Rail Engineer - Issue 181 - Jan/Feb 2020

by rail engineers for rail engineers

JAN/FEB 2020 – ISSUE 181

Even a quiet Christmas IS A BUSY TIME

MARKET HARBOROUGH: AFFORDABLE BY DESIGN Straighter and longer platforms, and a larger car park, are only the most visible signs of the regeneration of this Midlands station.

NEW APPROACH TO STATION DESIGN

MIGHTY MORPHING!

Adopting a service design approach puts passengers and customers first when making decisions on station layout and remodelling.

Rhomberg Sersa’s clever ballast wagon can change into a 60-tonne dumper that leaves the tracks behind.

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16 CONTENTS

24

06|

News

10|

Even a quiet Christmas is a busy time

16|

Growing Pains

3

Infrarail, Crossrail, Beeching, New Trains.

Once again, Network Rail and its contractors turned out in force to improve the railway.

Graeme Bickerdike catches up with the latest improvements to Leeds station.

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20|

A Great (Western) Christmas

Clive Kessell rounds up Christmas work at the London end of the Great Western main line.

66 24|

Finishing off the fourth track between Bedford and Kettering

57|

Maturing nicely

28|

Christmas at Werrington

62|

Bringing 3D printing to the UK rail industry

34|

Electric trains arrive in Wales – but not for the first time

65|

Next-generation RS4 rail signalling power protection system

40|

Mighty Morphing!

66|

Azuma’s highest challenge

44|

Changing our approach to station design

71|

Vegetation management

48|

Affordable by design - Market Harborough station revisited

72|

Safer surveying through automationy

52|

1 new station, 1 new platform

76|

Engineers shine at the RailStaff Awards

Mark Phillips investigates how the Midland main line gained an extra track over Christmas.

Bob Wright reports on the design of the new dive-under and the latest developments.

Peter Stanton discusses electrification, anaerobic bacteria and the Mumbles railway!

Grahame Taylor on Rhomberg Sersa’s MFS+, the wagon that morphs into a 60-tonne dumper.

WSP’s John Harding describes a new service design process that puts customer needs first.

As the longer platforms open, Market Harborough becomes a full-sized main line station.

Scotland’s 358th station, Robroyston, and the new second platform at Dunbar.

Malcolm Dobell sat in on the latest international rolling stock maintenance conference.

DB ESG is using 3D printing to manufacture hard-to-find spare parts in low volumes.

Bender’s new RS4 employs delivers multiple-tier smart cable insulation monitoring.

David Shirres time’s LNER’s latest train up the slope to the highest point on the UK network.

Stobart Rail & Civils deals with 10 million trees dropping leaves on the line.

David Shipman considers ways to get surveyors off the railway and safely behind desks.

How the rail engineers got on at the industry’s only awards squarely aimed at its people.

Rail Engineer | Issue 181 | Jan/Feb 2020

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EDITORIAL

RAIL ENGINEER MAGAZINE

What will 2030 bring?

As we enter the 2020s, it’s perhaps a good time to consider the developments that might be seen on Britain’s railways by 2030. These will include the rapidly developing technologies of the fourth industrial revolution, for example artificial intelligence, data analytics, robotics, the Internet of Things and quantum computing.

Such developments will no doubt significantly improve the operation of the railway, with better traffic management, telecommunications, signalling, train and infrastructure maintenance. As an example, this month David Shipman of Network Rail’s signalling innovation group describes how surveying infrastructure assets benefits from these technologies. Another feature describes how the industry can benefit from 3-D printing.

Rail users should see the benefits of this data revolution from improved customer service information, particularly on smartphones. However, those on trains are unlikely to notice much new, with large numbers of recently introduced trains still in service.

An exception is that passengers may experience HS2’s high-speed trains.

However, as we go to press, HS2’s future is unclear. It is sad to hear so much uninformed criticism which ignores the huge capacity increases on the three main lines north from London that HS2 brings. Many say that money should be spent on the existing railway instead. Yet, in a recent discussion with Rail Engineer, Network Rail’s Andrew Haines noted that HS2’s opponents understate the “absurd” rail passenger disruption that would result from work to upgrade the existing network to HS2’s capacity.

2030 should certainly see hydrogen and battery powered trains in service as a response to the decarbonisation challenge, which will become an increasingly important issue. What is not clear is how much additional electrification there will be. Electric traction is the only zero-carbon option for rail freight and passenger services requiring high speed and high acceleration.

Yet there are only 24 route kilometres of electrification in the rail enhancements pipeline for England and Wales.

Any credible low-carbon rail future must include further electrification of intensively used lines. The imperative should be to

use existing experienced teams to start a rolling programme. Unless action is taken soon, these skills will be lost and the future schemes that must eventually be delivered will cost much more.

Unfortunately, many in Government and DfT are not convinced and believe electrification to be hugely expensive.

This is a legacy from the Great Western scheme that is difficult to shake off. Yet the Railway Industry Association’s excellent electrification cost challenge report shows that electrification can be delivered in an affordable manner.

As a result, some see bi-mode trains as an alternative to electrification. Yet these can never be part of a net zero carbon solution and, in diesel mode, their performance is inferior to when they are running under electric traction. Nevertheless, they can offer immediate carbon savings. LNER’s Azumas, which now operate between Inverness and London, have a third of the carbon emissions and more seats than the HSTs they replace.

But how do Azumas perform on this route’s severe gradients? Read our feature to find out.

Christmas is a special time for railway project managers as it offers the gift of a railway shut-down that enabled 20,500 people to work at over 4,500 worksites over the festive season, as Nigel Wordsworth reports. Between Paddington and Slough there was a mix of work. Clive Kessel explains that this included trackwork renewals, replacing OLE headspans with cantilever structures, upgrading stations and track circuits being replaced with axle counters.

Work on long duration projects included public realm and capacity improvements at Leeds station on which Graeme Bickerdike reports and completion of the fourth track between Bedford and Kettering as described by Mark Phillips.

The three-year project to provide a rail underpass at Werrington Junction, north of Peterborough, is now well-advanced.

As Bob Wright describes, last year’s work included an 840-metre river diversion and, at Christmas, moving part of the East Coast main line 20 metres westwards. When the new chord at Werrington is built, there will be no adjacent line from which its ballast can be tipped. In such circumstances, the rail wagon that morphs into a 60-tonne dumper, which Grahame Taylor describes, could be useful.

The Christmas period also saw the culmination of the Great Western electrification project, with OLE energised to Cardiff, though anaerobic bacteria are currently preventing its energisation through the Severn Tunnel. Peter Stanton explains why and reviews this massive project which, though overspent, also achieved much.

Ensuring that stations are intuitive for those that use them is John Harding’s theme in a feature that explains people-centred design. An example of this concept is threedimensional ‘fly through’ headsets, used to design the redeveloped Market Harborough station as well as its novel wayfinding for those with reduced vision. We also feature the new Robroyston station and additional platform at Dunbar that were brought into use in December.

The Railstaff Awards night is always a great event that celebrates the people that do so much to support the industry, as shown by our feature that describes the achievements of the engineers who won awards that night.

Whatever technology 2030 brings, it is such railways engineers that will make it happen.

DAVID SHIRRES RAIL ENGINEER EDITOR

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THE TEAM

NEWS

Editor David Shirres david.shirres@railengineer.co.uk

Production Editor

Exhibitors rolling in at Infrarail

Nigel Wordsworth nigel.wordsworth@railengineer.co.uk

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

Engineering writers bob.wright@railengineer.co.uk

As 2020 enters February at alarming pace, the industry begins to cast its eye towards the summer months. With a host of key dates on the horizon, May also sees the return of Infrarail, with the 13th edition of the international railway infrastructure exhibition taking place across three days between 12th and 14th of the month.

clive.kessell@railengineer.co.uk collin.carr@railengineer.co.uk david.bickell@railengineer.co.uk graeme.bickerdike@railengineer.co.uk grahame.taylor@railengineer.co.uk lesley.brown@railengineer.co.uk malcolm.dobell@railengineer.co.uk mark.phillips@railengineer.co.uk paul.darlington@railengineer.co.uk peter.stanton@railengineer.co.uk stuart.marsh@railengineer.co.uk

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This year, Olympia London will play host to three days of industry showcases, presentations and networking opportunities. Famous for its stunning Victorian architecture, magnificent galleries and ornate barrel-vaulted roof, the venue also has excellent travel links to London and beyond.

Infrarail 2020 will once again have an international flavour, with visitors from more than 40 countries in attendance at the previous edition, including representatives from Atkins, Arup, Balfour Beatty, CAF, Costain, DfT, Keolis, Amey, Kier, Skanska, SNCF, TfL, Transport Scotland and Trenitalia.

With a comprehensive supporting programme including seminars, debates, live demonstrations and discussion forums, it will attract a high volume of visiting managers, engineers and buyers working at a senior level.

Exhibiting at Infrarail 2020 for the first time will be: » Bender UK, market leaders in electrical safety » Fujikura, leading manufacturers and suppliers of superior quality power and telecommunications products » Norwegian company Elkem, leading producers of high quality silicon-based advanced materials and related products, presenting the benefits of using Microsilica in rail networks. » Exception PCB Ltd, European time critical and technology driven PCB manufacturers, offering a global service to over 32 different countries.

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Rail Engineer | Issue 181 | Jan/Feb 2020

To find out more about Infrarail 2020, or to make a stand reservation, visit ww.infrarail.com

NEWS

New train fleets start to arrive Yet more of the unprecedented number of new trains fleets that are on order have started to arrive on the network.

The first of 111 Class 720 Aventra trains, being built for Greater Anglia by Bombardier at Derby, has arrived at the Ilford depot. Already tested by Greater Anglia drivers at Network Rail’s RIDC Melton track at Old Dalby, Leicestershire, the programme will now continue with night-time running on the network. The first is expected to enter service in the spring.

Merseyrail’s new train, the Class 777, has also appeared in the UK via the Channel Tunnel. The class has been testing at Siemens’ test track at Wildenrath in Germany since October. Stabled at Kirkdale, the new train will now commence on-network testing and should be in service by May.

Greater Anglia’s other new train, the Class 755 diesel/electric bi-mode made by Stadler, entered service in July 2019. As deliveries continued, the new train replaced existing diesel-only services across the Greater Anglia network with the last route, Sudbury to Marks Tey, receiving its new trains on 21 January 2020.

There have been other recent introductions, including Hull Trains’ Paragon fleet of Class 802/3 trains, which entered service on 5 December.

Meanwhile, TransPennine Express is introducing three new fleets at once. Nova 1 (Hitachi Class 802/2) ran its first fare-paying service on 28 September. Nova 2 (Class

South Western Railway Class 701 on test at Bombardier’s Derby factory.

397) followed on 30 November. Nova 3 (new mark 5 coaches hauled by a Class 68 diesel locomotive) had beaten both of them, running from Liverpool to Scarborough on 24 August.

And there are more to come. South Western Railway hopes to introduce its Class 701, another Bombardier Aventra, on routes between Reading and Windsor, by the middle of the year. Currently testing, 90 trains are on order.

2020 looks like being a bumper year for train spotters!

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NEWS

£500 million for Beeching-reversal The growing movement to reverse some of the infamous 'Beeching cuts' of 1963 has received a £500 million boost from government.

Dr Richard Beeching published his report “The Reshaping of British Railways” on 27 March 1963. It proposed the closure of 2,363 stations and 6,000 route miles of railway, and that some other lines should lose their passenger services and be used for freight only.

Despite local protests, the bulk of his recommendations were carried out. Not all were implemented - there were some notable exceptions such as the Settle to Carlisle line - but many areas of the country lost their railway services. The plan was, in some cases, to replace trains with buses, while in other areas the report sought to remove duplication and give passengers a single route between destinations.

Today, the popularity of train travel is increasing and government is promoting it as a way of reducing carbon emissions. It is therefore natural that there should be calls to reopen some of the routes and stations that were closed in the sixties.

One notable success story was the Borders railway. The original Waverley Route, 98 miles from Edinburgh to Carlisle via Hawick, was one of the last railways to close under Beeching, in 1969. The northern 35 miles, from Edinburgh to Tweedbank, reopened as the Borders railway In 2015.

Back in November, Prime Minister Boris Johnson pledged to spend £500 million on reopening rail lines axed by Beeching.

PHOTO: DAVID NADEN

A charter train at Ashington in 2008.

Now the Government has committed £21.9 million to two routes and a new stations fund. £1.5 million will be used to develop proposals for the Ashington-Blyth-Tyne line in Northumberland, while £100,000 for the same purpose goes to the Fleetwood line in Lancashire.

An ‘ideas fund’ will be created so that proposals can be brought forward for future investment - this will get £300,000 - and £20 million goes to the New Stations Fund which, in earlier guises, has already Been involved in reopening 10 stations around the country: » Pye Corner, Wales - opened 14 December 2014 » Newcourt, Exeter - opened 4 June 2015 » Lea Bridge, London - opened 16 May 2016 » Ilkeston, Derby - opened 2 April 2017 » Kenilworth, Warwickshire - 30 April 2018 » Warrington West station,

Cheshire - 16 December 2019 » Bow Street station, Ceredigion, Wales opening 2020 » Reading Green Park station, Berkshire opening 2020 » Hordon Peterlee station, County Durham opening 2020 » Portway Parkway, Bristol - opening 2020 Transport Secretary Grant Shapps said: “Many communities still live with the scars that came from the closure of their local railway more than five decades ago. Today sees work begin to undo the damage of the Beeching cuts by restoring local railways and stations to their former glory.

“Investing in transport links is essential to levelling up access to opportunities across the country, ensuring our regions are better connected, local economies flourish and more than half a century of isolation is undone.”

Poulton-le-Fylde junction in 2008. The disused Fleetwoood branch, which goes off to the right, has received £100,000 funding for a feasibility study to reopen it.

PHOTO: DR GREG

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Rail Engineer | Issue 181 | Jan/Feb 2020

NEWS

New proposals to make the route to Cornwall more resilient The collapse of the railway at Dawlish during a severe storm in February 2014 hit the headlines as Cornwall was cut off from the rest of the UK by rail. Just eight weeks later, the railway was once again open and transport links to the far west were restored.

Less well publicised was the landslip at Teignmouth, just one mile west of the work still going on at Dawlish, that took place on 4 March 2014. 20,000 tonnes of cliff face slumped on to the railway at the foot of the cliff. High pressure hoses were used to wash the earth away into the sea as Network Rail needed to get the line clear so that the line could reopen once the Dawlish works were completed.

Since then, plans have been developed to find a long-term solution to the stability of the costal cliffs along just over a mile of railway (1.8km) between Parsons Tunnel, near Holcombe, and Teignmouth.

The latest design, released by Network Rail for public consultation, moves the railway away from the most potentially hazardous areas of the cliffs but keeps the existing railway alignment at both the Parsons Tunnel and at Teignmouth ends of this stretch of railway.

Not only does this retain the beach, a popular local amenity, but the facility will be further enhanced by work surrounding the railway. A realigned coastal footpath, one metre wider than the current South West Coast Path, and safer for walkers as it will have edge protection, will be built along with a new, accessible footbridge over the railway at Sprey Point. Holcombe beach will have a new fully accessible ramp as access (pictured left).

Mike Gallop, Network Rail’s route director, said: “Our updated plans will ensure a resilient railway line for the whole south west while maintaining most of the beach and adding improved walking and leisure facilities.

"The railway is a vital artery to the South West, which communities, businesses and visitors to the region depend on for connecting with the rest of the UK. We welcome views on our updated proposals before we apply for consent to undertake the work.”

Crossrail opening goes back again In November (issue 180, December 2019), Mark Wild announced that the Crossrail programme, which is building Transport for London's new Elizabeth line across London, would be delayed until the first quarter of 2021.

He had earlier suggested that Christmas plus or minus three months was possible, but he was now sure that it would be plus rather than minus.

Since then, the situation has

changed again. In a release dated 10 January 2020, Mark Wild (pictured below) said: “We are doing everything we can to get this railway finished and open. We continue to make

good progress with the central section now reaching substantial completion and we are increasingly confident that Bond Street station will be ready to open with the rest of the railway.

“We have a comprehensive plan to complete the Elizabeth line and the milestones we must hit during 2020, including the testing of the signalling and train systems and safety assurance, but there are no shortcuts to delivery of this hugely complex railway.

“Our latest assessment is that Elizabeth line services through central London will commence in summer 2021 but we are aiming to open the railway as soon as we can. This forecast assumes a period of time will be

required to undertake intensive operational testing. The key focus for everyone on the Crossrail project is commencing intensive testing of the Elizabeth line as soon as we can in 2020, to enable passenger service as early as possible in 2021.”

It must be noted that “services through central London” will not mark the completion of the project. Crossrail has further announced that, following the opening of the central section, full services across the Elizabeth line route from Reading and Heathrow in the west to Abbey Wood and Shenfield in the east, connecting the eastern and western sections straight through central London, will not commence until mid-2022.

Rail Engineer | Issue 181 | Jan/Feb 2020

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CHRISTMAS Waybeam replacement on King Edward Bridge, Newcastle - Boxing Day 2019.

NIGEL WORDSWORTH

Even a quiet Christmas IS A BUSY TIME

C

hristmas is a special time of year. To religious Christians, it’s a time for celebration and worship. To others, it’s a time for celebration, family and parties. And to railway workers, it’s a time to get dressed up in orange protective clothing and actually go to work in daylight! For Christmas Day and Boxing Day are the only two days in the year that Britain’s railway network shuts - completely.

So, as well as undertaking major work over two days (actually around 52 hours given that it shuts at midnight on 23 December and reopens at 04:00 on the 27th), it’s a good time to do all the little jobs that would otherwise have to be carried out in one or more four or fivehour shifts in the dead of night.

That’s why 20,500 people were working at over 4,500 sites around the country.

Most were not major pieces of work, but they all benefitted from that 52-hour window. More work could be done than would otherwise take place in three months’ worth of weekends.

The work was spread right across the country, although some projects were larger than others. Indeed, some were so large, or so complex, or just took so long, that the two-day window had to be extended by a day or two, perhaps over New Year.

Rail Engineer | Issue 181 | Jan/Feb 2020

The good news In all, 34 projects delivering infrastructure through a total of 57 worksites identified as RED through the Delivering Work Within Possessions (DWWP) standard, therefore carrying a greater risk of overrun and/or a more significant impact in the event of an overrun.

As a result of lessons learned on other Christmas closedowns, when unacceptable delays occurred which prevented the railway from reopening as planned and caused a great deal of embarrassment to Network Rail executives, and because of the thorough planning that now takes place, no capital delivery schemes accrued any possession overrun delay minutes and the railway was returned to operational use on time.

The highlights of Christmas and New Year 2019 included:

» Large-scale switches & crossings (S&C) renewals at Haymarket, Newport, Colchester, Ashford and Southall; » Plain line track renewals at Pitstone Crendon Road, Crewe and Norton Crossing within the North West & Central Region, and at Shields Road in the Glasgow area; » The energisation of Cardiff Central as part of the electrification of the Great Western main line; » Continuation of a number of large enhancement schemes including Leeds Station, Werrington Dive Under, London to Corby (L2C) and Euston HS2 Enabling Works » Structures, OLE and drainage renewal schemes at Sanderstead Road (Southern), Cleveley Cutting (North West & Central) and Cheadle Hulme (North West & Central).

The bad news Sadly, of the 20,500 people deployed on the work, three did not have a happy Christmas. At approximately 23:00 on Christmas Day, a Network Rail employee who was working in a mobile elevating work platform in Kensal Green came

CHRISTMAS into contact with live overhead line equipment. He suffered serious burns and was transported to hospital before reaching a stable condition.

A second incident involved a contractor at Paddington who fell from a tower scaffold and was taken to hospital to recover.

The third was at Old Oak Common (Wales Western) where a member of staff tripped whilst descending stairs, resulting in a chipped bone and ligament damage.

In addition to these three RIDDOR reportable incidents, eight minor injuries occurred that didn’t result in any lost time and one other accident was logged that didn’t result in an injury at all.

There were also two environmental incidents reported during the period, both of which related to oil leaks from vehicles or plant. These were rectified onsite by deploying spill kits.

Around the regions - Eastern The long-term project to remodel King’s Cross continued. The track layout in the station throat area is being remodelled, so that standard S&C units are used rather than complex bespoke units, and lifeexpired infrastructure is being replaced.

The eastern bore of Gasworks tunnel is being reopened, to ensure enhanced capacity and operational flexibility, and panels 1and 3 of Kings Cross signal

In the platform at London King’s Cross. box (Kings Cross, Holloway, Moorgate, Finsbury Park and Wood Green) will be re-controlled to York ROC. Over Christmas and New Year, new track was laid in Platform 6, though work to also replace the track in Platform 5 was rescheduled due to difficult site conditions. Four under-track crossings (UTXs) were installed at Holloway and work was undertaken at Woodgreen and Holloway as a rehearsal for the transfer of signalling control to York.

Further north on the East Coast main line, the Werrington Grade Separation project is constructing a dive-under that will allow freight trains to travel between the Stamford lines and the Spalding lines

without slowing down high-speed trains on the ECML. It is the subject of a morecomplete article elsewhere in this issue.

The Stevenage Turnback project is extending the existing Down Hertford Loop into Stevenage station and providing a turnback facility serviced by a new single-face platform (Platform 5) sufficient for a six-car train, based on Class 717 coach lengths. In providing this facility, trains using the Hertford Loop will be able to de-train passengers at the station and then return without the need to enter onto the East Coast main line, thus alleviating capacity issues and enable inner suburban trains from London to turn back more quickly.

Rail Engineer | Issue 181 | Jan/Feb 2020

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CHRISTMAS North West & Central

Replacing track in Platform 6, York – Christmas Day 2019.

Three redundant signals were removed and new signals installed and tested.

Cable troughs and ducting were installed, as were piles for the OLE along with masts and small parts steelwork (SPS).

The Barking Riverside Extension project is building a new elevated station at the end of a 1.5km steel and concrete viaduct.

Two sets of points were installed, new signalling power migrated to 36 existing signalling locations and an OLE neutral section was moved.

Twelve S&C units were renewed at the London end of Colchester station along with 398 yards of plain track. This involved making 179 welds and 11 stresses, along with 18 OLE adjustments and adjusting 60 metres of copers on the station platforms.

New points heating was installed and the temporary speed restriction (TSR) lifted from 50mph to 60mph.

Cricklewood sidings are being altered and expanded to allow the new Brent Cross West station to be built, in the footprint of the current North Sidings, on the Thameslink route of the Midland main line. Four OLE portal booms were installed across the main line, two location cases moved and the diverted Up autotransformer feeder (ATF) cables commissioned.

The replacement of the 1956-era overhead wiring on the Great Eastern with a modern, autotensioned system has been underway for some time. At Christmas, work continued on the Shenfield to Southend Victoria branch. Nine wire runs were completed at Wickford, along with the installation of several new structures and the removal of redundant ones.

The London to Corby capacity enhancement scheme is installing a fourth line between Bedford and Kettering. Both

Rail Engineer | Issue 181 | Jan/Feb 2020

signalling and p-way work took place over Christmas and a more complete report is included elsewhere in this issue.

The work at Leeds station is also described in an article here in this issue.

Work is proceeding to add Platform 0 and the station roof recently received attention.

28 two-track UTXs were installed at Colton to clear the way for a highoutput machine running between York and Church Fenton in March 2020. The UTX pipe for a four-track crossing was also installed – the two chambers will be installed later. Telecoms testing was completed at 13 locations and 70 per cent of the signalling testing planned for this location was also completed.

Phase 7 of the Birmingham New Street Area Renewals (BNSAR) is the renewal of all life-expired signalling systems and trackside equipment in the Birmingham New Street PSB (power signal box) control area (New Street station) ready for control to be transferred to the West Midlands signalling centre in 2022.

To prepare for this, cable route ducts were installed on Platforms 2/3a, 2/3b and 10/11a. In addition, LNW maintenance installed a half-set of switches at Grand Junction and carried out various maintenance activities including welding and grinding, track maintenance and S&T work. Structures examinations also took place under the Civils Examinations Framework Agreement (CEFA).

Work at Cheadle Hulme and Ardwick in Greater Manchester involved the renewal of the neutral sections as these utilised obsolete OLE equipment. They were renewed with a modern equivalent that has PTFE-coated contact wire insulation.

The existing automatic power control (APC) magnets were also replaced with Vortok super-strength white APC magnets. These are mounted on the ends of sleepers to align with the trainborne sensor and “instruct” an electric locomotive to open the circuit breaker on its transformer so that it does not draw current as the pantograph traverses as neutral section to eliminate arcing. A second magnet tells it to switch back on again afterwards.

Improving capacity at Leeds.

CHRISTMAS Four S&C units were refurbished and reballasted at Wolverhampton Station South. This was to improve track geometry, extend the life of the treated assets, reduce maintenance interventions and fault rectification, treat existing formation issues, improve drainage by replacing poor quality ballast, and provide a smoother more comfortable journey for passengers travelling through Wolverhampton station. Plans to work on a fifth unit were curtailed due to isolation being granted five hours later than programmed, a situation that is currently being investigated.

Cleveley cutting is located on the West Coast main line in the village of Forton, Lancashire. Work is taking place to regrade the lineside embankment adjacent to the Up line to resolve historic failures and the installation of new line side drainage system on both sides of the track to improve historically poor drainage in the area.

Over the Christmas and New Year period, 130 metres of deep drainage was installed on northern section of the site and 100 metres in the southern section. One snag that cropped up was that a clash between the drainage trench offset and the toe of the cutting slope resulted in a small section of latter being incorrectly excavated by a contractor.

Work was temporarily suspended to allow a reduction in offset to be approved so that work could proceed. The affected area of the cutting slope was replaced prior to handing back.

To facilitate the construction of the new HS2 station and its approaches, Network Rail has been clearing the west side of Euston of all railway systems infrastructure and re-provisioning as required. The team has also been providing construction sidings for the HS2 build. Within the

Tring, Hertfordshire. station itself, the team has been carrying out significant alterations and changes to mitigate the expected loss of platforms and the maintenance delivery unit depot.

The team took advantage of the holiday shut-down to commission the signalling for the final layout, including the construction sidings. New route indicators and SPTs (signal post telephones) were installed. Scaffolding was erected on Platform 16 to facilitate deconstruction of the west train shed, and additional suspended scaffolding was installed to allow for London Underground installations. Areas of the station scheduled for future demolition were stripped of MEP (mechanical, electrical and plumbing) fixtures and fittings.

An underbridge was installed at Lichfield as part of city’s southern bypass scheme that will allow better access to land for the development of new housing in the area.

As a 100-hour possession was required for the bridge installation, Christmas was the only option.

Signal commissioning at London Euston.

60 metres of track were removed and reinstated, signalling and telecoms cables were disconnected, reconnected and tested, the trackbed was excavated, two ballast walls and the bridge superstructure using SPMTs (self-propelled modular transporters) and mobile cranes.

A section of the West Coast main line was renewed near Pitstone, between Tring South Jn and Ledburn Jn, during a four-day blockade over the Christmas period. 315 yards of the Up line was renewed using road-rail vehicles and conventional techniques (thimble out rail, remove sleepers using RRV, dig doze, install sand and geotechnical membrane, install bottom stone with side tippers.

Relay loose with chains, top stone out of open wagons, tamper/automatic finishing machine (AFM)/dynamic track stabilisation (DTS), weld and stress). The site was handed-back on time with a temporary speed restriction of 60mph.

A similar method delivered 685 yards of renewed track between Princes Risborough and Bicester South junction on the Chiltern main line during a 54-hour blockade between 29 and 31 December. This was also handed back with a TSR of 60mph.

Scotland Three ‘RED’ jobs took place over the holidays north of the border.

The Carstairs and Motherwell South Recontrol Project (CaMSR ) transfers control of the section of the West Coast main line from Carstairs to the regional border, along with the Midcalder lines between Carstairs and the 81-mile post, from Motherwell Signal Centre (MSC) to the West of Scotland Signal Centre (WSSC).

Rail Engineer | Issue 181 | Jan/Feb 2020

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CHRISTMAS Haymarket, Scotland.

closed during the first phase of the work, but only two were shut for the second deck replacement as the team worked ALO (adjacent line open). A temporary cable bridge was removed at the end of the second possession.

A small, but crucial, piece of work took place at Wimbledon as two signalling transformers in the substation were replaced with modern equivalents, making the installation more reliable and resilient.

Wales and Western

The existing GEC geographical interlockings at Abington, Beattock, Beattock Summit and Lockerbie, and the interfaced SSIs (solid-state interlockings) at Carstairs, are being retained. Currently operated from MSC NX panel number six, in future a new remote-control system will operate these interlockings from the WSSC. All of the work was completed on time and the new Carstairs workstation at the WSCC was commissioned to bring the end of an era with the closure of Motherwell Signalling Centre after 46 years. When it opened in 1972, MSC replaced 86 mechanical signal boxes.

Haymarket East junction is situated to the west of Haymarket station and feeds both the Edinburgh to Glasgow main line and the Midcalder lines to Glasgow via Carstairs. It is a key junction, it was in poor condition with heavy wear and dipped joints on the steelwork throughout, split timber bearers that had already been pulled through and plugged, worn baseplates and ballast that had seen better days. There were also top and alignment issues.

Between 23:00 Tuesday 24 December and 10:00 Sunday 29 December 2019, three S&C units, 250 yards of plain line and 2000 metres of OLE return conductor wire were installed. 78 welds were carried out and the new track fully stressed before the possession was handed back at line speed.

The track at Shields Road is one of the busiest parts of the Ayr lines, which feed Glasgow Central station. However, the overall condition of the track at this location was poor, with several life-expired components, and the route asset manager called for a formation-based renewal.

Rail Engineer | Issue 181 | Jan/Feb 2020

The work was split into two possessions, one over Christmas and another over New Year. Two sections of plain track, the first of 345 yards with an 11-yard ramp and the second of 175 yards with two 11-yard ramps, were replaced in a ‘category 14’ renewal –formation, ballast, sleepers and rail were all replaced.

Southern The bridge at Sanderstead Road, South Croydon, was built in 1839 as a brick arch.

In 1909, two cast-iron outer decks were added, one each side, to allow for extra tracks and more capacity. By 2019, 110 years later, these additions were badly in need of replacement.

New concrete bridge decks were brought in from Ireland. The northwest (Purley Road) side deck was removed and replaced using SPMTs over Christmas 2019 and the southeast (Broomhall Road) side was similarly replaced between 27 and 30 December. All four lines were

Newport, Wales.

A series of track renewal projects took place over the holiday. At Newport, seven S&C units were replaced along with 220 metres of associated plain line which was fully welded, stressed and handed back at line speed. The need to get a freight route reopened by 28 December required careful safety planning as work continued on site.

To go along with the S&C units, seven mechanical back-drive points machines were installed in the four-foot, seven speed signs were renewed and 20 axlecounters were removed and refitted. New points heaters were fitted and tested, the OLE was adjusted and bonded, 90 metres of new drainage channel was created and 160 metres of new copers and oversails installed.

At Slough West and Southall, one pair of points was renewed, fitted with hy-drive point motors. The associated OLE was adjusted and new point heaters installed.

Plain track renewal at Portobello was curtailed – Paddington line 2 wasn’t completed – due to issues with spoil wagons on site.

Work also took place at several locations as part of the Paddington to Reading (P2R) project for the overground sections of Crossrail.

CHRISTMAS At Paddington itself, the buffer-stops for Platforms 11 and 12 were relocated, and the signalling and OLE altered, as preparation for strengthening works to London Street bridge in the New Year.

A new signal was installed and commissioned at Hayes & Harlington station, and a link bridge and stairs to the platforms was made fully operational.

An existing retail unit at West Drayton was underpinned, with the concrete base providing a level floor.

Southern Systems Alliance installed both a four-track and a five-track under-track crossings (UTXs) in support of the HS2 enabling works.

The link bridge serving Platforms 1 to 4 at Ealing Broadway was encapsulated, removing reliance on possessions for access during the demolition phase. A new canopy was constructed on Platforms 2 and 4, as was a new station control room.

OLE tangential wiring was installed over S&C at Southall East.

208 axle counters were installed as part of the programme to replace track circuits over the first 12 miles of the route out of Paddington.

The Safer and Faster Isolations programme installed seven new OLE Switches, recovered three existing switches and installed high-voltage cables.

Over 160 bags of silt were removed from catchpits at Kensal Green, which were cleaned by Network Rail’s works delivery team using high-pressure jetting after CCTV investigation.

A three-track UTX was constructed at Old Oak Common, providing a cable route to a new DNO (power Distribution Network Operator) that will eventually provide greater resilience and reliability.

Further west still, the OLE was commissioned between Newport and

Track renewal outside London Paddington.

Cardiff – a more detailed report can be found elsewhere in this issue.

The Bristol Area Signalling Renewal and Enhancement (BASRE) programme installed 32 axle-counters, disconnection boxes.

At Exeter St Davids, work to replace life-expired track components as well as to replace jointed track with continuous welded rail was delayed by a late start to the ballasting of Platform 4. The railway was handed back 20 minutes late so that S&T testing could be completed, and the level crossing work was not completed.

The level crossing at Colthrop also caused problems for the works delivery team. The sleepers under the crossing panels were found to be different to those on both approaches, so the new panels wouldn’t fit. As a result, the existing level crossing panels were maintained and secured to ensure the crossing is compliant and safe for passage until panel upgrades could be completed a few weeks later.

In Wales, works delivery units renewed the surface of Penrhiwtyn level crossing, recovered insulated rail joints from the

site of the recent Port Talbot resignalling, cleared drainage in the Severn tunnel and undertook speed-raising checks and installed new ironwork and timbers on double-slips at Cardiff West.

Review Although many people said that Christmas 2019 was quieter than normal, it was still a busy time. Network Rail chief executive Andrew Haines looked back on the activities: “Christmas and New Year, of course, is a time of holidays for many people, but on the railway it’s a time when we’re exceptionally busy. Over 20,000 people were working on or around the line side this Christmas, intervening just to make sure that our service is more reliable, it’s safer, and that it lasts for future generations. I want to thank everyone who was involved in that.

“But our Christmas works were not incident-free, and three colleagues suffered injuries that were preventable.

We have more to do to keep everyone safe and our track worker safety task force, headed up by Nick Millington, is focusing on the challenges we face.”

York Platform 6.

Rail Engineer | Issue 181 | Jan/Feb 2020

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Growing PAINS

GRAEME BICKERDIKE

ALL PHOTOS: FOUR BY THREE

L

eeds is vibrant and thriving, its cityscape undergoing perpetual transformation as glass and steel are jemmied into gaps between historic buildings - industrial, commercial, civic - many of which are, in turn, evolving for modern city living.

London, Birmingham, Manchester, Sheffield, Nottingham, Newcastle, Glasgow: most of our great urban centres benefit from underground, tram or light rail networks. But not so Leeds.

The aspiration to develop one here is longstanding; however, until decisionmakers find a way forward, the railway must shoulder the burden.

The city’s station has seen its own changes over the past 60 years. It was substantially rebuilt in 1967, when 500 trains per day typically served it. Between 1999 and 2002, the ‘Leeds 1st’ project introduced five new platforms and daylight into the train shed. Additional tracks were laid on the western approaches, whilst signalling control was transferred to York. In 2016, an eye-catching new entrance offered easy access from the residential and business district emerging on the station’s south side, beyond the river which it spans.

Passenger numbers have doubled over the past 20 years; 31 million people now use Leeds station annually and daily train

Rail Engineer | Issue 181 | Jan/Feb 2020

numbers exceed 1,250. It’s the busiest in the North, ranking 12th nationwide. And, with growth forecast to continue, the pressure is on to increase capacity and improve the customer experience.

Broader vision Time had taken its toll on the station’s southern concourse, becoming tired and gloomy - a far cry from the iconic gateway to which Leeds might reasonably aspire. Within its roof space, redundant assets and legacy asbestos required removal in a safe, controlled environment.

Encapsulating it without impacting on passenger flows would involve the installation of a full scaffold crash deck, the estimates for which bent the available budget. Value engineering was called for.

With the roof already leaking and approaching the end of its serviceable life, options were developed for its

replacement. The design, produced

by TSP Projects, made best use of the existing support structure - which remained in good condition - although some extra steelwork was needed to meet both structural loadings and current security requirements around blast resistance.

The safest and most economical roof solution has involved the use of ethylene tetrafluoroethylene (ETFE) - a material already familiar to any traveller who’s prone to looking upwards; the lightweight system introduces natural light into a number of our major stations. Mounting the ETFE panels above the existing roof trusses creates a greater sense of space, whilst the two bays closest to the entrance are raised by a further 1.2 metres to give the new station frontage more presence in the streetscape.

CHRISTMAS

Ground force

The extra mile

Work to install the scaffolding got underway in November 2018, remaining in place for ten months until the UCI Road World Championships brought cycling fans to Yorkshire - a fixed point on the timeline which imposed a demanding programme. Contractor Colt Construction had 90 operatives dotted around the site during peak periods. A 60-tonne crane, located in front of the station, assisted with the heavy lifting during demolition of the old canopy.

Presenting the greatest technical challenge was the vast structure of Victorian brick arches on which Leeds Station is built. The scaffold design had to take account of loading from the crash deck, top hat, any snow that might fall on it and the city’s notorious windstreams.

A 3D model was produced to ensure its two-metre-square support towers were located directly over the brick piers, so as not to apply point loads on the arches. Conveniently, the subterranean structures are arranged diagonally, driving the adoption of a diamond grid pattern which better accommodated the critical passenger thoroughfare between the train shed and north concourse.

Supplied by Vector Foiltec, the ETFE came in sheets, each comprising three layers of foil, and were inflated to form air pressure stabilised ‘pillows’ after installation into their frames. Despite being less than five per cent of the weight of comparable glazing, they can take the loading of a small car, not that they’re ever likely to!

With a team already in place to deliver this project, the opportunity to make further enhancements around the concourse was not missed.

By removing three retail units, a straight ticket gate line has been introduced, overcoming the problems of the old dog-leg layout which reduced queuing space on the platform side. This had been a persistent cause of passenger complaints by virtue of the bottleneck it created at peak times. The station’s customer information screens are now located above the ticket gates, moved from a position where they conflicted with passenger flows.

The south concourse is now decluttered, save for a seating area and the travel information centre which acts as a clear focal point. Its former home has been

allocated to a Changing Places facility, opening later this year and offering a shower, hoist and changing bed for those travelling with severely disabled passengers. The public toilets have also been fully refurbished, whilst work continues on those serving the platforms.

Out front, more of New Station Street has been pedestrianised to improve the approach environment - an element funded by the West Yorkshire Combined Authority. Previously, this area was constrained by two roadways and a low canopy, cantilevered out by as much as 15 metres; generally, it felt a bit grim. With the new canopy much higher, the space is refreshed, brighter and more welcoming, revealing views of the symmetrical façade.

Matt Ramsden, who managed the project for Network Rail alongside colleague Adam Showell, has been gauging reactions from station users. “It’s all been positive,” he reflected. “The main comment seems to be that there’s so much natural light.”

Platform change This multi-million-pound spend on the station’s public realm complements a bigger scheme to increase train capacity.

The last major revamp here fuelled its own growth, with demand since outstripping what the models had forecast.

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Andy Martin, Network Rail’s programme manager, is part of a team responsible for a £161 million investment which will see an additional bay platform opened.

“It’s also about changing the functionality of the layout to make sure we can get more trains in and out of the existing platforms”, he noted. As a result, the more complex aspects involve associated works to the track, signalling and overhead line infrastructure.

Leeds currently has six through platforms and 11 bays, six of which handle traffic on the ‘north-west’ routes to Harrogate, Ilkley, Bradford and Skipton. The new Platform 0 will sit alongside these on the north side of the station, served by a new running line from the western throat.

Team building As you’d expect, it’s been a long time in the planning, with notable landmarks passed along the way. The area’s signalling control had been transferred to York IECC in 2001; however, with the system no longer supported by its installers, Resonate performed a full upgrade in December 2018 to accommodate upcoming expansion.

October saw the installation of two overhead-line gantries spanning all six

Rail Engineer | Issue 181 | Jan/Feb 2020

tracks on the station’s western side; some signalling power equipment was also relocated.

Initial feasibility work around train services was carried out by Tata between 2013 and 2015; they optioneered track layout designs to achieve improved functionality. But one challenge of today’s railway is the fluid aspirations of franchise holders. Consequently, the proposed approaches to Platforms 4-6 are currently under review.

Overall, the layout around the northern bays will be better aligned to meet short and medium-term franchises and service aspirations; it will also bring benefits to train performance with improved flexibility. A new crossover between

Platforms 1 and 2 will enable parallel working - more efficient movement in and out, overcoming the need for services to fully clear the western throat before others work back in.

Helping to manage safely the implications and constructability of any changes are the engineers and planners within the project’s supply chain. There are three key collaborators within the huband-spoke contract: Alstom - responsible for the signalling and associated power works, Buckingham Group - undertaking the civils and platform activities, and the Central Rail Systems Alliance - a partnership between Balfour Beatty, TSO and Atkins - handling the track, OLE and additional E&P elements.

CHRISTMAS A site compound has been established for the works in the station car park, part of which will be taken up by Platform 0.

It’s been closed to the public since last spring, with the loss of around 400 spaces.

For the time being, the adjacent multistorey is dedicated for use by operational staff from the train companies.

Peak performance Christmas is a time when the railway family comes together to relish the priceless gift of a train-free network. At Leeds, a 450-strong workforce sacrificed time with their other families to deliver an extensive programme of works which had been refined over the preceding 12 months.

The core package included the renewal of three point-ends and installation of two new ones - which aren’t in service yet - as well as commissioning and wheels-free testing two of Alstom’s computer-based Smartlock interlockings, to be operated from Network Rail’s York Rail Operating Centre. Minor changes were made to the power supply. Additionally, overhead line equipment was fitted to six new gantries, allowing the removal of seven redundant gantries which stood in the way of the line into Platform 0.

Responsibility for safely managing the overall site was vested with Buckingham as principal contractor. From a civils perspective, the firm regauged 60 metres of Platform 3 and reduced the length of Platform 2 by 30 metres to make way for the new crossover; resurfacing work was also carried out.

All lines were blocked for 54 hours, during which time the track and signalling work was completed, except for tamping.

Every last drop of value was wrung from this period. Despite unexpectedly encountering buried concrete and the need to undertake minor on-site modifications to the S&C, handback occurred six minutes early.

From 04:10 on 27 December, the possession was scaled back to encompass just Platforms 1-5 plus the A & B lines, an arrangement which continued until 04:00 on 30 December.

With the remaining signalling, OLE, civils and track works completed, handback was more comfortable, taking place over four hours ahead of the published time.

Moving forward 2020 brings a number of additional stages towards the scheme’s culmination next Christmas, an end-date driven by the need for more changes to the signalling control system and interlocking. Thereafter, Platform 0 will be commissioned.

In the meantime, Platform 1 - on the other side of the island - and its canopy have to be rebuilt to meet the new track alignment. Despite this intervention, it will mostly remain open throughout the year so as not to unduly disrupt Northern’s services. However, it won’t be in its existing form; to create a safe working area for demolition and reconstruction, the platform will be shortened to 130 metres and, for several periods from May, trains will arrive at a temporary scaffold structure on the other side of the Platform 0 track. This will require careful operational management, as the line won’t be electrified.

When it comes to predicting the future, the only certainty is uncertainty. Who could have foreseen the motor car’s potential demise 30 years ago or the railway’s confident re-emergence from the doldrums? There will be more to come as climate crisis imposes a greener agenda, like it or not. In the 2020s, we’ll end up putting back more of what we discarded in the 1960s.

Platform -1 anybody? It’s all change at Leeds.

Rail Engineer | Issue 181 | Jan/Feb 2020

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CLIVE KESSELL

A Great (Western) Christmas

O

ne of the many projects that took place over the Christmas period involved the Great Western main line between London and Slough.

There was no major headline project, but the opportunity of the twoday train service shutdown was taken to do some important renewal and enhancement work. Some disruption to train services before and after was inevitable but this was kept to a minimum.

A variety of work took place. Trackwork was renewed, overhead electrification lines were remodelled, signalling systems were enhanced and stations were upgraded.

This one article attempts to draw all of these individual works together, the common link being that they were all carried out on the Great Western route out of Paddington, which, as a result, was closed from 24 to 27 December and offered a reduced service from 28 to 31 December.

Track and crossing renewal Southall East junction, at the London end of the station, has a ladder junction enabling trains to cross from Up Main to Up Relief or from Down Relief to Down Main, as well as permitting crossover movements between the various lines as and when required.

The Christmas renewal involved the switches between the two relief lines, part of an ongoing project which commenced in Christmas 2018, at which time half

Rail Engineer | Issue 181 | Jan/Feb 2020

of the junction was renewed. This year, the third quarter was added to the project, with the remaining quarter being planned for just before Christmas 2020. A conversation with the project manager – Sarah Fraser – who works in the Network Rail track renewals office at Bristol revealed all.

Essentially, this was a like-for-like renewal, so it was relatively easy to implement.

The relief lines are maintained for 90mph running, with the ladder junction allowing 70mph crossing movements. Hence, the pointwork stretches over a considerable distance. It required an all-line possession (because of overhead electrification work – see next section) from 01:30 on Christmas Eve through to 04:00 on 28 December and then possession of the relief and main lines in turn from 28-31 December, which allowed a reduced train service to operate with a full timetable being restored on New Year’s Day.

CHRISTMAS A new footbridge was lifted in at Hayes & Harlington station.

The new ‘G’ switches, with NR56 rail profile, were assembled in the ‘Westinghouse’ sidings to the west of the station and then moved to site by PEM/LEM machines, itself a considerable task. Once the old pointwork had been removed, the normal 300mm dig took place for new ballast to be laid whence the new switches could be positioned. New point machines were installed, which were in-bearer clamplocks, with hy-drive in view of the switch length, with everything being connected up and tested ready for normal running.

Like all projects of this nature, much effort in planning and implementing the work was required. The switch design was carried out by AECOM from its Swindon office with the principal contractor being Colas Rail UK, working out of premises near to Birmingham. Much of the rail mounted plant was supplied by Colas Rail including tampers, the track relaying machines (TRM) and the PEM/LEM equipment. Readypower supplied the road-rail vehicles (RRVs) and much of the other heavy plant.

The project formed part of the South Rail Systems Alliance contract under the control of the Network Rail’s Bristol office.

The cost of the track work was in the order of £2 million.

All went to plan and handback was on time.

Overhead Line Electrification (OLE) resilience When electrification of the line to Heathrow Airport took place in the 1990s, the favoured configuration was the headspan method, as this was a cheaper solution compared to the portal structures that had been used hitherto. A headspan consists of two substantial stanchions, one either side of the multi-track running lines, connected by suspension wires from which the power catenaries are installed.

Whilst elegant and less visually intrusive, it has the disadvantage that, if a train damages any one catenary, this can lead to a collapse of the entire span, thus causing power to be lost to all tracks and considerable damage to all of the overhead wiring. Train service disruption can be considerable with lengthy times being needed to restore the OLE wiring and normal operation.

The highest risk of damage being caused is at switch and crossing locations, where the overhead wiring is more complex through the junctions. For these reasons, and also the higher speed of traction (125mph for the Class 800 trains), it was decided that all the junctions (Acton West, Southall East & West and Stockley) would be tangentially wired, so the opportunity of the Christmas possession was taken to improve the resilience of the OLE infrastructure.

To achieve this, a change from headspan to cantilever structures was engineered, these being simple stanchions associated with only one line and typically used on double or single-track railways. New stanchions had been installed in the weeks leading up to Christmas.

The revised design involved splitting the catenary runs into three parts and, once the possession was taken, the existing headspan wiring was removed, hence the need to have access to all tracks.

The whole junction area has been re-wired in this manner, but was organised so as to allow two-track operation from 28 December.

Station upgrades With the introduction of the Class 345 Crossrail trains, some platform lengthening was required, which was completed by 1 November. However, station improvements continue to be made and at Christmas, considerable work was carried out at Hayes & Harlington and at Ealing Broadway.

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www.ft-transformers.co.uk Rail Engineer | Issue 181 | Jan/Feb 2020

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At Hayes & Harlington, a new footbridge, including some of the stairways, was lifted in by two 500-tonne road-mounted cranes - one located on the north side of the station, the other on the south. Clearly, this work took advantage of the all-track possession and the spans were lifted in successfully during the four-day allline blockade. The footbridge is now in use over the relief lines except for access to the down fast platform, which still has to be completed. Disabled access by lift is part of the project, but these are not ready yet.

Ealing Broadway is being significantly modernised to handle growing passenger numbers, with a new concourse being constructed. Part of the work at Christmas was to put a scaffold cap over part of the existing buildings in readiness for their demolition.

Additionally, steelwork was installed for new canopies on Platform 4, which required small cranes to be deployed on the platform.

Although this was a relatively small part of the whole station upgrade, it was clearly sensible to take advantage of the track possession.

Axle counters Another significant project that took place on the Great Western main line over Christmas was to replace the track circuits between Paddington and Slough (just over 14 miles) with axle counters.

Now under the control of the Thames Valley Signalling Centre, the track circuits (types TI21/EB2100 and RT Reed) have been becoming increasingly unreliable, so Network Rail decided that a change in train detection technology needed to be undertaken. It is a big project, with around 770 axle counters required in total, and will take many months to complete.

Structural Precast for Railways

Rail Engineer | Issue 181 | Jan/Feb 2020

Alstom engineers installed 208 axle counters in four days.

Alstom has been awarded the early works contract and is doing all the design work from its Derby office. They have chosen to use the Frauscher axle counter, which has the advantage of being clamped to the rail rather than needing the rail to be drilled. It is a product already deployed in a number of Network Rail locations so its performance is well understood.

Work is currently at the stage where the axle counters are being installed, along with their associated cabling run back to a disconnection box at the trackside. This is a time-critical element as it requires technicians to be working on the running lines, which cannot be achieved without a possession.

Advantage was taken of the Christmas 2019 possessions to carry out this important work over the period from Boxing Day (Dec 26) through to Dec 30. In total some 208 axle counters were installed in that time.

The most difficult section is the multi-track railway for two miles out of Paddington, where access is always problematic. Alstom assembled teams of 24 people, supported on site by Network Rail engineers, who worked a single shift each day so as to take advantage of daylight hours.

Installing the axle counters is relatively straightforward, but the cable to carry the power and data counts once the counter is active is more difficult. Cleating to the underside of the running rails is now the preferred method of installing and securing cables transversely across tracks.

Once in position and cleated, the cables are terminated in a lineside termination box known as a generator junction box (in German: Generatorenanschlusskasten – or GAK).

This termination box, between the axle counter cable and the lineside cabling, is positioned adjacent to the cable troughing and some 38 GAKs were installed over the period.

CHRISTMAS

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The first two days of the full possession were used to install the axle counters on all tracks where the London Underground Hammersmith & City lines are adjacent, as access is even more hazardous in this section, with the latter two days concentrating on the two relief lines.

Alstom had also undertaken design work for the Crossrail West junction and had produced the GRIP 3 (option selection) plans for this. Being involved at an early stage enabled a logical progression to GRIP 4 (single option development). Everything went well over the Christmas 2019 period, but clearly the work is far from finished with another 500+ axle counters still to be installed and cabled.

Of course, similar access will be required when the time comes for the testing of the new installations, to validate the positioning of previously installed axle counters, set up the axle-counter heads and positively correspond each detection point to an evaluator, the interlocking and the control system. As the plan is to introduce all 770 new axle counters at the same time, commissioning will be a huge task requiring dedicated installation and test teams. It is planned for Christmas 2021, so no doubt will form part of next year’s Rail Engineer Christmas review.

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Thanks for help with this article to Sarah Fraser (track), Ewen Morrison (stations), Richard Whinnett and James Greatbanks (OLE) of Network Rail and to Andy King and Will Roberts from Alstom, who made the point that the co-operation between Alstom, Network Rail and Frauscher engineers has been exemplary.

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Rail Engineer | Issue 181 | Jan/Feb 2020

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Finishing off the fourth track Between Bedford and Kettering

A

part from the electrification of the section of route from London St. Pancras to Bedford in the late 1970s, the Midland main line has had few upgrades of any significance throughout its existence, until the current major MML Upgrade which is now well underway.

A major part of the MML Upgrade is the extension of electrification of the route further north. This has been something of a stop-go policy, inasmuch as plans to electrify the line as far as Sheffield were ‘paused’ by the government in 2015 amid concerns over the escalating costs and programme on the Great Western main line electrification scheme.

After re-evaluation of electrification investment generally, the MML Upgrade was reauthorised in 2017 and included electrifiation as far as Corby - it is now in full swing.

Once the electrification and capacity upgrade of the Midland main line is complete, it will have seen the installation of 23km of new track, improvements at stations, including lengthening several platforms by up to 58 metres, and significant work to around 49 structures, including the reconstruction of more than 25 bridges. This means that, in late 2020, improved services will run between Corby, Kettering and London, with up to 50 per cent more seats during peak times between Corby and Bedford.

Electrification from Bedford to Kettering, and of the branch to Corby, is due for completion by late 2020. In March, the Department for Transport confirmed that it had instructed Network Rail to design a 15-kilometre extension of this electrification to Market Harborough, as this is likely to be the most costeffective way of connecting to the nearby Braybrooke feeder station. A decision on the construction of this extension awaits a full business-case assessment.

In addition to the electrification itself, the Upgrade includes route capacity improvements, speed increases, station enhancements at Bedford,

Rail Engineer | Issue 181 | Jan/Feb 2020

Wellingborough, Kettering, Corby and Market Harborough and the removal of bottlenecks. Additionally, the signalling between Bedford and Kettering is being upgraded to an axle-counter system. One major contributor to the route capacity has been the provision of a fourth track between Kettering and Sharnbrook Junction, a few miles north of Bedford.

Completion of this fourth track was the primary objective of a major route closure for nine days over the recent Christmas and New Year period.

An extra track Passengers were advised, through major publicity by Network Rail and East Midlands Railway, that the route would be closed from the night of Christmas Eve until the morning of Thursday 2 January, with rail replacement bus services between Bedford and Market Harborough and Corby.

The existing track layout between Kettering and Sharnbrook Junction consisted of Up and Down Fast lines and a ‘Down Slow’ line, which is actually

MARK PHILLIPS

signalled so that it can be used for reversible working when needed. The new fourth track being provided between approximately the 70 and 56 mileposts is designated as the ‘Up Slow’ and is signalled for use in that direction only. The original three lines retain their existing operating characteristics.

Apart from the normal requirement to raise or modify bridges and other structures to provide the capacity for the fourth line and clearance for the overhead wires, an additional feature has been the need to reposition several signals. These were mainly signals which controlled the existing Down Slow line but whose signal posts or gantry supports were obstructing the part of the formation physically needed for the fourth track. New gantries were required at these locations to accommodate the disrupted signal heads.

Where possible, the new signals for the new fourth track were incorporated into these new gantries, although some additional stand-alone signal posts were required.

Sharnbrook tunnel, where the Slow lines diverge from the Fast.

CHRISTMAS The new section of four-line track.

At Wellingborough station, a fourth platform is being constructed which will later serve the additional line. New point and crossing work to allow access to and egress from the fourth track has been installed at Kettering and Sharnbrook Junction and modifications made to Wellingborough North, Wellingborough South and Harrowden junctions.

Preparatory works The majority of the works described in the previous section were completed over many possessions and major closures over a period of more than two years.

The scheme has been spread over a considerable period of time, doing as much work as possible well in advance of this particular closure, to avoid further disruption to passengers. For example, around Wellingborough North junction, a significant intervention was carried out in the Christmas 2018 closure to prepare that layout for the new facilities. During summer 2019, much of the work for the fourth track was put in place.

Even in the few days prior to the full Christmas 2019 closure, there were significant works by day and night towards completion of the fourth track. From 22:00 on Saturday 21 December until 22:00 on Christmas Eve, a possession of the Slow lines between Sharnbrook Junction and Wellingborough North Junction enabled significant platform construction work for Platforms 3 and 4 at Wellingborough.

Nine days of Christmas The main overall task for the 2019 Christmas/New Year closure was to complete the final elements, enabling the fourth track to become operational.

These included the removal of the obstructing signal structures, so that the final few short sections of the fourth track permanent way could be installed at these locations and signalling testing and commissioning completed throughout.

The major closure gave the opportunity to carry out much other work, such as the completion of associated overhead wiring and major construction and finishing of platform works at Wellingborough and Kettering stations.

Amey, framework contractors, did the work for the fourth track and associated switch and crossing work, the signalling

work was by Siemens, overhead line work

by SPL Powerlines UK and the stations work at Kettering and Wellingborough was also the responsibility of Amey.

The possession for the core nine-day closure was from 22:00 on Christmas Eve to 08:00 on Thursday 2 January between Bedford and Market Harborough. A critical part of the nine-day programme of works was to be the testing and commissioning of all the signalling over the whole section of affected route, which involves two new Siemens Westlock CBI interlockings between Bedford and Kettering. The last five days of the closure had effectively been allocated to this work and, for this, wheels free testing had to be available. Therefore, all permanent way installation, renewal, welding, stressing and tamping work had to be complete by Saturday 28 December.

So, the first four days of the closure saw intensive permanent way works: » Installation of closure rails, welding and stressing at 922 and 1570 pts and at Templers Way; » The completion of the infill track sections after the signal structure removals of LR100 at Harrowden Junction (180 metres) and of LR101/102 gantry at Burton Latimer (245 metres); » Track renewal between Wellingborough North junction and Smiths Sidings; » 1,500 metres of parallel tamping of the Fast lines through Wellingborough North junction; » Buffer-stop removal and headshunt installation at Neilsons Sidings; » Final welding and 2,010 metres of tamping at other sites on the Up Slow.

For the electrification works, a few short sections of catenary and contact wires and fixings on one overbridge were completed, followed by registration and testing throughout.

The new section of four-line track.

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CHRISTMAS Platforms 1, 2 and 3 and completion of the construction of the new Platform 4. This comprised significant infill and compaction. On Platform 2, 160 metres of coping stones were refitted to an adjusted track alignment and 128 metres of copers were positioned on the Platform 3 extension. Also, Platforms 2 and 3 were resurfaced and anti-climb works to OLE structures carried out.

The possession was handed back early, at 05:46 on the morning of 2 January. The designed line speed for the new fourth track, the Up Slow line, varies up to a maximum of 90mph. When entered into use, the line will not immediately operate at that speed. It will be some time before the track is fully consolidated under traffic because there is no planned timetabled use of it until December 2020, when the electrified service will be introduced.

At times, the Slow and Fast lines diverge.

The signalling works comprised, firstly, the removal of redundant location cases and the retrieval and removal of signal gantries along with the provision of foundations and erection of new signal structures. As the permanent way works were completed, wheels free testing was then sequentially carried out in six main stages over several days in the latter part of the route closure and the new signalling commissioned.

Another major activity, which continued without hindrance from other disciplines throughout the whole nine days, was the civil engineering works, mainly at the stations. However, so as not to compromise the wheels-free regime needed for the signalling testing in progress after 28 December, it was necessary to be able to transport spoil and materials across the tracks at the two stations. This was achieved by the use of poly-bridging.

At Kettering station, there were civils and drainage works for Platform 1, installation of precast tactile units and coping stones on Platform 2 and drainage and lighting column base construction on Platform 4.

Signal gantry LR60/64 had been a programme constraint at Kettering. The position of the gantry clashed with the footprint of the extensions to Platforms 1 and 2. Before the main nine-day closure, it had been possible to complete only 60 per cent of the platform extension works. Siemens commissioned the new gantry for signals LR60/64 at Christmas, enabling the removal of the old gantry and thus the completion of the remaining platform extension civils works. LR60/64

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was removed by specialist demolition contractor Sammy Evans. Temporary decking across the Slow lines provided a surface for a 35-tonne civils excavator with a demolition shears attachment to dismantle the gantry in three parts.

Paul Kerrigan, stations project manager for Amey, emphasised to Rail Engineer two key elements for the success and efficiency of the work at Kettering. These were early engagement with East Midlands Railway in gaining permission to use the north station car park as a construction depot throughout the works to manage materials and spoil and the input from the civils contractor, BCM Construction, and its labour supplied by Crewit Resourcing.

At Wellingborough station, there were various civils, coping stone, drainage and duct-run works for the existing

Resourcing The pattern of working was mostly overlapping shifts of 10 hours for most staff in order to keep 24-hour working going throughout the whole closure period. For some specific situations and activities, 12-hour shifts were rostered.

9,444 manhours were worked on permanent way activities, 13,200 manhours on signalling installation, testing and commissioning and 14,788 manhours on the civils construction work at Kettering and Wellingborough stations.

Jorge Roque, Network Rail’s programme manager for rail systems and route clearance, said that there had been an excellent safety record throughout the Christmas closure, with not a single incident or personnel accident.

At times, the Slow and Fast lines diverge.

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CHRISTMAS

BOB WRIGHT

Christmas at WERRINGTON The north end of the works with both Down and Up Stamford lines connected into the realigned section. The parapets of the topdown future maintenance access underbridge are visible centre right.

O

ver Christmas, part of the East Coast main line moved 20 metres westwards as enabling works for the £200 million Werrington Grade Separation project to construct an underpass at Werrington Junction near Peterborough.

The existing Werrington junction layout causes constraints on increasing the frequency of passenger services, as slow freight trains moving onto the Great Northern Great Eastern route (GNGE) need to cross over the three high speed lines of the East Coast main line.

Network Rail and its designer, Jacobs, considered a number of options for grade separation, comprising both under and overline options. Local public consultation in summer 2014 presented these and 400 people attended events, with a strong majority favouring the underpass solution.

Public feedback received was collated and analysed and used to help inform Network Rail’s selection of the

Rail Engineer | Issue 181 | Jan/Feb 2020

preferred option. Key concerns raised were the potential environmental and community impacts, especially noise, given the proximity of the railway to properties. An overline option would require a very high viaduct that would have to also cross the higher level A15 trunk road and, for many, the visual intrusion of this on the very flat landscape was a key concern.

The underpass option was selected, recognising public concerns but also reflecting

the technical, environmental, cost, maintenance and constructability issues and constraints.

In Autumn 2016 the single preferred option was presented in four local public consultation events, enabling concerned residents to review the plans for the scheme, speak to members of the project team and provide their feedback. This enabled Network Rail to address any remaining queries before the detailed design of the underpass option was finalised.

Network Rail submitted a Transport & Works Act Order in 2016 to begin work on the project and this was approved in 2018.

GNGE FROM SPALDING

PROPOSED TRACK LAYOUT PLAN

CHRISTMAS

A15

LINCOLN ROAD

FOX COVERT ROAD

A15 ECML FROM GRANTHAM

HURN ROAD FOOTBRIDGE

KEY

EXISTING RAIL TRACK PROPOSED NEW RAIL TRACK PROPOSED TRACK TO BE REMOVED

1

TEMPORARY UP STAMFORD

PHOTO: MICK LORD

The Werrington grade separated junction project involves the construction of a rail chord to provide a new connection between the ECML and the GNGE line. This will be a massive 3kmlong undertaking.

From south of Cock Lane footbridge, a central pair of tracks for the GNGE chord will take a ramp into a new underpass, below the ECML, and rise to meet the GNGE line approximately 600 metres after Lincoln Road. The new chord will use the footprint of the existing Stamford lines, which will be realigned, the Down line moving up to 20 metres westwards and the Up moving 10 metres east onto the existing wideway between the ECML and Stamford routes.

The new underpass itself will be a 155-metrelong curved structure jacked under the ECML. A maintenance access bridge beneath the Stamford lines will give access to its southern portal.

East of the ECML, the new chord will pass under the A15 using the alignment of the existing Hurn Road, which will be diverted, and beneath a new bridge under Lincoln Road.

The project began on site in March 2019 and is due for completion in March 2021. It forms part of the wider Network Rail East Coast Upgrade, which also includes works at London King’s

DOWN STAMFORD

2

DOWN GNGE CHORD

3

UP GNGE CHORD

4

UP STAMFORD

5

DOWN ECML FAST

6 7

UP ECML FAST UP ECML SLOW

3

5

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COCK LANE FOOTBRIDGE

ECML TO PETERBOROUGH AND LONDON

Cross, Stevenage and a number of other smaller projects that collectively will allow an additional two high-speed paths per hour between London and Doncaster.

The project is being managed on the hub and spoke model. Network Rail is providing management, Morgan Sindall, the principal contractor, is constructing civil works and OLE structures, signalling is being installed

by Siemens and the permanent way works by the Central Rail Systems Alliance (made up of Network Rail, Balfour Beatty, Atkins and TSO).

The south end of the site.

PHOTO: MICK LORD

The plan

1

2

4

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CHRISTMAS Four-spotted moth.

The scale and scope of this project includes a very wide range of activities and the design team reflects this. Jacobs was appointed by Network Rail as the lead design organisation to deliver the GRIP 3 option selection design. Signalling design and telecoms data transmission design were delivered by the Network Rail Signalling Design Group. Once appointed, Morgan Sindall provided early-contractor-engagement support to ensure that constructability was fully considered in the design.

The delivery of GRIP 4 and GRIP 5 detailed design was carried out by Morgan Sindall supported by lead designer Mott MacDonald and by Tony Gee & Partners.

Siemens delivered the detailed signalling and telecoms design. GSM-R design is by Network Rail Telecoms and track bed design by the Network Rail Track Bed Design Team in Birmingham.

Difficult designs

The relocated Brook Drain was designed to encourage wildlife.

The scheme has included a number of geotechnically challenging aspects, such as de-watering of artesian pore pressures in the various underlying strata and dealing with Oxford Clay, with its residual shear planes.

Working together, the two designers – Mott MacDonald and Tony Gee – had to deliver both heavy civils and temporary works packages.

These included over 450 metres of propped contiguous piled wall, 150 metres of soil nailed cutting, a steel/concrete composite integral bridge, 55 metres wide and with a 15-metre span, a 150-metre-long curved jacked portal and its associated temporary works, including TBM (tunnel boring machine) launch and reception pits, jacking slab and cutting shield.

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PHOTO: ALAN MILLER

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Works during 2019 Works began in the Spring with the setting up of the site compounds. The main compound is on the west side, accessed through an industrial estate, and is the base for the track realignment, south ramp and retaining structures. A smaller one on the east side, accessed from the A15, is responsible for the jacked box construction and connection works to the GNGE route.

This project is alongside the western edge of Peterborough, close to many properties and audible to many more, and so engagement with neighbours is very important. The dedicated communications group for the ECML project was responsible for engaging with the community, highlighting to them the benefits of the scheme and warning of potential noise and disruption, especially during the occasional night works. The relationship with neighbours has been extremely good so far, despite the noise of piling and excavation which spreads far in this flat terrain.

One of the early preparatory tasks before the major works began was the diversion of a number of significant Anglian Water, UK Power Networks and Vodafone utility assets.

A stream, Brook Drain, which ran alongside the boundary, has been moved westwards to make way for the new formation. Sized to help with local flood issues, the new river is 840 metres long and four metres deep. It features a meandering channel, including riffles - shallow sections of water - and side pools, where aquatic wildlife can take refuge. During environmental surveys, the rare Four-spotted moth was found living on the riverbank. A habitat for these was designed into the new channel. At the southern end of the project, 0.5km of the stream has been diverted beneath the realigned Stamford lines, within a concrete box culvert.

At the south end of the project, Cock Lane Footbridge was replaced with a new longer structure, maintaining access from Benedict Square to Stirling Way and spanning the realigned Stamford and GNGE lines. This new 50-metre-span structure was designed by Mott MacDonald, fabricated by Britton Fabricators and erected during October and November. The

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footbridge is a steel structure throughout with exception of the upside pier, which is close to the Up Slow and is a heavy reinforced concrete structure, designed to resist derailment impact loading.

Following the completion of the footbridge and Brook Drain works the formation for the diverted Up and Down Stamford lines was constructed.

Clay excavated from the site was used to backfill the old Brook Drain. The new formation is built on natural ground overlain with a geotextile and 200mm deep sand-filled geocells ensuring a minimum 45MPa bearing pressure.

G44 concrete sleepers and CEN60 rail were delivered by road and the 3,580 metres of plain line was installed on 250mm bottom ballast, welded and tamped in advance of the Christmas and New year tie-ins.

New overhead line equipment included new piled foundations, structures, and wiring to the new Down Stamford line.

New signals, four-foot equipment and lineside location cases were installed along the new alignment and tested prior to commissioning over the tie-in possessions.

PHOTO: MICK LORD

CHRISTMAS

Within Peterborough signalling control panel, works were carried out, to alter the panel to accommodate the commissioning of the new alignment and enabling works to allow pre-testing of the system leading up to the complete project commissioning works at the end of 2020.

At the North end of the realigned section, a top-down constructed bridge has been installed. This will provide the access for construction traffic and for future maintenance within the underpass.

To the north of the ECML, much of the north ramp has been constructed and preparatory earthworks have begun forming the new formation for the chord line.

In total, over 120,000 cubic metres of soil and clay have been excavated to date.

The first section of the north ramp consists of contiguous piled walls with steel overhead bracing. 183 rotary-bored piles, each 900mm diameter and driven 18 metres deep, were installed by Bauer Technologies using a BG45 PremiumLine Rotary Drilling Rig. This section forms the jacking slab for the two 168-metre-long, three metre diameter bored tunnels that will house the box jacking guide rails and for jacking the box itself. The 750mm thick temporary jacking slab incorporates slide track and jack reaction pockets and is supported on 30 1.2-metrediameter bored piles.

Beyond this section the formation passes through a steep cutting supported by 900 soil nails, installed by BAM, each eight to 10 metres long, and by a sprayed concrete facing.

Cock Lane footbridge under construction.

Bauer Technologies installed 183 rotarybored piles.

PHOTO: BAUER TECHNOLOGIES

Rail Engineer | Issue 181 | Jan/Feb 2020

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Soil nailing to support the cutting walls, September 2019.

(Inset top) The north portal approach and soil nailed embankment from above.

(Inset bottom) The north ramp cutting, reinforced with soil nails and sprayed concrete slopes.

At the A15 bridge Hurn Road passed through one of the two spans, the existing GNGE through the other. The road has been diverted, so that the new chord can be laid through its span, a rare example of a road being changed to a railway. A new bridge is being constructed beneath Lincoln Road and a 41-metres-long temporary footbridge has been provided for pedestrians. To accommodate these works, a pair of semi-detached houses were purchased and demolished. One bungalow was also demolished as part of the Hurn Road diversion.

North of the end of the project, as part of the project enabling works, two ponds were constructed near Fox Covert footbridge to re-house Great Crested Newts.

Works during Christmas

Preparatory works in December 2019.

The Christmas period saw the realignment of the Stamford lines by up to 20 metres to the west, so creating a central wideway for the following construction of the south ramp. As the plain line had been completed in advance, only the tie-ins at each end remained to be completed over two 53hour disruptive possessions - on 24 to 27 December for the Down Stamford and 4 to 5 January for the Up. The signalling works carried out over the Christmas period

Rail Engineer | Issue 181 | Jan/Feb 2020

were relatively minor with the real risk being timescales to complete the lineside build of the signalling system, following construction of OLE and track assets.

The existing track was lifted out by road/rail excavators and new plain line panels and ballast unloaded from an engineering train on the opposite track.

The redundant track panels were lifted out in 60’ panels, stacked by the excavators and removed from the site using a pair of tracked McCulloch Rail Lifters into the compound where they will be removed by road to Whitemoor Rail Recycling Centre to be reused as serviceable material.

After each of the two possessions, works were completed on time and handed back with a planned 50 TSR (line speed 80). During these possessions, some train services were diverted, and

a bus replacement service was provided between Peterborough and Leicester.

Future works during 2020 With the Stamford lines repositioned, the construction of the south ramp can begin, with traffic entering the site through the maintenance access bridge.

This work is due for completion in June. Once complete, the Up Stamford will again be moved, this time to its final location, to the east of the ramp. The retaining structures for the ramp will be 693 contiguous bored piles, 900mm diameter, up to 18 metres in length, the shallow sections at the ramp top will be of AZ26-700 steel sheet piles up to 10 metres long.

During the summer, Morgan Sindall will construct the concrete box – the jacked portal - that will later be pushed into position to form the underpass beneath the ECML. This is a cast concrete structure,

PHOTO: JOHN POTTER/EUROPEAN RAIL TIMETABLE

155 metres long, curved at 750 metre radius on plan, 9.5 metres wide and 5.1 metres high. The walls and roof are one metre thick and the whole box weighs 11,000 tonnes.

Designed by Mott MacDonald and Tony Gee, it includes fitment for a hydraulically linked lateral guidance system to move the portal around the plan curvature and to resist out-of-balance horizontal soil pressures during the push. This is the first time that a curved portal has been jacked in this configuration in the UK. A 200-metre jacking slab was constructed in a deep cutting between contiguous piled walls. Because of the ground conditions, designers had to determine the effects of soil slumping against the sides of the jacked portal during the push.

Once the jacked portal structure has been constructed off-line, installation will take place during a nine-day blockade of the ECML in the

PHOTO: RICHARD ELMS

CHRISTMAS

first two weeks of September.

After removal of permanent way, earthworks and OLE equipment, it will be pushed (jacked) into place using a 5,000-tonne jacking force, the box running along slide tracks, pre-installed within 3.21-metrediameter pre-bored tunnels.

Once the box is in place, the track can be restored to its planned layout and the whole project should be complete in 2021.

Rail Engineer will be back to report on the ‘Big Push’ in September.

Open for traffic.

Creating value through innovation

Werrington Dive Under

For further information on our specialist design services, contact Tony Westlake tel: +44 1372 461600 email: rail@tonygee.com

www.tonygee.com

Rail Engineer | Issue 181 | Jan/Feb 2020

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PETER STANTON

Electric Trains Arrive in Wales THOUGH NOT FOR THE FIRST TIME

F

ollowing energisation of the overhead line equipment between St Brides, Newport, and west of Cardiff Central, the first GWR electric train arrived at Cardiff on Tuesday 7 January 2020. This was the culmination of the major portion of a truly strategic electrification project as Brunel’s Great Western Railway route to Wales finally joined the ranks of electrified main lines in the United Kingdom.

The project has been running for some time. Originally announced by the Labour government in 2009, the line would be fully electrified to both Bristol Temple Meads and Swansea “within eight years”.

After the election of a Conservative/ Liberal Democrat coalition in 2010, the programme was reviewed. In November 2010, electrification was confirmed from London Paddington to Didcot. In March 2011, this was extended to Bristol Temple Meads and Cardiff, including the line between Bristol Temple Meads and Bristol Parkway. This was extended from Cardiff to Swansea in July 2012.

As is now well known, the project ran seriously late and over budget. While electrification to Cardiff would continue, it would not reach Bristol Temple Meads as the sections from Bristol Parkway to Bristol Temple Meads, and from Thingley junction (Chippenham) to Bath and Bristol were to be “deferred indefinitely”. Cardiff to Swansea electrification was cancelled in July 2017.

Rail Engineer | Issue 181 | Jan/Feb 2020

Still, the main part of the project continued. Electric running from Paddington to Didcot was introduced in January 2018, then to Swindon and as far west as Bristol Parkway in January 2019.

The same month saw electric services between Reading and Newbury. Electric running to Newport commenced in December 2019.

Work continues between Swindon and Chippenham, and there is a significant technical challenge to overcome in the Severn tunnel, where Network Rail and its project partners are working hard to overcome challenges caused by unusual conditions inside the tunnel.

Rail Engineer was invited to the Network Rail office in Cardiff to meet David Hewing, the electrification and plant lead engineer for the Wales and West Route.

David has been involved with the Great Western Project since its inception in 2009, first taking the client technical role, then supporting system design and finally enabling the scheme to be taken into

The first electric-powered train arrives at Cardiff.

CHRISTMAS SWANSEA & MUMBLES RAILWAY

Preparing for electrification – Cardiff, April 2019. operation and maintenance by the Network Rail route. He was pleased to relate the story of how the current stage was reached, summarising the various challenges and opportunities along the way.

Historical background At the start of the 21st century, the Great Western main line was one of the last two of the major main line routes in the UK using diesel as the main source of traction power. When the announcement was made in July 2009 to electrify the Great Western (along with the Liverpool-Manchester line), it represented the first big rail electrification project in the United Kingdom for around 20 years.

The South Wales section of the Great Western Main Line was set to be the first significant electrified cross-country railway mainline in Wales.

Prior to 2009, the only electrified portion of the Great Western was between London Paddington and Airport Junction (west of Hayes & Harlington station). This portion is equipped with a 25kV AC overhead system which was implemented in 1997 in readiness for the Heathrow Express service that commenced early in 1998.

Electrification was extended from Airport junction to Maidenhead under the Crossrail scheme. Further electrification west of Maidenhead was announced by the DfT separately, though the work west of Airport junction (to take Crossrail to Maidenhead) and west of Maidenhead was to be undertaken as one scheme.

The parallel plan to upgrade the rolling stock on the Great Western was included in the Intercity Express programme announced in 2007, a Department for Transport (DfT) led initiative to replace the ageing fleet of InterCity 125 (HST) and InterCity 225 train sets then in use on much of the UK rail network.

Planning Construction Methodology.

As this was the first major electrification schemes in the UK for a long time, thoughts turned to more productive methods of electrification than had been previously applied. Safety risk assessment had also shown that a more rigorous attitude to construction safety was required and the result was the High Output Plant System (HOPS) train, used for the project to electrify the Great Western main line.

Based at the High Output Operations Base (HOOB) in Swindon, the £40 million state-of-the-art HOPS train built a significant proportion of the overhead line equipment (OLE) on the route. The train works for seven to eight hours - depending on where it is being used - for six nights a week. With a top speed of 60mph while travelling to the worksite - but only 5mph during a possession, or 15mph if it is the only activity on site - the HOPS train can build the electrical contact system and associated infrastructure at an average of around 1.6km per night.

However, the high output plant is not suitable for all aspects of an electrification scheme and alternative methodology has also been implemented across the project, with lessons also being learned on the use of the train itself.

Wales’ first electrified railway was the Oystermouth Railway, later known as the Swansea & Mumbles Railway. This is also thought to have been the world’s first railway to carry fare-paying passengers, which it did from 1807.

Originally a plateway, with a gauge of around four feet, services were horse-drawn and ran from Swansea, around Swansea Bay, to Mumbles Head, in the village of Oystermouth, where a pier was built. The horsedrawn line opened for freight (coal, iron ore and limestone) in 1806 and then added passenger services in 1807.

The plateway closed in 1827 but reopened as a standard-gauge railway in 1855, though still horsedrawn. Steam arrived in 1877 and eventually the line was electrified in 1928, using a 650V DC overhead supply. Eleven (later 13) doubledeck electric cars were bought from Brush Electrical Engineering of Loughborough. Seating 106 people, they were the largest trams ever operated in the UK. The local bus company, South Wales Transport, bought the railway in 1958 and closed it in 1959. The track was lifted and turned into a road to be used by the company’s buses, ending 150 years of rail transport around Swansea Bay and 30 years of electric traction.

The Project Much has been said about the cost and timescale of the scheme. Having worked on it since its inception, David was able not only to review lessons learned but also the not-insignificant successes and sheer achievement of the works.

The Great Western scheme progress has to be looked at in the context of the long gap between previous major electrification schemes and the need to regenerate the skills and knowledge that had faded away in the meantime. A major

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national programme of electrification had been proposed in 1979 that would have progressively electrified all significant routes in the country, but the proposal was not taken forward.

A programme of electrification is not just about the core electric traction equipment, it also involves signalling, control system immunisation and gauge clearance. These require considerable design, construction, and commissioning work on top of the basic electrification.

Several noteworthy innovations, that utilise state-of-the-art design methodologies and apply current international standards, have produced a very resilient system. This had been amply demonstrated recently when the system was run, on a full weekday timetable, with one new feeder still not available for service and it still achieved contact system voltages across the project that complied with the Technical Standard for Interoperability.

The new feeder at Bramley has yet to be commissioned and, although sited off the main route on what was the now-cancelled Reading to Basingstoke electrification, will provide extra resilience for not only the GW scheme but Crossrail as well.

At the London end of the line, power is taken from Kensal Green, which is integrated with supplies for Crossrail.

In fact, the traction supply side of the system has the capacity to deal with, not only the original scope that has currently removed from the scheme, but also any further expansion that may be required.

This excellent performance has vindicated the decision to go forward with an autotransformer (AT) system, which is much easier to install in a new electrification scheme such as this one than to retrofit into an existing system. However, AT is not necessarily the universal solution for all lines

Rail Engineer | Issue 181 | Jan/Feb 2020

and it is interesting that, for the Reading to Newbury portion, a classic system has been designed.

David also suggested that having a robust relationship with National Grid had assisted in achieving both good electrical performance and achieving a cost of power provision in line with original estimates.

RATS In 2014, ABB and its partner UK Power Networks Services were appointed to deliver the trackside power infrastructure for the modernisation programme.

During the project, ABB’s scope included designing and delivering 31 trackside feeder substations along 235 miles of electrified track between London Paddington and Cardiff. These receive power from National Grid’s 400kV network and step it down to a 25-0-25kV power supply for catenary lines.

The conventional approach to rail electrification is to divide the railway line into sections, each of which is controlled by at least one circuit breaker. However, Network Rail’s design engineers spotted the potential to reduce costs during the early stages of the project by using load-break switches instead of circuit

The installation inside the Severn tunnel has been attacked by anaerobic bacteria.

breakers in some instances. Less costly than circuit breakers, load break switches are not designed to tolerate high-level fault currents.

To enable the use of load break switches, Network Rail put together a new concept called the Rationalised Autotransformer Scheme (RATS). This is an innovative approach to protection and control based on IEC 61850 smart grid communications.

Under RATS, load-break switches are protected from ever experiencing highlevel fault currents by circuit breakers.

These are controlled by Intelligent Electronic Devices (IEDs) that will open circuit breakers when a fault is detected.

In the case of a fault, communication between the IEDs will identify its location to within a few kilometres. The scheme will then reconfigure the network to isolate the fault and re-connect healthy sections of track. This three-stage process of tripping, reconfiguration and restoration must all take place within a few seconds.

The RATS concept minimises the length of track affected, as well as the resources needed for inspection, rectification and restoration of power to the railway lines.

The overall result is less outage time and shorter possessions, with less risk to operating staff working along the rail corridor.

RATS uses digital communication over fibre-optic lines, based on the IEC 61850 protocol - the international standard that governs the protection and control of substation automation equipment. It is based on the philosophy of using a single future-proofed communication protocol, a common format for storing data and compatibility across equipment that has been supplied by different vendors.

Also mentioned was a new approach for GWEP in the form of ABB SMOS (structure-mounted outdoor switchgear) Light. This modular switchgear is designed for straightforward installation and maintenance at trackside substations.

CHRISTMAS

The switchgear is delivered to site as modules that are ready to plug and play. It integrates all the components required to isolate the power supply to the catenary line and to sectionalise individual parts of the track for maintenance and inspection.

Individual components are all factorymounted on a steel structure.

Integrating the FSK II+ (frequency shift keying) into the SMOS Light concept has reduced project risk and cost in the construction phase of rail electrification projects. It saves time on-site by up to 30 percent as there is no need to install and commission separate components.

A major benefit for Network Rail is its use of vacuum as an insulating medium.

This eliminates the need for SF6 (sulphur hexafluoride) gas in trackside substations.

As this gas has an elevated global warming potential, adopting vacuum-insulated switchgear supports the operator’s environmental credentials.

While RATS was developed for use with autotransformer systems, the concept provides significant efficiencies for both classic 25kV and autotransformer 25-0-25 kV system designs. Network Rail is now looking at how this may be employed to reduce electrification costs on new systems. This was obviously a bold move to introduce to the project but did not, in fact, increase substation costs.

new project (reputedly defined by the Department for Transport as having to power trains travelling at 140mph and fitted with two pantographs). The new Series 1 concept set out to remove what had been viewed as points of weakness in the Mark 3 design. The opportunity was also taken to optimise the design to the use of the high-output system for installation.

Development took longer than expected and an alternative system for non-highspeed lines was put in place for the North West electrification and similar schemes.

Much has been made of the apparent size and presence of the Series 1 system, but David emphasised that, on open line, the system is quite unobtrusive - the bulky nature becomes more apparent in fourtrack areas. Newer installations certainly seem to look less obtrusive than earlier, with lighter fashion OLE structures.

Similarly, foundations were initially designed from first principles without considering previous industry electrification experience, resulting in piles 12 to 15 metres long, which caused significant installation problems. This was addressed by a new 2017 standard that regularised

previous empirical methods, as described in our feature “Getting electrification right” in issue 164 (June 2018). As a result, Network Rail now adopts some of the risk in application of design codes by contractors.

A further gain has come from the intense work and evaluation of clearances and a better understanding of the risk associated with lower clearance. Work was first concentrated on the intersection bridge at Cardiff, where a re-evaluation resulted in a significant economy in the electrification provision. Reduced clearances have been specified and obtained with a better understanding of the risk from overvoltage and Network Rail’s development of guidelines for the use of surge arrestors.

Work as Southampton University has also crystallised design clearance calculations and robust insulating coatings have built up a further low-risk profile.

Development of electrification has looked at motorised switches for some time and the application has approached maturity on the Great Western scheme. A reliable indication for the position of switches has now been achieved and a wide-ranging review of switching and sectioning arrangements has again reduced the need for staff on site to wrestle with manual switches; retaining manual application if the site is one where the staff will need to be anyway. Earthing and switching arrangements have been revised but the system still requires the comfort for a maintainer of a visible earth adjacent to their workplace.

Series 1 OLE structures on the route to South Wales at (top) Taplow, Buckinghamshire and (below) Goring and Streatley station on the Oxfordshire/Berkshire border.

Contact system Another result of the long gap between electrification projects was that the standard British overhead line contact system was out of date. The Mark 3 system dated back to 1974 while the newer UK1 was designed for the West Coast Route Modernisation that took place between 1998 and 2009.

For the Great Western scheme, Network Rail decided to have a complete rethink on contact system design, one suited to the high-speed requirements of the

Rail Engineer | Issue 181 | Jan/Feb 2020

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CHRISTMAS Next stop – Wales. Two GWR Class 800 trains at Bristol Parkway.

The Severn Tunnel In view of the restricted clearance and general environmental position in this unique and historic tunnel, a decision was made early on to install a rigid overhead contact system (ROCS). From historic experience, the extremely wet nature of the tunnel was well known and over 150 years of steam and diesel traction had left their polluting mark. A Furrer+Frey ROCS system was designed and installed in the tunnel, building on the company’s extensive experience in tunnel contact systems.

However, once installed, the installation began to degrade in an unexpected manner. Some galvanic action had been predicted, but one of the Severn Tunnel’s unique features is that most of the extremely wet conditions are due to the Great Spring, a source of fresh water, not salt.

The level of degradation was far greater than had been anticipated, and could not be blamed solely on galvanic action stemming from the wet conditions. Experts were called in, and the cause was identified as a form of anaerobic sulphur-reducing bacteria, more usually encountered ion North Sea oil platforms.

Noel Dolphin of Furrer and Frey explained that aluminium is normally passivated (protected) by the formation of oxide on the surface - once the oxide layer is formed the system stabilises and very little further deterioration occurs.

However, the bacteria consumes the oxide layer, exposing bare metal and allowing it to oxidise again, whereupon the bacteria once again consumes it.

Rail Engineer | Issue 181 | Jan/Feb 2020

This endless cycle never allows the aluminium to form a stable oxide layer, so it is slowly and totally consumed.

In addition, having bare aluminium exposed exacerbated the galvanic effect of having the aluminium support structure in close proximity to the copper contact wire.

Furrer+Frey and Network Rail tackled this challenge by replacing the normal copper conductor in the ROCS with an aluminium conductor, thus reducing the galvanic effects. The material of other components was also changed and the whole charged to judge its ability to stand up to the atmospheric conditions.

Whilst trains continue to traverse the tunnel on diesel traction at the moment, Network Rail predicts that the system will succeed in holding charge and the aim is to energise the tunnel in the next few weeks, though it won’t be used for electric traction until the current collection system is proven.

A further, more conventional civil engineering solution has also been adopted. Drip trays have been fitted where there is salt-water ingress from the Severn Estuary to avoid direct contamination of the ROCS and this is anticipated to slow down degradation further.

Steventon Bridge Collin Carr reported in issue 167 (September 2018) on the problem of Steventon bridge. This Grade II listed structure, approximately 4.5 miles west of Didcot station, is an elliptical three-arch brick overbridge which carries the B4017 over the GWML, linking the two halves of the village.

Although Network Rail wanted to demolish and rebuild the bridge to give clearance for the overhead wires, this was fought by the local population as the village would be cut in half for 10 months while the work was carried out.

With two nearby level crossings preventing excavation to lower the track, and no way to safely run live OLE through the bridge as it stands, trains currently have to go through it under diesel-power, so stymying the railway’s ambition to run electric-only.

However, a team from consultant engineer Atkins now believes it has managed to find a solution. Hopefully, Rail Engineer will bring you more on this in the coming months.

Wales Electrified.

Talking to David it was clear what a challenge this scheme had been, particularly as it marked a return to significant mainline electrification after a gap of over twenty years.

However, now that electric trains have arrived, Wales can feel proud to be part of this resurgence. The scheme massively increases the percentage of the UK railway that is electrified and it can only be hoped that, in the light of increased environmental awareness, the lessons learned from this scheme can be applied further in England, paralleling the robust growth of electrification in Scotland.

Thanks to Dean Shaw, senior communications manager, and David Hewings, lead engineer, both of Network Rail, and Noel Dolphin of Furrer+Frey, for their assistance in preparing this article.

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FEATURE

MIGHTY

MORPHING

The wagon that morphs into a 60-tonne dumper

E

xperienced railway professionals know that permanent way renewals consume prodigious quantities of ballast.

They also know that serious thought has to be given to the moving and distribution of ballast throughout a site.

For a conventional two-track railway, the normal option is to use an adjacent track for the transportation of spoil and bottom ballast, with top ballast being tipped from hopper wagons.

GRAHAME TAYLOR

Rail Engineer | Issue 181 | Jan/Feb 2020

FEATURE The tricky bits Of course, not all of our railway network is laid in convenient two-track chunks. There are other bits of infrastructure that get in the way. For many historic, geographic and economic reasons, there are sections of single line and there are island platforms.

There are tunnels and complex layouts.

These types of locations have always been a challenge. The amounts of ballast required remains just as high, but moving it into the right place has often meant the use of multiple items of machinery.

More plant means more chances of failure, which leads to more fitters along with their support vehicles. It requires more staff to be within the working site exposed to risk. Apart from productivity issues, repeated movements over carefully prepared sub-bases can cause long-lasting ballast-memory problems.

How can all this be avoided? Up to about three years ago there was a wellused strategy - just defer the items as they’re too difficult. Kick the can down the track for a while for someone else to sort out. However, since 2017, there really has been an alternative - a simple alternative, a cost-effective alternative.

The Rhomberg-Sersa system Rail Engineer covered the RhombergSersa system in issue 180 (December 2019). In summary, it involves an inline excavator, an MFS+ high volume ballast handling machine and a UMH (Universal advanced Materials Handling). The use of all these components in renewal sites with difficult access was explored.

This current article will look in detail at the MFS+, the ballast moving machine which, amongst its other purposes, can be used as an ultra-high-capacity dump truck.

The machine is derived from the Plasser & Theurer materials-handing wagon the MFS. As well as being compatible with a rake of MFS wagons in all their functionalities, the MFS+ machine has the added advantage of a caterpillar track system. This is underslung clear of the rail bogies. When brought into operation, it lowers the tracked assembly onto the sleeper ends and raises the whole body of the machine clear of the rails.

All the tracked assemblies are independent of each other but are linked by coordinated hydraulics. These are controlled by an operator via a remotecontrol unit. The MFS+ can be moved forwards, backwards and it has an element of steering. Its load can be discharged via a conveyor at one end or it can be loaded for later discharge into adjacent MFS wagons.

It is unaffected by normal railway cants or gradients and, once clear of the rails, it can be used on any firm surface.

Other large dumpers?

At this point it’s worth doing an internet search for a 60-tonne dumper. They do exist. There are machines by Volvo, Caterpillar, Komatsu and others. What do they have in common? They are all vast, huge, enormous. Would they fit within a railway structure gauge? Most unlikely. Could they be manoeuvred? No. Look at the tyres. What would they do to the formation? Untold damage! These machines are brilliant for opencast mining sites. A track renewal is not an open cast mining site - or, at least, it shouldn’t be.

Rail Engineer | Issue 181 | Jan/Feb 2020

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FEATURE On the other hand, the MFS+ has size - enough for 60 tonnes of ballast - but its bulk is carried on four sets of low-earthpressure tracks. Its stability is maintained with hydraulics that ensure an even distribution of weight but also allow a degree of steerage. The whole wagon can be raised off the rails and then guided towards a works site. The MFS+ can travel loaded to deliver materials or it can travel empty for loading.

Once away from the railway line, it becomes an independent materials handling piece of kit. Railway logic for the past 200 years has insisted that a worksite is entirely linear. For the MFS+, once clear of its train, there need be no linearity. There’s just a worksite - maybe a bit narrow at times.

Past ‘big machines’ Perhaps it’s time to take stock before being carried away by all this excitement.

At 60 tonnes tare the MFS+ high volume ballast handling machine is a big machine.

Experienced railway professionals will raise an eyebrow and mention a few other ‘big machines’ that have been dropped on the railway industry and which have rarely been used. Isn’t this just another in the series?

Well, the MFS+ has been working continuously for the past 18 months, having been imported to the UK just three years ago for evaluation. The MFS+ isn’t just a big machine confined to one specialist task. With imagination and an understanding of its capabilities, it is

possible to vary its use according to local circumstances.

The MFS+ isn’t just a big machine confined to track work either! Consider, for example, an isolated, long retaining wall that requires backfilling. In the past, this would have involved a rake of open wagons and a fleet of 360° excavators scratching out loose ballast as best they could. It’s a long and tedious job with multiple machines and train movements.

Of course, not all of the ballast would land up being off-loaded. There’s always an element of waste that goes back to the quarry - and for which no financial credit is given.

Potentially, with the right logistics, there can now be a non-stop continuous operation. The materials handling

doesn’t stop. The shuttle process travels backwards and forwards so the backfill can continue without interruption.

Tackling the very difficult Railway renewals and projects are, without doubt, challenging, even the straight forward ones can prove to be just too much. The tough ones as indicated above can just be too daunting. However, by using systems which include plant such as MFS+, some of the more common risks can be eliminated. The plant travels in a single direction. Volumes moved are higher per trip – hence there are fewer journeys. The need to continually change plant orientation is eliminated, saving time and avoiding common safety risks such as people coming into contact with moving machinery.

Furthermore, on a typical tunnel renewal for example, once the excavation is complete, the same plant can continue on, thereby avoiding the risks associated with shift and plant changeovers that so often become the Achilles heel. Resource demand is lower and operations are delivered more quickly and safely, which leads to the chances of failure being dramatically reduced.

Permanent-way work requires experience, but now that knowledge can be used to develop novel and efficient ways of handling large amounts of ballast on or near the tracks, or anywhere within the railway boundary in fact. It just requires some imagination and flair - qualities that really do exist in the railway industry, as Rhomberg Sersa has amply demonstrated.

Next time: our next article will look in detail at the ITC in-line excavation and conveyor machine

Rail Engineer | Issue 181 | Jan/Feb 2020

The Rhomberg Sersa Machine Group – a unique and specialist in-line excavation and re-ballasting system Our comprehensive eet consists of:

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ITC BL4 High capacity in-line Road Rail Excavator

UMH Universal Material Handling Wagon

The Rhomberg Sersa Machine Group is a unique and specialist in-line excavation and re-ballasting system that represents a step-change in track renewals in the UK. Using this system Rhomberg Sersa Machine Group has the capability to deliver in-line excavation, parallel working, single line and single bore tunnel working and a production line approach all supported by a dedicated, experienced and multi-skilled team comprising: Multi-skilled On-Track Machine operators

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STATIONS

Changing our approach to station design PHOTO: TEAM LONDON BRIDGE

JOHN HARDING

London Bridge station.

Introducing a service design process into the early RIBA stages provides a strong bedrock on which the project can meet its potential.

0. Strategic Definition

1. Preparation and Brief

i. Observe

ii. Synthesise

F

or around fifty years, the rail industry has implemented design processes that are not always aligned with how to address the needs of the user in the early design stages. And these needs are changing, arguably faster than our infrastructure design can keep up. But by learning from other industries and injecting service design thinking early on into our station and depot designs we can make modern, accessible and inclusive spaces that satisfy the requirements of customers, operators and maintainers. possibilities of technology, and the requirements for business success”.

IDEO’s five-stage process (observe, synthesise, generate ideas, refine, implement) has become a best practice standard worldwide. We are already seeing this being developed in front line services in the UK, such as NHS Digital, and local authorities are drawing on the expertise of researchers, technical architects

Service design thinking puts user and customer needs first to create or improve a service which speaks to their needs, and is both technologically and economically viable. According to Tim Brown of IDEO, an organisation that has been practicing human-centred design for 40 years, design thinking engenders innovation by drawing “from the designer’s toolkit to integrate the needs of people, the 2. Concept Design

iii. Generate Ideas

Rail Engineer | Issue 181 | Jan/Feb 2020

3. Developed Design

iv. Refine

4. Technical Design

v. Implement

5.

Construction

Service Design stages

and business analysts to meet customer and community needs at each step.

How can we apply service design thinking to rail stations?

Fellow station designers or architects will be familiar with the RIBA (Royal Institute of British Architects) and GRIP (Governance for Railway Investment Projects) processes that govern the way we approach design. They are the backbone upon which we deliver vast and complicated buildings and infrastructure and are supported by a range of legislation and design standards, such as the processes stemming from the Equalities Act 2010, that underpin how we make design choices.

6. Handover Close Out

7. In Use

STATIONS However, these guides and requirements are not a means to an end.

Observational analysis is rarely employed at the formative stages of design for rail stations. We tend to rely on broad surveys to understand the needs of passengers, station staff and operators.

While useful, these surveys are not nearly granular or nuanced enough to determine what a human-centred design should look like.

It was this lack of behavioural data that led me to conduct my own observational studies to understand people’s relationship with stations in 2010 - before I had come across service design thinking as a concept. Through customer questionnaires, workshops and visual assessments of Canary Wharf station, a relatively modern station serving the Jubilee and DLR lines, I learnt how people can experience the same environment in very different ways.

The overriding lesson for me was that the stations we create need to be much more intuitive, and give much more consideration to how people encumbered with unwieldy items like prams, heavy luggage and shopping, and how people of different abilities, such as wheelchair users, navigate through the station. We do not need to wait until the building is completed to understand how the people that will use it will be affected. Instead, we can observe

PHOTO: TEAM LONDON BRIDGE

PHOTO: TEAM LONDON BRIDGE

similar stations and identify, at the earliest stages, how the experience of customers, staff and maintenance workers, and how the problem of crowding, will be affected by the way in which the circulation spaces, lifts and escalators are arranged.

Synthesise to inspire new ideas Our stadia, retail hubs and airports, even our urban highways, provide great examples of effective humancentred design - from moving around the building to accessing amenities. Airport designers, for example, have adopted a people-centred approach, as anyone who has used the large lifts at Heathrow’s Terminal 5 will know. For those with mobility issues, sensory impairment and for many others, not having to jostle one’s way onto a busy escalator with luggage is a big deal.

Traditionally, station designers have underestimated the potential for lifts to move people vertically through a station, relying more heavily on escalators, which tend to represent accident blackspots and pedestrian pinch points, especially when stations are busy. But large, airport style, walkthrough lifts really can provide serious capacity and congestion solutions, and contribute to more efficient management during emergency situations.

It was with this in mind that we successfully redesigned ten underground stations in the early concept stage, to increase inclusivity five-fold without increasing the cost or size of the stations.

Another example of where station designers can apply more

pragmatic solutions are station toilets - they often receive the score lowest in railway customer satisfaction surveys.

There are plenty of reasons for this, including condition and cleanliness, their suitability for people of all abilities, the availability of cubicles, and baby-changing or family facilities.

In a recent major new station design, the ‘synthesise’ stage enabled us to incorporate ideas from modern office buildings to present an alternative design that answers all the main dissatisfaction points above, in this case replacing traditional gendered toilets with selfcontained cubicles, complete with hand washing facilities, leading off from the main corridor. These will provide a more comfortable customer experience, reduce problem queuing, and mean that only single cubicles are taken out of operation for cleaning and maintenance.

Our redesign also ended up reducing the space of toilet facilities by 25 per cent, an unexpected benefit for the client!

The typical toilet arrangement has changed little over the past decades to reflect changes in society, as case 1 shows.

Team London Bridge.

Refining the design The ‘designer’s toolkit’ that IDEO’s Brown refers to as an aid to innovation, opens the door to much more integrated and inclusive station and depot design. With Building Information Modelling (BIM), designers can present a ‘single source of truth’ to clients and other disciplines involved in the project, promoting a more thorough understanding of every nook and cranny of a

Direct access toilets replace traditional gendered toilets with self-contained cubicles, improving levels of comfort and convenience.

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STATIONS

VR headsets enable all disciplines to integrate with the final design, for example clarifying the layout to communications or MEP teams.

project, however complicated.

And with augmented and virtual reality (VR), we are enabling non-technical people to experience our designs before they are even built.

My architect colleagues Julia Gomez de Terreros Rider and Nicole Bego have been combining BIM with VR to present an accessible and clear understanding of the impact of our designs. “We have been using VR to bring BIM to life”, says Nicole. “Stations, depots and railways present a complicated environment, full of technical requirements and involving many factors, from the functionality of the train and comfort of the passenger to wayfinding, and how users, staff and maintainers will navigate.

It’s hard to convey all of this on a 2D schematic the size of a small town; experiencing it via a VR headset is night and day!”

This technique has been applied to various major station and depot projects by our team. Referring to the toilet redesign above, Nicole

Rail Engineer | Issue 181 | Jan/Feb 2020

continues: “We wanted to demonstrate to the client the real user experience, comparing the old design with the new would they feel comfortable and relaxed or hemmed in and stressed? The VR headset goes on and you can see they really get it!”

On a depot design, this combination of BIM and VR is helping to bring operational efficiencies. Julia says: “Video ‘walkthroughs’ give station staff a realistic depiction of what their experience will be like. As well as helping us iron out any creases prior to construction, by recreating the station for the people who will populate it - the fire officers, maintenance and office staff, cleaners and drivers - we can make sure it is operationally ready from the get go, and that things like evacuation routes are clearly understood.”

And it’s not just interior layouts that are being finessed.

The team is planning to use augmented and virtual-reality tools to enable the local

community to experience the impact of the construction of large infrastructure on their environment. Again, Nicole believes that the offer of a virtual tour in three dimensions provides greater assurances and understanding than a drawing ever could.

“We can use VR to assess the visual impact of a large depot on users and stakeholders and address concerns with such factors as the height, massing and materials used in the final design,” she explained. “It will also enable us to come up with some mitigations to lessen the impact even further.”

Inclusivity baked in Navigating a busy underground station can be stressful, especially when it’s unfamiliar. For example, the elderly, those with learning difficulties or physical disabilities, or families with young children can find the peak time rush scary - even traumatic. This is as true now as it was when I did my

STATIONS

research on Canary Wharf nearly ten years ago. The challenge remains for station designers to make these busy and often crowded spaces inclusive for everybody. That means creating a space that is welcoming, not intimidating, and one that works for everyone.

Fortunately, how we embed inclusivity into our designs is getting more sophisticated.

Agent-Based Modelling (ABM), for example, is a 3D-tool traditionally we use to gauge a station’s crowdedness by simulating the movement of people in a virtual, rendered landscape. As part of the ‘refine’ process, our novel application of ABM has helped us identify existing design limitations that could inhibit movement - detailed heat mapping clearly demonstrates potential conflicts between lift and escalator users and those alighting or boarding the trains. We can then demonstrate significant reductions in the number of people per square metre

in and around these traditional blackspots.

Ultimately, we delivered a station design that was empirically more inclusive - in this instance, we more than doubled lift space capacity, increasing the number of passengers using the lifts from 10 to 25 per cent, and grouped escalators together to improve pedestrian flow and reduce the likelihood of accidents.

To create spaces that are truly inclusive, designers need to put themselves in the position of all users. It’s not just about practical convenience, it’s about equality of experience.

My challenge as an inclusive designer is taking what I know about a station - its capacity, predicted traffic flow, train dwell time, gate throughput - and intuiting how someone other than an able-bodied, sixfoot-plus man like me might interact with that environment.

This is a serious issue that goes far beyond the discomfort of not being able to find a loo! For example, what constitutes a dangerous Lift

Exit

Exit

space to me might differ dramatically from that of a woman travelling alone late at night. Building on safe-by-design, diversityimpact assessments, and other baseline guidance, this thinking needs to be at the forefront of every design development.

To be inclusive means much more than simply factoring checklist items into our designs; we need to consider more nebulous aspects, like vulnerability, and our perceptions of it. Service design thinking is one way we can incorporate the needs of actual end users into our designs early on.

We need to get serious about designing spaces that are fit for everybody. Service design thinking can help us focus on usability, which asks us to consider how to improve inclusivity, develop new ideas and implement those ideas using trusted techniques.

If we can develop buildings that are intuitive to the human experience and will meet the needs of society now and in the future, then we will be doing our job.

3D walkthroughs enable future station operatives to hit the ground running as soon as the construction is ready.

John Harding is technical director architecture, major and international projects at WSP.

Agent-Based Modelling helped identify pedestrian pinch points and improve wayfinding on a new underground metro in the Middle East.

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STATIONS

Affordable by Design Market Harborough station revisited

I

n spring 2019 (issue 179, June 2019), Rail Engineer reported on the considerable work that was being undertaken at Market Harborough on the Midland main line; not just on the route itself but also on the station and surrounding area.

Since that visit, the site has changed significantly, with new tracks and platforms in place and in use, together with new extended car parking facilities.

At the time of the May visit, the facilities were in interim use, quite a bit of the old station still giving service with purely construction contractor access to much of the new works.

Late in December of 2019, Rail Engineer was invited back to view the works in an advanced state and also to understand the collaborative processes that had enabled this strategically vital portion of work on the Midland main line to approach successful completion. Contractor Amey and lead designer Arup, working together with Network Rail, have made huge progress from that first pre-blockade visit.

The history of this location was covered in depth in the previous article, but it is worth having a brief review. The station

Rail Engineer | Issue 181 | Jan/Feb 2020

had previously been a junction, with cross country lines to the east and the west. Following closure of those routes in the 1960s, the main line geometry remained more or less unchanged, with a configuration appropriate to the previous junction geometry arrangements.

The Midland main line is a route which has had mixed fortunes in terms of investment and speed improvements. The design and construction of the works at Market Harborough, which are led by Arup and Amey together with Network Rail, form part of an improvement programme to remove historic speed restrictions throughout the route. Market Harborough is one of the most significant of these with a linespeed of just 60mph - the aim is to increase this to 85mph (137km/h).

However, the project scope is not just about linespeed, although an increase will reduce the section running time by about

PETER STANTON

30 seconds. It also includes a number of station improvements to provide passengers with better facilities.

Stakeholder interfaces The reconstruction and new works were encouraged and supported through the backing of many stakeholders, which would benefit from the improvements in both passenger facilities and train performance.

As indicated, the significant driver was the Midland main line performance improvements programme, but the station itself was also in need of significant enhancement to suit its growing patronage and status as an important commuter station. To illustrate the strategic nature and influence of the work, Sheffield City Region, D2N2 (Derby, Derbyshire, Nottingham and Nottinghamshire) and Leicestershire local enterprise partnerships offered support to the scheme.

STATIONS Putting passengers first

The local ‘Harborough Rail Users’ user group was closely involved and its statement at the end of the blockade and the opening of the new tracks was very positive, saying: “Market Harborough station reopened today, 3 June 2019, after a six-day closure, during which the new track alignment was completed.

Though there were no official ceremonies, there was much local interest, plus pride on the part of Network Rail, their contractors and East Midlands Trains that the project had been completed on time and to a very high standard.”

Cooperation with the user group also encouraged general conversations with the local residents, with Amey, Arup and Network Rail involved in keeping the local community updated as to the progress of the scheme. Even local schools were brought into the loop, with surplus cable drums passed to a local school for use as playground furniture!

Further support came from external funding including the governmentsponsored ‘Access for All’ programme.

Launched in 2006, this scheme addresses the issues faced by persons of reduced mobility, those with heavy luggage or with pushchairs, when using railway stations in Great Britain. The funding is used to create an obstacle free, accessible route from the station entrance to the platform.

This generally includes providing lifts or ramps, as well as associated works and refurbishment along the route.

Additionally, the station improvement project received support from the passenger journey improvement project, another government scheme whereby £3.6 million funding aimed at transforming rail passenger travel.

Projects had to bid for this funding, which required them to develop and demonstrate technologies that would improve the passenger experience on UK railways, including: » A design for railway carriages that will increase peak hours seat numbers; » A carriage design that can quickly switch from carrying passengers to carrying goods; » Beacons that guide visually-impaired passengers through the station and to their seat; » Technology enabling disabled passengers to seek real-time assistance with their journey; » An augmented reality application that highlights a journey’s landmarks.

Market Harborough’s successful bid for funding was based on the innovative use of contrasting colours to help guide passengers with reduced vision through the station.

Due to the nature of the site, the Arup and Amey design for the new higherspeed track alignment was developed to be clear of the current operational railway, allowing a high percentage of the work to be undertaken off-track, during daylight hours and without the need for a lengthy blockade, keeping disruption of service and line closure to an absolute minimum.

As the new alignment would occupy the majority of the previous existing car park area, this was relocated to the other side of the tracks. At the request of both Network Rail and the train operator, a larger parking area was planned that would have better access and could be built in two stages, one before the old car park was removed and a second enlargement once the construction ‘village’ was removed.

The new facility was also to include a ticketing and booking ‘hub’ close to the Up platform to avoid the need for motorists to cross to the booking office and come back for London-bound trains.

The realigned track was integrated into the route over a relatively short blockade at the end of May leading into June. Robust pre-planning, carefully staged designs and collaboration with Network Rail and the train operator allowed diversions and alternative arrangements to be facilitated that minimised disruption to passengers and freight.

A number of temporary designs were produced to enable the railway to operate during construction before the final alignment was fully complete. Following that blockade, construction could continue with the new lines in use.

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STATIONS Collaborative working With the considerable volume of design and construction work involved, collaborative working was seen as being essential for a successful outcome. Amey acted as lead contractor and Arup as lead designer, with Atkins as part of the design supply chain.

‘Early Contractor Involvement’ allowed Amey to work with Network Rail and take an upfront view of the shape of collaboration arrangements that would be required. East Midlands Trains (now East Midlands Railway) was an important partner in planning the works and the project team acknowledged the significant success of that integration. As well as station operations, the issue of signal sighting and general movement operations was reinforced by the close involvement of the train operator’s driver manager team.

Adoption of a collaborative working philosophy resulted in the design spreading beyond its initial geographic scope. To avoid the need for separate design works and scheme plans, the level crossing abandonment works at Little Bowden were interfaced with the main design package.

Affordable by Design One guiding principal adopted by the project partners throughout the design process was ‘Affordable by Design’.

Arup’s engineering manager Russell Gee and project manager Bob Gillespie explained that, whilst value management and value engineering had been applied to the scope of the project, the total design was developed to optimise ease of construction while staying within the envelope of available funding.

Demolishing the old platform.

Project sponsor Network Rail contributed to the project’s success through regular stakeholder meetings.

Robust scheme development made a positive contribution, reinforced by an early GRIP Stage 3 (option selection) process.

As an example, the project goal was to reduce the section running time by 30 seconds. It had been assumed that, to do this, the linespeed would have to be increased to 110mph (180km/h). The preexisting layout in Pony Paddock, where the former route from Northampton had joined the main line north of the station, certainly offered the opportunity to improve line speed in that section, but for significant cost in terms of earthworks and structural modification. Calculations showed that the result would not only exceed the scope of the project, giving almost 60 seconds of time saving, but would also exceed the budget.

Constructing the new one.

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The design was therefore scaled back to maximise the outputs within the available funding. Adopting a metric of £ per second saved, the track plan was revised, moving the modifications further south and away from the historical junction. Linespeed was set at 85mph (137km/h) and the required 30 second time was achieved for a cost 20 per cent below the original proposal.

Thus, through careful consideration of affordability during the design phase, the benefits were maximised within the funding envelope, prioritising the maximum savings in run time per pound of investment.

Taking the ‘Affordable by Design’ concept a stage further, analysis showed the potential for further economy by careful consideration of track levels, minimising excavation. Moving the crossover provision to a site just north of the new platforms reduced complexity. Intelligent engineering application of design standards also provided considerable savings on station facilities, including the footbridge design.

Constructing the new platforms and other related infrastructure off-track, while trains continued to use the old alignment, resulted in an improved programme with good access and safer working, away from rail traffic. It also required the closure of only part of the original car park, further maintaining passenger facilities during construction.

Spent ballast was used to form a base for the new carpark, while material from the redundant goods shed and superseded platforms was crushed to form an onsite building material. This removed the need to transport waste to landfill while careful grading improved the general environment, with around 20,000 tonnes of material being reused on-site.

STATIONS

Project outcome The Railways (Interoperability) Regulations 2011 set out the accessibility requirements for persons with reduced mobility travelling by rail. Train and station operators are required by their operating licences to establish and comply with a disabled people’s protection policy (DPPP) which must be approved by Office of Rail and Road (ORR). A DPPP sets out the arrangements and assistance that an operator will provide to protect the interests of older and disabled people using its services.

Measures taken at Market Harborough included lifts with doors on both sides that allow through passage, avoiding the need to turn mobility aids to exit at the landings. Those whose eyesight was challenged were assisted by the application of braille to handrails.

Mention of physical limitations also brings to mind the improved use of contrasting colours for platform equipment to aid people with visual impairment. This involved careful evaluation of both colours and the reflective capabilities of galvanizing,

stainless steel and painted finishes on the platform infrastructure.

The combination of ‘affordable by design’ and collaboration led to an economical and effective construction programme, with changes taking place in the design phase rather than on site.

Using state of the art techniques, Arup generated a virtual-reality, three-dimensional ‘fly through’ using headsets, helping stakeholders and local residents engage with and experience the design. In fact, the lift shaft and access arrangements were designed and developed as a result of this virtual-reality interaction.

The result is a valuable addition to the resurgent Midland main line, set off by the retention of the listed station building and the sympathetic renovation of the listed covered way up to the platforms. The collaborative efforts of Amey and Arup, with the support of their supply chain partners, has delivered to Network Rail and East Midlands Railway an enhanced facility that can provide a quality service experience to passengers and freight.

The decision to extend electrification north to Market Harborough will be welcome, with the station and layout designs allowing passive provision for the arrival of the wires and compliance to future electrification requirements built into the design.

Thanks to Jon Wells and Bruce Abraham of Amey, Russell Gee and Bob Gillespie from Arup and the project team from Network Rail for their assistance in preparing this report.

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STATIONS

1,1 NEW PL ATFORM

NEW ST ATION

DAVID SHIRRES

T

he December timetable change saw Scotland getting its 358th railway station and the reinstatement of a station platform that was removed in the late 1980s.

The new station at Robroyston, north east of Glasgow, and the new platform at Dunbar in East Lothian are, as Alex Hynes, managing director of Scotland’s Railway, put it, “further milestones as we build the best railway Scotland’s ever had”.

Another December milestone was the introduction of the full eight-coach service on the Edinburgh to Glasgow main line.

Funding Robroyston

Robroyston lies just within the Glasgow city boundary, four miles from the city centre. Here, in 1305, Scottish hero William Wallace was captured when he was betrayed to the English. The location of his capture is marked by a monument next to one of the new housing estates in the area.

Proposals for a further housing development of 1,600 homes with a new hotel, primary school and outdoor sports facility were developed and approved in principle by the council in 2012, subject to the provision of a railway station. The city was keen that this development had rail access and offered a park and ride facility for traffic from the adjacent junction 2 of the M80 motorway.

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STATIONS Funding arrangements for the station were agreed in 2017. The council agreed to contribute £10 million towards the cost of a station and associated link road, which it will recoup when houses are complete through a legal agreement with the developers.

Further funding for the station was provided from Transport Scotland’s new station fund and SPT (Strathclyde Partnership for Transport).

2017 also saw publication of Network Rail’s Hansford review, which considered how third parties could fund and deliver railway projects. Transport Scotland was also keen to promote innovative project delivery. Robroyston was to be such a project with train operator ScotRail responsible for the delivery of this thirdparty-funded station.

WSP had been involved with the Robroyston development since 2012, when business development director Douglas Rushforth supported the private developer, through Network

Rail’s planning process, to develop a business case for the new station. Building on this experience, three WSP personnel were seconded to ScotRail’s Robroyston project team. ScotRail provided the remaining services and expertise, from operational safety and property management to sustainability and safety assurance, project management and property

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services. WSP’s secondees were Sarah Piscitelli, who joined ScotRail in January 2018 as the project manager, Chris Reid, who became the third-party representative from January 2019, and Kyra Wardle who, from July 2019, became the dedicated entry-into-service lead.

ScotRail also appointed Doig+Smith to act as the contract administrator under

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STATIONS

(Above) Platform work was completed when this photograph was taken on 24 October 2019 but had only just started on 11 September 2019 (inset).

the design and build contract and to provide quantity surveying services. The Glasgow-based construction consultancy administered the construction contract, together with the management of contractor costs and the verification of works. ScotRail appointed the design and build contract to AmcoGiffen, with Atkins as designer.

Building the station Work on the station started in September 2018. Sarah explained that one problem was the peaty ground on which the car parks were built.

Overcoming this required 942 precast concrete piles with resilient and flexible Huesker (for car parks) and Tensar (for roads) soil reinforcement geogrids.

The station has two car parks.

One is on the south side of the line, serving the settlement of Millerston, while the other, much larger, car park provides the park and ride facility from the M80 and will serve the future development of 1,600

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homes. Hence this car park is reached by roundabouts from which there are currently no access roads.

Before ScotRail’s involvement, it was decided that, to ensure an acceptable OLE contact wire height, the station had to be located some distance from a nearby bridge and that the station’s construction required the four existing OLE structures to be replaced by five repositioned structures.

The platforms are a glass reinforced polymer (GRP)/ steel system supplied by Dura Composites. This enabled the platforms to be built using rules of route possessions due to its modular lightweight components, which Sarah likened to assembling IKEA furniture. The system also has built-in height adjustment in the event of any settlement.

Sarah considered that the project was an excellent example of collaborative working. For example, the project had many stakeholders - all were involved in design meetings to ensure that designs were right first time. This process was led by Chris Reid, who ensured designs were submitted to Network Rail in a timely fashion, which led to approval in a matter of days.

Kyra Wardle’s role was also key.

Not only did she have to submit the many documents to the Office of Rail and Road to ensure the station’s entry into service, but she also had to curate the many documents required for the health and safety file. This was particularly significant as ScotRail were building an asset that was to be handed over to Network Rail, which would then lease it back to ScotRail.

STATIONS Glasgow’s 60th station The first train called at Robroyston station at 08:37 on Sunday 15 December, which marked the introduction of the new timetable. The station is on the Glasgow Queen Street to Cumbernauld line. Twelve months previously, this route had been extended to provide a new Glasgow to Edinburgh service via Cumbernauld and Falkirk Grahamston, which is operated

by ScotRail’s new class 385 units.

Thus, the new station offers a half hourly service to both Glasgow and Edinburgh.

The unstaffed station cost £14 million and was built to time and budget. It has two 150-metre platforms, a pedestrian overbridge, stairs and access lifts and 263 car parking spaces, 12 of which offer electric vehicle charging and 20 accessible parking bays.

There is scope for a third car park which would increase parking capacity to 400 spaces.

On 16th December, the station was inaugurated by Michael Matheson, Cabinet Secretary for Transport, Infrastructure & Connectivity, who unveiled a

plaque to mark the occasion.

When doing so he noted that “This ScotRail led project has used an innovative construction method and taken little over a year to complete, on time and within budget. Not only has it secured significant savings to the public purse, it has also given us key learning for future rail projects. This really is an excellent example of partnership working at its best.”

Dunbar Unlike Robroyston, Dunbar is a well-established community having become a royal burgh in 1370. Its station was the halfway point on the Edinburgh to Berwick railway, which was the first railway across the Scottish Border when it opened in 1846. Not surprisingly, its Tudor-style two-story station building is listed as Category B. The station is 29 miles east of Edinburgh and has an irregular, roughly hourly service provided

by LNER, CrossCountry trains and ScotRail. In 2018/19, it had 478,000 entries and exits, which is a 28 per cent increase on five years ago.

Up to December, Dunbar was a rare example of a station with a single platform, located on the Up-line loop, on one side of a busy main line. As a result, northbound trains on the East Coast main line stopping at Dunbar had to cross the Up line to call at the station. The Down line platform was removed in the 1980s during the East Coast electrification to allow the curve at the station to be realigned for higher speed. However, since then, the station’s single platform has become an increasingly difficult operational constraint due to the increased traffic on the main line. It also limited additional services from the station.

In 2016 a scheme was developed to provide a platform on the Down line.

The final design was for a platform to accommodate LNER’s Azumas, with lifts and a 32-metre span footbridge.

This long span is needed as the old and new platforms are some distance apart, due to the easing of the curve in the 1980s.

After discussions with East Lothian Council about design and amenity, planning permission was received in April 2018 for the construction of the footbridge and lifts.

Listed building consent for the demolition of a former goods shed adjoining the station building was also obtained. This was required as the north side

(Below) View of Dunbar station from original platform and Azuma calling at the new platform. Between the two can be seen the remains of the original Down platform.

(Inset) B-listed station building and lift shaft which stands on site of former goods shed.

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(Above) The new Down platform.

(Inset) Alan Ross, Network Rail Scotland’s director of engineering and asset management, with the pupils from Dunbar Primary School and their prize-winning safety posters.

lift-shafts and steps were to be constructed on the site of this goods shed.

In November 2018, AmcoGriffen was appointed to undertake the design and construction of the new platform. This included the footbridge, lifts and steps, with associated demolition work, civil, mechanical and electrical works and the new 271-metre platform. This is long enough to accommodate a ten-coach Azuma train (two five-car units coupled together).

Work on site started in May 2019. The provision of the new platform entailed the demolition of the goods shed, the replacement of six OLE headspans with twin-track cantilever structures and the renewal of 50 metres and realignment of 300 metres of track.

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Just as at Robroyston, the first train to use the platform did so at the start of the new timetable.

This was an LNER Azuma on a Newcastle to Edinburgh service, timed to leave Dunbar at 10:04 on 15 December. The official opening of the new platform, which was provided at a cost of £13 million, took place on Tuesday the 17 December when guests were welcomed

by Kris Kinnear, Network Rail commercial director, and speeches made by Bill Reeve, Transport Scotland director of Rail, and Jacqueline Bell of Dunbar Community Council.

After the speeches, there was a reception at which prizes were presented to winners of a safety poster competition from Dunbar Primary school. This was a good example of engagement with the local community.

Another such example was the appointment of a community liaison manager, Allan Brooking, who was on site for two days a week. With the platform completed, he hosted a meeting between ScotRail and residents to minimise the nuisance from station announcements. At the reception, local rail campaigners praised his role in keeping

the community informed and managing issues such as nighttime piling adjacent to the nearby housing estate.

An interesting comparison Dunbar’s new platform, provided at a cost of £13 million, will allow the provision of more trains to support increasing commuter traffic from an established community, whereas the £14 million Robroyston station has been built for a large housing development that has yet to be built. Each required a footbridge with lifts and steps.

Both provide almost the same total platform length (Dunbar 271 metres, Robroyston 2 x 150 metres). However, the Robroyston project also required the provision of two car parks, a total of 263 spaces, on difficult ground.

Thus, these two projects are in many ways quite similar. Yet, with one delivered by ScotRail and the other managed by Network Rail, no doubt more detailed comparisons are being made. Whatever the results of any such analysis, there is no doubt both stations will deliver significant benefits for their local communities.

FEATURE

MALCOM DOBELL

maturing nicely Rolling-stock maintenance and remote condition monitoring

T

his is the fourth time that Rail Engineer has reported on London Business Conferences’ symposium on rolling stock maintenance, featuring Remote Condition Monitoring (issues 136, 148 and 171). This year was the eighth such conference and more than 120 speakers and delegates assembled in west London over two days in early December.

Whilst the main topic was Remote Condition Monitoring (RCM) enabled by on-train sensors, wireless communications, cloud storage and analysis, there were a number of other interesting topics.

Back in 2015, enthusiasts for RCM were clearly seeing themselves as evangelists - follow us and it will all be good, they said! Roll on four years and it is evident they were right. Many presentations showed the benefit of the RCM approach and industry leaders, including Thierry Fort, executive director of rolling stock engineering with SNCF Mobilities, and Johannes Emmelheinz, CEO of Siemens Mobility Customer Services, demonstrated the clear benefits to their organisations and to their customers.

New trains come with this facility as a matter of course, but, increasingly, there is a demonstrable business case for retrofitting existing vehicles, as speakers from Latvia, India, Belgium and Saudi Arabia testified.

There was also an increasing trend to recognise that “throwing a bunch of sensors” at a train is not necessarily the right answer. A clever data scientist, working with a rolling stock expert, ought to be able to extract similar information from a single sensor that a less-expert team might gain from several dozen. To an extent this is true of the wheel bearing sensors described below. They were installed to monitor bearing performance, then clever people found they also provided information about the wheels and the track.

Many speakers emphasised the importance of leadership, management and taking the people along on the journey, making the point that these are business change projects not IT projects.

In 2015, this emphasis ranged from restrained to non-existent, so progress has been made.

This report will examine some of the case studies, including managing wheels and axle bearings. It will also discuss some of the people issues and, as this conference always has some “and now for something completely different” moments, a selection of these will be described.

Wheels and axle bearings The condition of wheels and axle bearings can be assessed by the use of wayside equipment or by the use of axlebox sensors. Siemens, Voestalpine,

TrackIQ and Talgo are suppliers of the former whilst Perpetuum and SKF supply the latter. There has been much debate about the merits of the two techniques, and what follows are some conclusions from drawing on the points made by the above-mentioned suppliers, together with input from Chiltern Railways’ Simon Jarrett (pictured below) and Huddersfield University’s Professor Adam Bevan.

Many factors determine when maintenance interventions are required on wheelsets, such as hollow profile, thin flange, flats, rolling contact fatigue and, sometimes, cavities or out-of-roundness.

In addition, most bearing manufacturers specify a mileage limit between overhauls.

The traditional method of checking wheels is by measuring profiles during inspection in depots; something that is labour intensive and not especially accurate. Automated systems have been available for over 20 years.

Bearings, generally, were overhauled at the specified interval and occasional failures were detected using hot axlebox detectors (HABD). A hot wheel bearing is, at best, hours from failure, so a train with

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FEATURE

A hot wheel bearing can be only hours from failure. a detected bearing is almost always taken out of service immediately. A much better method is to use vibration monitoring, which can give several months warning of failure.

Simon Jarrett reported on one of the earliest uses of GOTCHA trackside wheel condition and acoustic axle bearing monitoring, which Chiltern introduced at Wembley in 2013. Simon described the maintenance intervals for bearings and the nature of wheel wear defects before monitoring and the intervals achieved after monitoring was introduced. He said that wheel maintenance can now be planned and that there is no planned axle bearing maintenance, as shown in table 1.

Over the last four years, the monitoring system identified 46 bearings that needed to be changed. Simon said that, in the early days of monitoring, fitters would 02F-RollingStockMaintenance-01 strip any removed bearing to confirm the 96 words defect, a practice that has now ceased due to his confidence in the system. He cautioned, however, that the trackside [TABLE TO BE INSERTED IN PAGE 2] monitoring system is unlikely to catch a bearing that has no lubrication or severely contaminated grease and they have had

three overheated bearings in the last four years. For these, the traditional HABD is the last line of defence.

Rail Engineer’s previous reviews of this conference have reported on similar results on Southeastern, which has equipped its Electrostar fleet with Perpetuum self-powered axlebox accelerometers. This year, Perpetuum has a competitor in SKF’s Insight Rail product, which is a small, battery-powered sensor that transmits data directly by 2G/3G mobile signals.

The key debate seems to be whether it is better to have track-side or on-vehicle monitoring. Both provide information about the state of wheel bearings and wheels, but vehicle-mounted sensors can also provide information about the track and should detect a hot axlebox, although a much shorter response 1 of 1 time will be required. Then therePage is the question of how many trackside systems might be needed to cover an operator’s whole network - for a large train operator with an extensive network, a single trackside installation would probably be insufficient.

Table 1: Chiltern fleet wheel and bearing maintenance before and after monitoring.

Before monitoring

After monitoring

Fleet class

Fleet Size (Vehicles )

Bearing Life

Wheelset factors

Bearing Life

Typical Wheel Life

165

89

900k km

Cavities & flats

Unlimite d

1.6 million km

168

85

Unlimited

Cavities, flats and Rolling Contact fatigue

Unlimite d

1.7 million km

172

8

Unlimited

Cavities, engine braking.

Unlimite d

1.0 million km

Mk3 coach

38

700k km

Cavities & flats

Unlimite d

2.0 million km

DVT

6

700k km

Cavities & flats, thin flanges

Unlimite d

1.6 million km

1: Chiltern and bearing | Issuefleet | Jan/Feb Rail Table Engineer 181 wheel 2020 maintenance before and after monitoring

These are challenges to be worked out between potential suppliers and operators, with account being taken of the value to the infrastructure manager of the information that vehicle-mounted sensors might generate.

In his talk, Adam Bevan provided insight into the question of the optimum frequency of wheel turning - either “little and often” or “leave it until absolutely necessary”.

There is one truism, that a wheel with flanges at the thin-flange limit needs an awful lot of metal to be turned off to restore the profile. This is a condition to be avoided. That aside, other factors - loss of diameter, tread hollowing and growth of rolling contact fatigue cracks - are the key reasons for wheel turning.

Adam described the work his team had done analysing data from monitoring systems and wheel-turning records to identify the optimum wheel reprofiling interval, which proved to be just before RCF crack growth accelerates. This is based on knowledge about crack growth.

Following initiation, the RCF cracks grow slowly to start with, but then they reach a point after which they start to grow rapidly.

The analysis indicated that leading axles tend to suffer more crack damage than trailing axles. For the particular fleet in the study, this work led to the following strategy; that wheels would be turned every 200 days instead of every 241 days, that the cut depth would be 4 to 6mm instead of 13mm, and the wheelset monitoring system would look out for any unusual occurrences such as wheel flats.

This approach was expected to increase wheel life by between 50 and 70 per cent and deliver approximately a seven per cent reduction in costs.

A view from Paris Thierry Fort (pictured right) presented a case study illustrating the results of using data in condition-based maintenance.

He talked about the modern train fleets in and around Paris that have been using this approach over the last six years. The process was not unusual - connected train, big data, cloud storage, analysis by data scientists and rolling-stock experts, up-to-date maintenance centre, processes which involve data/information at the heart of all activities and having the information available before the train arrives back at depot. The results were extremely positive: failures in service were reduced by 40 to 50 per cent (reliability rate doubled), labour cost was reduced

FEATURE People issues

by 20 per cent, train availability was improved by 20 to 30 per cent and there was a reduction of 30 per cent in the number of work orders generated.

Thierry concluded with a look forward to a future in which artificial intelligence could be used for much more than train maintenance. Focussing on video surveillance, or “Video Protection” that would involve on-train analysis of the onboard CCTV, he noted that such a process could alert control to the signs of trouble on board a train, for example a brawl, and allow the human operators to check and, if necessary, intervene.

Now for something completely different!

One of the challenges faced by maintainers and owners of older fleets is sourcing the parts required for maintenance. This is particularly true of parts that are not routinely needed.

Richard Flint of Chiltern Railways highlighted some of the challenges with a fleet which, bar a few vehicles, is over 20 years old.

He said that Chiltern has 12,000 different parts in its stores, yet this is just a small subset of parts contained in the OEM’s Illustrated Parts Lists (IPL); for example, the Class 168 IPL extends to eight thick volumes. All too often, the supplier of the original part - the OEM - is no longer in existence and it is hugely time consuming to identify an alternative supplier. Even if the OEM is still around, it is often impossible to obtain small quantities of parts quickly. What supplier of plastic parts wants to make a rush order of, say, ten armrests?

This situation led Chiltern and Angel Trains, the owner of the Class 165 and 168 fleets, to investigate additive manufacture, better known as 3D printing. The process starts by 3D scanning the original part, adjusting the scan to correct any deficiencies in the scanning or, indeed, in the original part.

Then the item is printed on an industrial 3D printer. Three items were chosen for trial, seat back handles, seat armrests and a complex piece of trim around the driver’s power-brake controller.

These trials have proved to be successful and, for similar items, the process presents many advantages. These include the ability to produce economically small quantities of parts otherwise unobtainable, with shorter lead times. This delivers a reduction in the time taken to renew parts on the fleets, a reduction in management time for the management of vehicle defects, an increase in vehicle availability and, above all, an increase in customer satisfaction.

At each of these conferences, the importance of managing the people issues as an integral part of the RCM projects has been emphasised. This time, Neil Robertson, chief executive of the National Skills Academy for Rail, gave a forthright challenge to the UK rolling stock leaders, along the lines of “it’s not enough to take the people with you, you’ve got to find them first!”

Neil’s talk, “Professionalising the Workforce”, described the many challenges facing the rolling stock engineering and maintenance organisations. He illustrated the skills shortage, that 30 per cent of the employees are over 50, that it is likely to get worse before it gets better, and that a great deal more has to be done to encourage girls into engineering in general and railways in particular.

Moving on to discuss the challenge that fleet maintainers have when a new fleet is introduced, Neil compared it with the automotive sector, where cars have got gradually more complex and auto mechanics have been converted to auto technicians over roughly a 10-year period.

Contrast that with a new fleet introduction and the fleet manager often has little more than 10 months to do a similar conversion for his or her team.

Some of them might not adapt to the task of using laptops and data to diagnose faults, which uses quite different parts of the brain than is typical in engineering.

Neil particularly highlighted the skills shortage of good data scientists, stating that there is likely to be a “shortfall of circa 60 heads across the sector per year for the next 20 years”, although there is some light at the end of the tunnel as “England has seen a 129-fold increase in apprentices starting digital or data-related apprenticeships since 2014”.

He also highlighted that level 4 data technician and level 6 data scientist shared apprenticeships which are available and he recommended a visit to the NSAR website to find out more. He said that companies experienced in using data tend to gravitate to the level 4 qualification with the aim of improving data cleansing whereas those with least experience tend to look to the level 6 qualification.

Finally, for those looking at how to encourage youngsters to join the rail industry, Neil recommended looking out for the “Routes into Rail” web site which will be coming soon.

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FEATURE

Closing down This conference also included a first for your writer - a paper on closing down a maintenance operation! Stephen Head and Aoife Considine from Heathrow Express (HEx) described their work on “Managing an End of Life Fleet and Depot”. In brief, Heathrow Express currently owns and operates Class 332 CAF/Siemens trains.

The trains are maintained by Siemens in a dedicated depot in Old Oak Common (pictured below) that has to be demolished to make way for HS2.

This depot also maintains the Class 360 sets that used to operate the Heathrow Connect service and which should have been replaced by Crossrail/TfLRail/ Elizabeth line Class 345 trains in mid-2018.

It is intended that, in future, HEx will be operated by Great Western Railway using reconfigured Class 387 EMUs which are being fitted with ETCS for operation in the Heathrow Express-owned tunnels.

This changeover was due to happen in December 2019, but is also running late.

The challenge for Stephen, Aoife and Siemens management was to continue to deliver safe, reliable rolling stock, and to motivate the staff to do so in the certain knowledge that their jobs would end at a date that keeps shifting.

Another relevant factor is that the Bombardier depot which maintains Elizabeth line Class 345 trains and the Hitachi depot that maintains GWR’s Inter-City Express trains are right next door to the HEx/Siemens depot. Both of these depots need experienced trainmaintenance staff.

All this meant that the management had to deal with three issues. Firstly, motivation and retention of staff; secondly, planning and re-planning the

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maintenance activities on fleets where the date for end of operations keeps slipping, and, thirdly, disposal of the Hex-owned Class 332 trains and safely closing down the site. All this was being done whilst working in a depot environment that increasingly resembles a building site.

In terms of managing the operation as a going concern, Aoife stressed the importance of open and honest communication with the team to engender pride in the quality of service that HEx delivers. However, they had also recognised that, with the adjacent depots, the competitive pressures were severe, so had introduced retention payments and, where staff had left, contract staff had been recruited to fill gaps.

Maintenance planning was carried out using what was described as a simple scenario planning technique: “What have

we got to do if the trains have to keep going for 6, 12 or 18 months beyond the original forecast end date?” Aoife also said that all the planning is tempered by a healthy dose of flexibility and pragmatism.

Maturity In attending four of these conferences over five years, Rail Engineer has noticed a certain maturity evolving over the whole business of RCM. In 2015, those attending came over as pioneers, or even mavericks.

Today, they are seen as respectable members of the team who can genuinely deliver improved performance and reduced costs.

The influx of new trains (in the UK at least) is helping, as they include data collection facilities as standard, but the case for retrofit is increasingly being made and this trend will continue.

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Rail Engineer | Issue 181 | Jan/Feb 2020

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FEATURE PHOTO: ISTOCKPHOTO.COM

62

Bringing 3D printing

to the UK rail industry

3

D printing is an almost magical process, yet, in a way, it is also so simple.

A normal ink-jet computer printer lays down a film of ink onto a sheet of paper to produce letters, words or an image. Now use thicker ink, and go over the image several times, and a three-dimensional shape starts to form.

Replace the ink with plastic or metal powder, and the paper with a sheet that can be peeled off once the printing is finished, and that’s the essence of 3D printing. The size of the object is only limited by the size of the printer, and the thickness depends on how may layers are put down - how many times the print head goes over the same area.

Rail Engineer first became aware of the process in 2013, when Hobs 3D created a model of the upgraded King’s Cross station from the original computer-aided design (CAD) files, making the model extremely accurate.

Since then, 3D printing, now also called Additive Manufacturing (AM) as material is added through the process,

has become a bona-fide manufacturing technique, used to make components for all types of equipment, including railway trains.

Derby-based DB ESG is part of a cross-industry partnership that is leading the way by being the first to apply 3D printing to the UK rail industry, providing engineering design, assessment and approvals for the introduction of 3D printed components on UK train fleets. Working together, Angel Trains, Stratasys and DB ESG have, to date, produced eight fully approved components using AM. Some of these parts are currently being trialled on in-service passenger trains by Chiltern Railways. This is the first time production-ready 3D printed parts have been fitted on passenger trains within the UK.

Unique manufacturing challenge Manufacturing for rolling stock is expensive, with train fleet production runs being of low volume compared to other manufacturing industries. This low volume drives up the manufacturing cost, removes the incentive to invest in research and development, and reduces the number of suppliers able to compete.

Model of King’s Cross station produced by Hobs 3D in 2013.

Rail Engineer | Issue 181 | Jan/Feb 2020

FEATURE The challenge is exacerbated by the issue of obsolescence - trains can be in operation for 30 or more years. To keep these fleets operational and in peak condition, asset managers such as Angel Trains need to ensure the continued supply of parts for which the original manufacturing drawings may no longer exist, and that may only be needed in very small quantities for the remainder of the vehicle’s life.

Such legacy parts are generally expensive, have very long lead times, and are often not tailored to the specific fleet or application. They can be a real struggle for the existing supply chain and manufacturing methods, leading to many operators having to expend unnecessary amounts of effort and cost when managing these parts.

3D printing could be the solution to these manufacturing challenges, allowing replacement parts to be produced at low cost, in low volume and with short lead times. Depots could have their own printers to enable parts to be manufactured as required, and train operators could even personalise parts with their own badge or logo, knowing that the parts can easily be replaced if the train were to change hands.

Overall, the key benefits of using AM include: » On-demand production of replacement parts, eliminating the need for large spares holdings, reducing whole life rolling stock costs and replacement of obsolete parts; » Use of high-performance, cutting-edge materials, with advanced mechanical properties such as high strength, flame, smoke and toxicity requirements, and the ability to certify to industry standards;

Spot the difference – which is an original cast grab handle and which is 3D printed? (The centre one is original). » Freedom to design customised parts, unique to the customer requirements; » Reductions in spare part costs; » Reductions in lost vehicle availability due to fast on-demand production of replacements; » Ability to keep passenger trains in service for longer with efficient replacement of parts.

Project overview The cross-industry group decided to focus on FDM (Fused Deposition Modelling) technology, as it is one of the most established 3D printing processes for robust, industrial applications, with parts already deployed in service in comparable transport industries such as aviation.

The first stage of the project was to put procedures in place and to carry out 3D scanning visits to some of Angel Trains’ operator’s depots. Through this, a digital library of over 120 parts has been created,

Other 3D printed items include tray tables and armrests.

including several parts for which original drawings do not exist, and which, due to their complex shape, would have been challenging to reverse-engineer manually.

DB ESG then investigated the design, production and finish of FDM parts, checking whether they comply with rail standards and operating environments.

The end-to-end process of supplying new 3D printed rail vehicle components was studied, from initial reverse-engineering design, through to approvals and manufacture of the final items. At each stage, the benefits and limitations of the FDM manufacturing technique were considered.

In particular, DB ESG focused on the: » Fire compliance of the FDM materials; » Physical properties of the FDM materials and their compliance to structural standards, such as GM/ RT2100; » Manufacturing limitations and tolerances; » Aesthetics - colouring and surface finish of parts, the match with existing parts and compliance with PRM requirements.

DB ESG and Stratasys also evaluated the range of materials available for print. Three were shortlisted and Sabic’s Ultem™ 9085 black resin, which is a high-performance, high-strength, flame, smoke and toxicity compliant resin, was selected for the trial. Both Ultem 9085 and Stratasys’ own Antero 800NA have been tested and certified to rail standard EN45545-2. Importantly, these results were released back to Stratasys for wider use in the rail industry.

Other 3D printing thermoplastics have been tested. However, these could not meet the mechanical properties or fire

Rail Engineer | Issue 181 | Jan/Feb 2020

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FEATURE

PHOTO: ISTOCKPHOTO.COM

Passenger service trials FDM components are now being trialled on rolling stock in passenger service.

Angel Trains has been discussing the technology with its rolling stock operators and Chiltern Railways agreed to trial parts.

Rail Engineer | Issue 181 | Jan/Feb 2020

In total, 11 parts are now being trialled on Chiltern Railway’s Class 165 units over a six-month period, commencing in the summer of 2019. After six months, a sample of the parts will be removed from the units and DB ESG will inspect them for signs of wear and/or damage.

Chiltern is trialling: » Four left-handed seat back grab handles; » Three right-handed seat back grab handles; » Four arm rests.

All components have been manufactured and finished to the required standards and are colour-matched to the existing parts.

Project summary To date, the AM/3D-printing project has achieved: » 120 legacy railway components 3D-scanned and digitised; » Two 3D-printing FDM materials successfully fire tested, with the

results freely released back to the manufacturer for use by the rest of the industry; » Eight railway components re-designed and manufactured using AM that have been fully certified for in-service use - these parts are comparable in cost to existing supplies while offering substantial lead time reductions; » The first in-service trial of productionready AM parts in the UK rail industry; » A range of further R&D work already agreed between all partners, to push the boundaries of the technology further and to speed up its adoption by the wider industry.

Finally, all members of this collaborative project have also joined the trade body ‘Mobility goes Additive’, an organisation originally set up by DB in Germany that brings together additive manufacturing and transport companies from across Europe to advance the development and uptake of AM technologies within the transport industries.

PHOTO: ISTOCKPHOTO.COM

performance necessary for rolling stock applications. The industry requires very high fire performance, meaning that satisfying aerospace standards does not guarantee compliance in rail. This collaboration has enabled new, highperformance materials to be tested to demonstrate their compliance to the railway standard EN45545-2.

Five rolling stock components were initially chosen to test the capability of the technology, and reverse-engineered: » Interior seat armrest; » Two interior seat grab handle designs; » Interior seat fold-down table; » Cover for an inter-vehicle jumper receptacle.

For each of the above, DB ESG then optimised the component design for FDM manufacture, reducing the internal part density in low-stressed areas and adding custom cut-outs and features to enable the addition of simple metal inserts to interface the parts to the vehicle.

The structural competence of the final design was then assessed, and the components certified. One example of each component was finally manufactured. For each of the parts, the cost of manufacturing in-house is comparable to that of the existing part, but the real advantage is in a substantial reduction in lead time and order quantity, as low as a single unit.

FEATURE

NEXT-GENERATION RS4 RAIL SIGNALLING POWER PROTECTION SYSTEM

N

etwork Rail has approved

Class 2 compliant

Bender UK’s next-generation

The retrofittable RS4 solution can upgrade existing RS2/RS3 installations in less than an hour without disconnection.

It offers cost-effective continuation for legacy equipment that is compatible with existing Intelligent Infrastructure remote condition monitoring through GSM‑enabled data loggers.

Bender’s Tier 2 solution provides full insulation resistance levels of individual feeders with increased system visibility at minimal extra cost over Tier 3 technology and is fully upgradeable to deliver a Tier 1 solution.

The RS4 Tier 1 provides full insulation resistance levels of individual cable subsections and within FSPs (Functional Supply Points). It also offers the flexibility to deliver tailor-made solutions on a project-by-project basis. It is fully retrofittable and compact for utilisation within SIN119 remedial works. No 650V or earth reference connection for FSP installations is required, meaning the 650V power supply doesn’t need to be shut down during installation. This ensures Bender’s Tier 1 solution is fully class 2 compliant and does not compromise the integrity of class 2 enclosures or create risk of electric shock injury to personnel.

The RS4 has customised data and communication options, enabling project customisation that can be integrated into existing Intelligent Infrastructure.

Trackside equipment can be incorporated into existing FSP architecture and the Tier 1 solution offers remote fault location to FSP or cable length, with precise manual fault finding at 100KΩ.

Alongside enhanced sensitivity for ‘first earth fault’ location, RS4 measures capacitance, voltage and frequency, delivering data within the standard display options to provide more information to help assess the health of the system.

RS4 continually monitors insulation values to show real-time status of the power system. When the insulation value

RS4 Rail Signalling Power Protection system that delivers

increased sensitivity for first earth fault location and enables compliance with Network Rail’s insulation-monitoring and fault-location requirements.

The new RS4 employs tried-andtrusted Bender technology to deliver the multiple-tier smart cable insulation monitoring. RS4 Tier 3 has increased sensitivity for improved feeder first fault location from the 20kΩ pre‑warning level to 100KΩ or higher, depending on system capacitance. It has improved performance of Bender’s already proven RS systems to offer a holistic picture of cable health, along with a rich data set that meets the requirements of standard NR/L2/ SIGELP/27725 “Insulation Monitoring and Fault Location Systems for Use on Signalling Power Systems.”

The Certificate of Acceptance (PA05/04750) confirms Network Rail’s acceptance of Bender’s Tier 3 RS4, which makes it simple for new devices and upgrades to be procured. The Tier 1 and 2 versions are also undergoing final testing to achieve certification.

(IR) drops, the system records the fault and a test current signal or pulse put into the system is pulled to earth at the point where the fault exists.

Portable Bender equipment can be employed trackside for measuring and analysing sections of the power network to prioritise installation programmes.

Recent improvements to the portable kit include more sensitive clamps and receiver technology to deliver exact fault location up to 100kΩ. Self-powered through connection to the trackside signal electrical network and delivering live monitoring of the system status, the portable fault-location equipment can also provide independent verification of RS system performance.

The RS4 Tier 3 PADs database number is 0086/001406. Individual PADS have also been applied to Bender components to deliver cost-effective product upgrades.

Bender UK has a proven track record with over 1,000 rail power insulation-monitoring systems installed across UK rail networks over the last two decades.

For further information contact Tony Edwards, Rail Business Manager (tony.edwards@bender-uk.com) at Bender UK, or visit www.bender-uk.com or call +44 (0)1229 480123.

Rail Engineer | Issue 181 | Jan/Feb 2020

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FEATURE

Azuma’s HIGHEST challenge

DAVID SHIRRES

Azuma at Culloden on climb up to Slochd summit.

PHOTO: LNER - GRAEME ELGAR

T

he Highland main line (HML) between Inverness and Perth is the most severely graded line on the UK railway network. It requires southbound trains leaving Inverness at sea level to climb 1,315 feet in 22 miles to reach the Slochd summit - a maximum gradient of 1 in 60.

After this, the line drops to 800 feet to go through the Upper Spey valley, overlooked by the Cairngorm mountain range.

The line then climbs to the Druimuachdar summit (1,484 feet), the highest point on the UK network. Northbound trains climbing this summit face an 18-mile climb at a near constant 1 in 70 gradient.

Such gradients present a real challenge. In the early 1980s, the 10-coach Clansman train between Inverness and London Euston, hauled by a class 47 locomotive, topped Slochd summit at around 40 mph. The introduction of the Highland Chieftain service in 1984 from Kings Cross to Inverness

Rail Engineer | Issue 181 | Jan/Feb 2020

brought HSTs to the Highlands.

With their two Class 43 power cars having a total power output of 3,356kW (4,500bhp), the HML’s summits were no longer such a problem. For example, a nine-coach HST has been recorded as climbing the 1 in 60 gradient to Slochd at 74mph and reaching the

summit 21 minutes and 48 seconds after leaving Inverness.

With ‘Azumas’ replacing HSTs on LNER’s Inverness to London service, Rail Engineer was keen to learn how the Hitachi-built class 800/1 bi-mode trains would tackle these gradients.

First Azuma from Inverness At 07:30 on the damp and dark morning of 10 December; there was a buzz at Inverness station as LNER staff, press, invited guests and ordinary passengers gathered around the podium erected to commemorate the inaugural Azuma Highland Chieftain service. LNER managing director David Horne noted that this train’s 580-mile journey to London was one of the longest in the UK. He explained the benefits of the Azuma, which included extra seats that are needed as this train carried 118,000 passengers a year to and from Inverness, a number that had doubled in the last 20 years.

Inverness provost Helen Carmichael welcomed the enhanced connectivity the new train would bring between London and the north of

FEATURE

Scotland and considered this to be an important day, both for the City and the Highlands.

After the speeches, the pipes and drums of the Pictish band Clanadonia, accompanied by whirling fire dancers escorted passengers to their train which was formed of unit 800 104 which carries LNER’s Scottish tartan. Now was the time to find out how the Azuma’s five 560kW generator sets would tackle the HML gradients.

The train left 2½ minutes after its planned 07:55 departure due to a late incoming train on the single line to Inverness. Sitting above the under-floor diesel engine, I was aware of a slight hum as the train tackled its first 1 in 60 gradient.

The Azuma is a particularly quiet and vibrationfree train - indeed, someone at the other end of the coach wasn’t aware that he was in a power car.

The log of the run is shown in table 1. My GPS indicated that the balance speed on the 1 in 60 gradients up to Slochd was 56mph. The summit was passed 23 minutes 46 seconds after leaving Inverness, two minutes longer than the time taken for an HST. The HML line speed is

generally 75/80 mph but has a 2.8-mile length of 90/100 mph level track between Aviemore and Kingussie, on which the Azuma accelerated from 71 to 96mph in 2 minutes 10 seconds before braking for Kingussie station. Soon afterwards, the train started its climb to Druimuachdar summit with a speed of 64mph up the 1 in 80 gradient.

Arrival in Perth was 5½ minutes late. Allowing for the late departure from Inverness and some slightly extended dwell times, the Azuma, which was running to HST timings, lost two minutes between Inverness and Perth. To allow for Azuma timings, the 15 December timetable changed the Highland Chieftain arrival time in Perth to be 1½ minutes later and reduced the station dwell time to give the same departure time.

South of Perth, there is a 1 in 100 climb to Gleneagles, which the Azuma managed at 84mph. 12 miles later, as it passed through Dunblane at 75mph, the train raised its pantograph to take power from the OLE and the gentle hum under my seat was no more.

(Above left) The drums of Clanadonia.

(Above right) LNER managing director David Horne and Inverness provost Helen Carmichael lit up by the fire dancers prior to departure.

800 104 carrying LNER’s Scottish tartan.

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68

FEATURE Table 1: Log of the first class 800/1 passenger service between Inverness and Perth on 10.12.19 Working Timetable Miles

Actual GPS

Speed

Location arrive

pass / depart

arrive

pass / depart

pass

point to point

0

Inverness

07:55

07:57:20

4.7

Culloden

08:031/2

08:05:23

55.7

35.0

22.4

Slochd

08:181/2

08:21:06

50.8 (1)

67.6

27.8

Carrbridge

08:231/2

08:26:01

60.7

65.9

34.5

Aviemore

08:29

08:31

08:32:43

08:35:10

60.0

46.3

Kinguissie

08:411/2

08:431/2

08:46:33

08:48:38

51.2

49.1

Newtonmore

08:461/2

08:51:55

72.2

51.2

59.3

Dalwhinnie

08:551/2

09:00:59

67.7

67.5

65.1

Druimuachdar Summit

09:06:28

64.4

63.5

82.6

Blair Atholl

09:20:48

55.5

73.3

89.5

Pitlochry

102.4

Dunkeld and Birnam

118

09:15 09:23

09:541/2

Running time less stops Note:

Azuma Standard Class.

09:29:37

09:361/2

Perth

Table 1: Log of the first class 800/1 passenger service between Inverness and Perth on 10.12.19.

09:25

09:59

09:32:18 09:43:51

10:00:05

01:53:30

47.0 53.2

67.0 57.7

01:55:32

1. 56 mph balance speed on 1 in 60, 50 mph PSR at Summit

LNER’s engineering director On the train, it was good to chat to LNER’s engineering director, John Doughty, about the Azuma and its performance on the route. John conceded that it required two or three minutes longer than an HST on the Perth to Inverness route, though didn’t see that this presented any operational difficulties. He emphasised that the Azuma’s distributed traction gives it a more consistent operational performance than an HST, which can take much longer to climb the line’s long steep gradients when adhesion is poor.

The train configuration is DPTS+MS+MS+TS+MS+TS+MC+MF+DPTF where DPT is a driving trailer with pantograph, M is a motor coach with generator set and traction motors and T is a trailer coach. The class of each coach is denoted by the letters S, F or C for standard, first or composite. Thus, of the Azuma’s nine coaches, five are power cars, each with four traction motors. Powered axles have sanders and are not at the train ends.

In contrast, the HST’s power cars at each end of the train each have four traction motors and no sanders.

John was asked whether, in view of the gradients on the line, the generator sets on LNER’s class 800 units should be upgraded from 560 to 720kW, as had been done on the GWR’s Class 800 units. He

Rail Engineer | Issue 181 | Jan/Feb 2020

advised that the GWR units needed upgraded engines as, due to curtailed electrification, they run long distances at high-speed, which requires extra power to boost the top end of the tractive effort curve. In contrast, all of LNER’s high-speed routes are electrified. For this reason, LNER does not consider that the cost of running upgraded engines, which would consume extra fuel and need more maintenance, can be justified.

In diesel mode, the Azuma may not quite have the power of an HST, but it offers other benefits.

As all traction and auxiliary equipment is either under the floor or roof mounted, passengers can be carried almost throughout the length of the train. Furthermore, the Azuma has fewer, longer coaches (26 metres compared with the HST’s 23) and so has fewer vestibules. Both these features give the Azuma both 72 more seats than an HST and an extra seven centimetres leg room in standard class.

FEATURE Azuma First Class.

The Azuma’s seats have been criticised for being hard.

Although they are certainly firmer, I did not find them uncomfortable. Clearly, seat comfort is a highly subjective matter and is perhaps influenced by an interior which is not as plush as the HSTs and IC225 trains that they replace, whose interiors were refurbished a few years ago.

John advised that, following passenger feedback, additional luggage space is to be provided. This will be done by replacing some of the nonreservable windowless seats with floor-mounted racks.

John was also keen to stress the significant environmental benefits of the bi-mode Azumas, which eliminate diesel running under the wires.

Previously, an HST on a London to Inverness train was diesel powered throughout its 580mile journey, now the Azuma takes its power from the OLE for 435 miles, leaving just 145 miles diesel-powered. LNER is monitoring power consumption of the Azumas on the route to determine the precise carbon savings. For now, John estimates that, on the Inverness route, the Azuma’s carbon emissions are a third of an HST. LNER has plans for future emission reductions from its bimode Azumas as it is thought possible that they could be powered by batteries for short journeys beyond the OLE. For example, Lincoln and Harrogate

would require roundtrips of 33 and 36.5 miles off the wire.

To assess the feasibility of this concept, LNER is in discussions with Hitachi to replace, on one Azuma, one generator set with a battery pack charged by the OLE to evaluate its performance.

In another development, John mentions that agreement has now been reached with the regulator, the Office of Rail and Road (ORR), about a solution to the hazard of someone using the four sets of jumper cables between coaches as a ladder.

This is to lengthen alternate sets of cables so that there are only two “rungs” spaced far apart.

The new fleet At the start of 2019, LNER had 15 HSTs and 30 IC225 sets formed by class 91 locomotives and Mark 4 coaches. By the end of 2019, the HSTs had all gone and, by mid-2020, all the IC225 sets will have been replaced by Azumas. LNER will then have replaced its BR legacy fleet of 45 train sets with 65 Azumas comprising 23 bi-mode units

(13 nine-car class 800/1 and 10 five-car class 800/2) and 42 electric trains (30 nine-car class 801/2 and 12 five-car class 801/1).

At the time of the inaugural Inverness run on 10 December, the number of Azumas in service were as shown in the table 2.

LNER’s fleet of 15 HSTs, which were primarily used for services beyond its electrified network, were progressively withdrawn over the autumn as the Azumas were introduced on services London to Lincoln, Aberdeen, Inverness and Harrogate on 21 October, 25 November, 9 December and 15 December respectively. Prior to that, LNER introduced Azumas onto its Leeds services on 15 May and to Hull the following day. Azumas started to run from Edinburgh on 1 August, as reported in issue 177 (Aug/Sept 2019).

LNER’s last HST to carry farepaying passengers ran on 21 December. This was the last day of a special four-day tour by an HST that had been restored to its original BR livery to mark 41 years of service on the East Coast main line.

Table 2: LNER Azuma programme.

Rail Engineer | Issue 181 | Jan/Feb 2020

69

FEATURE

(Above top) HST set with power cars 43296 and 43309 ready to leave Craigentinny depot for East Midlands Railway on 12.12.19. (Above bottom) Azuma on the Highland Chieftain approaching Haymarket.

Powering the Azumas The rapid withdrawal of LNER’s HST fleet was made possible by the commissioning of Potteric Carr OLE feeder station, which feeds both Hitachi’s new Azuma depot at Doncaster and provides additional clean power for the East Coast main line. Prior to then, HSTs had to run through Doncaster as there was insufficient power for a full electric service.

This 33kV intake into a This 25kV traction feeder station is fed from the local 33kV distribution network operator (DNO) network. It is the first in the UK for Network Rail to use a power electronics based ‘PCS 6000 Rail’ 50MW Static Frequency Converter (SFC), supplied by ABB Power Grids under a £14 million contract.

The Potteric Carr SFC feeder station was successfully commissioned into commercial operation by ABB on the ECML end of October 2019, following the completion of Network Rail product and system acceptance tests and the issuance of trial certification.

One key advantage of this technology is that it enables connection to the utility grid at lower voltages (compared to normal 132kV and above for the range of power required). It also potentially eliminates neutral sections on the railways and enables the power utility to see a ‘balanced’ supply into the railway power infrastructure. Based on an earlier engineering and option selection scheme by Network Rail, it is estimated that the chosen SFC solution, which eliminates the need for a costly high-voltage grid connection, reduces the cost of a new feeder station by 60 per cent. High-voltage grid connections were previously needed, as a single-phase 25kV OLE supply would otherwise result in an unacceptable phase imbalance in the grid supply.

This is not a problem with an SFC, which takes a three-phase supply, converts it to DC and then into a clean single phase 25kV supply for traction OLE and depot use. As a result, it is possible to take a three-phase balanced load from a local distribution network 33kV supply to power the single-phase 25kV OLE system.

Rail Engineer | Issue 181 | Jan/Feb 2020

However, nine of LNER’s HST trainsets remain in service.

They have been transferred to East Midlands Railway and are expected to remain in service until the end of 2020 when they will be replaced by cascaded Class 180 and 222 units, pending delivery of EMR’s own Hitachi bi-mode trains which are due to be delivered from 2022.

The current plan for the introduction of LNER’s full Azuma fleet will see the last of LNER IC225 train sets replaced in June. Whilst it seems that there is no UK requirement for the displaced class 91 locomotives, some on the mark 4 coaches will be used on North Wales services and, probably, by open access operators.

The iconic HST, introduced in 1976, and the class 91 electric locomotive, introduced in 1988, were both revolutionary designs which minimised unsprung mass and, in the case of the class 91, used research from the Advanced Passenger Train. The HST still holds the world speed record of 143 mph for a diesel train carrying passengers. From the late 1970s, it revolutionised British Rail Inter-City travel.

However, both trains have now had their day as longdistance 125mph trains. Today’s railway requires 125mph trains, such as the Azumas, that carry more passengers with less carbon, even if they may be two-minutes slower going up Slochd summit!

ABB Power Grids has already installed SFC feeder stations in Brisbane and Queensland, Australia, as well as several other European countries.

SFCs were developed to interconnect power networks operating at incompatible frequencies. A typical example of this is a cruise ship, with a 60Hz on-board network that may have to be connected to a 50Hz shore supply. Other examples in the UK for 50Hz to 50Hz connection include interconnectors within the Western Power Distribution network area and the Maygen Renewable Generation project in Scotland.

Further power supply enhancements are required to maximise electric running on the ECML, and these are being delivered by phase two of Network Rail’s ECML power supply upgrade.

This includes the commissioning of a new feeder station and 132kV connection at Hambleton Junction, near Selby, to provide resilience of supply, as well as two static frequency converter compounds at 132 kV supply points and the upgrade of the feeder station at Marshall Meadows, immediately south of the Scottish border.

It is the Marshall Meadows feeder station won’t be upgraded until at least 2021. Until then, some LNER services and all the new TransPennine Express services (30 trains a day) will have to operate on diesel power for the 64 miles between Longniddry and Chathill.

PHOTO: ABB

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FEATURE

Vegetation

O

MANAGEMENT

ne of Network Rail’s most high-profile challenges is managing its lineside vegetation and achieving a fine balance between keeping the railway running safely and protecting the rail corridor ecosystem.

Getting this wrong inevitably draws public attention, either from tabloid reports of ‘leaves on the line’ that lead to train delays and cancellations, or from environmental concerns raised over the perceived loss of biodiversity and the visual appeal that vegetation often provides.

It’s a massive challenge. Britain’s railways have more than 10 million trees growing next to them - Network Rail carefully catalogued all of them during an aerial survey that covered 20,000 miles of track - so managing this in an ever changing and constantly growing natural environment requires enormous effort.

Typical vegetation management interventions include clearing all vegetation up to seven metres from the track, though with the precise scope depending on the site topography and the type of infrastructure, such as whether there are overhead power lines.

Doing this ensures that overgrown trees and shrubs do not affect OLE or obscure signals.

By and large, Network Rail does not do this work itself. Instead, it turns to a group of specialist contractors that have the knowledge, manpower and equipment to do this work economically and safely while complying with the various rules and regulations that govern such activities.

Arboricultural experts Stobart Rail & Civils is one of these specialists, providing vegetation management throughout the UK from their network of depots around the country. Its dedicated team of arboricultural specialists bring the expert knowledge needed to ensure that they plan and deliver each project in accordance with operational best practise while ensuring that they deliver solutions that are sustainable and sensitive to wildlife and the local environment.

To achieve this, Stobart focuses on developing biodiversity opportunities as well as simply removing vegetation. For example, on sites where there is enough room and it is safe to do so, some of the smaller branches may be left in a structured pile that forms a suitable habitat for wildlife such as hedgehogs, reptiles and amphibians.

To develop fully integrated solutions throughout each site, Stobart uses a bespoke GPS-guided mobile vegetation management application. As its survey teams complete advance

Lindall tunnel after clearance and (inset) before.

site walkthroughs, they geolocate every important feature and link this to photos and detailed notes, then upload these to the cloud to build up a comprehensive visual record of the project’s devegetation requirements, delivery constraints and biodiversity opportunities.

Using this enables Stobart to understand each site on a holistic level to best manage environmental enhancements, and it supports delivering the optimum resources to the right location to complete all works cost-effectively and on programme, and to report back accurately to the client.

Stobart completes all its work using a dedicated plant fleet. As well as specialist vegetation management equipment, such as remote-controlled tracked chippers that keep operatives well out of harm’s way, the company’s in-house road-rail fleet ensures it can always provide the safest methodology by delivering plant directly into remote lineside locations. This enhances workforce safety by mechanising high-risk tasks and enables the ready extraction of timber back to accesses without the need for any manual handling.

Added value Uniquely, Stobart adds further value through synergy with its Stobart Energy business, which is the UK’s leading supplier of biomass fuel, delivering more than two million tonnes annually to provide a sustainable fuel source for energy recovery facilities around the country. Stobart Rail & Civils is therefore able to sell arising biomass material from vegetation management programmes to its sister company, providing a valuable revenue source for clients that helps offset the cost of the vegetation management works.

It also contributes to generating renewable energy equivalent to the annual domestic electricity needs of two per cent of the UK population.

Stobart’s teams also deliver complementary fencing programmes that further benefit lineside environments. As well as supporting their ongoing vegetation management programmes, they have recently been busy installing more than 25,000 metres of temporary fencing along the HS2 route, with many thousands more programmed for delivery in 2020.

Stobart’s comprehensive capability includes installing all types of fencing, from permanent palisade fencing through to reptile fencing around development sites, around any civil engineering sites, such as drainage and ditch works, slope stabilisation and earthworks regrades, to deliver an immaculate, well managed and secure railway environment.

With an ever-increasing focus on environmental issues, the work that Stobart’s vegetation management and fencing teams are delivering throughout the country will continue to enhance the railway’s sustainability and protect clients’ most valuable assets.

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DAVID SHIPMAN

through automation SAFER SURVEYING

R

educing the safety risks our workforces are exposed to is vital, and there have been

many initiatives to keep railway workers safe from harm.

Of course, the best way of doing this is by taking people away from the live railway altogether. This is great in theory, but how do we do this in practice?

It requires us to use new ways to complete all those tasks currently undertaken by people out on the railway. In terms of surveying, this means we have to find new methods to: » Gather information about existing assets; » Review and assess that information; » Visualise new and modified assets; » Monitor the progress of construction.

What are our options?

Existing aerial imagery plays a part, particularly in the early

planning stages. However, it can lack the accuracy required for detailed design and doesn’t capture the necessary drivers’ perspective for signal sighting and route learning, especially when video footage is required to support these activities.

A further risk with using existing data is that footage may not be sufficiently recent, depending on when the area was last surveyed. The latest changes may not be captured - missing essential detail for renewals or enhancement projects and undermining the quality of the survey and the accuracy of the finished design. If this is discovered at a late stage of a project, the cost of rectification is far greater than the cost of getting it right before design has commenced.

The Signalling Innovations Group (SIG), now part of the Network Services directorate within Network Rail, works hard to offer answers to the rail industry. Our range of tools PHOTO: WWW.ENABLEMYTEAM.COM

Rail Engineer | Issue 181 | Jan/Feb 2020

and services are designed to keep individuals away from the operational railway without compromising on detail.

Train-borne data capture uses laser, infra-red and 4K video equipment attached to Network Rail’s inspection fleet.

Commissioned early in the project lifecycle, it can provide an up-to-date record of the asset with an accuracy of just a few millimetres. This is precise enough to meet the demands of multiple disciplines, without exposing workers to the risks of undertaking traditional manual surveys on the live railway. Lowering the risk to the workforce is complemented by time and cost reductions.

Using data from the onboard systems with SIG’s suite of advanced tools, asset and network features can be captured with geo-location, and exported as a threedimensional model using SIG’s System Data Exchange Format (SDEF), for use in other tools alongside the laser point cloud and video data. Overlaying video with laser data enables highly accurate measurements in three dimensions and, with data captured across the whole project area, there is no need to revisit sites to check or recapture information if the design needs change.

New design, such as new signal structures and overhead gantries for signalling and power, can then be added as virtual-reality models, enabling planned changes to be visualised easily. For signalling renewals, this has revolutionised the signal sighting process; the traditional method of an expert committee attending each signal location is replaced with

an office-based exercise where the design proposal can be viewed in context.

The SDEF model can then be analysed further in other SIG tools to confirm structure clearances and overall signalling headways. Finally, the data is exported and automatically populates the sighting form, taking minutes to create what would previously have taken hours to produce manually.

Using this process reduces, or even eliminates, hundreds of site visits, keeping the workforce away from the live railway.

For other project purposes, which may not need quite such detailed measurements, we utilise our Tail Lamp Camera, which captures high-quality images from the front of regular passenger and freight trains.

Fitted and removed during timetabled stops, multiple data-collection runs can be made in one day, often at very short notice. Once processed, these images can be used to identify and tag assets whilst taking measurements with an accuracy of a few centimetres.

This rapidly deployable solution enables frequent updates to be captured throughout the project construction phase, again reducing the need for site visits.

Processing the data Intensive automated collection gives us far greater amounts of raw data than we have ever had access to before, but, to be truly useful, it needs

to be turned into meaningful information that can actually form the basis for design. So how do we process all this data, and what more can we do to make it even more useful?

Once video and laser data are captured from our train-mounted systems, it is processed to merge the different streams and make sure that they align in terms of position and time. This already gives us a huge advantage over traditional manual surveys that involve teams of engineers out on the track, finding the assets as they walk through the site and establishing position using manual methods such as measuring distances from the nearest calibration point.

Now, any asset that is observed in the recorded images will be located with highly-accurate, real-world positioning using laser data and 3D positioning systems.

But this still involves a human technician working through the video to identify each asset in the first place.

One industry-changing approach is to automate the task of scanning through video images and reliably identifying our assets and their positions.

Advanced machine learning is the obvious way to tackle this, but, while used with great success in some areas, it’s still a developing solution to the complexity of automatically finding a wide range of object types.

This is because we aren’t looking for the cases where something abnormal appears

PHOTO: WWW.ENABLEMYTEAM.COM

SURVEYING

(such as when looking for defects in a top-down view of the rail head before categorising those defects, or spotting a person in a place they shouldn’t be). The drivers’ eye view of the railway contains a lot of ever-changing visual information and we’re trying to find the objects of interest (for example signals, signs, and other equipment) in amongst the countless many artefacts that dominate the image - every frame is, in effect, full of abnormals!

As reported in a previous issue of Rail Engineer (issue 174, May 2019), the SIG team recently undertook several different surveys of a single site, the Midland Railway Centre at Butterley, in order to collect multiple datasets that would help understand how to integrate and merge data from different sources. Some of this data, as illustrated here, has been used to demonstrate significant steps forward in the automated detection of assets. In the example shown, this includes the rails and a complex signal structure, but it can extend to a variety of other objects on and about the railway, including breaking down the more complex items into key components – for example a colour light signal could be a combination of a signal head, a route indicator and a post.

Other possibilities have emerged from working with these datasets, and a hugely exciting development is the generation of point cloud data directly from video footage.

Point cloud data is used to

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build 3D models, either through laser scanning of existing details or as the output of 3D design processes. Being able to build a suitably accurate level of detail directly from video sources offers great economies. While it may not give a full model from the rail-mounted viewpoint, it will be more than enough for infrastructure design purposes in most situations and, in complex cases, it can still form the starting point for a more extensive model to be built.

Of course, we in the railway world are not alone in facing such challenges. Aspects vary, but often the problems being solved in many other industries are rooted in the same underlying principles.

In the case of processing data for signalling design, we have an advantage that real-time outputs aren’t critical - a process that takes weeks or months isn’t going to be significantly improved by instantaneous data analysis: the saving in this processing time is minimal compared to the time we’ve saved by not sending people out to manually survey the track.

Automating the process Compare this to a self-driving car - one of the state-of-the-art approaches that uses similar machine-learning techniques.

The car needs to continuously interpret the data it ‘sees’ in order to react to ever-changing situations. This is a different scale of urgency, and making the wrong decision could have immediate repercussions.

Rail Engineer | Issue 181 | Jan/Feb 2020

On the other hand, avoiding an obstruction in the road doesn’t necessarily involve working out exactly what that obstruction is so the detail is perhaps not as significant as in our application.

The primary need for the car is to avoid the obstacle, although there’s undoubtedly a bit of oversimplification here!

For our own signalling, and other asset design, we need the benefit that can only come from reliably assessing the type and nature of the asset seen.

Get that wrong, and the whole design process is undermined.

Ultimately, errors and omissions will almost certainly be picked up through testing activities before the signalling system is ever brought into use, but, by this stage, the cost of correction is extremely expensive and causes delay.

However, despite the different end goals, the techniques and technologies needed are much the same.

The aim of automating this aspect of the signalling design process, just like removing the driver from the car, is to eliminate the fallible human element.

However, to do so, we need to be sure we’re not replacing it with an even more fallible machine!

This means we need machine learning capabilities that find absolutely every asset of interest: if we’re not sure of that, then someone still needs to manually check through and find the

others, and we get no benefit from the automation. Finding false positives - where we identify something wrongly as an asset - also means we have to carry out manual checks but, in this case, we’re only checking the list of detected assets to eliminate those false positives, so the automation is still adding a lot of value in terms of time and cost.

Using computer power to detect assets in this way is still a huge challenge for us, but one which promises to take signalling design into an exciting world of advanced machine learning. At the time of writing, contracts are being prepared that will take us on the next step in this journey.

Having fully automated survey and analysis feeding into a far more automated design process is now within reach. By the end of this control period in four years’ time, this is anticipated to become the norm for signalling design.

The SIG surveying and design tools form a growing suite of applications that offer massive safety benefits while significantly reducing costs and timescales; providing not only signalling, but all disciplines with a powerful opportunity to make a powerful step-change in their delivery processes.

David Shipman is innovations engineering manager, Network Rail Signalling Innovations Group To learn more about SIG and its tools, contact sig@networkrail.co.uk

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FEATURE Paul Belle of AECOM (left) was presented with Rail Engineer of the year by Will Bryant of Colas Rail UK.

Engineers shine at

the RailStaff Awards T he annual RailStaff Awards is very different from all the other rail industry awards that take place throughout the year. They recognise people, not companies, and celebrate their achievements in helping colleagues, passengers and the general public.

Of course, they all work for companies, and some even help with preparation of the entry forms, but it is still the performance of an individual or team that wins the award, not that of their employer.

So that’s about the second big difference between the RailStaff Awards and others. Because individuals and teams win on a personal level, they also celebrate on a personal level. They won the award by their own hard work - it is THEIR win - and that makes success taste so much sweeter.

That’s why there is such a party atmosphere at a RailStaff Awards event. All the finalists have achieved something, and those who win or are highly commended feel pride in their achievements.

Rail Engineer | Issue 181 | Jan/Feb 2020

The party atmosphere runs throughout the evening. From the arrival of the guests, through the look of the evening (the theme this year was Morocco), the stunning aerial performances by highly skilled acrobats and the award presentations themselves, to the dance band and fairground rides afterwards. It was once again a truly great evening.

Martin Hottass, managing director of technical training at the City & Guilds Group, summed it up: “As always, the RailStaff Awards was a brilliant occasion, to come together with different organisations from across the industry to witness how the sector celebrates its people and the vital work its unsung heroes do on a daily basis.”

Being industry awards, the categories are wide ranging and include human resources, diversity and inclusion, marketing and communications, station staff and customer service. However, there are a number that are aimed at rail engineers, and others such as charity or lifetime achievement that could apply to anyone.

LNER’s Richard Salkeld hosted his second RailStaff Awards.

FEATURE

Rail Engineer of the Year The most obvious engineering category is Rail Engineer of the Year. In 2019, 25 individuals were nominated by a total of 60 nominators. Those were displayed on the event website and the public was invited to vote on their favourite entry.

A total of 6,078 votes were cast, and the resulting ‘top fifteen’ went off to the panel of judges.

The 15 finalists were from Amey Consulting (2), Network Rail (7), AECOM (2), Bombardier Transportation, Atkins (2) and Telent. Category sponsor Colas Rail UK was involved in the judging (they had no entries that would throw up a conflict of interest) as well as a couple of independent judges.

And the winner was… Paul Belle of AECOM. Described by colleagues as a great ambassador for rail engineering, Paul is passionate about making a difference, maintains high standards in his work and, as a result, is well-respected by his team, peers and clients.

He has a great in-depth knowledge of railways, particularly multi-disciplinary integration and coordination, and combines this with good direct communication skills to overcome concerns before they become issues.

Paul led the development of the GRIP 1-3 feasibility studies for the Rail Systems Alliance South (formally S&C Alliance) in the East, achieving class-leading standards of delivery through his understanding of stakeholder requirements and applying his technical and pragmatic expertise.

In a RailStaff Awards submission, one colleague said: “I truly admire his passion and drive doing the right things, providing solid and pragmatic engineering solutions, considering all stakeholders’ interests as well as whole lifecycle of the railway engineering works.”

After being presented with his award, Paul talked about his passion for rail engineering: “I always wanted to do something for the greater good, I wasn’t interested in getting a job and making money for the sake of making money, it was all about doing something for the greater good, for society.

“When I was a third-year student at Exeter University, I remember being stood on the platform at Exeter St David and everybody there was slagging off the railway. The Voyagers were coming in and they were taking away the standard HST sets. Half the train at twice the frequency, they said, but it was half the train, twice as delayed, and people were slagging engineering.

“As an engineering undergraduate, at that point I decided I am not going to have that. I had the skills so I got in the game.

“What drives me now is about leaving a legacy for the next generation. Doing the right thing for the right reasons.”

But he was keen to stress that he wouldn’t be where he is today without the help of others, adding: “I am only as good as the individuals that have invested their time into me.”

Two Atkins engineers were highly commended. Dan Reilly has worked with Atkins for five years as a system testing engineer. He has been heavily involved with the Feltham stage 0 (Shepperton) project, which involved the introduction of future signalling systems.

An entirely new approach was needed on this project, and Dan was pivotal in pulling the telecoms, systems, and signalling teams together to form an integrated and converged technology delivery team, broadening Atkins collective knowledge on electronic systems and stepping up well above his day-to-day role.

Paul Hooper, Atkins’ technical director, is well known as a railway electrification engineer, working across all regions in rail. He sits on several national industry committees and, following his promotion to technical director, the feedback noted he was able to lead the group away from challenging views to more pragmatic solutions, which mitigated risks without significant industry costs.

Civils and Infrastructure A lot of the engineering that takes place on the railway infrastructure is civils-based, so the Civils and Infrastructure Team award is a popular one, sponsored this year by protective-clothing manufacturer Pulsar.

Once again there was a wide range of finalists - Network Rail (of course), Govia Thameslink Railway, Stagecoach Supertram,

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FEATURE Against a background of historic performance reliability issues on the southern part of the Brighton main line, Network Rail successfully undertook and completed an innovative nine-day engineering blockade that used a school spring half-term week to deliver the works, which would otherwise have taken 79 weekends and over two years to deliver.

Digitising or digitalising?

Amaro Signalling, TES 2000, Alstom, Genesee & Wyoming (née Freightliner), Colas Rail, Hitachi Rail STS and Murphy.

In the event, it was the Euston team of the S&C South Alliance that won the day. This collaboration of Network Rail, Colas Rail and AECOM delivered a crucial programme of enabling works for the new HS2 terminus at Euston, ahead of the May 2019 timetable change.

Focussing on collaboration, commitment and teamwork, the team developed positive working relationships with the many stakeholders from the LNW route, train operators, third parties and the local maintainer. The core works for the programme were delivered in an area of central London where there is opposition from some residents, so mitigating against this required careful stakeholder engagement.

Throughout the project, the team made efforts to put the passenger first. This was evidenced by the team assisting in getting passengers off a stranded train in the Euston Throat when competent railway staff were required at short notice. The team also undertook litter picking, devegetation works and graffiti clearance, which kept the local community on board.

Alliance spokeswoman Cate Lough, of Colas Rail, said: “It wasn’t just the work we delivered, it was everything that went into it. We were working in a really sensitive area, we went above and beyond with the local community, we changed our programme of works to affect them as little as possible while building a good relationship with the train operating company and infrastructure operator.”

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Stuart Jukes, managing director of category sponsor Pulsar, added: “Everybody had worked incredibly hard, as a lot of the other entries had as well, but the S&C Alliance Team really stood out and I can’t commend them enough.

“For such a small team to go out there and do it is just phenomenal.”

The five members of Network Rail’s LNE IP Signalling project construction team were highly commended for being innovative and persuasive problem solvers. They regularly challenge task methodology, particularly for weekend works, and carry out site visits in all weathers from midnight to dawn, which contributes hugely to right-time handback of weekend possessions.

Also highly commended was the team that managed the Brighton Main Line Improvement Project, an engineering programme to improve the reliability of the railway through four Victorianera railway tunnels, Haywards Heath, Patcham, Balcombe and Clayton.

Although Digital Railway is no longer its own organisation within Network Rail, it is still a major activity, encompassing more than just signalling and telecommunications. This was demonstrated when the award, sponsored by digital telecommunications specialist Westermo, went to the Intelligent Infrastructure track team (pictured below).

Commencing at the start of CP6 on April 1, 2019, the Intelligent Infrastructure programme has developed a tool which looks at the infrastructure and predicts future faults so they can be fixed before they cause any delays on the railway. It has been developed in six months and is now out with customers for comment, trials and testing.

For the first time, track teams in the routes will be able to access all the information they need, from one digital source, to carry out the right work, at the right time, in the right place.

Referred to as the Track Decision Support Tool, it will shift Network Rail from century-old ‘fix on failure’ regimes to ‘predict and prevent’ regimes - allowing work to be planned ahead while also reducing speed restrictions and delays for passengers.

The team is a collaboration of Network Rail colleagues from engineering, business change and analytics disciplines working with Atkins - Network Rail’s partner and systems integrator.

FEATURE

Programme manager Martin Mason, of Network Rail, said: “It’s the first time in the traditional railway sense that we’ve started to use intelligent data to predict and prevent faults.

“As an industry we’ve always been very data-rich but not data-intelligent. Now we’re moving from a situation where we’re not a reactive organisation but a proactive organisation.”

Phil Mounter, transportation sales manager at Westermo, said: “Teamwork was what stood out more than anything, and collaboration, which is producing excellent results after such a short time.”

Described by colleagues as knowledgeable, supportive, honest, collaborative and well respected, Trevor Wheeler of Telent Technology Services is one of the few telecoms PICOTs (Person in Charge Of Testing) in rail. During his 20year career, Trevor has introduced several initiatives which have led to new working practices, creating both cost and time efficiencies and mitigating train delays, as well as earning him a ‘highly commended’ at the RailStaff Awards.

Also highly commended was Abdul Rehman Savant of Amey Consulting.

Colleagues say that he is constantly looking at bringing the railway into the 21st century, liaising with suppliers and manufactures to develop new technologies, smart solutions and innovative ideas to help improve the railway. He organises lunchtime CPD events, not only to keep himself up to date with new digital technologies, but also to inform his colleagues from all disciplines and sectors within Amey, with whom he is always willing to share his technical knowledge of digital technologies.

David Mitchell took on the initiative to roll out the chat-based digital workspace Microsoft Teams at East Croydon. As a result, the level of communication and engagement between management and the team increased tenfold. The move has given staff access to information they previously had to request and has also brought the depot closer to becoming paperless.

Following the productivity uplift from the initial rollout, David spent time visiting other on-board supervisor depots to help them set up the scheme.

His enthusiasm for new technology was an important factor in teams adapting to the technology, which has transformed the way on-board supervisors work and communicate.

Workmates said they were inspired by David who not only works tirelessly for his team and takes the time to share his knowledge of the on-board supervisor role but has also found time to raise more than £1,000 for Great Ormond Street Hospital.

A former Disneyland Paris performer, David is driven by a desire to push customer service standards even higher, which was another contributory factor in his awards success.

“I started off as a conductor down at Brighton for Southern and have always thought I could make a difference with my background,” he added. “Times are changing. It’s not always all about safety.

It still is a massive part but people are paying £6,000 a year [on season tickets], they want to see where their money’s going. And it’s not just me, there’s a massive culture change in Southern.”

Traffi, an industry-leading designer and manufacturer of PPE safety gloves, sponsored the Depot Staff Award.

Dean Cracknell, head of marketing at Traffi, said: “Traffi has strong links to the rail sector and has enjoyed keeping hands safe among wearers for 10 years. We were delighted to sponsor ‘Depot of the Year’ and hope to continue supporting the RailStaff Awards in 2020.”

Highly commended was Network Rail’s Nigel Moody, who works for Peterborough DU E&P maintenance. He and his colleagues have supported the King’s Cross re-modelling project over the last nine months, undertaking complex E&P works as short notice to ensure the project hits major milestones.

To date, Nigel and his team have saved the project in the region of £0.5 million on £0.8 million of work - 60 per cent - with all works completed safely and to an extremely high standard. Nigel’s improvements to the E&P works saved another £0.2 million.

Ian Parr was another to be highly commended by the judges. He has been depot manager of Southport TCD for just a year and a half and, in that time, he has turned the depot from the worst performing one to the best. The depot’s sickness figures for the last twelve months are the lowest in the business and its engagement scores are now the highest.

Depot Staff Not forgetting the mechanical trades, the Depot Staff award went to a Southern employee who was praised for leading the push to introduce time-saving software at some of Govia Thameslink Railway’s depots.

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FEATURE implementation of the train.”

Cate Lough of Colas Rail is currently in charge of the overhead line and HS2 enabling works within the South Rail Systems Alliance. This included the delivery of £27 million worth of multidisciplinary work at Euston station in the last month alone. As a result, she was highly commended for her work.

Also highly commended was signalling programme manager Neil Workman of Network Rail. He manages a team of over 50, delivering a portfolio of work valued at £300 million. His hands-on attitude, and his willingness to step in and do the work himself if needed, appealed to the judges and earned him his commendation.

Graduate Evie Barrett (Jacobs) with Ian MacLaren of GTR. In a short time, Ian has built up a great reputation with supervisors, trade union representatives, stations team and drivers and guards to ensure the depot runs smoothly.

Managing projects Another ‘train man’ won the Project Manager category. Richard Vernon joined Hull Trains as a graduate in February 2016. Over the last three years, he has worked to bring Hull Trains’ £60 million investment in new rolling stock to life.

His committed, resilient and focused attitude, while working collaboratively with Hitachi Rail’s team, has resulted in the introduction of Hull Trains’ new ‘Paragon’ fleet being one of the few rolling stock projects in the UK to be delivered to schedule and on time.

Richard was the primary interface between Hull Trains, fleet owners Angel Trains, manufacturer Hitachi and other key partners such as Network Rail. His work involved regular visits to Hitachi factories in Kasado, Japan, and Pistoia, Italy, as part of quality checks.

It is through those continual checks that Hull Trains has been able to sign off the trains at each stage to the schedules determined in the contract. Considering the issues with its existing fleet - including mechanical failures and an onboard fire - delivering these new trains on time has been even more important for customers.

In addition to his instrumental work on the Paragon fleet, Richard has also led smaller projects, such as the introduction of an on-train passenger information screen to improve accessibility, installation

Rail Engineer | Issue 181 | Jan/Feb 2020

of a driver advisory system and the introduction of on-train Wi-Fi. On the night of the RailStaff Awards, Richard said: “It means a lot to receive this award and I’m really grateful to have been given the opportunity to work on such a key project for Hull Trains.

“Managing this project gave me the opportunity to travel to Japan and Italy, as well as improving my understanding of design reviews, contract specifications and the train production and manufacturing process. I enjoyed learning about the train’s design, refining the train interiors and working with Hitachi Rail and Angel Trains to bring the vision to life for our staff and customers.

“It was a compliment to be given such a big project but it’s one I’m really pleased to have led.”

PTM Design, specialists in rail and fleet livery, vehicle wrapping, wayfinding information systems and interior installations, sponsored the category.

Ajmal Akram, head of business development, said: “There were a lot of good entries in the category but, knowing that, of the rail operators, Hull is quite a small operation, this entry stood out for having someone take on the challenge of the

A graduate geologist based in Leeds won the Graduate of the Year award, sponsored by Govia Thameslink Railway (GTR).

Evie Barrett works for Jacobs, supporting the construction of a multibillion-pound high-speed railway in California.

She is a member of Jacobs’ tunnelling and ground engineering (TGE) unit and, from the other side of the globe, has been a key player in developing the geotechnical database needed to allow construction to go ahead. As “a single source of truth”, this database has vastly improved efficiencies and quality on the project.

Evie was part of the team that took ownership of a project to deliver geotechnical engineering data reports in

Richard Vernon (Hull Trains) with Ajmal Akram of PTM Design.

FEATURE

2018. She then took the significant step up to lead the delivery of geotechnical baseline reports - a move that saw her work above her grade. As a result, she is now responsible for liaising with the Jacobs teams in the USA and managing four teams of engineers in England, Scotland and Poland to ensure the consistent delivery of these reports.

One nomination for Evie read: “She has demonstrated great maturity, composure and technical ability to ensure that the reports are being delivered on time and to a high standard.”

Evie has also worked on other rail schemes, such as the Transpennine Route Upgrade, Calder Valley Journey Time Improvement and the West Ruislip Northolt Corridor projects, since joining Jacobs in 2015.

Her enthusiasm for geology has also seen Evie return to the University of Leeds, where she completed bachelor’s and master’s degrees in the subject, to mentor post-graduates. At present she is also leading the production of a Jacobs TGE work experience booklet, to ensure students benefit from their time with the company.

Ian McLaren, chief financial officer at category sponsor GTR, said: “It’s really important to recognise young people coming up through the organisation.

We’re a massive industry and we’ve got to show progression for people new to the sector and show they can actually achieve amazing things at such a young age.”

Miraan Jothinath of Network Rail was highly commended for his work on two high-profile projects: DICE and Fast Trackers 2019. He and a partner co-founded the DICE competition to encourage and support graduates and apprentices to develop digital solutions to problems that they’d encountered while on their respective training schemes.

He also chaired the steering group of the Fast Trackers 2019 programme, which encourages 16 to 19-year-old students to think about a career in engineering.

Aisha Mughal joined Colas Rail in 2018 as a commercial assistant working in one of the most dynamic areas of the S&C South Alliance - Euston enabling works. She worked closely with the commercial manager to develop her commercial, contractual and procurement understanding. Through this, Aisha was able to bring her own logic, organisational skills and initiative to simplify timesheet approvals, invoice processes, application for payment, final accounting and supplier management. It impressed the judges who gave Aisha a ‘highly commended’ certificate for her efforts.

And there’s more...

There were, of course, many other awards presented on the night. While they may not be directly engineering-related, they reflect the wide range of skills that make the railway work and the enthusiasm that holds it all together.

Apprentice of the year went to Zoe Auld of Virgin Trains. Southeastern station manager Margaret Capps won Customer Service, Aaron Koduah of Virgin Trains lifted the Station Staff award..

The Award for Charity was won by Network Rail’s Chris Conway, for his work with the homeless in Blackpool, and Samaritans’ Lifesaver Award went to John Dawson and Rob Shannon of Land Sheriffs, who had done just that at St Pancras. McGinley’s safety team won Safety.

David Rees of WSP was judged to be the HR person of the year, Network Rail’s ‘Big Plan’ team won Recruitment and Jaye Dry of Freightliner - now G&W UK - won Marketing and Communications.

Rail Manager of the Year was Kevin Tarrier of Heathrow Rail, the Rail Team was ‘Scotrail in the Community’ and GWR’s Pete While was Rail Person of the Year.

Finally, Jed Mason of recruitment and labour supply company Morson was recognised for the 33 years he has spent building up a group with a turnover of over £1 billion a year. He received an OBE in 2016 and the RailStaff Lifetime Achievement Award in 2019, both well deserved.

It was a great night. Well done the Rail Events team for putting it on, congratulations to the other sponsors not mentioned here - Jacobs, GWR, Connect 4, Intertrain, Heathrow Express, Matchtech, Land Sheriffs, Samaritans, RailwayPeople.com, Total Rail Solutions, Bollé and the Transport Benevolent Fund - and finally thank you for coming to the 1,000 people who were there on the night.

See you in 2020!

Rail Engineer | Issue 181 | Jan/Feb 2020

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RAIL PARTNERSHIP AWARDS www.railpartnershipawards.com/nominate

RAIL PARTNERSHIP AWA ENTERNETWORK THESE CATEGORIES TODAY

201 2018

2017

Best Collaboration

Medium-sized SME of the Year

Regional Partner of the Year – Southern

Best Innovation

Putting Passengers First

Regional Partner of the Year – Wales and Western

Best Project

Regional Partner of the Year – Eastern

Safety

Contribution to Railway Heritage

Regional Partner of the Year – North West and Central

Small/Micro SME of the Year

Driving Efficiencies

Investing in People

Regional Partner of the Year – Scotland’s Railways Regional Award for Exceptional Community Engagement

Sustainable Excellence

Partner of the Year

TUESDAY, 30TH JUNE 2020 – THE VOX BIRMINGHAM