX MkII Clamp Locks. New point detection for the newly installed Fast to Slow crossover was cut into existing track circuit indications. A £76 million project at Banbury (see page 32) will remove the poor asset condition of older signalling equipment installed in the 1970s through a remodelling/rationalisation of the track and signalling layout. The Christmas works formed stage 17 out of 24 and were carried out during a 57-hour possession, including track renewals through platform 2, a 330-metre relay north of Banbury Ladder and a 550-metre track realignment. The track renewals team completed a relay at Langley on the East Coast main line and opened at line speed (125mph). In addition, the team started ‘short shift’ plain line works at Stallingborough, achieving 200 yards of relay that had been planned to take eight hours in six and a half. How Mill plain line relay was also delivered on the New Year weekend – 868 yards in 31.5 hours.

The first stage of bridgeworks at Parson Street, for construction (by others) of a dual carriageway road under the railway for the South Bristol Link Metrobus project, took place over the holidays on behalf of North Somerset Council. This work included the installation of permanent structural steel sheet pile abutment walls perpendicular to the railway lines and the installation of two sacrificial steel slide rail girders. High winds and uncharted cables caused problems, but these possibilities had been considered at the planning stage and contingency actions were implemented. Work continued at Stockley viaduct to remove the conflict between the main lines and Heathrow airport lines through grade separation and to increase capacity on the airport and relief lines. The second phase of the flyover will be commissioned in Xmas 2016. A full report of this work can be found on (see page 54). A new footbridge at Ealing Broadway (see page 42) formed part of the work completed at three stations, the other two being Southall and Hayes and Harlington. At Southall, removal of the mainline span and heritage siding spur of the Merrick Road footbridge will enable a future track slew which will improve the track geometry and allow adjustments to the platform widths. Cut back and construction of a new riser wall to Platform 4 at Hayes and Harlington will enable the future track slew, demolition, reconstruction and extension to the new bay line Platform 5. Following the well-publicised improvements to Reading station, track and civils work at Maidenhead form part of the Crossrail

Rail Engineer • February 2016

Scotland and North East A successful Christmas and New Year programme involved 292 worksites within 125 possessions with two major sites completed in Scotland (Anniesland crossover and Craigentinny depot works) and a multitude of works down the East Coast main line requiring close integration. Signalling was commissioned at Anniesland (see page 24), where the project to provide a diversionary route which will allow the train service to operate during the blockade associated with the Glasgow Queen St High Level track slab renewal (commencing March 2016) is nearing completion. S&C and plain track works, and associated OLE adjustments, were carried out at Craigentinny where alterations are being made to the existing depot for the new Hitachi IEP trains, which are due to replace the current HST fleet from 2017. Overhead line crossovers and wires were renewed in several locations, as part of a project to improve the resilience of the East Coast main line and upgrade its power supplies. Five OLE wire runs were renewed, two

Old Oak Common. at Hitchin South and three at Cambridge Junction. Piling, structures and aerial earth wires were installed at Potters Bar where electrification is being upgraded from a classic rail return system to part-autotransformer between Wood Green and Bawtry. Cable ladders were installed to both Welwyn Tunnels. Infrastructure Projects’ track renewals team replaced six point ends during a 56-hour possession at Haymarket (see page 25) as well as 560 yards of plain line during a further 36-hour possession split between the Up and Down North. A 105-hour possession at Doncaster (see page 36) saw works split over two locations between Doncaster station and Marshgate Junction to renew older S&C units and associated plain line. Also included in the scope were signalling/OLE upgrades along with switch heating upgrades and the renewal of platform coping stones. In addition, two very difficult renewals at Dock Street Tunnel (Dundee) and a drainage item at Princes Street Gardens were undertaken over Christmas and New Year. The Dock street work was both relay and drainage, partly in a tunnel, and involved the installation of a check rail due to the extremely tight curvature. One of Network Rail’s most significant Christmas projects, costing £100 million, North Lincolnshire Resignalling (see page 44) converted 16 level crossings and 60 miles of signalling, along with recontrolling 13 signal boxes to the new Rail Operating Centre (ROC) at York. The main works were completed in a single blockade running from 24 Dec 2015 until 11 Jan 2016, and part of the route was handed back early (on 30 Dec) to allow freight in and out of Immingham port. Coinciding with the North Lincolnshire Resignalling work, Network Rail’s ASPRO team (Asset Protection) was out near Immingham, working on an £88.4 million Highways England project to improve road access into the port. A new bridge was needed to carry the A610 over the railway. During a 76-hour possession, the track was removed, the embankment excavated, bridge slid into place, backfill/compaction operations completed (including the bridge drainage installation), and the reinstatement of the track and its associated infrastructure took place.

Southern

Anniesland.

Two incomplete projects marred the otherwise-perfect record at 142 worksites within 73 possessions. The exceptions were the Old Lodge Lane bridge works, which were cancelled due to persistent high winds, and the bridge works at River Avon/Stour. Here, the key works at both structures

PHOTO: NICK MANN

programme to transform travel into the capital from the West. The track through Platform 5 was repositioned while the passenger and luggage subway slabs were realigned, as were the Platform 5 coper stones (to suit the new track alignment). A 120-metre piled retaining wall was constructed to the east of the station. Paddington station was the venue for a ground breaking collaboration between Network Rail and London Underground (see page XXX). Network Rail worked on Platform 14 using a London Underground work train parked in Platform 15, and then LU carried out its own work on Platform 15 with the help of a train from Network Rail National Supply Chain that was situated in Platform 14. Well done everybody! At West Ealing, plans are underway to bring commuters from Greenford Station and terminate in the remodelled West Ealing Bay Line, where passengers will be able to interchange onto Crossrail for an enhanced service into central London. Substantial track work recovered one set of points and 320 metres of the Up Greenford track infrastructure. Two new turnouts and 100 metres of track into the Bay Line platform were installed, as were associated points heaters and new signalling assets including a level crossing. Crossrail Anglia undertook an extensive stations programme including platform extensions and ticket hall refurbishments. At Shenfield, a major rationalisation of the crossovers on the mains was implemented with a complete replacement of the Southend Loop. Considerable enabling works at Shenfield London End included 66 piles and steel erections to facilitate the building of new Platform 6.

Rail Engineer â&#x20AC;˘ February 2016

West Ealing points renewal.

PHOTO: EMILY PAPWORTH

used by both passenger and freight traffic. The junction and all its associated signalling, third rail and points heating were replaced in a 10-day blockade over the holiday period. Whilst extremely disruptive for customers, the blockade was the most efficient way to deliver the project as double the amount of disruptive access would have been required to deliver the work in smaller possessions.

PHOTO: PHIL ADAMS

PHOTO: EMILY PAPWORTH

involved replacement of the wheel timber track support with steel railbearers and a suite of condition-based structural repairs during a 10-day blockade. The Up line works were cancelled (as per the contingency plan) due to delays in the removal of the Down line timber railbearers and achieving the required alignment of the new steel rail bearers. For some time, a major project Hayes and Harlington. has been underway to renew the overhead electrification lines (OLE) between Liverpool Street station and Thameslink Shenfield, Chelmsford. During a 10-day blockade starting on Thursday These lines were originally electrified at 1,500V 24 December at 20:00 and handing back at DC, work which commenced in the 1930s but 04:00 on Monday 4 January, a mix of track, was only completed in 1949. The original fixedsignalling and civils work was completed. termination OLE is still in use, but it is being replaced with modern automatically tensioned wiring. There are a total of 308 wire runs to be renewed, with around 100 remaining and the project planned for completion in 2018/19. Over a 10-day blockade at Christmas, 245 hours continuous day and night working, totalling 21,250 man-hours, resulted in the completion of the wire runs at Romford Junction. The Wessex capacity programme is a series of works designed to improve capacity with particular focus on Waterloo station. Over Christmas, the Wessex Capacity Alliance undertook signalling enabling work, disconnecting platforms 21-24 (old Waterloo International) from the signalling systems to allow upgrade works to commence. Modifications were also made to the signalling system on site and the 650V signalling power supply system. The track renewals team replaced 1,885 yards of plain line at Finsbury Park while the S&C South Alliance (Network Rail/Colas Rail/AECOM) installed 12 new switches and crossing units and 330 yards of plain track, as well as undertaking bridge repairs and headspan adjustments, at Acton Wells Junction. Purley (see page 34) is one of the main junctions on the Brighton main line and is heavily

Track slews were laid at either end of London Bridge station to connect into the new platforms 7, 8 and 9. The new Borough Market Viaduct was brought into use. Four new Ewer Street crossovers were commissioned and seven point ends were recovered at Metropolitan Junction. Charing Cross interlocking (the boundary between the London end of Waterloo East and Charing Cross) has been re-controlled to Three Bridges Rail Operating Centre (TBROC) on a new Westcad Terminal. The area between Waterloo East and east of London Bridge station, through new Platforms 7, 8 and 9 via the Borough Viaduct, has been re-signalled and now controlled via a new Westcad terminal, Workstation 2, at TBROC. Telecoms and signalling equipment was recovered throughout the worksite (from Charing Cross to the country end of London Bridge Station). Westlock trackside equipment was brought into use for the first time (also known as zone controllers) allowing the signalling system to run more efficiently. Two gantries were fully recovered and one partially recovered. The existing Up and Down Charing Cross lines (4 and 5) were recovered and the station hoarding moved across to form a new boundary. New hoarding was erected to protect the worksite in the old Platforms 4 and 5.

Network Operations While most of the major pre-planned works were carried out by Network Rail Infrastructure Projects, Network Operations had a couple of their own. Renewing OLE in Essex.

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Rail Engineer • February 2016 Worst of all was the situation at Lamington Viaduct. Severely damaged by storm Frank on 30 December, one pier was weakened so that the bridge, on the West Coast main line north of Carlisle, would be closed for several weeks. Having successfully stabilised the damaged pier by pumping over 300 cubic metres of fast-setting concrete into the void, engineers were able to conduct structural checks on sections of the viaduct it was previously too unsafe to inspect. Those inspections revealed that continued bad weather and high water levels had caused structural damage to another pier on the viaduct and that three steel bearings, which support the bridge deck and track, had been damaged. The damage to the foundations was worse than previously thought, requiring more time and significantly more work to properly stabilise the structure and likely to keep it out of action until the beginning of March.

Overall impressions

Lamington Viaduct. One was the second of four phases to remove and replace the electropneumatic points within Birmingham New Street Station, with the two remaining phases planned within 2016. The conversion to Clamp Lock is also an essential early enabler for the forthcoming New Street Area Resignalling Project. Over Christmas and Boxing Day, four electropneumatic point ends were successfully converted to Clamp Locks, tested and handed back into operation. Turnout panels at Waterloo and at Queenstown Road were successfully renewed as part of a £5 million upgrade and strengthening project prior to major blockade work in August 2017. The weather didn’t make the men and women from Network Operations’ life any easier as they were drafted in on Boxing Day to repair flood damage and to assess the condition of around 50 bridges and viaducts across Lancashire, Cumbria and Yorkshire. The line between Rochdale, Greater Manchester, and Hebden Bridge, in West Yorkshire on the Leeds-Manchester route, was closed after severe flooding left Walsden station in Lancashire under several feet of water. Floods from Walsden to Todmorden damaged signalling power supplies. Meanwhile, the railway at Kirkstall, northwest of Leeds, was also under water. Services between Leeds and Bradford, Skipton and Bradford and between Leeds and Harrogate were affected, along with the Skipton to Hellifield line. In North Wales, the line between Llandudno Junction and Blaenau Ffestiniog is still closed after floodwaters reached platform level at North Llanrwst station. Reports of a landslip at Llanbadarn on the Cambrian line between Aberystwyth and Birmingham International turned out to be a fallen tree, which was removed and the line reopened under caution. A ‘route proving’ exercise was necessary on the line between Holyhead and Llandudno Junction following heavy rainfall in the area and speed restrictions were imposed around Gaerwen due to flooding. On Christmas Eve, the line between Folkestone and Dover was closed after storms damaged the sea wall at Shakespeare Beach in Dover. Storms lowered the beach level by almost two metres in the lead up to Christmas and exposed the foot of the wall to the full force of the sea. This led to sink holes appearing in the railway above, which continued to develop as the chalk infill became destabilised. Teams from Network Rail and its partner Costain worked to protect the railway and sea wall, with more than 18,000 tonnes of rock armour placed on the beach. In addition, design teams have been working on a long-term solution to the damage.

Railway workers, whether they worked for Network Rail, contractors or London Underground, certainly had a busy Christmas and New Year. For an unlucky few, such as those at Lamington, the work would continue well into 2016. However, after a very bad press following the Christmas and New Year works in 2014/15, this year things were a lot better. Almost the full programme of works was delivered, and some unexpected ones pulled in. Passengers experienced almost no unexpected delays and the extra effort put into the planning process really paid off. Network Rail chief executive Mark Carne said: “I am extremely proud of our team who have worked so hard in the planning and execution of the upgrade plan over the last year. This planning allowed them to deliver despite the atrocious weather conditions and is a great example of what the Network Rail team can do.” Transport Secretary Patrick McLoughlin agreed: “Network Rail and the operators have delivered essential improvements to the rail network over the Christmas period. These are crucial for providing better journeys for passengers, progressing key projects such as Crossrail and the Thameslink Programme, and nearly £100 million of improvements in Lincolnshire, as part of our record investment in the railways. “I welcome the news that this has been completed on time. I would like to thank passengers for their patience, and pay tribute to the men and women who have been working in challenging weather conditions for much of the time.” Well done everyone. Now start planning for Christmas 2016!

Sink holes at Shakespeare Beach.

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Rail Engineer • February 2016

Edinburghworks to Glasgow

DAVID SHIRRES

EGIP foundation work in Winchburgh cutting.

round seven million passengers a year use the Glasgow to Edinburgh line, one of the UK’s busiest rail routes. As such, the Christmas holiday period provided a much-needed opportunity for renewals and enhancements. In Scotland there was a further opportunity as, with Scotland taking its Hogmanay seriously, there were no trains on New Year’s Day. Over the recent festive season, work done between Edinburgh and Glasgow included a six point-end renewal, demolition of three bridges, digging mast foundations, installing tunnel conductor rail fixings and commissioning a new junction that will temporarily add ten miles to the route. This involved some diversionary arrangements. A tweet from @ NetworkRailEGIP advised that “We have a no fly zone over #Xmas work sites but well signposted #Santa diversion routes in place. #Santa will get through.”

Anniesland’s new route Over Christmas, a new junction was commissioned at Anniesland. Up to then, there was no rail connection at the station between its service from Glasgow Queen Street Low Level, using the Glasgow North Electric line, and the one from Queen Street High level which was opened as recently as 2005 following the construction of a one-mile spur from the Maryhill line to a new bay platform at Anniesland. On 29 March, Queen Street High Level station will be shut for 20 weeks to renew slab track in the station’s one kilometre long tunnel. The new

junction at Anniesland is part of the complex diversionary arrangements for this closure, as it will allow trains on the main route from Edinburgh to reach Glasgow via a continuous route through Anniesland, Queen Street Low Level and Springburn. The new junction at Anniesland was constructed specifically for this diversion after which, although there are no plans for continuing services, it will remain a useful additional diversionary route. Costing £15 million, the project was completed within a year of its initial development and provided a single lead junction, 350 metres of new track and its connection to the existing bay platform line. The main contractor was EGIP Alliance partner Morgan Sindall, for whom Babcock provided rail services.

Rail Engineer • February 2016

After civil clearance works in the summer, the connection to the bay platform line was installed in September. An upgraded signalling power supply was installed in October and the single lead junction on the Glasgow North Electric line was laid in a 56hour disruptive possession in November. The junction incorporates a maintenance lock out. EGIP programme engineering manager Scott Wardrop advised that commissioning this new layout over Christmas was not straightforward. The junction forms a new boundary between two signalling centres as the Queen Street High Level services are controlled by Edinburgh and the North electrics by Yoker, so requiring a new fringe between the SSIs at Hyndland and Eastfield. Furthermore, the Yoker Integrated Electronic Control Centre (IECC) was one of the first to be commissioned, in 1989. Scott explained that contingency arrangements were required against the risk of the new junction’s software alterations degrading this first generation IECC. However, by 07:00 on Christmas Day, it was established that there had been no adverse impact.

Haymarket renewal Meanwhile, in Edinburgh, a £7 million renewal requiring 700 man-shifts was replacing three sets of points at Haymarket East Junction. These provide a route from the Up South line, across the Down North and Up North lines, to the Thru Sidings and the Haymarket depot entrance. The possession for this S&C renewal was from 22:00 on 24 December to 06:00 on 27 December, with an associated renewal of 520 metres of plain line track on the Up and Down North lines carried out between 22:00 on 31 December and 10:00 on 2 January.

AmeySersa’s senior project engineer, Eddie McLoone, informed Rail Engineer that 44 separate panels, which would make up the new S&C, had been delivered to site in advance using Network Rail’s tilting wagons and had been stored in the cess. The demand for these wagons was such that they would not be available during the time of the Haymarket work itself. The S&C was laid up to 10.5 metres east of its original position. This required an additional headspan, which was installed beforehand. There was a six-hour window for the required overhead line equipment (OLE) wiring alterations during the possession. Two Kirow 250 tonne cranes, supplied by Swietelsky Babcock, placed these panels in position. Also on site were two S&C tampers, two laser bulldozers, six road rail machines and mobile elevating working platforms (MEPS)

Digging foundations in Linlithgow.

Rail Engineer • February 2016

Hogmanay fireworks

(Above) Kirow crane puts new points in position at Haymarket. (Inset) Hogmanay fireworks at Haymarket.

for OLE work. Eddie explains that there were two concurrent sets of work. First one workgroup replaced adjacent switches on the Down North, whilst the other did the same on the Up North. The two groups then simultaneously replaced the remaining point ends on the Up South and Thru Sidings. After dropping ballast and tamping, the plan required the new layout to be ready by 16:00 on 26 December for wheels-free testing and welding, for which eight hours was allowed. With a further one hour for OLE proving, there was a four-hour float before the possession had to be given up at 05:00. In the event, the work went to plan. The continuous torrential rain on 26 December did not affect the work but was far from pleasant for those on site.

New Year’s Day saw the renewal of 310 metres of track on the Down North Line and 205 metres on the Up North line. The wet weather had an indirect effect as planned ballast trains were unable to reach site due to flood damage to Lamington viaduct as a result of storm Frank. As New Year’s Day offered a rare opportunity to undertake this work, the AmeySersa/ Network Rail Alliance took the decision to re-scope the work to reduce the dig and use scarified ballast. With no midweek Rule of Route (RoR) possession opportunities, engineering access opportunities at this location are severely limited. This is because its points are used for trains into Haymarket depot. As a result, engineering work can only be undertaken between 01:00 and 06:00 on Sunday mornings. This presented significant difficulties for the required preparation and follow-up work. The S&C and plain line renewal at Haymarket required careful planning both to ensure that full opportunity was taken of the festive season’s engineering access at one of the Scottish rail network’s busiest junctions and to ensure it did not overrun. The work was delivered to plan, despite the foul weather experienced by those on site on

Boxing Day. However, with the work taking place in sight of Edinburgh Castle, those on site at Hogmanay had a grandstand view of Edinburgh’s fireworks.

Linlithgow’s tight fit Unlike the major alterations at Haymarket and Anniesland, the EGIP electrification work undertaken over the festive period was that generally done during short, midweek possessions. Freed from those demanding constraints, full advantage was taken of the 59-hour Christmas possession and the 30-hour New Year’s Day possession. This included work in the fourkilometre Winchburgh cutting, which only has one access point and needs scaffolding for edge protection as many foundations are on the cutting slope above retaining walls. The historic town of Linlithgow was well established when the railway was driven through it in the late 1830s, so land taken here was minimised. West of the station, the railway is sandwiched between two roads and their respective boundary retaining walls above and below the line. The north retaining wall is a listed structure. The result is that this location is a particularly tight fit for foundations.

Rail Engineer • February 2016

Senior project engineer Brian Sweeney explained that, as there is not space for foundations on both sides of the track, twin track cantilever structures are being used here. These have the minimum possible offset which required track monitoring. The Christmas possession was used to dig three bespoke concrete foundations, up to 5.9 metres deep, for these structures as piled foundations could have disturbed the adjacent retaining wall and the adjacent St Peter’s church. However, the Christmas work here was timed so as not disturb Morning Eucharist. Linlithgow’s tight boundary walls also required signal EL624 to be moved around 100 metres closer to Edinburgh to maintain signal sighting once OLE masts were erected. The new signal was commissioned on New Year’s Day and is the only signal requiring relocation for EGIP. Everywhere else, it has been possible to design OLE so as not to interfere with signal sighting. In its tunnels, EGIP is installing the Furrer+Frey rigid overhead conductor-rail system (ROCS), which

is relatively new to Britain. ROCS was developed to solve space constraints so has a low overall height with no contact wire uplift. It also has a lower maintenance cost. Its installation required a dedicated precision drilling rig, which was imported from Switzerland and spent Christmas in Falkirk High tunnel installing the ROCS fixings. This conductor-rail system is also being installed by EGIP in Winchburgh and Queen Street tunnels.

Electrics next December Costain is the EGIP alliance contractor for the installation of electrification equipment, with ABC as delivery partner, a joint venture made up of Alstom, Babcock and Costain. The other EGIP alliance contractor is Morgan Sindall, which manages the civils works. Over the festive period, Morgan Sindall’s demolition team removed three bridges between Linlithgow and Winchburgh as part of the electrification clearance work. The team took down a bridge at Philipstoun in the early hours of

Christmas Day and then moved to start the Park Farm bridge demolition the next day. On New Year’s Day, an accommodation bridge immediately south of Winchburgh tunnel was demolished. The EGIP Alliance certainly took full advantage of Christmas and New Year to get as much work done as possible. The project is on schedule to energise the line between Glasgow and Edinburgh in August so that, by December, electric trains will be running on the line. They won’t be running on Christmas Day though. Instead engineers will, no doubt, again be taking best use of this rare opportunity to work for longer than a few hours on this busy line.

IECC workstation with new junction at Anniesland.

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Rail Engineer • February 2016

Thwarted by Frank Old Lodge Lane works cancelled

BOB WRIGHT

Planning for possession

eatures in Rail Engineer often highlight the successes of railway projects delivered in difficult circumstances. These represent the culmination of long periods of design, planning and risk analysis by their project teams. Sometimes however, despite teams’ best efforts, their careful planning and contingency mitigation measures fail to deliver for reasons beyond human control. This project was one of those. Its five-year gestation allowed for very detailed preparation, of which its team should be proud, but its successful outcome was thwarted at the very last moment by storm Frank.

Bridge 80 carries the Brighton main line over Old Lodge Lane in Croydon. Like most railway structures, it has a complex history. The railway here was built as double track on a segmental brick arch structure in 1841 and, following the increase in traffic of the Victorian period, was widened in 1894. Unusually, the bridge was widened by adding single track half-through spans on each side. As is often the case, poor drainage of its deck troughing led to serious corrosion and, five years ago, its condition was such that there was a planned freight train restriction of 20 mph after 2015. A plan to reconstruct the two side spans was put in place. The Brighton main line is a very busy route which includes the Gatwick Express services. Lengthy track possessions are scarce here and full four-track possessions as rare as hens’ teeth. The major blockade for the Purley junction worksites (described on page 34) provided an opportunity for this bridge project to be delivered in a 100-hour New Year possession. Project delivery was by the South East Multi Functional Framework and contractor BAM Nuttall. The approved design by Mott Macdonald was to insert new cill beams into the abutments involving minor cutting back of the arch spandrels and to place new precast deck beams. The site in the London suburbs had many potential effects on stakeholders, in particular the 20-day road closure of Old Lodge Lane for preparatory and completion works. A public meeting was held in November to explain the works. Subsequent widespread liaison ensured that information was shared across the many residents’ and transport users’ websites. Local people were initially concerned at the

Rail Engineer â&#x20AC;˘ February 2016

long road closure needed but were assured that the temporary road and bus route diversions and an associated shuttle bus service for pedestrians would mitigate their concerns.

Preparing to start Works on site began in November and, following the start of the road closure on 16 December, crane pads were prepared for the 750 tonne crane on the south side and 100 tonne crane on the north. This involved a water main diversion by Thames Water and the construction of pad foundations on the carriageway. A scaffold bridge was erected on the Down (south) side to carry slewed S&T cables and a deep crash mat placed beneath the works to protect the roadway. Away from the site, the precast deck and parapet beams were manufactured by Shay Murtagh and delivered to a holding yard at Horsham. While the project team re-reviewed its contingency plans, out in the Atlantic, storm Frank was developing. During the day of 30 December, the cranes were brought to site. The 750 tonne vehicle was a tight fit in parts of the approach route, the driverâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s skill much appreciated by the gathering onlookers. Once possession was taken, the downside parapet was demolished to allow the slewing of S&T cables onto the scaffold bridge. Preplanning had shown that adjustment of cables for half a mile each side would be necessary to gain sufficient slack, a task which required considerable resources to deliver. Below the side spans, the horizontal saw cutting of abutment bed joints

was completed in preparation for their demolition to allow the precast cill beams to be placed the next day.

Frank hits With these preparatory tasks complete, everything was now ready for the removal of the side spans. Storm Frank arrived just as this was about to commence. Wind speeds were measured at 18 metres/second, well in excess of the craneâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s limit of 11m/s. The only mitigation to high wind is to wait for it to diminish and consideration was given to delaying the lifts, but forecasts were for 18 to 20m/s for the following four days. As a result, the decision was reluctantly taken to cancel the project as the high winds made it just too dangerous to use the crane. The resources for the project were not wasted however. The various shifts of the civils teams were diverted to the emergency works at the collapsed sea wall between Dover Priory and Folkestone Central.

The tampers intended for the track reinstatement were diverted to support the ongoing track works at nearby Salfords. The road was reopened to pedestrians the next day. Over the following days the crash mat was removed, the abutment saw cuts were pointed up, the concrete crane pads and the water main diversion removed, and street furniture reinstated. Old Lodge Lane reopened to traffic on 11 January. Given the rarity of four track possessions on this route, the next opportunity to replace this bridge may be several years away. The precast units will remain in store at Horsham and the temporary cable bridge will remain in place but the condition-related speed restrictions affecting freight traffic of 10/80 on Down Slow and 20/90 on Up Fast will become a continuing operational constraint. Will the weather be kinder to this project next time? The project team have all their fingers crossed for that.

Rail Engineer • February 2016

A Boxing Day

challenge

CLIVE KESSELL

ith most main line train services stopped on Christmas Day and Boxing Day, it was left to the Heritage sector to fly the flag for rail over the festive period. Network Rail’s massive engineering work over the holiday has become almost the norm so expectation of a steam train ride made a pleasant contrast.

The token had to be fetched by VM.

Choosing to have a Christmas break in Porthmadog gave the opportunity to ride the narrow gauge line to Blaenau Ffestiniog on Boxing Day. Departure from Porthmadog was at 10.10 for a round trip of just under three hours. It proved to be an eventful journey. The railway had run Santa Specials in early December but only as far as Tany-Bwlch, about half way. From there to Blaenau, no public train had operated since October.

Rusty rails With two engines - the 150 year old 0-4-0 Prince and the replica Single Fairlie 0-4-4 Taliesin - they should have made light work of the eight coach train and indeed all went well as far as Tan-y-Bwlch. There, we passed a diesel locomotive sent up earlier to ensure no trees had fallen on the line. Starting northwards, it was clear that all was not well; the combination of rusty rails, wet conditions and leaves on the line meant a very slippery rail head. With the engines struggling to get grip, progress was not much more than walking pace and it took nearly an hour to reach Dduallt (pronounced The-acht) the next station. Attempts by the loco crew to sand the line were only partially successful as high winds blew the sand away before the engines reached it. At this point the line does a spiral to gain height and on to a new formation alongside the original line which had been flooded in the 1950s as part of a pumped storage power station lake. Everyone had fingers crossed that the tight curves of the spiral would not further disrupt progress. With its smaller wheels, Prince was the more surefooted and doing the lion’s share of the work

(gives new meaning to the adage wear the old ones out first!). Careful engine management was successful and the train passed through the Moelwyn Tunnel, then a slight downhill gradient to Tan-y-Grisiau and a final struggle into Blaenau Ffestiniog station. Unlocking the station toilets was a welcome relief for many and, after a quick watering of the engines, the train set off southwards.

Wires down At Tan-y-Grisiau, the guard announced that the strong wind had blown down the telegraph wires and thus the train was unable to get the next section single line token. The only recourse was for a token to be brought up by road after removal from the machine at Tan-y-Bwlch, which caused a further delay of 20 minutes. Thereafter it was an easy journey back to Porthmadog, where the drivers were heard to say ‘I’ve had easier trips’! Full marks to the loco crew for perseverance and initiative, to the guard for keeping passengers well informed and to the buffet car staff for serving hot toddies and warm drinks. It would have been easy to just cancel the service but, with coach parties booked, that would have left disappointment and a negative image. Besides, with the wicked weather, how else would you spend Boxing Day??

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Rail Engineer • February 2016

SOUTH TO KINGS SUTTON

DOWN LOOP/BANBURY LOOP

NEW CHILTERN DEPOT

DOWN MAIN/CHERWELL VALLEY

B A N B U R Y

S T A T I O N

UP MAIN/CHERWELL VALLEY UP BANBURY PLATFORM LINE

UP GOODS LOOP/BANBURY LOOP

PETER STANTON

Banbury blockade

anbury Station is a fairly modern rebuild of the original station at this important town, undertaken during the 1950s when there was a very different railway and a very different pattern of traffic to nowadays. There was a large locomotive depot and all the facilities traditionally associated with freight services on the traditional railway. The station is now a very busy place with some 190 passenger and 57 freight trains passing through each day; a far cry from the iron ore traffic and general freight patterns of yesteryear! The current remodelling scheme, priced at £76.5 million, tackles a raft of proposed changes to remove the poor asset condition of signalling equipment installed in the 1970s through a remodel/rationalisation of the track and signalling layout, all of which is on a strategic location for Chiltern Railways, Cross Country, First Great Western and Freight Services. Part of this work took place over Christmas 2015. Additionally a new rolling stock facility, closely allied to the remodelling, is estimated at around £43 million.

A signal change By summer 2016, the scheme will have renewed life-expired signalling equipment in the Banbury area and abolished the last two mechanical signal boxes on this route at Banbury North and Banbury South. Signalling control of the area, currently controlled by Banbury North and South Signal boxes and Banbury 1 SSI, will transfer to the West Midlands Signalling Control Centre (WMSCC). At the same time the opportunity will be taken to transfer signalling controlled at Leamington to WMSCC. It is interesting to remember that Leamington was the original pilot Solid State Interlocking scheme launched by the British Railways Board in the early 1980s. There is also another historical connection in that it is believed that one of the lower quadrant semaphore signals was the last to be newly installed on the main UK Railway system.

The scheme also incorporates changes to the existing track layout and operation of Banbury station and the surrounding area. Where renewals are taking place, full opportunity has been taken to remodel to meet future requirements; taking advantage of current standards and technical advances. Freight operations will benefit from the scheme. Some of the operational improvements in the scope include increasing the speed of the Down Banbury goods loop to 30mph and improving the entrance speed from the Up Main to the Up Goods to 50mph. Also the Up Goods loop (plain line) and its exit to the Up Main will be increased to 25mph. The programme will also provide two 775 metre long areas of standage for freight trains.

A further important operational issue will be the provision of bi-directional signalling in the station area. The spacing of signals has been designed for the existing 90mph speed restriction through Banbury station, improving capacity by providing additional signal sections that spacing requirements for 100mph would have precluded. Headways have been improved, making a significant difference to line capacity. Heyford to Aynho Junction headways, originally six minutes, will be reduced to four and Aynho Junction to Banbury from four minutes to three. The signalling works bring the area up to date with: »» 55 new Dorman LED signals and 6 head changes; »» In-bearer clamp lock points; »» 350km of new cable; »» 4 new REBs at Aynho Road, Somerton, Banbury North and Banbury South; »» 3 new PSPs and 2 new ASPs; »» 52 Location cases; »» 133 new AZLM axle counters.

Rail Engineer • February 2016

NORTH TO LEAMINGTON SPA

DOWN MAIN/CHERWELL VALLEY

UP MAIN/CHERWELL VALLEY

ORIGINAL TRACK

RENEWED PREVIOUSLY

RENEWED OVER CHRISTMAS 2015

Telecommunications will function via the fixed telecommunications network (FTN) in company with the GSM-R system. A major FTN cable route change is required due to the new train care depot; this item is linked to the very significant under-track crossing works. The scope is completed by M & E major items of works with three new principal supply points and two auxiliary supply points to support the new system on the ground. In addition new auto-reconfigurable power supplies are part of the provision.

New through platform Major layout changes include the removal of the existing Up bay Platform 4 and the installation of a new 133-metre through platform. Turnouts and goods loops will be upgraded to achieve the 30-50mph line speed together with the installation of face-to-face crossovers to facilitate bidirectional signalling through all platforms. The bidirectional arrangements will also facilitate blocking one half of the station or the other for maintenance or for possible electrification works in the future - the whole scheme incorporates passive provision for electrification of the route. In addition, route works are being undertaken to facilitate W10 loading gauge. Access to the new Banbury depot will be via a new turnout from the Down Main and a new crossover from Platform 1. The depot is fully supported by Chiltern Railways as a significant strategic asset and also by the Department for Transport as meeting the government’s aspirations for better customer service. In fact the whole project, both area and depot, has been developed with a high level of support from all the train and freight operating companies involved. The before and after plan (above) shows how the layout will be simplified and improved after final completion of the works.

Work over Christmas Plans for carrying out large parts of the programme over the festive period were drawn up with care. Scheme sponsor Simon Winfield explained that, as well as being a very busy station, Banbury is also operationally a point at which Chiltern wishes to turn back trains; there is currently an up bay used for that purpose. First proposals for the scheme involved a long blockade of around 30 days but, unsurprisingly, this was not supported by the line’s users. Further discussions with those TOCs and FOCs resulted in a carefully negotiated set of disruptive and rules of the route possessions which would have the least impact on the business. With work having started in May 2015, many preparatory stages were undertaken which gradually changed the appearance of the area. Historically visible areas such as the old cattle market sidings and mileage yard disappeared, while much excavation took place to pre-prepare undertrack crossings for effective cable management.

REALIGNED OVER CHRISTMAS 2015

FINAL TRACK LAYOUT

TRACK LIFTED

FORMER BUFFER STOP

Christmas was an important stage in the work with a major 57-hour possession planned. However, in the week before, it was essential to protect the passenger business in the run-up to the festive event, with shopping traffic being a major consideration. The 57-hour possession commenced at 22:15 on Christmas Eve with a programme that represented stage 17 out of 24. Permanent way installed included 460 metres of Category 11 track renewals through platform 2, a 330 metre category 11 relay north of Banbury Ladder and a 550 metres track realignment with 250 metres of track being removed and skimmed due to the size of the design track slue. WMSCC interlockings & Westcad are now installed on site and successful planning, installation and lessons have been learnt with reviews conducted. Three significant under-track crossings, an integral part of the civil engineering works on this scheme, have been installed to date. The outcome of this section of these important works was completion of the stage as planned and a handback well executed for the restart of the service. This was facilitated by some really well thought through contingency and readiness plans put together as part of the ongoing project strategy. These are highlighted as: »» Three core pway gangs were rostered to ensure consistency of the labour force; »» T-minus reviews of the deliverables were held and passed with Infrastructure Projects managing director Francis Paonessa; »» Early engagement was made with operations and signalling colleagues to assist with on-time possession and points movement; »» A senior alliance duty manager was on-site throughout the works; »» Three-hourly site reporting was implemented; »» There was a fully integrated plan between the contractors Siemens/ Buckingham/Colas, including for the depot works; »» A Level 3 on-call was operated; »» Conference calls were scheduled for one hour before the start of all core possessions (RCM, ODM & PICOP) and throughout the work; »» Conference calls were to be scheduled if the site slipped to a position where on-time handback was at risk, ensuring operational contingency could be implemented if required; »» Site readiness/managers checklists were produced and signed off to ensure readiness. The new depot area was not immune from this end-of-year progress. A visit to site just after New Year revealed an amazing ‘moonscape’ where the old steam depot had been situated with contaminated land being treated for the new rolling stock and a high quality maintenance facility for Chiltern Trains. Much work remains to be done, for the first part of the year within rules of the route possessions but building up to a nine-day blockade in July. All signal structures have been ordered with planned installation commencing February. Overall, the planning was robust and resulted in the on time delivery of all scheduled works. This important cross-country route will benefit as a result and all stakeholders and customers will be able to celebrate a job well done!

Rail Engineer • February 2016

ss services on “Gatwick Expreutes/replacement diversionary rong journey time buses increasi s to 90 minutes.” from 30 minute

Purley planning pays off

“Brighton main Christmas Eve line closed from around the Purluntil 4 January ey area.”

hese were the headlines in the local press around Sussex before Christmas. Closing the Brighton main line for so long was obviously a “big deal”, one that wouldn’t be considered unless there was a serious amount of work to be done and Network Rail was confident of completing it all successfully. Rail Engineer is pleased to report that this major blockade between Selhurst/ Windmill Bridge junction and Earlsfield/ Redhill achieved almost all the work it had set out to do, despite appalling weather conditions for much of the closure. In particular, the major item of work, the complete reballasting and renewal of the entire switch and crossing layout at the London end of Purley station, was 100% completed and opened at a higher line speed than the contingency plan. This success story is undoubtedly thanks to a three year lead in planning scenario, a thorough review and evaluation of all potential risks to the plan, minimising the shift changeover time loss, and the professionalism of the partnership alliance between Colas and Network Rail. The impetus behind the need for the major blockade was the poor ballast conditions throughout the Purley S & C. Closing all lines and working systematically through the whole

layout to reballast and renew it in one fell swoop was the most efficient and economic solution. These S&C units were toe-to-toe and therefore all tied together, so doing it piecemeal would have been very difficult. Having determined this, another 27 work sites were accommodated within the blockade!

Purley S&C The layout renewed at Purley consists of ladder crossovers across all four running lines and turnouts from the Down Slow line to sidings; 17 point ends in total. The new layout was pre-fabricated in 97 panels. 67 of these had been delivered by road to the Mudflats temporary depot area at Merstham. The remaining panels were brought to site on tilting wagons during the possession. The panels at Mudflats were transferred on Christmas Eve by road to the Day Aggregates sidings

MARK PHILLIPS

All photos courtesy Inside Out Timelapse Productions.

at Purley. Here, they were unloaded by 500-tonne road mobile crane and stacked in the correct ‘picking’ sequence for access by the Kirow 1200-tonne rail crane. This unloading and stacking process was delayed by eight hours because of high winds. However, this did not compromise the overall plan. Removal of the old track commenced at 23:00 on Christmas Eve, starting on the Down Slow. Once there was room to commence excavating, a 400mm dig began across the whole layout. Scraping out, excavation, reballasting and relaying of new panels continued, simultaneously but sequentially, with the last panel laid in by 30 December. 19 engineering trains were used for spoil removal and ballast delivery with temporary panels laid in across the Down Slow area to allow the rail crane to operate. Once all engineering trains and tampers were clear, the site could be given a dedicated 30-hour period for welding and stressing. On 31 December and 1 January, 316 welds were made and 47 stressing pulls affected. Unfortunately, although there had been virtually no rain for the previous three or four days, the heavens opened with torrential rain for this part of the programme. Despite this and with the deployment of many welding umbrellas, betterthan-plan was achieved. Contingency had been to leave Fassetta clamp plates on any uncompleted welds, meaning that the line would have opened at 50mph. In the event, all welds were completed and handback was enabled at 60mph. Normal line speed will be achieved after one week on the Fast lines and two weeks on the Slow lines.

Rail Engineer â&#x20AC;˘ February 2016

On the subject of temporary speed restrictions, it is worth highlighting that, because of the severe effect on traffic of the post-work speeds at Purley, strenuous efforts were made and achieved to remove all other speed restrictions between London and Brighton before Christmas. Apart from the two sets of points into sidings from the Down Slow line, all the work was in concrete bearers, with in-bearer switch mechanisms. Sixteen hook switches were removed and replaced with remotely operated TI (Track Isolation) switches. All ETE (Electrical Track Equipment) connections were renewed and new cabling was installed throughout. At any one time there were around 75 staff on site including track resource, technicians and managers. Overall 22,000 man hours were worked on the project.

Other work sites Advantage was taken of the blockade to carry out other major works. At Woodplace cutting, 400 metres of vegetation clearance and soil nailing was done with one lane of the adjacent A23 road closed for eight days. Arisings were removed by road-rail crane. In Flyover cutting, accumulated chalk spoil blocking the cess was cleared, again using road-rail vehicles and a new catchment drain installed. This work could only be started after there were no more engineering trains to pass so there was only four days to remove an estimated 2,500 tonnes of spoil. Because of the very high rainfall experienced during this time, it was deemed prudent to curtail this work to avoid any further landslips. 250 out of the original 900 metres were completed. At Windmill Bridge Junction, opportunity was taken for heavy track maintenance and between Mudflats and Redhill 1km of rerailing was completed. Additionally, there were another 23 work sites within the blockade, of which 21 were completed fully to plan. These works ranged from signalling and track maintenance, track and structures inspections, ETE cabling, tamping, rail grinding, surveying and structural repair and scaffolding removal. The two items cancelled were the bridge reconstruction at Old Lodge Lane (the subject of another report) and delivery of panels to Star Lane substation because of loading restrictions imposed by the local authority on one of its structures.

Key features of success Network Rail assurance manager Paul Pring was able to point clearly to the key features that made this blockade work such a success story.

Planning commenced three years prior to the works. During the planning process, there were many interdepartmental pre-construction reviews to scrutinise the proposals. These reviews, that challenged the detail, were able to catch several potential risks early on that were then obviated. Conflict between the many work sites was checked and contingency planning was a major aspect in the preparation of the final plan. During the blockade, work sites report in to Control every four hours, with Control reporting to National Operations Centre at the same intervals, but one hour later. Formal site meetings were specified daily throughout at 12:00 and 01:00 with Route conference calls at 14:00 daily. The blockade actually comprised three successive possessions, which changed their geographical limits on 26 December and then again on 1 January. To ensure no overrun of the final possession on 4 January because of overload on the PICOP, a phased worksite return plan was devised for the 10 sites being returned. The use of the Mudflats lineside area as a temporary depot for major materials delivery and handling, both to and from worksites, was a crucial element in the logistics of the whole plan. With specific regard to the Purley junction renewal, feedback from the previous major renewal at Stoats Nest junction two years previously had been taken on board. Finally, one feature for the success at Purley that Paul was keen to emphasise was the policy for all shift changeovers to take place on site instead of at a remote signing on point with consequent time loss. In conclusion, it seems that everyone involved with the planning and execution of this blockade may have had an unusual festive season but one with which to be well satisfied.

Rail Engineer • February 2016

pre ure point GRAEME BICKERDIKE

Rail Engineer • February 2016

oncaster punches above its weight. From some angles, it looks like a dozen other Yorkshire towns - Rotherham, Castleford, Pontefract - but its position is significantly elevated by its strategic importance as a railway hub. It’s Crewe, but the right side of the Pennines.

Time and place Fulfilled by the S&C North Alliance - a collaboration between Network Rail and AmeySersa - the town’s Christmas track renewals were extensive and logistically complex, spanning two sites. One, immediately south of Doncaster station’s east-side platforms, encompassed crossovers between the Up Fast and Up East Slow, as well as three turnouts into Platforms 1 and 2 and carriage sidings. The other, half-a-mile further north at Marshgate Junction, involved three more turnouts and a crossover with the Up Fast, Up Slow and Thorne lines being affected. Both were like-for-like replacements of existing layouts, mostly dating from the late 1970s. Much of the work was programmed for an all-linesblocked period with accompanying OLE isolation, booked from 23:00 on Thursday 24 December until 09:00 on Sunday 27th. Thereafter, the Up and Down Fast and Up and Down Doncaster would be handed back, together with lines serving the west-side platforms, allowing the resumption of services to/from York and Leeds using Platforms 4-8. The Up Fast was blocked again for 8 hours overnight Sundayinto-Monday and possession retaken, with the Down Fast, through the early hours of Tuesday 29th. All lines were due to be given back at 06:00 on Tuesday. This track access regime shaped the phasing of the works.

What ifs We all know - at least we should - that key to the successful delivery of any such project is thorough planning; it’s also widely recognised that, historically, the railway has not been particularly good at it. Things have improved hugely since the overruns of Christmas 2007 with the introduction of better processes, although critics seem reluctant to acknowledge this.

(Opposite and below) Progress is made with the reballasting and track renewal at the southern end of Doncaster Station.

Of course, the cause was not helped by the scenes - and subsequent spleen-venting - that resulted from the failures at King’s Cross and Holloway Junction during Christmas track renewals a year ago. This, you will recall, resulted in several hundred passengers queuing on the road outside Finsbury Park Station on 27 December 2014, in some cases for three hours. They then had to contend

DONCASTER STATION SITE

LE ED S

With six routes converging, Doncaster’s population can fluctuate by several hundred every few minutes as a plethora of operators make transient appearances, not least on the East Coast main line. And this places a heavy burden on project and engineering teams: getting it wrong here will cause far-reaching disruption, courtesy of the ripple effect.

MARSHGATE SITE

DOWN/UP WEST SLOW NO.1

DOWN LEEDS GOODS DOWN SLOW

DOWN FAST

UP FAST

UP EAST SLOW

UP SLOW

YORK

UB 332

2481 2481

2465B 2480

PHASE 2 WORKS

PHASE 3 WORKS

POINTS

S&C/PLAIN LINE RENEWAL

LINES UNDER POSSESSION 23:00 24/12 - 06:00 29/12

LINES UNDER POSSESSION 23:00 24/12 - 09:00 27/12

LINE UNDER POSSESSION 23:00 24/12 - 09:00 27/12 + OVERNIGHT(S)

PE OR TH UN SC

PHASE 1 WORKS

NE OR TH

2476B

DOWN THORNE

CARRIAGE SIDINGS

RIVER DON

PLAT 4

DO W UP N D DO ON NC CA AS ST TE ER R

PLAT 8

DOWN/UP WEST SLOW NO.2

Rail Engineer â&#x20AC;˘ February 2016

a framework for these, stipulating, for example, the duration of floats (periods of unallocated time) that must be built into the programme so delays can be clawed back.

Step by step

(Above and below) Two VolkerRail Kirow cranes were used to position the track panels. (Opposite) 222 welds were completed during the core works, resulting in 50mph TSRs being removed three weeks early.

with seriously overcrowded trains. It was an unfortunate episode and inflicted reputational damage on Network Rail. Broadcasters still wheel-out the pictures periodically as a stick with which to beat it. Primarily, the problems there arose from plant/ equipment failures associated with the removal of scrap materials, the resulting misalignment of the physical works with the logistics plan, and the impact this had on train crew availability. As youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;d expect, Doncaster shared many of the same challenges, sometimes on a larger scale: 7,500 tonnes of ballast to replace, 6,000 tonnes at Holloway; 23 engineering trains to manage, 14 at Holloway. But lessons have been learned in the past 12 months, bringing more robust contingency arrangements and mitigation measures. Network Rail standard NR/L3/ INI/CP0064 (Delivering Work Within Possessions) provides

Across the two Doncaster sites, the work encompassed an effective renewal length of 1,535 metres, with 52 plain-line panels - arriving on Salmons - nine spine panels and 35 S&C panels. Of the latter, 18 were brought to site on tilting wagons, the remainder being pre-delivered by HGV and positioned optimally as part of the preparatory works. They were all manufactured, in modular form, by Vossloh Cogifer in Scunthorpe. At Marshgate, progress was made in three distinct phases, driven by the staged handbacks. Phase 1 incorporated turnouts and a linking 120-metre plain-line section on the Up Slow, but in sharpest focus was 2481 points on the Up Fast (Phase 2) which was planned to be tamped, commissioned and clamped by 04:15 on Sunday morning. This included six hours wheels-free for signal testing by TICS Global and left 4 hours 45 minutes as a float and for handback. From 09:00, the line would reopen with a 50mph TSR imposed. In the event of significant delays, a cut-and-run option was available whereby the points would have been plain-lined using six standby panels to allow implementation of the planned Christmas timetable. Being a 70mph turnout, the G-switch panel for 2481 points exceeded 30 metres in length and delivery required an abnormal loads movement order, as well as the temporary widening of a site access gate and provision of a 500-tonne mobile crane to offload and position the panel in Marshgate Sidings. Installing it involved meticulous planning between the project team and the VolkerRail Kirow team to undertake the required lifts using two KRC250 Kirow cranes in tandem lift mode which necessitated bridge loading checks on UB332 over the river Don.

Rail Engineer â&#x20AC;˘ February 2016

Completion of the crossover between the Up Slow and Down Thorne (Phase 3) took place overnight Sunday-into-Monday as it required a spoil train to be loaded on the Up Slow with the adjacent Up Fast blocked, the site being protected under Any Line Open arrangements. Another phased methodology was established for the station site. Here, all of the old track was scraped out and reballasting completed before any relaying took place, beginning with the platform lines and working outwards. The panel installation started on the Up Fast (Phase 1), then the Up East Slow (Phase 2) to finish the crossovers, and finally the platform/carriage siding turnouts (Phase 3). Again, this involved the Kirows working in tandem due to the typically 16-tonne panel weight and 12-tonne modular lifting beam. Generally, the formation treatment was for 300mm new ballast depth with a geotextile PW4 separator and geogrid, but the contingency plan allowed for this to be reduced to 200mm on the Slow/platform lines or skim as a last resort.

Breathing space In terms of plant and manpower, the two worksites were largely independent, with separate train plans able to accommodate a deviation from schedule of between two hours ahead and four

hours behind. An emergency light engine was located at each site, a number of trains toppedand-tailed with drivers both ends, and mostly local crews sourced. Further redundancy was built-in to account for machine breakdowns, with a spare dozer and RRVs available. The two Kirows were shared, first completing Phases 1 and 2 at Marshgate before transiting to the station to relay Phases 1 and 2 there. An 8Â˝-hour float was built-in between these activities. One crane then returned to Marshgate for Phase 3 (the float being five hours) whilst the other completed the station works. Two VolkerRail Matisa B41 Tamping Machines serviced both sites to a similar pattern, completing in excess of 3,200 metres and 16 switches of tamping.

To guard against failure of a Kirow crane, which would have severely impacted the overall plan, the project team arranged for two additional Kirows - being used on the S&C renewal at Haymarket, west of Edinburgh Waverley - to be routed to site for contingency purposes, ready to start lifting from midnight on the 27th. The interim handback had been assessed to ensure the Christmas timetable could operate even in this event. One key advantage Doncaster had over Holloway was the track layout, offering more routing options and thus reducing any overrun impact. Beyond this, no other major works were ongoing within the possession, so there was no need to stack trains on site. Nevertheless, the criticality of this project was not under-estimated

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Rail Engineer • February 2016

(Inset) The critical 2481 points on the Up Fast. (Below) A VolkerRail Matisa B41 Tamping Machine approaches the Marshgate site on the Down Thorne.

and a 95% probability for on-time handback had to be achieved based on a Quantitative Schedule Risk Analysis; this was greater than the 90% demanded by the Standard. Network Rail also recognised the need for a greater level of senior managerial support on site than had previously been allocated. So, that’s the theory outlined. What about the practice?

trains. Relaying continued following handback at 06:00 on Monday, with wheels-free testing being carried out in stages across the two sites, including confirmation of detection on 2481 points after unclamping. This process again suffered delays but final handback was ahead of the booked time at 06:00 on Tuesday.

Boots and shovels

For those involved at the trackface, this could be described as just another job. It went more-or-less to plan, notwithstanding the occasional - and inevitable - hiccup. That’s the real world for you. Much was achieved during the floats, flooding the site with welders to complete 222 welds, rather than relying on temporary clamps as would normally be the case. This enabled the 50mph TSRs to be removed after only one week, rather than four; seven stresses were also completed. Steve Varley made the point that the good relationship nurtured by the Alliance with Network Rail Ops, the TOCs and FOCs, paid considerable dividends. Their understanding of the plan - and buy-in - ensured help was given with the likes of late train policies to ensure possessions were granted on time. And the signallers in Doncaster PSB are also singled out for praise, assisting with route setting and line blockages when needed. This all contributed to the project’s success story. It’s not unreasonable for the media to highlight the railway’s occasional shortcomings when it comes to delivering its engineering works. They can negatively impact on people’s lives and it should be held accountable for that. But the industry can and does routinely get it right; Doncaster is testament to that. Trouble is, good news is no news. We can, though, hope that the Ghost of Christmas Past has now been put to rest.

With the possession taken on time at 23:00 on Saturday, excavation and reballasting at the station ran broadly in sync with the planned timeline. However, a late Form C and machine problem at Marshgate caused a delay of around two hours, resulting in a contingency option being invoked at one of the hold points; this reduced the Phase 1A (2476B, 2465B, 2480 points) dig from 300mm to 200mm, saving two hours. Phase 1B also fell behind due largely to access constraints whilst panels were being laid behind. Work on the critical 2481 points got underway 1¾ hours late. This had become 2½ hours by the time all the panels had been installed, but that was pulled back when the top-stone was dropped and during tamping. However, the signal testing took longer than expected, a result of welder trolley movements dropping track circuits and the running-out of a weld on the River Don underbridge which required a closure rail to be installed. “That’s what the float’s for,” asserted Steve Varley, Network Rail’s senior responsible engineer (track). It did, however, cause some nervousness as the signalling was not signed back in until 08:00, but still with an hour in hand. The Kirows then moved to the station site and the relay there got underway. Again, things essentially followed the expected timeline from start to finish during daylight on Sunday. Back at Marshgate, the Down Thorne was uplifted early but excavation and reballasting had to wait until overnight possession was retaken of the Up Fast; this was delayed 40 minutes by late-running flood-affected

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Rail Engineer • February 2016

CHRIS PARKER

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he Christmas shutdown gives Network Rail, and London Underground for that matter, a chance to undertake those jobs that would be difficult at other times of the year. Some are major pieces of work, others are routine but take a long time (such as the wholesale replacement of track drainage at Weedon, Northamptonshire). The justification for these works is usually fairly obvious. Failing infrastructure, operational bottlenecks, capacity improvements, and even new railway construction. Sometimes, however, the need for a project to take place can be a little obscure. Take, for example, the Crossrail preparatory works carried out by Network Rail at Christmas to install a new emergency escape footbridge at Ealing Broadway station. The project had an interesting ‘raison d’être’ since there is already adequate access to the platforms for the existing trains. However, the new bridge is required because of the enormous capacity of the intended new Crossrail trains. It was decided that the current station infrastructure would unacceptably restrict emergency evacuation of passengers, and that this should be resolved by an additional footbridge at the other end of the platforms. This sounds simple enough until one considers the surrounding environment at the site. Residential properties are very close to the line, making it difficult to find adequate site access and ensuring that noise and vibration would be significant issues. Ground conditions meant that piled foundations would be necessary, and the only feasible way to place the footbridge structure would be by employing a large crane.

Preparation is key Taylor Woodrow, part of the Vinci organisation, was employed by the project to carry out the works. The project team held detailed meetings with local residents about the impact of the works, agreeing, for example, to restrict piling activity to daytime hours over the Christmas period. The possibility of obtaining access to the new bridge site via an adjacent NHS

facility was identified, and negotiations were entered into with a view to gaining agreement both to temporary access for the crane and construction works and to permanent access to the completed footbridge. Thanks are due to the NHS for their cooperation in this regard. Christmas 2015 was planned as the date to erect the footbridge span serving Platforms 2 and 3 with a second span to Platform 1 to follow at a later date. Sarens was engaged to carry out the contract lifting operations over the Christmas period. The piled foundations for the first span were installed beforehand so that, at Christmas, effort could be focussed on the lifting operations. A fourday hire of a 400 tonne mobile crane commenced at 05:00 on Christmas morning and nine main lifts were completed by 11:30 the same day. These lifts involved the placement of support columns, stair units and the bridge span itself. Extremely high winds had been forecast for the day, and the team were relieved that all these main lifts were successfully completed before the winds arrived. Just down the line at Stockley, the works there were less fortunate. Only 10 miles or so further west, that site was hit earlier by the winds and some of the lifts there had to be postponed. At Ealing Broadway the only crane lifts delayed by the winds were secondary lifts of materials and plant, and these delays had no significant effect upon the programme. Additional works at the site included some piling to the rail embankment adjacent to the new footbridge. This provided embankment support where it was necessary to trim the bank to construct the access route from the new bridge onto the NHS site and thence to the public road. The large crane was used to assist this work during the remainder of its contracted four-day stay on site. The plan now is to install the piled foundations and pile caps on Platform 1 ready for the stairs to be installed there and for the installation of the second bridge span over to that platform. The aspiration is to undertake all of these works before Easter, using normal weeknight possessions rather than blocking the line over the Easter holiday.

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Rail Engineer • February 2016

PAUL DARLINGTON

Resignalling North Lincolnshire K

ing’s Cross is renowned for the volume of passengers it sees on a daily basis, but Immingham rivals Kings Cross as the busiest part of the London North Eastern Route of Network Rail due to its movement of freight. Each week, Immingham port’s rail infrastructure handles more than 260 rail freight movements.

New LED lights at red while the old semaphore signalling is removed.

signalling and re-control of 11 signal box control areas, two gate boxes, along with the conversion of 16 road crossings to remote operation with obstacle detection. The new location of the control point would be the York Rail Operating Centre (ROC), enabling the signal boxes and gate boxes to be decommissioned. The overall project area covered almost 91km of railway and was an immense project to plan and deliver. The area is not electrified, although the project would provide passive provision for future electrification. The project area was largely two track unidirectional although there was a three track section, single line section, a number of sidings throughout the

area and the large, complex, freight yard at Immingham with some areas of bi-directional working, token and telephone working. The principal fringe signal boxes would be Scunthorpe SB, Holtonle-Moor SB, Great Coates No.1 SB, Goxhill SB and Brigg SB. Immingham East SB interlocking would fringe to Immingham Reception Sidings SB and Pyewipe Road SB, with Pyewipe Road SB operating on an ‘on demand’ basis.

Contracting strategy Siemens Rail Automation was appointed the principal contractor, delivering the core resignalling and telecommunications scope, with support contracts which included Linbrooke Services for electrical supply works, QTS and VGC Rail Projects for civil engineering, Kingfisher Rail for insulated rail joints and pway works. At the peak, there were 700 people working on the site. PHOTO: DAVID ENEFER

Removing old signalling at Barnetby.

Immingham is the UK’s largest port by tonnage and handles up to 55 million tonnes a year. It can handle up to 10 million tonnes of coal a year and is able to accommodate vessels carrying cargoes up to 130,000 tonnes. The port also handles large volumes of biomass, animal feed, salt and grain and has two in-dock container terminals with around 15 container vessel calls per week. There are four specialist liquid-bulk terminals, incorporating 18 berths and around 25 percent of the country’s oilrefinery capacity is located adjacent to the port. The demand for rail freight is set to increase and, therefore, it is important that investment and renewals are delivered to future proof the railway by introducing efficiencies while reducing the need for heavy maintenance and the associated delay to services. A 17-day closure over the Christmas and New Year holiday season saw the renewal and re-control of the mechanical signalling between Immingham, Scunthorpe and Cleethorpes with new colour light signalling. This included the re-

PHOTO: DAVID ENEFER

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(Right and below) Sliding the 3,750 tonne bridge box into place took just under 12 hours.

PHOTO: FREYSSINET

The programme manager was very appreciative of the Network Rail in-house works delivery group which delivered approximately 40km of sub surface cable route, with some sections of protected elevated route, before Siemens commenced on site. Being a mechanical signalling area, there were no exiting cable routes and, while expensive, a sub-surface cable route mitigates against theft and vandalism. 25 full-depth undertrack cable crossings have been installed as further mitigation against theft and because this is a very heavy freight route.

Blockade The signalling projects group of Network Rail was tasked with creating a larger integrated programme for the delivery of other work within the blockade. This started in 2012 with stakeholder consultation on whether other disciplinary work could be delivered within the resignalling blockade. The ports, refineries, and local councils were canvassed to determine what their requirements and constraints were if the railway were to be unavailable for a length of time. This ultimately resulted in the delivery of two bridge renewals, one steel and one concrete deck, an outside party underbridge for a much needed dual carriageway link road to the port, platform extensions at New Holland, bridge inspections and plain line renewals, together with extensive heavy maintenance.

Freyssinet, working for Highways England principal contractor Costain Construction along with earthworks sub-contractor Walters, successfully slid a concrete bridge underneath the Immingham to Ulceby railway line, just off Rosper Road in South Killingholme. This was critical to the A160/A180 Port of Immingham Improvement Scheme which will enhance road access into the port and which will have a massive benefit to the local economy. The reinforced concrete bridge box measured 39x18x11 metres high, weighed approximately 3,750 tonnes, and had been constructed next to the railway in the months leading up to the slide. Ten days before the slide, Freyssinet commenced installation

PHOTO: FREYSSINET

of the four 1000-tonne jacks and associated hydraulic equipment needed to move the structure. The system was tested 48 hours before the main slide by moving the structure 450mm towards the railway embankment. The slide commenced at 21:00 on Christmas Day and finished at 08:45 on Boxing Day, which was one hour earlier than programmed. The bridge was positioned within 50mm of notional intended position and the backfilling and rail reinstatement completed. The possession was handed back at 03:35 on 28 December, within the timescales agreed with the blockade team. To deliver an acceptable train service for the busy port, the resignalling was split in two, with a red route and a blue route. The red route from Immingham, through Barnetby and across to Scunthorpe, had a possession of no more than five days which needed to be handed back for operational use no later than 05:00 on 30 December. The blue route consisted of passenger services from Cleethorpes via Stallingborough through to Barnetby Junction, together with passenger services from Barton on Humber through Gaxhill down to Ulceby. This needed to be handed back into operation by 4.30 on 11 January with the blue route needing additional time due to having the majority of the renewed level crossings. Both blockades were successfully handed back within the agreed timescales.

Rail Engineer • February 2016

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Rail Engineer â&#x20AC;˘ February 2016

York ROC workstation.

The flooding of York added to the problems over the Christmas period with the main BT exchange being put out of action due to water ingress. This resulted in a number of key BT numbers being unavailable in the ROC and loss of communications to the Siemens design office. The flooding in York also affected the Siemens office and took out its servers. This impacted on some data design changes which were required, but a solution was found, illustrating just how difficult it is to plan for the unplanned on such large projects as North Lincolnshire.

New signalling equipment The re-controlled area was the first to go live in the new York ROC. A Siemens Westcad control system has A departure for Manchester Airport waits at Scunthorpe station.

been provided, with two workstations. The computer-based interlockings are also installed centrally at the York ROC. Each trackside interface (TIF) communicates with the trackside data links via long distance terminals (LDT), with a maximum of 63 trackside functional modules (TFM) on each link. Westrace solid-state interlockings have been provided for the level crossings housed in Modular Equipment Housings (MEH). The equipment is fully networked with remote diagnostics and alarms so the maintenance strategy has moved from spanner and hammer to laptop and mouse! Train detection is via a combination of 241 Frauscher axle counters and medium-voltage DC track circuits. 97 new VMS Lightweight LED signals

have been provided. These are the raise-and-lower design which require no working at height for maintenance and repair. This is a welcome change for the area which was previously signalled by very tall semaphore signals. 85 advanced warning system (AWS), 35 train protection and warning system (TPWS), 181 equipment housings, 45 insulated rail joints and 246 hollow sleepers were also provided. There were 31 mechanicalto-electrical point conversions, together with 20 point machine renewals and two sets of points plain-lined. The fringe working, including interfacing with SSI and absolute block signalling at 16 different points, and the design and changeover strategy had to be detailed and wellrehearsed in order to be undertaken with the resources available. A new Power Supply Point (PSP) was installed at Wrawby along with various Auxiliary Supply Points (ASP) and feeders throughout the area with automatic reconfiguration system to work around failures. At Wrawby Junction, near Barnetby, the line speed has been raised from 30mph to 50mph through the curve into the junction which will greatly assist fully laden freight traffic.

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Rail Engineer • February 2016

Pasture Street level crossing.

Level crossings There were in the region of 100 level crossings within the project area consisting of manual closed barriers, manual closed barriers with CCTV, automatic barriers, manual gates, and many user-worked or footpath crossings. While sixteen of the protected-type crossings fell within the scope of the project for renewal, a number required telecoms facilities to connect them to the ROC. The manual gates and barrier crossings have all been converted to controlled barriers with obstacle detection (CB-OD) with solidstate interlockings. The 16 road level crossings included six within Grimsby town centre. These required a complex signalling architecture and a carefully planned strategy of road closures with North East Lincolnshire Council to prevent the town centre becoming land locked. One key decision, which was identified as a learning point for future projects, was the delivery of the majority of the level crossing civil engineering works ahead of the resignalling commissioning. This was carried out within rules of route rail possessions and road closures. The work had been ongoing throughout the last six months and thus minimised the signalling work and risk within the blockade.

Telecoms requirements The telecoms scope of work for the project included the splicing, testing and commissioning of new 24-fibre optical cable, new copper trunk cables

Linbrooke supplies Supporting Siemens to deliver the North Lincs 650V electrical supply works over the last 18 months, Linbrooke successfully installed, tested and commissioned a new Principal Supply Point (PSP), three PSP extensions, four new Auxiliary Supply Points (ASPs) and a new reconfigurable supply point (RSP), each containing Camlin auto reconfigurable switch gear.

Installing and testing 230V domestic supplies to eleven modular housing equipment (MEHs) and six Relocatable Equipment Buildings (REBs) derived from new and existing Distribution Network Operator (DNO) supplies, Linbrooke also provided the installation, test and commission of five new DNO connections and the modification of eight DNO cubicles. In meeting both the red and route commissioning dates, further works included the disconnections of five DNOs, eleven signal box or crossing keepers’ cabins and numerous lighting columns.

(50/30/10-pair), the redirection of all new lineside operational circuits and the migration of existing ones within the re-signalling area to York ROC, new lineside telephones, new exchange lines for new Relocatable Equipment Buildings (REB) and Power Supply Points (PSP), provision of signalling data link circuits over the network back to York ROC, and the identification, disconnection and recovery of telecoms assets made redundant by the project. The concentrator deployed for the operational voice services introduced the MXone telephony server to the ROC with a Northgate Call touch user interface. This provided continuity from a user perspective with the current IECC solution. The concentrator was pre commissioned weeks in advance of the blockade works and the Fixed Telecom Network (FTN) network testing and circuits provisioning by NRT with the services tested by Siemens. 19 existing FTN access node sites were used with Ethernet interfaces to the circuit switched FTN transmission equipment. There were seven additional FTN nodes added and the introduction of additional fibre cable to provide full network resilience and physical diversity, which was not present prior to the project works, in the areas of Wraby to Harrough and Great Coates to Grimsby Docks. As an FTN designed solution, the area operates as an STM1 SDH network with the 64kbit/s signalling circuits conforming to the ITU-T G.703 contra direction interface. Two diversely routed links ensure the required service availability figures are met. The topology provides both point-to-point and point-tomultipoint connectivity.

However, this is likely to be one of the last signalling schemes to deploy this type of FTN solution for the telecoms bearer network. With much of the FTN hardware now out of manufacture, the use of Ethernet ISA cards for the IP interface is becoming unsustainable. Subsequent re-control projects will probably deploy the next generation of full IP network FTNx architecture.

Success! The integrated programme, which included the renewal of other assets with the signalling project leading, has been a great success. Stakeholder management involved local councils and authorities with a large number of road closures and diversions. A number of cross-industry reviews were held with train operators, local industries, power stations and freight operators to discuss, in effect, the closure of the county for 17 days, and to ensure that everyone was aware of what was happening and the contingency plans that were in place. Communication with all affected parties was excellent and this included the establishment of a dedicated website to provide everyone with greater visibility of the plans. Jim Hogg, project manager for Network Rail, said: “By working together, Network Rail, Siemens and their subcontractors have successfully achieved one of the largest most complex re-signalling schemes in the UK. The many months of careful planning ensured that we were able to deliver the project on time and on budget, to allow the railway to reopen as expected on 11 January.” Thanks to Ben Lynch, Jim Hogg and Fraser Allan of Network Rail for their assistance with this article.

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Rail Engineer • February 2016

Extreme collaboration!

London Underground and Network Rail working together

JAMIE COULSON

veryone knows that rail travel is one of Britain’s success stories. Trains are bursting at the seams, particularly in the South East during rush hour, and both operators and infrastructure owners are working hard to increase capacity by running more-frequent higher-capacity trains.

This is true both of national rail commuter services and London Underground. The Tube is moving more people than ever. On Friday 4 December last year, a record 4.821 million customers travelled on the Underground network - the busiest day in London Underground’s history. And demand continues to rise. As a result, engineering teams are working harder than ever to renew the asset base and modernise services which are so critical to keep London moving and growing. Over the holidays, experienced teams from across London Underground were hard at work delivering a significant programme of rail modernisation. Taking advantage of lower traffic and customer levels, a part-closure of the Circle, Hammersmith & City and Metropolitan lines was implemented in order to carry out a record 24,000 hours of upgrade work.

Working together For some time, the key to delivering a complex project successfully has been collaboration. Rail Engineer has reported on several of these arrangements, at Birmingham New Street station, Hitchin viaduct (the Hitchin Alliance) and the work around Norton Bridge Junction and Stafford (Staffordshire Alliance). But this year, collaboration was taken one step further as, at Paddington, London Underground teams worked side-byside with colleagues at Network Rail. This collaboration was a first for LU and more work was completed in a much shorter space of time, ensuring minimum disruption to customers. LU had planned to renew two platforms at Paddington tube station in 2010. However, it wasn’t able to complete the work within a traditional weekend renewal possession, due to challenges with single line working Ballast Track Renewals (BTRs). Without a service road for the BTR, single line working proved difficult, making a standard weekend closure an impossibility. It wasn’t until Christmas 2015 that the perfect opportunity was presented for the platform renewals to take place by working with Network Rail. Collaboration was key. Over the year preceding the project, delivery teams from LU and Network Rail held regular monthly meetings to ensure a successful delivery of the platform and ballast track renewal work. It was proposed that Track Partnership, itself a collaboration between London Underground and Balfour Beatty, would service the BTR of platform 15 using National Supply Chain engineering trains provided by Network Rail. Meanwhile, Network Rail would carry out its planned renewal of nearby platform 14 using LU’s transplant engineering fleet. By sharing resources and running the renewal works alongside one another, LU and Network Rail could hit two birds with one stone.

Rail Engineer • February 2016

With another track renewal taking place across London at King’s Cross, it was essential that LU shared assets with Network Rail. A year’s worth of planning ensured that contractual arrangements were in place between the two.

After the planning… LU’s possession commenced at 02:00 on Christmas Day. LU then worked on the 314 metre long BTR of Platform 15 until 07:00 on 27 December, when the track was handed over to Network Rail. Network Rail then serviced its BTR and switches and crossings (S&Cs) work from platform 15 until 07:00 on 29 December. From 29 December, work continued on both until the start of traffic on New Year’s Eve. Breaking out the platform foundations proved a major challenge; using additional road-rail vehicles added between two and four hours to the removal time. Though LU was able to obtain core samples of the old platform foundations, engineers were still unsure how the platform would break, which could have risked a delay to handing over platform 15 to Network Rail on time. While this work was underway, LU also connected the Heathrow Express service bonding location and fourth rail system to the Network Rail overhead line equipment, which will reduce the risk of interference and touch potential developing between the lines. With Network Rail realigning its track, the Heathrow Express was moved closer to LU - a difficult process requiring an all-line block of Network Rail at Paddington and a possession of LU platforms 15 and 16. The LU delivery team also loaded the check rail sleepers at Cemex’s yard in Birmingham onto the Network Rail wagons, and the team travelled to Birmingham, Bristol and Oxford to ensure that they arrived in the correct train consist on site. Because the possession limits provided a limited space between Paddington and Praed Street Junction (with street traffic running only 120 metres away), it was crucial that engineering trains didn’t crowd the space. To ensure there was enough space, and to prevent any knock-on effect on traffic hours service, one train was allowed through during the tamping of platform 15.

Organisation Throughout the project, the car park and welfare facilities were shared, spreading the cost between Network Rail and LU - which saved LU as much as £60,000. A shared approach to access was the background to a better working relationship. Network Rail staff with a valid PTS certificate were provided access to LU track, and in return, LU staff with a valid LUCAS certificate could access Network Rail track, in both cases following a site briefing. LU staff were identified by wristbands, while Network Rail staff were identified by stickers on their helmets. To ensure consistent communications throughout the blockade, Network Rail was kept in the loop on LU’s milestone updates, and in return, LU staff working on site took part in Network Rail conference calls. No lost time accidents were reported despite an estimated 24,000 hours of upgrade work. A visit from the Office of Rail and Road during the blockade confirmed the project’s success (100% mark), general good housekeeping and strong collaborative working practices with Network Rail. This unique collaboration with Network Rail was a first for LU and a resounding success. The result is a more reliable railway with reduced maintenance requirements. The gap between the train and the platform was also narrowed and made more consistent by realigning the platform copings to match the new track alignments. Jamie Coulson was the delivery engineer with London Underground for the Paddington Christmas blockade.

Helen Benson Network Rail project manager IEP “Over the Christmas blockade, Network Rail successfully delivered a complete overhaul of platform 14 ready for the introduction of economically and environmentally efficient IEP trains to the Western Route. We completed a full S&C renewal, a 200 metre track relay and realigned the platform with associated signalling works, all in conjunction with the major works being carried out on the London Underground lines. This collaborative working between Network Rail and Track Partnership has been pioneering for the industry. Through the sharing of access and resources, we were able to maximise productivity, minimise cost and, most importantly, we were able to ensure the safest possible working environment for our people.”

James Barrows - Track Partnership senior project manager “The success of the collaborative working between Network Rail and Track Partnership is down to the hard work of both project teams in developing an active working relationship in the early planning stages. This allowed the main risks and issues to be identified and jointly resolved.”

Rail Engineer • February 2016

PHOTO: COLIN WHYMAN

From

Paddington to Stockley

Rail Engineer • February 2016

PHOTO: COLIN WHYMAN

Mark Carne, Network Rail's chief executive, visited the site on Christmas Day.

CHRIS PARKER

ive days of strong winds probably did not give the best start to the Network Rail’s works on the Great Western main line at Christmas 2015. As described by Carillion’s Operations Director, Colin Weallans, there were significant elements of work on several sites that depended upon the use of heavy cranes, where wind speeds were crucial, and most of these works suffered some delays as a result. All credit must therefore be given to the teams from Network Rail, Carillion, London Underground, Amey, Taylor Woodrow (Vinci) and Morgan Sindall, as well as their subcontractors, who contrived to ensure that this did not prevent completion, on time, of the planned works between Paddington and Stockley. Within this 12 mile long site, a huge quantity of work was carried out successfully. As an indication of the scale of these works, consider the number of Entry into Service (EiS) documents processed. An EiS would be something like a master signalling test certificate, an OLE Form E, a track configuration certificate or a Form 005 for civils works. This year’s works in this area required the completion and registration of 89 EiSs. By comparison, at Easter 2014, only 21 of these documents were dealt with, and at Christmas 2014 only 41 were required. Clearly a huge quantity of work was involved this time. Carillion mobilised directors, staff and operatives from across the country to enable assurance of delivery. The success of this Christmas’ work was such that the only planned works not completed were an under track crossing (UTX) at Southall, not a critical item, and only 41 out of the 56 planned lifts of robust kerb units for the new flyover at Stockley were installed, due to the winds. 15 of these kerbs will thus need to be installed at a

later date. When one considers the scope and scale of the works that were completed, these are minor matters.

Moving west So, what were the works? Starting logically at Paddington station, Network Rail and its suppliers worked collaboratively with London Underground on platforms 14 and 15 to reballast the track in each platform, the first such collaboration between the two infrastructure owners (see page 52 for more detail). Network Rail’s works also saw its platform extended, raised and realigned for the arrival of the IEP trains, due to begin using the station in the near future. Associated plain line and S&C renewals were also undertaken. At Old Oak Common, five new points went in, which allowed the route over the E&C line into the depot to be rationalised. However, this involved the creation of several new electrical OLE sections and wire runs to be installed in a completely different footprint. Intense liaison with the TOCs helped facilitate this critical operation by allowing additional possessions between the morning and evening peaks. In addition, three OLE headspan structures were converted to portals. Next along the line, Acton West was remodelled. To achieve this, existing concrete bearers had to be cut using specialist diamond

tipped blades to allow their removal in a fixed sequence. A 166 metre NR60 G33.5 crossover and two S&C turnouts were laid in and the existing plain line slewed over a 300 metre length to meet new track alignment positions. All the detailed OLE changes on the Relief and Popular lines were carried out by Carillion’s in house OLE team. Further OLE works to support Vinci in its works at Southall removing a footbridge, were undertaken with wire transfers from the existing structure, together with Platform 4 narrowing works and signalling. Furthest west, at Stockley, key works were undertaken on the ramp and flyover at Airport Junction, and 2 UTXs were installed, together with a 400 metre relay and slew on the single line Down Airport. The work on the flyover entailed the use of a 750 tonne crane to lift in ‘robust kerb units’ to their trackside locations, work that was delayed and rescheduled as a result of the high winds already mentioned. These units are vital since they will provide derailment containment when the flyover is in operation. One set of points at Hayes and Harlington was commissioned, including headspan transfers. The bulk of the work was completed in the four day all line block, however West Ealing remodelling only started on completion of those works. This scope involved installation of two curved turnouts providing revised access to the Greenford lines together with a new bay platform on the north side of the station.

Rail Engineer • February 2016

PHOTO: COLIN WHYMAN

Statistics management, with Network Rail, of 54 engineering trains and the variety of on-track plant required to move during the work.

Collaboration the key Colin gave particular credit to the way in which all parties collaborated and cooperated throughout. “I don’t think I ever heard the words ‘them’ or ‘us’ during the works,” he said. “Signallers, PICOPs and ES teams all worked brilliantly together and the Integrated Work Plan (IWP) was a great success.” Although something like 275,000 manhours were worked with no lost-time incidents, there were some health and safetyrelated incidents. These concerned members of the public, however, and sadly included a body found on the line at Ladbroke Grove (apparently the result of a shooting) and a non-fatal train strike at Hayes and Harlington station. Multiple trespass incidents occurred too. Colin said he was very impressed by the caring and professional attitudes of Network Rail, Carillion and Vinci team members when dealing with these incidents. PHOTO: RALPH HODGSON

The signalling workload was huge, affecting 73 locations according to Colin Weallans. The works involved 102 track circuits, 29 point ends, 61 signals and many other signalling assets. This signalling workload was half the size of the entire 14 mile Stage H resignalling scheme at Easter last year, making it a significant resignalling project in its own right. At the stations, 100 metres of Hayes and Harlington Platform 4 and 5 were cut back and reinstated. Platform 4 at Southall was extended by 112 metres, and the main span and supports of the footbridge were removed. An escape footbridge was partially completed, as planned, at Ealing Broadway (see page 42) with the installation of the supports and span for the Relief Lines section and the execution of some associated sheet piling work. In all, some 10 S&C units were installed, nearly 15,000 metres of overhead wires were run, almost 6,500 tonnes of track ballast was put down and nearly 1,400 metres of plain track laid. Significant platform, OLE, signalling and structures works were completed to plan and on time. Carillion was responsible for the integration of the many and varied works between Paddington and Stockley, including the

Mark Carne and Francis Paonessa visited the works on Christmas Day. Both were very impressed, and Francis apparently said that the Stockley site was the best he had seen since he joined Network Rail! Finally, the ORR visited Maidenhead, Stockley and Paddington during the works and raised only minor observations. This must be seen as a success in its own right. Colin expressed particular pride in the teams at Old Oak Common and Paddington. At the former, the teams of Network Rail, Carillion, Amey and Signalling Solutions Limited (SSL) worked hard and collaborated excellently, both in the weeks beforehand and during the Christmas works. All planned work was completed on time and with no operational impact, and a real team spirit could be seen. At Paddington, London Underground, Carillion, Amey, Morgan Sindall and several Network Rail teams were all involved in the complex works. The collaborative working on platforms 14 and 15 between Network Rail and LU was a first, was a great success and is likely to be repeated. It allowed significant efficiency gains by the execution of the works of both parties under the same possession and with other resource-sharing benefits.

Carillion was proud to be part of Network Rail’s “orange army,” working over Christmas to build a better rail network. Contact us at www.carillionplc.com

Rail Engineer • February 2016

High Speed handbacks are not just for Christmas... TRACK

“Our plan is to hand back the S&C at fifty miles an hour.” “Not good enough.” “¿Que? That’s what we’ve always handed back at.” “Not good enough.”

“Fifty miles an hour is pretty good.” “Fifty miles an hour will destroy the timetable and that’s after blocking the WCML for nine days! ...What would we need to do to get to eighty miles an hour?” Speed board logistics

GRAHAME TAYLOR

K, that’s probably a simplification of the conversation between Network Rail’s Track Delivery section and the WCML Route, but it was the prompt to raise the bar - and raise the speed at which renewal sites are handed back to normal traffic. The site in question was at Wigan in 2013. Such a lengthy blockade was hard won and so the discussion about handback speeds gave everything an interesting twist.

A bit of background The risk with judging an appropriate speed restriction for a high-speed railway has less to do with derailment and much more to do with passenger comfort and sensations. It is the reaction of passengers and their very low threshold to a change in movement that governs the speed at which a higher speed railway should operate. At low speeds, a significant top fault will be presented to a passenger’s backside relatively slowly. Combined with a knowledge of low speed - by glancing out of the window - there is likely to be little alarm raised. An alignment fault - even a large one - at low speed will not cause balance to be lost or luggage to be dislodged. On the other hand, at high speeds, even an almost imperceptible fault - at least to the eye - will cause alarm and distress. This will be way below any derailment threshold.

Now, a brief word on the logistics of implementing and managing a speed restriction. Raising a temporary speed restriction is relatively straightforward. So long as you get the new speed boards into the holders in the correct order speed board first, then the warning board! - not the other way round -then it’s just a matter of taking the boards to site and putting them into the hardware. There are no risks to trains and no nasty surprises for the drivers. On the other hand, reducing a published speed restriction is fraught with problems and embarrassment! Effectively, it’s the imposition of an emergency speed restriction - costly in every respect and something that is the stuff of pway nightmares. If the track has deteriorated quickly, then there are the remedial measures to plan and these too will be costly and difficult to arrange as well. So, there’s a bit of a compromise in the whole process. Just thinking about the management of the speed, it is prudent to plan an 80mph handback, but publish it at 50mph. If everything goes to plan and the track really is fit for 80mph and we’ll come on to how this can be assured in a moment - if the track is good for 80mph, then ‘80’ boards can go into the lineside hardware almost immediately after the possession handback. One or two trains observed at 50mph is not a bad move, but thereafter the higher speed can be allowed - and the operators are happy.

Rail Engineer • February 2016

Lifting in track panels at Doncaster.

So, to open a line at more than 50mph, which is just on the cusp of being relatively low and relatively fast, involves some very accurate track measurement preceded by a very secure base to the track structure itself.

Finding the weak spots

TRACK

Going back to Wigan, what did it really mean? This was an S&C site, not plain line. S&C is a precision piece of kit and tricky to get down sufficiently accurately for a high-speed handback to be considered. It meant that the track had to be right in every physical respect. Top had to be perfect, as did alignment. But that would not be enough. The S&C had to be laid on a ballast formation that was not going to deform after the passage of just a few trains. When track - that’s plain line and S&C - is handed back at the end of a possession it is probable that everything will look stunningly perfect. Modern machinery has been honed to exacting standards. It bristles with every conceivable gizmo to make sure that the end result is as perfect as possible. But, unless the ballast has been prepared, the top and probably the line will start to deteriorate

rapidly after the passage of just a few trains. High-speed traffic soon finds the weak spots and the perfect track becomes less than perfect with the likelihood that speeds have to be reduced back to something more cautious.

Really compacted? Steve Featherstone, Network Rail’s track programme director, and his team had the task of cracking the higher speed handback and investigated the critical issue of ballast compaction state. The Network Rail standards were, in some ways, helpful and, in others, ‘less than helpful’. If you wanted to know how many passes of a

triple wacker should be carried on the ballast below bearer level then the answer was ‘three’! Run the compactors over the ballast three times and you’d have satisfied the standards. Simple. The trouble was that this was a little too simple as there was no mention of what the compaction was meant to achieve. Was the ballast really compacted? Or really, really compacted? Usually, compacting three times was enough to allow a 50mph handback with normal traffic doing the rest of the work and the track given a series of really good follow up tamps. Compacting three times couldn’t guarantee a stable enough formation to allow the relentless

Track renewals at Doncaster South.

Rail Engineer • February 2016

TRACK

handed back at 80mph (although someone is bound to set this record straight!). Straight plain line was routinely handed back at 80mph, but rarely if ever on curved track. There were also tampers lurking in the area and, although tricky to arrange, they could appear out of sequence to rescue any track that was going off. The structure of railways meant everything was easier to organise in an era long before the mobile phone. Back in the eighties there was a new piece of kit on the block called the DTS - dynamic track stabiliser that worked its way through the renewal vibrating the ballast and treating it to a week’s worth of trains in just a few hours. That was the trick that allowed the higher handbacks. In the early years of Railtrack, these machines languished and decayed as there was no imperative to use them. One or two survived and it’s these - operated by Babcock - that have been brought back out of the bushes to repeat the method of working done 30+ years ago. As was the way in those days, there was the tendency to rely on resources that could be found to sort out anything that went wrong. Steve has many more tools at his disposal that will ensure that the track is in the design position so that the tampers are not being asked to yank track across more than is needed. In fact it can be placed within 5mm or10mm with tampers being asked to do what they are really good at and that’s fine tuning.

DTS, S&C - can they go together?

New points at Doncaster Marshgate.

Acton Wells.

pounding of unsprung axles knocking seven bells out of the track straight after a possession - with no prospect of the tamper cavalry arriving at short notice to sort out the ensuing problems. The team looked to science and developed a process that allowed the compaction to be measured. This involved the use of the Falling Weight Deflectometer - a device that has been around in the road construction industry for many years. This at last gave a measurement, a benchmark, to aim for. Coupled with the ever-improving methods of levelling and grading the ballast using 2D and 3D laser dozers, the goal of a stable foundation came ever nearer. Set the target of 80mph for Wigan, the team achieved precisely that and so started the journey towards a host of options relating to hand back speeds.

A step back Now, it is worth mentioning some historic factors here as there are bound to be a number of readers of Rail Engineer magazine getting a tad restive by this stage in the narrative. Do I hear the words, “We were doing this in the 1980s”? Very likely, because that was indeed what was happening. In broad, very broad, terms, high speed handbacks are not new, but the world is a different place and direct comparisons are tricky - as are memories. In certain pockets of the network, handback at 80mph went on week after week. The possessions were shorter maybe just 12 hours and passing the paper train at 03:00 - but the length of relaying was shorter too. S&C wasn’t

So can the DTS - or the next generation of DTS - be used on S&C? There are ‘discussions’ currently between track engineers and signal engineers. There are concerns that the DTS, which does appear to be pretty brutal, could disturb some of the detection and sensing equipment stuck all over S&C. “Who knows?” is the answer at the moment and will be until some tests are carried out in conjunction with Southampton University on a test layout at the Network Rail laboratory in Grange. There, Steve intends to knock the living daylights out of the layout using a DTS at full chat and then see if there’s any damage. There is an argument that the DTS just replicates traffic that equipment would endure over a week anyway. The counter argument might be that it’s all rather concentrated. So the jury will be going out soon but, looking towards the next financial control periods - CP6 and CP7 - now is the time to consider the purchase of new DTS machinery for the next tranche of renewals.

Rail Engineer • February 2016

Plates

The present… The Christmas and New Year works by Network Rail saw an unprecedented number of higher speed handbacks, with 125mph linespeed achieved in LNE on plain line, 100mph linespeed achieved on the ballast cleaner in Anglia, 100mph linespeed achieved on the Track Renewal System in Wessex, 120mph linespeed achieved on S&C in LNE and 60mph linespeed achieved on S&C in the South East.

TRACK

Other pieces of kit involved - more mundane perhaps - are the basic plates used to join un-welded rail ends securely. Current standard emergency plates are rated at 50mph. The High Output Unit has back-hole drilled plates rated at 80mph. Trials are going on at the moment on Robel plates that are used in Germany at 100mph. Use of these types of plate can allow renewals to be handed back at higher speeds without having to weld all the joints. This would either cut down the time required for the renewal or allow more work to be done with shorter follow-up possessions needed for final welding.

The future… The railways have rediscovered the trick of high speed handbacks in response to commercial drivers, using science and technological advances. Steve has a vision of being able to have a range of options available. It isn’t always necessary to go for high speed. It all depends on the traffic imperatives and the timetable. But where the timetable dictates, then it is likely that routine handbacks at up to 125mph could be on the cards.

In perhaps another two or three years, this will be a reality and the rather awkward conversation that started back in Wigan may be a little different.

Removing old track at Acton.

“Our plan is to hand back at 125 miles per hour” “Really?! Go for it then... any chance of 140mph?” “¿Que?”

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Rail Engineer • February 2016

MALCOLM DOBEL

Monitoring train fleets New Cross Gate depot.

f you own a wind farm in the sea, you really want to know how well each turbine is performing. Clearly, if one turbine is producing less electricity than the norm, you can see this, but it’s not good enough. You also need to know why, so you can fix it. Moreover it’s also pretty important to know precisely why, as it’s a difficult journey just to get to the turbine let alone climbing up and down the mast - you wouldn’t want to find you’ve brought the wrong parts or tools! What has this got to do with train maintenance, you might ask? It was just one of the examples of successful remote condition monitoring mentioned during a two day conference in December 2015. Over 160 people gathered in London for the fourth Annual Fleet Maintenance Congress organised by London Business Conferences. The snappy subtitle for the congress was “Reducing Cost Through Integrating CBM and Data Analytics”. Whilst the language may be challenging, the numbers attending suggested that there was a great deal of interest in this topic. Moreover, the title might sound as though it was for computer experts and statisticians but, in fact, it was for and delivered by real train maintenance managers grappling to deliver more for less in a competitive environment, whilst getting to grips with the latest tools to do so, just as has been happening over the history of railways.

Advance warning It is worth a small aside to mention some of the principles that underpin this article. The basis of remote condition monitoring is that you gain knowledge of the performance of a piece of equipment by monitoring its performance. This might include fitting sensors to items of equipment or using measurements already made within the equipment. The sensors might be on the train or they might be trackside. As an example, door systems often monitor door speeds so that any reduction in speed (increasing friction in the system, say) can be corrected by increasing the power

of the motor. Changes over time in the current drawn by the motor will therefore indicate deterioration in the mechanical guides or some other fault. Data about the current consumed is sent back to base over a wireless communications link (perhaps 3G/4G) into a shore-based database which can be accessed by the maintainer. This is Remote Condition Monitoring (RCM). Condition-Based Maintenance (CBM) is the process of turning RCM data into information. With CBM, analysis is often carried out by experts in both train maintenance and data processing and, sometimes, by combining data from a number of sources. In the simple doors example for basic RCM, if the motor current goes consistently above a defined threshold, the maintenance planner can call the train into the workshop for attention. Generally, this will be far less frequently than routinely checking the door system. For the data analyst, the door currents of all the doors over days, weeks, months or years can be analysed which might deliver insights into door system, operator and customer behaviour. This is a very simplistic illustration, but it shows the basic principle.

Conference basics The conference included a good-sized exhibition space occupied by providers of RCM and CBM tools and solutions. The conference itself was a mixture of railway managers describing the challenges they face that are leading them into RCM/CBM, some case studies, both successful and others that were more challenging, and finally some presentations from companies selling RCM/ CBM technology and expertise.

Rail Engineer • February 2016 The scene was set really well by Tom Hopkins, Heathrow Express head of engineering, who reminded us of the basics: 1. Introducing RCM and CBM is not just introducing new technology. Most technology programmes are really, at their heart, business change programmes and Tom emphasised that unless people, process and technology receive equal weight supported by excellent leadership, there is a good chance the project will, at best, not deliver the expected benefits and, at worst, fail. 2. Today’s new trains should come with systems that capture train and sub-system status and parameters with software to capture and analyse this information. 3. On older fleets, monitoring systems can be retrofitted “at a price”. Some owners or operators have capitalised on projects such as accessing OTMR (On Train Monitoring Recorder) information, taking advantage of the opportunity provided by fitting customer Wi-Fi. Others have chosen to fit sensors to monitor unreliable equipment. 4. The biggest challenge for all the systems, whether new or old, is analysing the mass of data that is produced and deciding the trigger levels. This cannot just be decided by the CBM vendor alone; it needs input from sub system designers, maintainers and operators using analysis techniques such as Reliability Centred Maintenance. 5. Finally, the RCM and CBM systems should be at least linked to the asset management system.

Extra benefits This theme of retrofitting sensors was picked up by Justin Southcombe of Perpetuum (UK) and by Ross Balcombe of South Eastern Trains (SET). Perpetuum makes self-powered wireless vibration sensors (the product of research by Southampton University) and SET has used these devices to monitor axle bearings on its fleet. The train operator wanted to be able confidently to extend the interval between wheelset overhauls, and the vibration sensors were able to provide early warning of any issues with the wheel bearings. Justin said that they had carried out a limited trial to validate the principle before rolling it out across 1000s of wheels. The analysis of the vibration sensors is able to identify the ‘signature’ of early wear of bearings. A great deal of ‘noise’ had to be filtered out of the signals in order

Perpetuum self-powered vibration sensor.

Rail Engineer • February 2016

Crowds at Waterloo are symptomatic of the everincreasing popularity of rail travel.

to deliver the information SET required, and it was soon realised that this ‘noise’, which was actually vibration signals from wheels and rails, could be valuable. By filtering in different ways, wheel and track defects could be monitored too. As a result, wheel and rail defects are being advised both to South Eastern Trains and to Network Rail. While track information had not been the initial objective there was no possibility of understating its significance now, and examples of how careful analysis of data can yield far more than expected were highlighted throughout the conference.

RCM meets Oyster Gaining unexpected information was evident in the presentation by Steve Foot and Chris Welford of London Underground. They are working on LU’s “Predict and Prevent” programme which aims to produce more and more availability and reduced failure rates at a time of increased ridership - indeed the latest record of 4.8 million customers in a day was announced during the conference.

They acknowledged that LU’s newest trains have very sophisticated RCM systems, a comment echoed by many speakers about modern trains in general. However, they chose to highlight a case study of the Central line trains which were fitted with an early Train Control and Monitoring System from new in 1992/3. This system always had the ability to download data from the train to shore, but LU’s more recent work had seen installation of Wi-Fi to allow the data to be extracted more frequently, and the use of data scientists working with the engineers to bring additional insights into the data. LU was fortunate to be able to access some of the Transport for London Oyster card data scientists who have experience in finding patterns in seemingly random Oyster use. Their work delivered a computer tool for maintainers to interrogate the system and had brought about a number of benefits including an increase in the number of orders for work, resulting in an improvement in reliability. However one particular success was the enthusiasm with which the new system was received by the staff.

Increased capacity through RCM Relationships, reducing failures of the whole railway system and coping with increasing ridership were themes of Neil O’Connor’s presentation. Neil is fleet depot manager for South West Trains. The introduction to his presentation was illustrated by a seething mass of people waiting for trains under the famous clock at Waterloo Station. Ridership on SWT has increased significantly over the years. Waterloo alone has seen passenger arrivals and departures increase by 50% in the last 15 years and it is forecast to increase by another 30% over the next 15. The solution is more trains, but Neil only had a certain sized depot to fit them into. His solution was to reduce the number of interventions on the older trains by, inter alia, fitting new traction equipment and using various RCM techniques to improve the maintainers’ knowledge of the fleets. LU Central line 1992 stock.

Rail Engineer • February 2016

Understanding the data In his opening remarks, Tom Hopkins stressed the importance of setting the right trigger levels in the analytics. This was reinforced by a comment from Steve Foote who mentioned that point machines all seem to have different current-time signatures even where the machine and the points are of the same type and configuration. Perpetuum and SET had adopted one technique for learning about how to use data - by using their pilot installation. Tsuyoshi Ichigi from the Technology R&D Centre of Japan Railways East Group described the approach JR East had taken to understand how to turn the data on the performance of doors and the heating/air conditioning (HVAC) system of the prototype E235 train into information. Examples of the doors and HVAC had been set up so that engineers and researchers could validate their understanding of the data coming off the train. For example, they were able to apply controlled amounts of contamination to HVAC filters in the laboratory in order to understand both the impact on performance and how this is relayed by the monitoring system. The laboratory work was carried out for a much larger range of abnormal conditions than would be practicable to perform on the prototype train. This presentation introduced the use of Principal Component Analysis, which is a technique used to emphasise variation and bring out strong patterns in a dataset. It is often used to make data easy to explore and visualise - and is far too complex to explain here.

European perspective Later on, Bas Sprangers and Jan Luijben of the Amsterdam Public Transport operator GVB presented on the challenges for introducing CBM on a fleet that has been supplied by different suppliers, all of whom have provided different systems and some of which do not send all the appropriate data, such as mileage. Like others, they recognised the value of analytics and CBM; for them it will help them improve availability to help meet ever-increasing demand. They

described a particular challenge they have related to EU procurement rules for public bodies, which makes it difficult to take the knowledge gained from a small-scale contract (perhaps a small supplier’s intellectual property), and apply that knowledge to a bigger contract which might need to be opened to competition. Whilst talking about EU regulations, the issue of approval of changes to maintenance regimes was discussed. All operators will understand the importance of safety in all railway operations. In the EU at least, any change in the maintenance regime has to be justified and certified and it is no good saying that this or that maintenance interval can be extended just because “the computer says it is OK”. Although the RCM and CBM computer tools bring much greater clarity and certainty to maintenance decisions, it is still maintenance engineers who have to justify what is or is not in the fleet maintenance regime and this has to go into a well-argued case with evidence for certification and safety regulators to consider. Belgium Railways (SNCB), Italian Railways (Trenitalia), French Railways (SNCF) and Finnish Railways (VR) all presented their experience both of retrofitting existing trains and of learning to manage with the vast quantity of data that new trains deliver. Two particularly noteworthy points were made by VR and Trenitalia. Firstly, from VR and to illustrate the diverse data sources there is the short hand, “the three Vs of data”: »» Variety - forms, structure, sources; »» Volume - How much of it in kilobytes, megabytes, gigabytes, terabytes; »» Velocity - streamed or occasional and does it all arrive in the right order. Secondly, Trenitalia had specified a performance requirement for the RCM systems on its newest train fleet that: »» >80% of all maintenance work orders should come from the RCM system; »» <5% of these notifications should be “no fault found”; »» <5% repeat repairs.

JR East E235 on a test run.

Rail Engineer • February 2016

ROSCO benefits A slightly different perspective was presented by Olivier André of Porterbrook Leasing with the aim of showing how it can be to a leasing company’s commercial advantage to provide some or all of the technology to enable RCM and possibly to sell the service of providing the data or information from these systems to lessees (or others?). He highlighted that C4 Underframe and C6 (carbody) overhauls present the opportunity to add facilities such as an Ethernet backbone for IP connectivity, CCTV, Wi-Fi (passengers and RCM data) sensors, and track to train wireless links. Olivier suggested the benefits would be: To the train operating company (TOC): »» Possible standard architecture/open system; »» Future proofing an older train; »» Freedom to choose his own back office (not being tied to train supplier’s solution). To the leasing company: »» Protecting the value of the asset; »» Differentiation of Porterbrook as a lessor; »» Ability to cross reference across fleets operating on different TOCs; »» Possibly to reduce/eliminate heavy maintenance and add tasks to routine maintenance.

After two long days At the end of a full two-day programme, delegates had a much better appreciation of the benefits, and pitfalls, of RCM and CBM. Probably the most discussions revolved around: »» New trains will generally come with RCM, but work is still necessary to determine the CBM requirements for the particular railway’s environment. There was criticism of some suppliers (no names quoted) who

seek to monetise the data these systems produce and the lack of open data structures. There were no presentations from rolling stock suppliers and perhaps these issues might be addressed next time. »» CBM is in its infancy on rolling stock compared with RCM, which is seen as a mature technology. Some of the presenters reported on their struggle to make a business case for retrofitting RCM because they need the benefits of CBM to justify RCM and CBM benefits are, often, educated guesswork. Maturity of CBM will only come as operators and suppliers pool data and are able to review others’ results. »» Many asset managers see the opportunity, but don’t have the skills in-house to carry out the development work on CBM for their network. There are outside companies that have these skills, but, for the public sector at least, the challenges of contracting in a scalable form for these services are real. Like all good conferences, despite the amount of information received, there were still questions unanswered. No doubt these will be taken up next year.

Rail Safety Summit 2016

Safety Summit MAY 2016

After the success of 2015, the Safety Summit will return on the 5th May 2016. Over the past few years there has been a huge push to improve the safety record within the industry, meaning change both in design and process. All areas of the industry felt that this often caused confusion due to the amount of change that happened at one time. Which policy do you implement? Have I missed anything? Which part applies to me? Whether safety is your area of expertise or you just feel you need to brush up, the event will prove enlightening and create significant discussion points for you to take back to your organisation.

On top of listening to the speakers, you will be able to visit our sponsor exhibition stands and network over a well earned coffee and delicious lunch. Visit www.railsummits.com to buy your ticket â&#x20AC;&#x201C; This event is extremely popular and places are limited, so please book now to avoid disappointment.

Purchase your tickets now at www.railsummits.com

Rail Engineer â&#x20AC;˘ February 2016

BRIDGES AND TUNNELS

Healing

Wounds Could campaigners bring rebirth to two South Wales valleys by reopening the disused railway tunnel that connects them?

PHOTOS: BEN SALTER/DAVID VOUSDEN

Rail Engineer • February 2016

Also amongst the latter is Stephen Mackey who grew up at the head of the Rhondda Fawr valley, blessed with an adventure playground on his doorstep. But there was one particular place that drew him back time after time. A short walk from home was a railway tunnel, two miles in length, through which there was no traffic on a Sunday. So he’d take a candle, put it in a tin, and venture forth into the darkness. Near its midpoint, the tunnel abruptly widened for a few yards, a spot he knew as ‘the church’. Here he would sit for hours, reflecting on the courage and resolve of those who had pushed this passageway through the hill 80 years earlier. For reasons he never fully understood, he felt at one with them. Confrontation with officialdom was an ever-present threat, but this diminished in 1968 when passenger traffic ceased, disenfranchising communities in this remote corner of South Wales. With the help of two mates and a 40-foot rope, Stephen repainted the commemorative cover stone cemented into the east portal’s headwall, appending his name and the request “please open me”. Then, in 1980, with locals persistently breaching the tunnel’s protective blockwalls, the county council arrived to infill the approach cuttings, bulldozers burying their liability beneath tonnes of earth. Stephen watched on with a lump in his throat as part of his childhood vanished. As he headed home, he looked back and shouted: “I’ll open you one day” - the sort of thing you do as an impassioned youth before the burdens of being a grownup come to bear.

(Opposite, top) The western entrance at Blaengwynfi. The only shaft can just be seen above the portal’s left-hand wing wall.

Go west Through the 1870s, increasing coal production in the Rhondda severely tested the handling capabilities of its monopoly carriers, the Taff Vale Railway and Cardiff Docks. Return journeys typically took two days. This background of crippling congestion spurred the merchant folk of Swansea - where new coal shipping facilities had opened - to develop proposals for the Rhondda & Swansea Bay Railway (R&SBR). Incorporated on 10 August 1882, it established a shorter export route via the Afan valley but, to reach it, the line would first have to overcome a 1,700 feet high natural barrier, Mynydd Blaengwyfni. Set that task was engineer Sydney William Yockney; his father, Samuel Hansard Yockney, had acted as engineer and manager for the contractor at Box Tunnel, bringing him to the attention of Brunel for whom he went on to fulfil a number of other tunnel projects.

(Left) Bulldozers bury the east portal in 1980. (Below) The commemorative cover stone with its plea for the tunnel’s reopening.

PHOTOS: ST EPHEN MAC KEY

GRAEME BICKERDIKE

The decades that followed brought industrial decimation to the once-thriving upper Rhondda. Though the physical scars have now healed - revealing a spectacular landscape - economic deprivation still blights the area. Stephen felt this personally a couple of years ago when he was made redundant. With such events comes the need to refocus, a process that often benefits from a good walk. And so, on a late summer afternoon, he found himself in Llwynpia, a couple of miles from home, wondering what to do next. The answer came to him as he passed some blackberry bushes, his attention being drawn to something in the undergrowth. It was a moment of bizarre happenstance. Pulling back the branches, revealed to him was the cover stone he had painstakingly repainted 40 years earlier. Life since has been unrecognisable.

(Opposite, main picture) The epitome of bleakness: a Seventies view of the tunnel’s now-buried east portal at Blaencwm.

BRIDGES AND TUNNELS

efore the advent of Xboxes and all-singing smartphones, kids signed up to a vivid, multi-sensory game accessed through a portal at the far end of the kitchen, known as ‘outdoors’. In the black and white era - albeit slightly rosetinted - this was unfettered by health and safety, the dress code comprising short trousers, grazed knees, cheeky grins and cockeyed fringes. The social backdrop was industrial, as was parenting. Woe-betide any child who got under mother’s feet. So, after breakfast, they were swept into the real world to learn about life through the unique experiences it flung at them. That culture shaped today’s generation of retirees and those, like me, who still remember coalmines.

Rail Engineer • February 2016

Duck or grouse

PHOTO S: STEP HEN M ACKEY

BRIDGES AND TUNNELS

From the hydraulically-powered comfort of the twentyfirst century, not one of us can realistically imagine what life was like for the workforce. However, a visiting newspaper reporter did his best to paint a picture. “Taking our places on some temporary seats, the horses started at a brisk walk along the tram-line, and soon we were entering the tunnel. Generally the tunnel was narrow and one had to exercise care in passing one’s arms within the strict limits of the little track, or the jagged points which stuck out here and there would give one a sharp and unpleasant reminder, while an occasional cry of “heads” from our guide warned us of the necessity of sometimes disposing this part of the body somewhat suddenly between our knees. At more than one place however we saw signs of operations already on foot for the purpose of ‘opening out’. We were informed however there is no immediate necessity for this, the great object being to bore the tunnel, and in a very short time a hundred or so gangs of men can quickly enlarge it to the required size for the passage of trains.” “The side and the roof generally presented a most substantial appearance, the roof particularly being for quite half the distance a level mass of rock. As one passed along, a hissing sound indicated the passing of the air which kept the tunnel even three-quarters of a mile in quite nice and cool. At last the waggons came to a sudden stop and a short walk over the boots in mud took us to a solid wall of rock, which effectually blocked our progress. Not so that of the excavators. Against this solid wall were six men hammering with pickaxe and crowbar, as though their lives depended on it, and though their progress will be slow, they will eventually clear a passage through which it is hoped that millions of passengers and countless tons of coal will pass from the Rhondda to the port at the mouth of the Tawe.”

“Against this solid wall were six men hammering with pickaxe and crowbar, as though their lives depended on it...”

Work on the R&SBR was split into three contracts, No.3 being awarded to William Jones of Neath. Included within it was the construction of Rhondda Tunnel, the second longest in Wales at 3,443 yards, for which the resident engineer was William Sutcliffe Marsh. Ground was first broken on 30 May 1885, completion being due within three years. However, delays in securing land at the eastern end prevented any substantive progress there for another 15 months. Yockney’s reports to the company directors were initially positive, with good ground conditions encountered and little water ingress. The headings were being driven through sandstone at a rate reaching 240 yards per month, the miners working from shafts in the approach cuttings at either end and another just in from the western entrance. With ground cover exceeding 900 feet, the conventional approach to expediting progress in lengthy tunnels - the sinking of intermediate shafts - was deemed impractical. However, the miners did benefit from rock drilling machines, operated by compressed air which was generated by a pair of horizontal engines and stored in an iron tank before being passed into the tunnel. The machines’ exhaust acted as effective ventilation at the working face.

Tick tock Despite the miners’ industry, alarm bells started ringing early in 1887 when progress started to slip; according to William Jones, this was the function of a manpower shortage and the underground springs encountered at the east end of the tunnel. Reluctantly, the company pushed back the contractual completion date to 31 July 1889. It wasn’t until 16 March that year, with only 20 weeks to go, that the headings finally met, Yockney recording that the levels were out by just half-an-inch whilst the line was perfect. In celebration, the contractor entertained a hundred navvies to supper, song and recitals at a nearby hotel. This constructional high-point acted as a counterbalance to the lows that inevitably attended. John Harris, 24, killed by an explosion; William Shod, a haulier, run over by a wagon and fatally injured; Isaac Watson, 36, succumbed to dynamite. And then, on 22 January 1889, news of a huge rock fall spread across the district; seven deaths were reported. Although an exaggeration, the reality two victims - proved no consolation to the families of George Lever, a 28-year-old miner, and labourer George Smitherham, known to everyone as “Soldier”. Gangs of men laboured for many hours to extricate their bodies from the debris.

Rail Engineer • February 2016

PHOTO: STEPHEN MACKEY

Shape of things to come

With the rate of advance falling to 70-odd yards per month, the company dispensed with William Jones’ services in September 1889, bringing in Messrs Lucas & Aird from Westminster. Employing 1,600 men to finish the line, they set about erecting 300 houses at the Rhondda end and, for four months, workers in the tunnel benefited from new-fangled electric lamps. The venture was back on track.

(Opposite, top) In April 2015, engineers entered the tunnel via an access shaft, seen under construction in the lower photo from 1980. (Left) Master Stonemason Jimmy Reynolds finishes off the cover stone’s new front plate.

Wise practice in mining areas was for railway companies to buy any pillars of coal that supported significant structures. Failure of the Lancashire, Derbyshire & East Coast Railway to do so resulted in Bolsover Tunnel sinking by eight feet in 60 years. The R&SBR fell into the same trap of short-term economics, the upshot being areas of worsening distortion resulting from seams being worked both above and below Rhondda Tunnel. Between 1938 and 1953, around 500 steel ribs were installed in an attempt to resist inward movement of the sidewalls and consequential pushing-up of the crown, mostly through two sections towards the eastern end. Several lengths of arch were relined as loose brickwork fell onto the track and speed restrictions were imposed; a settlement of 15 inches was recorded in just 12 years. All this was exacerbated by considerable water penetration of the lining which extensively washed out the mortar.

Play your part in railway history Here at the National Railway Museum we are very proud to be recognised as the world’s leading railway museum and the most visited museum outside London with over 800,000 visitors each year. Our visitors come from all over the world because they are fascinated by our collections and the story they represent. As a national charity, we rely on the support of people young and old to preserve and care for our collections now and for the generations to come. One way of supporting our work is to leave a gift to the National Railway Museum in your Will. A legacy gift of any size really does make a huge difference to our work and the future of the Museum. As a railway employee, past or present, we know that you care as much about our railway heritage as we do, so if and when the time is right for you to include a legacy in your Will, please remember us.

The National Railway Museum Development Team • Leeman Road • York • YO26 4XJ • 01904 686 285

BRIDGES AND TUNNELS

When Colonel Rich fulfilled his inspection duties for the Board of Trade on 2 May 1890, Yockney was confident of a tick in the box. He had, though, not accounted for Rich’s expectation that the tunnel be fully lined. So, before he would pass it as fit for passenger traffic, 759 yards of brick arch would have to be inserted, springing off archedconcrete sidewalls. Operations resumed the following day, Lucas & Aird having already prepared for such an eventuality; completion came just 54 days later, allowing the tunnel to start earning its keep on 2 July 1890.

Rail Engineer • February 2016

BRIDGES AND TUNNELS

PHOTOS: HISTORICAL RAILWAYS ESTATE

(Right) Some of the tunnel’s 500 steel ribs and (below) a view up the only shaft.

Severe distortion was observed near the middle of the tunnel in 1967, close to a geological fault. So rapid was its deterioration that the engineer closed the tunnel on safety grounds on 26 February 1968. This was supposedly a temporary measure whilst a decision was made on the future of the line. After much prevarication, the Ministry of Transport cited a decline in usage and the provision of a bus service as justification for the formal withdrawal of passenger services in December 1970. A cynic might suggest that the tunnel’s estimated repair cost of £90,000 also had an influence.

Turning the clocks back It’s not clear yet whether Stephen Mackey can help to unravel the actions of distant decisionmakers 46 years ago. Having unearthed the cover stone, he placed an advert on Facebook and in the local paper, asking for help in moving it to a local stonemason for restoration. And so, on 9 September 2014, 19 like-minds assembled at the RAFA Club in Treorchy to hatch a plan. Two days later, the stone was rescued, and it now sits resplendent on the platform end of Treherbert Station.

But one of those 19 had much bigger ideas…to reopen the tunnel as a walking and cycling route. The initial response of those around the table was one of predictable scepticism; the reality - 18 months later - is that Stephen is now chairman of the Rhondda Tunnel Society, a charitable body with more than 3,100 worldwide members. The Welsh Government is engaged, starting negotiations for the tunnel to be transferred into its ownership and commissioning Sustrans to carry out a scoping study on how a reopening might be achieved. Not surprisingly, its conclusion that the economy could benefit by as much as £14.4 million over 30 years has uplifted the campaigners. Custodian currently is the Historical Railways Estate, part of Highways England. Last April, its engineer, contractor Hammond ECS and a mines rescue team made the first official incursion into the tunnel for 40 years via a cramped access shaft and drain. The resulting report concludes that “the masonry forming the tunnel does not appear to have become any worse since it was closed to rail traffic” and that it is “not in a condition that would prevent future similar examinations.”

The vision now is ambitious, a catalyst for the rebirth of the Rhondda and Afan valleys: museum, bike hire, bed and breakfast, a restaurant in the form of a Pullman car, golf buggies offering guided tours - the list goes on. More immediate is the hope that the eastern portal will be excavated so machinery can be brought in to undertake a full survey, and of course prove to any doubters that the thing actually exists. Who knows? As Stephen is keen to point out, this would be the longest cycling tunnel in the world for half the year when the 3,963-yard Snoqualmie Tunnel in America closes for bad weather. He’s become very skilled at public relations! But even as officially the second longest, a consensus is emerging around the tourism and connectivity potential a reopened Rhondda Tunnel could offer. “It’s a full time job I’ve got now,” says Stephen breathlessly. It’s unfortunate that he’s not getting paid for it, but you can tell he’s enjoying the ride.

www.rhonddatunnelsociety.co.uk

+925

‘GOTHIC’ DISTORTION RIBS INSERTED 1938 +350

WORKED COAL SEAM

FAULTS SHAFT

3MP

2MP

WORKED COAL SEAM

-475

SEVERE DISTORTION RECORDED 1967 -950

FEET

‘GOTHIC’ DISTORTION RIBS INSERTED 1949

AL SEAM WORKED CO

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Rail Engineer • February 2016

Powering Britain’s railways

he recent re-planning of the rail industry's investment programme covered by the Hendy Review revealed that the vast majority of programmes will go ahead for delivery by 2019 despite, for a variety of reasons, challenges associated with costs and timescales on a number of enhancement projects. There has also been a fundamental change with the reclassification of Network Rail as a public body, curtailing more freely available access to Government backed debt resulting in the requirement for more disciplined capital rationing. These have all contributed to the funding challenge as has the realisation that some large projects could have been managed on an holistic basis rather than piecemeal. Dame Collette Bowe’s review, published at the same time as the Hendy Review, looks at these issues and draws conclusions for the Department for Transport, Network Rail and the Office of Rail and Road.

Time for something different These changes have given rise to a number of opportunities, as well as challenges, for suppliers to the rail industry, newcomers and established providers alike. One of the former is SSE Enterprise, which entered the multidisciplinary rail market in 2015 with arguably the strongest foundation of any new company in the rail sector. It was formed from the substantial resources and industry expertise of SSE plc - a FTSE 30 company with 15 years of rail industry success under its belt. SSE plc (formerly Scottish and Southern Energy plc) employs nearly 20,000 staff UKwide, generating a turnover of £32 billion in the UK. It has built an enviable reputation in contracting, utilities, telecoms and other energyrelated services such as gas storage, exploration and production, connections and metering.

The newly formed multi-disciplinary rail business falls within SSE Enterprise, which is home to one of the UK’s largest mechanical and electrical contractors with the capacity to deliver the widest range of services to every kind of customer. Believing that the timing is right to enter the rail infrastructure and multi-disciplinary markets in a bigger way, the organisation has something different to offer - particularly surrounding innovative and collaborative ways of powering and funding major projects.

The leadership team is currently assessing both the Hendy and Bowes Reviews to clarify where it believes it can innovate and create value to Network Rail and potentially on HS2. Alongside this, discussions at a senior level with industry partners are also underway.

Strong leadership SSE Enterprise will benefit immeasurably from the recent appointment of Raj Sinha as one of the key driving forces of the new rail company. Raj has a highly distinguished track record in the rail industry, with notable success with a number of key infrastructure and multidisciplinary businesses. His expertise in multi-disciplinary rail engineering stands against the best in the business and his work has been recognised through numerous

Rail Engineer • February 2016

industry awards. This will prove invaluable in helping SSE Enterprise to achieve its ambition of being the rail industry’s go-to name for fully integrated, end-to-end solutions. With a directly employed workforce of more than 3,500 skilled practitioners offering skills relevant to the railway industry, the organisation self-delivers most of its work. However, it can still turn to experienced supply chain partners for those areas that fall outside its specialist areas of expertise. From a standing start in the world of multi-disciplinary railway engineering, SSE Enterprise’s rail business is already one of the biggest and strongest organisations of its kind on Britain’s railways.

Experience and qualifications The company’s expertise ranges from an in-house design and commissioning capability to delivery and project close out. The new rail business employs highly qualified staff at every level, underscoring the fact that the company already holds a Network Rail Principal Contractors’ Licence. Offices are situated in seven locations throughout the UK, from Glasgow in the North to Eastleigh on the south coast, Nottingham in the Midlands to Worcester and Melksham in the West and Colchester and Aldershot in the South East. The rail business can also

utilise another 56 SSE Enterprise Contracting locations situated throughout the country. Already, the business can count some leading industry names amongst its clients, including Network Rail, East Midlands Trains, First Great Western and South West Trains. Recent projects include: »» Major electrical enhancement programmes at Clapham Junction, Basingstoke, Salisbury and Fareham; »» Euston Station high voltage plant, equipment and infrastructure projects; »» Westbury Panel Signal Box - including designing and installing a complete electrical rewire of power, lighting and fire alarm,

upgrading lightning protection and installing a new car park; »» Bristol St Philips Marsh - designing and installing a new gas radiant heating system for a 250-metre HST maintenance shed, and providing data links for energy monitoring; »» Station and car park lighting upgrades at Reading station; »» The Western Area lighting project. The team prides itself on the quality of installation and workmanship of its highly trained and very talented people. On his arrival, Raj Sinha immediately embarked on a coordinated and mission-driven effort aimed at strengthening the leadership, management and

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Rail Engineer • February 2016

technical skills of his entire rail team. As well as recruiting some of the industry’s most experienced multi-disciplinary operators, other development activities are now in full swing - such as financial planning, leadership development, strategic planning, safety management and engagement as well as team structure and training/ development. He believes that by employing the best as well as engaging and educating his team, that he will create the strongest team of professionals on Britain’s railways.

Safety first and foremost As with SSE plc, safety is a core value of SSE Enterprise’s rail business - it’s the backbone of how the organisation conducts its business in one of the most safety critical industries in the world. Every member of the team adheres to a strict set of safety codes at all times, from leaving for work to arriving back home, and the paradigm has shifted from an environment based solely on compliance to one that incorporates learning and support - an ideal that Network Rail aims to reinforce across the industry now and in the future. The company already boasts 30 RoSPA awards, signifying SSE Enterprise’s commitment to raising the standard of safe working, to which other organisations can aspire. Alongside this, the business has been awarded RoSPA’s President’s Award for nine consecutive years, Sector and Gold Awards for more than 10 years, and the Order of Distinction The organisation was also the runner up in the Sir George Earle Award, RoSPA’s premier performance award for occupational health and safety, in 2015. SSE Enterprise’s rail team actively encourage all those engaged on site, as well as office staff, to identify and report hazards, as well as

ensuring that the hazard is controlled. Under the leadership of a national safety manager, the team has developed a PoWRA (Point of Work Risk Assessment), a document that has been created to identify dynamic and possibly transient risks and allows assessment and control measures to be put in place to eliminate or mitigate the risk. Formal feedback and post-work surveys show that customer satisfaction ratings with the rail team’s work remains consistently high with most clients being extremely satisfied with the performance and its safety record.

Opportunities for growth With the major infrastructure providers looking for new companies offering a unique business proposition, SSE Enterprise’s rail team - drawing upon the breadth and depth of expertise of its parent company- can look forward to significant opportunities within the UK rail industry.

One of the team’s main goals is to increase its market share of Network Rail’s expenditure in renewals and enhancements, which accounts for a significant portion of its planned budget in CP5 until 2019. With CP6 on the horizon, the company intends to be at the forefront of delivery to Network Rail by the time that the work for that control period has been determined. SSE already has a strong track record and good working relationships with a number of train operating companies and transport authorities and hopes to strengthen and develop collaborative connections over the coming months. This co-operative ambition also extends to current tier one contractors that might be looking to work together for the greater good of the industry. To that end, the team has already started the process for accreditation to the BS11000 standard for collaboration.

Rail Engineer • February 2016

A unique solution SSE believes it has something completely different to offer the rail industry. The company’s financial strength, its experience in owning and operating a range of infrastructure assets and its newly formed team of highly experienced multi-disciplinary rail professionals creates a new vehicle that offers a true end to end solution.Immediate priorities for 2016 are to: »» Leverage the already strong and existing group skills base; »» Establish a focused recruitment strategy in senior roles; »» Promote the business directly and more widely; »» Develop strategic partnerships with existing industry suppliers; »» Target strategic projects where SSE Enterprise’s rail team can add value. Over the next 12 months, the company aims to implement its strategic business plan, expand existing mechanical and electrical business streams and enter the civils, signalling and power, markets. Ultimately, SSE Enterprise’s rail team aims to be recognised as more than just an ordinary railway contractor; it has clear ambitions to be the rail industry’s partner of choice. While these are ambitious plans for growth, they are made with the confidence of being part of a marketleading company and having achieved a record of success in a short space of time. The track ahead looks very bright indeed.

On 23 November 2015, representatives from Network Rail, SSE Enterprise Rail, Tier 1 contractors and supply chain partners came together for a safety forum in Thatcham. At the end of the event, relevant company principals signed SSE’s Charter committing to behaving and working safely whenever they are invited onto a Network Rail and SSE Enterprise Rail site. Pictured: Raj Sinha with Matt Franklin of Mecx Rail, a longstanding SSE supply chain partner.

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Rail Engineer â&#x20AC;˘ February 2016

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Point gauging team at work.

Signal 9019.

Gresty Lane resignalling

he track layout and signalling arrangements around Crewe are complicated, given the major junction layout of the area. The last major resignalling was the replacement of Crewe North and Crewe South signal boxes, plus some fringe boxes, with the Crewe Signalling Control Centre (SCC) in 1985. Wholesale resignalling of the area has been put back a number of times and is currently on hold until the full implications of HS2 are known. Gresty Lane signal box was located at Gresty Lane Junction. It controlled the signalling between Nantwich/ Shrewsbury and the West Coast main line into Crewe, as well as a route avoiding Crewe via the Salop Goods independent lines together with Up and Down freight routes into Crewe Sorting Sidings. The signal box also controlled other sidings avoiding routes in the area. In 2012, a condition assessment was undertaken at Gresty Lane and it was determined that the equipment was life expired and could not be life extended any further or wait for the resignalling of the larger Crewe area. Wire insulation condition within the relay room was poor and was not recoverable by rewire. The physical condition of the relay room was not very good, with water ingress, and the lineside infrastructure condition was a concern with some assets obsolete and unreliable. In the past, recoveries of track and crossings had been done in a minimal fashion and many drawings were incorrect, incomplete or missing. Resignalling was the only option and the remit required the project to be completed by March 2016.

Defining the challenges While the Gresty Lane box operated as the fringe between Nantwich and Crewe SCC, Salop Goods signal box and Sorting Sidings North signal box, it additionally controlled a number of sidings using permissive moves. These were to be retained with the resignalling. Many of the sidings were not track circuited and the shunt signals were not interlocked with the points. Nantwich signal box had already been abolished as part of the CreweShrewsbury re-control to Cardiff. This PHOTO: RAIL FOCUS

meant the new Gresty Lane signalling would need to fringe with the recently installed Crewe-Shrewsbury modular signalling, as well as the mechanical absolute block signalling at Salop Goods and Sorting Sidings North, together with track circuit block and route relay interlocking at the main Crewe SCC. The signal box was an LNW4 type structure, commissioned as a standard LNWR (London & North Western Railway - owners of the line until 1923) box design. It was believed to be the first installation of electrically powered signalling in Britain (1899) with a mechanical frame controlling motorised points and solenoid operated mechanical signals. More recently, the signalling was operated by means of an Independent Function Switch (IFS)

Rail Engineer • February 2016

panel installed in 1978 and which still controlled some unusual items such as solenoid shunt signals as well as main line colour light signals via a relay interlocking. The building structure had suffered subsidence and was leaning. The subsidence had been arrested, but the age and lean angle of the building prevented the re-use of the structure. It controlled Willaston Level Crossing using a CCTV system and the preferred option was to replace the CCTV control with CB-OD (Controlled barrier with obstacle detection). To further complicate the design and implementation, the area is AC electrified.

Optioning A number of options were developed to determine the best location for the new control point. The first option considered was to control the Gresty Lane area from the Railway Operating Centre (ROC) at Rugby. While this would be the eventual location for the control of the Crewe area the timescales did not fit the urgent programme for Gresty Lane. Option 2 was to control from a local temporary box pending transfer of control to the ROC in 2019, and the final option was to control from a signal box located at Sorting Sidings North, with the possibility of adding the Salop Goods and Sorting Sidings controlled areas later. The output from the development work was option 2 and to use the Crewe SCC building. Crewe SCC had a separate work stream to extend its life, which included the renewal of its entry/exit button processor panel. The new Crewe SCC panel was to be installed in an area within the adjacent telecoms equipment room. This left space for a new Gresty Lane entry/exit panel and operator where the previous Crewe SCC panel had been. The new panel was to be identified as Gresty Lane Panel, Crewe SCC.

Contracting strategy

Gresty Lane signal box.

The Gresty Lane Junction area is only some 4½ miles long with 11 main line signals. However, the complexity of the area is such that 121 insulated block joints had to be provided. Siemens was appointed as the main contractor for the scheme, the first to be delivered by the company’s Manchester design office. A joint Network Rail/Siemens site office was established near to Crewe SCC. Some plain track works were contracted to Haigh Rail, which also assisted Siemens as a subcontractor in upgrading the switches and crossings so that they could be motorised. OSL also provided assistance to Siemens as a subcontractor for the signalling work and the civil engineering design was by GGP Consult. The nine-month delivery from contract award saw many hurdles, parallel processes and even the last fringe design landing on site less than a week from commissioning, but overall the scheme was a great success and was commissioned on the morning of 8 December 2015.

Laying new cables in existing troughs.

Rail Engineer â&#x20AC;˘ February 2016

Graham Serrell at the panel.

New equipment A Siemens Westlock CBI interlocking was installed in a new REB next to the Crewe SCC, with a new entry/exit panel supplied by TEW. The Crewe SCC panel renewal was another difficult one, which would have normally required the closure of the WCML. However the new SCC panel was tested over a 12-week period with a changeover each night between the old and new panel before final commissioning in August 2015, therefore avoiding total closure of the WCML. Any delay in the Crewe SCC panel renewal would have impacted on the Gresty Lane panel, but both schemes were successfully implemented within their own timescales. Ten Dorman LED raise-and-lower lightweight signals have been installed with train detection via DC track circuits. Signal 9019, a complex signal on the main route approaching the junction, was replaced by a tall fixed structure with very tight clearances designed and supplied by Collis Engineering. The signal is 5.1 metres high to the main aspect from the rail head and consists of four junction indicators (position 1,2,4,5) with a three-aspect (single aperture) and a miniature indicator subsidiary signal. This was quite a challenge to design and implement in the space allowed and was a key signal for the project to get right.

Point operating equipment (POE) consisted of 20 conversions from a mixture of HW, SGE and lowvoltage clamp locks to 110V clamp locks and the first installation, by a project in the North West, of the new tubular stretcher bar. A further eight enhanced POE (consisting of stretchers, track works, four-foot supplementary drive only) made a total of 28 POE installations. All POE was fitted with MPEC Technology Ltd remote condition monitoring for motor current, hydraulic pressure and hydraulic fluid level. This enables the POE to be monitored 24/7 through Network Railâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Intelligent Infrastructure system. Track circuits for the control area were medium voltage DC. Previously non-track-circuited zones that were to become track circuited were assessed beforehand by the Siemens test team for suitability and Haigh Rail improved poor areas of track, thereby de-risking the commissioning. All track circuits were also installed with remote condition monitoring. Network Rail provided the training required for the new tubular stretcher bars to Siemens and subcontractors so that everyone was competent with the new technology. A new permanent access point was provided near to Rope Lane to assist in the maintenance of both the new and existing infrastructure.

New Class II power feeders, along with new switchgear, have been installed from the existing Crewe North PSP (power supply point) via a new 650V LV Switchboard to Crewe SCC and through the new Gresty interlocking area to power two further crossings in the modularsignalling controlled area (Newcastle and Shrewbridge Road). A mechanically operated ground frame at Crewe PAD (pre-assembly depot) has been converted to an electrically operated ground switch box. Part of the original scope was to automate the CCTV-monitored level crossing at Willaston with obstacle detection. However, during the development stage it became clear that there was no business case or asset condition need, so it has been retained as a CCTV-monitored crossing. The video link from Willaston to Gresty Junction was via a BT tariff service, and this has been migrated onto a short length of dark fibre to a nearby FTN (fixed telecoms network) node via a COE X-NET optical unit and then multiplexed onto a higher order FTN transmission system back to the Crewe SCC building. This removes the ongoing BT recurrent charge, so no more BT phone bills! Telecoms requirements were provided in-house via Siemens with no sub contract, although Network Rail Telecom (NRT) had to provision

Rail Engineer • February 2016 the transmission links and the GSM-R despatcher terminal. The existing telephone concentrator at Crewe SCC did not have enough spare capacity to accommodate the additional Gresty Lane circuits, nor did it have the capability for an additional operator's control panel to be provided. A 30-channel Hawk system from Kestrel Telecom was therefore installed in the new Gresty Lane panel with SPTs provided for most signals. Alterations were required to the telephone systems at fringe signal boxes and Crewe Electric Control Room (ECR) together with provision of voice and data alarm services for REBs, along with the rationalisation of the telecoms cabling to allow Gresty Lane SB and the associated relay room to be demolished. One innovation, which was adopted by the scheme, was the use of the recently approved reduced depth undertrack crossings (UTX) for cable routes. The depth from underside of sleeper for standard depth UTX to top of a multiduct is 900mm, but only 600mm for a reduced depth UTX. While this may appear small the advantages of using the 600mm solution are: »» Installation of the system will result in a reduction in excavation and removal of spoil from site, coupled with less material to import; »» Excavation generally does not exceed 1200mm, thus removing the requirement for shoring and temporary works design; »» Improved health and safety implications of working in shallow excavations rather than deep excavations; »» Rules of Route Possessions are relatively short and, when constructing UTXs, the installation and recovery of shoring eats into the limited time available; »» Reduction in backfilling reduces the potential for voiding; »» Increased likelihood of completing the works in the time allocated and less chance of a possession overrun.

Implementation One unforeseen difficulty was finding asbestos in some of the original equipment and further asbestos which had been buried. This required specialist contractors to be brought in to dispose of the material safely. Construction of some of the REB bases was also held up by the discovery of old signal box remains.

RJC Low Loaders Ltd skated the three trackside REBs into position, thus avoiding the need for an overhead line isolation or crane. The resignalling led to the planned closure of the route between 28 November and 8 December. Stopping trains between Shrewsbury and Crewe were replaced by buses, with some through trains diverted via Wrexham General. Willaston level crossing was closed for a few days to enable the required work principle testing to be carried out. However, total closure would have caused extensive problems in the village as the railway cuts it in two, and especially for the pre-school located adjacent to the crossing. A compromise was found, with the crossing opened to foot traffic to match school session times and a minibus provided to taxi pedestrians and visitors to the school around the village at other times. Finally, the old Gresty Lane signal box and relay room was demolished in the early hours of Sunday 17 January 2016, 117 years after it had controlled the first electrically operated signalling in the country. So, while this was a relatively small resignalling scheme, it was not without some difficulties. Careful planning and good teamwork between client and suppliers achieved the desired output, and all within the original remit of completion by March 2016. Thanks to Colin Saunders, Ged Noonan, Chris Halsall, Andy Maxwell and Tim Jones of Network Rail, and Chris Forrest and John Walsh of Siemens, for their assistance with this article. Please see current Coyle Rail vacancies on page 82.

Upgrading points as part of the resignalling programme between Crewe and Shrewsbury.

Rail Engineer • February 2016

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Isle of Man Government – Isle of Man Railways Railway Infrastructure Maintenance Manager 37 hours per week | Grade D506 | £42,902 - £50,125 per ammum Isle of Man Railways within the Department of Infrastructure are seeking a professionally qualiﬁed railway engineering manager to join the engineering management team and lead the maintenance of the track, structures, power supply, overhead line and associated infrastructure of the Isle of Man Steam, Manx Electric and Snaefell Mountain Railways to allow safe and effective railway operations.

The Isle of Man is surrounded by beautiful beaches and enjoys a mild maritime climate. Situated between Ireland and England it is 40 minutes ﬂying time from London and has transportation links to other major UK cities. There are ferry services to Liverpool, Heysham, Belfast and Dublin. For further information about living in the Isle of Man and the Island’s lifestyle visit www.visitisleofman.com

The post holder will be the line manager for approx. 25 staff, with an annual budget of approx. £1.25m. The post holder will also be the technical head for Permanent Way or Electrical Engineering.

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Applicants must hold an appropriate professional qualiﬁcation in an engineering or safety discipline and have at least 5 years experience in managing either permanent way or electrical related maintenance within a railway / tramway system. The Isle of Man is a self-governing dependency within the British Isles. The post holder will enjoy the beneﬁts of low income tax, high rates of personal allowance and a low crime rate. Other advantages include good sea and air links, excellent quality of individual and family life, superb scenery and excellent leisure facilities.

More details of the duties of the post can be obtained from Mr Jeremy Reece, Chief Engineer on 01624 697476. An online application and job description can be obtained from: www.gov.im/jobs If you have difﬁculties applying online please contact the Employment Services Team on 01624 686300 or by email at JobTrainHelpdesk@gov.im The closing date for applications is Friday 26 February 2016.

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