The Rail Engineer - Issue 95 - September 2012

September 2012

i s s u e

95 Royal Albert Bridge Revisited CLIVE KESSELL CHECKS REFURBISHMENT PROGRESS ON THE HISTORIC BRIDGE

Ten years of rail welding

New approach to innovation

Cardiff area resignalling scheme

Grahame Taylor reports from the latest seminar at the IoRW, Institute of Rail Welding.

Innovation is currently very fashionable in the rail industry.

Just another buzz word?

The heart of the scheme is the new Wales Railway Operation Centre at Cardiff Central.

written by rail engineers for rail engineers

available online at www.therailengineer.com

september 2012 | the rail engineer | 3

welcome Grahame Taylor’s

Operating notice This month’s edition of the rail engineer has two distinct themes. For a start it is bursting with signalling and telecommunication subjects - some of which blend in to a second European theme. The sheer size of the magazine is because we’re previewing Innotrans which will be held in Berlin in September. Innotrans is vast. Do plan your visit, otherwise you’ll be “exhibitioned out” long before your little legs give way.

HD television - maybe you can’t get it yet, but it’s done for the old National Radio Network (NRN). Of course that’s not all, as Network Rail’s Dave Palmer reminds us. Technology has moved on, prompting a massive cross-industry project to move over to the digital age.

As many of you know, Clive Kessell is our resident signalling and telecoms guru. So, for a bit of mischief, he was sent off to Plymouth to crawl all over the Royal Albert Bridge and report back on the painting and refurbishment scheme being carried out on this Grade 1 listed structure.

Back on terra firma, and firmly back on his own ground, Clive went to visit Bombardier’s Plymouth factory. It’s not a place you would immediately associate with a train maker, but this is a company that has been a manufacturer of signalling equipment for many years. It also started out making snowmobiles. Perhaps not many people know that!

And then, on the final leg of his western foray, Clive has been to see the Cardiff Area Resignalling scheme - a complicated project that joins up a raft of recent smaller schemes and prepares the area for the forthcoming electrification.

Rounding off our signalling coverage there are articles on the road train - an extreme case of tailgating - and the Heathrow Pod. And so to Europe. Aside from the Innotrans exhibition that I’ve already mentioned, there’s a piece by Clive on the mobile phone communications being rolled out through the Channel Tunnel. It’s not Editor Grahame Taylor grahame.taylor@therailengineer.com Production Editor Nigel Wordsworth nigel@rail-media.com Production and design Adam O'Connor adam@rail-media.com Engineering writers chris.parker@therailengineer.com clive.kessell@therailengineer.com collin.carr@therailengineer.com david.shirres@therailengineer.com graeme.bickerdike@therailengineer.com mungo.stacy@therailengineer.com peter.stanton@therailengineer.com steve.bissell@therailengineer.com stuart.marsh@therailengineer.com terry.whitley@therailengineer.com Advertising Asif Ahmed asif@rail-media.com Paul Curtis pc@rail-media.com

that straightforward with, among the many technical issues, the question of redefining the border between England and France. It’ll differ depending on which direction you’re going, apparently.

Staying in Northern France, I’ve been to see what’s going on in the Lille and Picardy areas. Nice place, Lille - well worth a visit. But this is also the railway centre of France with four of the world’s top trainset manufacturers located thereabouts, along with the supporting supply chain and academic institutions.

Talking of institutions, I’ve also been to No. 1 Great George Street, the imposing home for the Institution of Civil Engineers, to talk to Richard Coackley, the current president, about what he’s striving to do in just one year. He’s a strong supporter of railway engineers, in fact he even refers to us as national treasures!

How much, as a proportion of turnover, does UK industry spend on R&D? Does it match, for example, the European spend of 3%, or the US at 4%. Well, surprise, surprise, of course it doesn’t. The UK’s 1.8% needs the boost outlined in David Shirres’ piece on the Rail Knowledge Transfer Network.

Or you could have a look at the approach that Bombardier uses to promote innovation. Speaking to Martin Ertl, Bombardier’s chief innovation officer, David discovers that ideas are being harvested from both within and without the industry.

It’s happy birthday to the IoRW - the Institute of Rail Welding - which was formed ten years ago. As usual, their technical seminar this year covered a wide range of welding developments. It was held in the impressive headquarters of the TWI in Cambridge. In this case the ‘T’ of TWI stands, rather prosaically, for ‘The’, with the rest standing for Welding Institute - presumably to distinguish it from the other WI. See you at Innotrans perhaps - Stand 212L in Hall 2.2. the rail engineer Ashby House, Bath Street, Ashby-de-la-Zouch Leicestershire, LE65 2FH Telephone: Fax: Email: Website:

in this issue

Royal Albert Bridge Revisited 6 Clive Kessell checks refurbishment progress on the historic bridge.

Ten years of rail welding 10 Grahame Taylor reports from the latest seminar at the IoRW, Institute of Rail Welding.

Driving Innovation 14 Promoting potential cross-industry innovation is one of the roles of the Technology Strategy Board.

Cardiff Area Resignalling 30 The heart of the scheme is the new Wales Railway Operation Centre at Cardiff Central.

Cutting-edge Communications 36 Network Rail is in the midst of one of the largest telecommunications programmes ever seen in rail.

Communicating in the Chunnel 44 The public expect to be able to use their mobile phones wherever they may be.

Signalling initiatives from Plymouth 52 In addition to manufacturing traditional signalling products, Bombardier also produces ERTMS components for global export.

01530 56 00 31 01530 41 21 66 hello@rail-media.com www.therailengineer.com

Editorial copy Email: news@rail-media.com Free controlled circulation Email: subscribe@rail-media.com The small print the rail engineer is published by RailStaff Publications Limited and printed by Pensord.

Anticipating InnoTrans 56 Every two years, the world’s railway industry gathers on the outskirts of Berlin for InnoTrans.

forthcoming

© All rights reserved. No part of this magazine may be reproduced in any form without the prior written permission of the copyright owners.

features

Sister publication of Track & Drainage; Rolling Stock/Depots Plant & Equipment; Concrete

October November

4 | the rail engineer | august 2012

IN BRIEF New innovation team The RSSB is putting together an innovation team to fund demonstration projects to test new technologies and business approaches. The team will manage an innovation fund, with initial pilot funding from the Department for Transport of £16 million.

Network Rail director of engineering, Steve Yianni said: “The rate at which the rail industry innovates and adopts new ideas and technologies was identified as one of the barriers to improved customer satisfaction and reduced costs in the Rail Value for Money report.

Helping transform ideas and technologies from research into full commercially available applications is what the railway needs.”

news

CROSSRAIL

Crossrail reaches Paddington

Virgin out West Coast Main Line operator Virgin Trains has lost its franchise. Instead, the DfT preferred the bid by FirstGroup who will take over the route on 9 December until 31 March 2026.

Virgin, which was outbid on the ECML franchise by both GNER and National Express, who then failed to make the higher payments back to Government, was understandably annoyed. Sir Richard Branson commented: “We have made realistic offers for the East Coast twice before which were rejected by the Department for Transport for completely unrealistic ones... Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. When will the Department for Transport learn?”

Has the rail industry seen the last of one of its most colourful characters?

Crossrail’s first tunnel boring machine (TBM), Phyllis, has successfully reached Paddington, having travelled 750 metres from Royal Oak, in west London. A second TBM, Ada, has now broken ground at the Royal Oak Portal and commenced tunnelling towards Paddington.

Nearly 4,000 concrete segments have been used to construct the western tunnels so far. These are manufactured at a dedicated plant

at Old Oak Common which has already produced 12,000 segments.

As more TBMs come online, demand for these segments will increase. Eventually, a total of eight tunnel boring machines will be used to construct 21 kilometres (13 miles) of Crossrail’s twin bore tunnels running between Royal Oak in the west and Pudding Mill Lane and Plumstead in east London.

Two kilometres of 900mm narrow

ROLLING STOCK

Cross-channel rush

Freight is up again Despite the recent improvements in Britain’s summer weather, the soggy ground continues to slip either onto the tracks or away from underneath it.

The WCML was closed between Motherwell and Glasgow on 22 August.

A week earlier, and a brick retaining wall on the line between Cardiff Central and Cardiff Queen Street stations collapsed, closing several lines.

Two weeks before that, and the railway was closed between Lincoln and Gainsborough due to an earth bank sliding onto the track.

Network Rail maintenance teams continue to reopen lines quickly, but they are struggling to cope with one of the wettest summers on record.

gauge tunnel railway has also been laid from Westbourne Park to enable tunnel locomotives to transport materials and supplies into and out of the tunnel.

Excavated material is taken by train from Westbourne Park to Northfleet in Kent, from where it will be shipped to Wallasea Island in Essex to create a RSPB nature reserve. A total of 66,000 tonnes of excavated material has been transported to Northfleet so far.

It wasn’t just the UK rail network that was busy during the Olympic period. Le Shuttle, the car carrying trains run by Eurotunnel through the Channel Tunnel, achieved a new record for traffic. In the seven days up to 12 August, 74,292 vehicles and 776 coaches travelled (in both directions) between Folkestone,

Kent, and Coquelles, Pas-de-Calais.

This is the heaviest traffic ever seen in one week, since the end of Duty Free sales in 1999.

To achieve this, 838 Shuttle departures were needed, at a rate of five per hour, the equivalent to one departure every twelve minutes. At the same time, a new daily record

was also achieved, with 15,152 vehicles travelling across the Channel on Saturday 11th August in both directions.

This was made possible by the bringing back into service of a halflength train of passenger coaches which had been mothballed back in 2004. Part of a project started last year, the remaining half will be back in service in a few months time.

In case a fault should cause a delay to the critical five trains per hour schedule, a sixth train was on standby at all times ready to replace any defective unit. Timetabling the shuttles into the rest of the tunnel traffic was made easier by also increasing the speed of passenger shuttles from 140 to 160 km/hr - the same speed as Eurostar trains.

There is a project underway to achieve a similar speed increase on freight shuttles, but that is technically more complicated as it entails increasing locomotive power from 5 to 7MW and lightening the 32 vehicle-carrying wagons which make up each train.

Such a great idea! We jumped at the chance to get involved with this event.

Tricia Riley, Director, Human Resources Transport for London

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6 | the rail engineer | september 2012

feature

Royal Albert

writer

Clive Kessell Devon with Cornwall across the L inking river Tamar, the single track Royal Albert Bridge is of strategic importance, being the only remaining mainline rail link into Cornwall. If it were to be out of action, then the Royal Duchy rail network would be cut off from the rest of the UK. The bridge opened in 1859, the last great civil engineering project of Isambard Kingdom Brunel, and was constructed mainly of wrought iron. Modifications and strengthening was carried out by the GWR in the 1930s, primarily to replace or enhance the cross girders upon which the track is positioned using steel components. These had rendered some of the original Brunel girders redundant but they were kept in place to improve the rigidity of the structure.

Surveys had shown that, while the bridge was in generally good condition, some corrosion was present. A major refurbishment was scheduled, as reported last year by the rail engineer (issue 82, August 2011). This covers the central spans of the structure, including the removal of certain lower diagonals which were installed in the early seventies. One year on, it was time to visit the bridge again and see how work was progressing.

Preparation and access A lightweight scaffold system from HAKI is employed and is designed to slot together without the need for conventional clamps.

Various consultations had to be carried out before work could start. This was not only with English Heritage (the bridge is a Grade 1 listed structure) but also with the local communities since noise and potential damage from falling debris were perceived as real risks. With everyone onside, Network Rail and its principal contractor, Taziker Industrial (TI), could move forward with confidence.

Revisited

Despite preconceptions, the bridge had been built to a restricted budget and the original plan for a double track railway had to be dropped on grounds of cost. The resultant single track bridge is therefore quite narrow which makes it more susceptible to side wind movement. Great care was needed to design an access system that did not worsen wind loading. The two main centre sections are linked to each shore by a number of approach spans, the ones on the Cornish side being on a sharp curve. The access system has thus to include these spans, much of which is over land rather than water.

An underslung scaffold system is employed with the downward poles being fixed either side of the track level platform and with a walkway constructed between these poles. Conventional scaffolding is used on the approach spans and around the three central towers but under the two main central bowstring spans, a lightweight scaffold system is employed. This HAKI Lite system is manufactured in Sweden from a steel alloy and is 30% lighter than conventional tube and fitting systems. It is designed to slot together without the need for conventional clamps. Modular

components of varying sizes allow the scaffold to be made to fit the structure, including complete staircases which are built up around the central towers to access the very top of the main tubes, keeping the weight to a minimum.

Measurement of likely wind speeds indicated that a maximum of 700 square metres of scaffold cap could be allowed on each of the two central spans. Conventional heat shrink capping is used around the central towers but, in mid span, the HAKI system includes a series of vertical runners into which a “curtain” of durable fabric is rolled up or down so as to complete the encapsulation. If the wind speed exceeds 70mph, then work stops and the curtain is rolled up so as to decrease the side wind pressure. So far these conditions have not occurred but regular checks with the weather forecasting offices are made so as to be prepared. A safety boat is always on duty in the Tamar below should anyone fall into the river Once the work area is completely encapsulated, that section of the bridge is fully blast cleaned to remove all the existing coatings and expose the original surface.

This needs compressed air and electricity. Two large compressors (one on each shore side compound) have been provided with pipes running alongside the scaffold walkway. A 415V 3-phase electricity supply is run out on to the bridge with transformer units provided by each central tower from which machinery can be powered.

september 2012 | the rail engineer | 7

feature

Cutlass Mechanical Engineering Ltd are proud to support Taziker Industrial Ltd on the Royal Albert Bridge project as major steel fabricator/supplier.

Due to recently awarded large contracts we have now installed a new state of the art dual head 4m x 2.5m CNC abrasive water jet cutting system. This in turn provides our clients with the latest technology and faster turn-around times.

Services:

Current involvements:

Welding & Fabrication CNC Plasma Profiling CNC Waterjet Profiling

Rail Defence Power Generation

Tel. 01752 229444 www.cutlass-engineering.co.uk

Public Access Stairs from HAKI Adaptable Lightweight Quick to erect Railside applications Utilises standard HAKI Universal components HAKI is an international group that develops, produces and markets scaffolding, weather protection and containment systems for construction projects, infrastructure applications, the process industry, shipyards and offshore installations.

We have been supplying complete solutions since 1956, focusing on security, safety, work environment and cost-effectiveness.

www.HAKI.co.uk Tel: 01827 282525 ž Fax: 01827 250329 ž Email: info@HAKI.co.uk

8 | the rail engineer | september 2012

The upgrade work

Screening is erected in specific areas so as to fully encapsulate and contain both the debris being removed and the spent grit.

Whilst the work has been well planned, the extent of the repairs needed cannot be fully established until all the dirt and paint from past decades has been removed. Grit blasting is used to achieve this, itself a noisy and messy process. When blasting is taking place, additional screening is erected in the specific area so as to fully encapsulate and contain both the debris being removed and the spent grit. An industrial vacuum system sucks out all of this so that a clean work area results.

Once the base metal is revealed, the necessary remedial work can then be planned. Firstly a primer coat of paint is sprayed on to the exposed surface so as to prevent any further corrosion in the salt air.

The H section cross girders will typically have part of the web and flanges corroded away and to repair this damage, the web will be ‘sandwiched’ between two new steel sections bolted together. This new steel will itself have been grit blasted and primed at the main depot site to ensure a surface free from imperfections.

Several of these steel “sandwich” platings have already been installed and more will be needed as the work progresses. Each one has to be made to order so as to fit the exact repair shape needed. The new steelwork is being supplied by Cutlass Engineering with preparation and installation being carried out by Taziker Industrial. An excellent relationship is in place between TI and Cutlass Engineering.

With the repair completed, the whole section will be sprayed - firstly with a base coat of epoxy glass-flake paint to give long life protection, and then a top coat of acrylic based paint to provide the required grey colour and to protect against sunlight degradation. This is designed to have a service life of 25 years.

Moving upwards to the two central bowstring spans, these were originally constructed of 10’ x 2’ wrought iron plates, slightly curved to take up the shape of the bow, and then overlapped and riveted to adjacent plates so as to form the complete arch. Inspection inside the 10 foot diameter tubes show them to be in generally good condition. Where corrosion has taken place on the external surface, then the area will be cut out and new plating installed by bolting through to the inner surface. The same protective paint coatings are applied.

feature

Lastly, there are the chain suspensions that provide the intermediate support to the track level deck. This 14section link structure is generally in good condition but cleaning and painting between the links is something of a challenge. Manual methods are the only effective solution and painting is done by something akin to a thin roller for getting behind radiators in the home.

Where the flexible pins that allow movement in the chain are corroded, new ones are being manufactured and installed.

It was expected that the worst corrosion would have taken place on the seaward side of the bridge as this takes the full force of the prevailing wind, rain and spray. The reverse has proved to be true, the reason being that the leeside tends to retain any dampness without the effect of a drying wind.

Phases and completion To ensure compliance with the wind loading and noise restrictions, the work is being carried out in five main phases, four of these having four stages and the last one having two stages. This enables work to take place at a number of locations simultaneously. As the blasting, priming, repair and painting work is completed so the scaffolded sections are moved along to the next phase. For the casual visitor, this enables the before, during and after work to be seen at the same time.

Most work does not affect train movements, but remedial activity does impact on the track deck from time to time.

It is possible to get short one hour possessions between trains during the day and a phone link with Plymouth Power Box enables these to be planned and

implemented at relatively short notice.

Longer possession requirements mean work having to be done at night but care is taken to minimise these so as not to disturb the local residents.

Completion is expected to be in November 2013. The overall budget is £11.5 million of which £1.5 million is for the purchase and erection of the scaffolding.

Around 50 people are working on the bridge at any one time, these mainly being TI employees, many of which have been recruited locally. TI have just won the Network Rail Star Award for Site Environment and Safety, the first such winner in the Western Territory, and a suitable accolade for the innovative processes that are being used.

Thanks to Peter Cook, TI site manager and John Womack of Network Rail for their help in preparing this article.

Follow us @tazikerind Taziker Industrial Ltd || Unit 6, Lodge Bank, Crown Lane, Horwich, Bolton, BL6 5HY Tel: 01204 468080 || Email: sales@ .uk.com || Web:ﾃ学ww. .uk.com

10 | the rail engineer | september 2012

feature

10

years of rail welding

writer

Grahame Taylor it’s happy Birthday to the IoRW - the S o,Institute of Rail Welding - which was

Demonstration of the new GOS Engineering mobile flash butt welding machine at the Rail Fest in York.

formed ten years ago.

This auspicious event was marked by a technical seminar at the rather grand headquarters of The Welding Institute (TWI) on the outskirts of Cambridge. Granta Park at Great Abington was probably the best place to be on 28 June because the rest of Cambridge was effectively shut for graduation day and thus heaving with students and parents.

Ten years ago it was the vision of one man - Simon Hardy, then with Railtrack - who realised that track welding needed an organisational focus and needed to be aligned with the rest of the welding fraternity. Up until then it was in the shadows, fusing together large pieces of metal through a variety of unorthodox processes. Tim Jessop, Executive Officer, IoRW and Associate Director of TWI, started the day’s proceedings by leading the conference through the early days and by outlining the IoRW’s principle achievements which have been: • Providing regular information to members regarding rail welding, including technical seminars, business briefings, a newsletter “Welding Lines”, and a website (www.iorw.org); • Promoting the advancement of the technology of rail welding • Promoting professionalism, competent control and best practice management of rail welding operations at all levels • Encouraging training and qualification and continuing professional development at all levels.

The Innotrack project Throughout the day, punctuated by a slapup lunch, there were six further varied presentations with a wide coverage of rail welding and rail care. To start with, Jay Jaiswal of Tata Steel gave a briefing on the Innotrack project. Condensing 6½ years of research into less than half an hour was skilfully achieved. This was a personal view of research and its practical application tinged with, at times, pride at what has been achieved and frustration at what resides in the long grass.

The project started in 2006 and, although planned to end on 30 September 2009, was extended to December 2010. The supply industry invested €5.35 million, equivalent to about 386 man-months. This was a large sum, so there should be no problem questioning the benefits.

For the first time there was a systematic investigation of European track maintenance and renewal cost drivers.

Priorities were identified for innovation to address the root causes of problem conditions, and innovation sub-projects successfully addressed these priorities.

A new tool for stiffness investigations was developed - the Portancemeter. As Jay remarked, “When you start to see new products then that’s a sign of successful research.” But then, when referring to the progress of an experimental slab track in Germany, he let slip the wry comment that when it comes to getting innovation adopted in the railway industry “It would be easier to get an appointment with Barack Obama”.

The Metro industry seems to be easier to penetrate as he noted in the second part of his presentation on the PM ‘n’ IDEA - an almost acronym for Predictive Maintenance employing Non-intrusive Inspection & Data Analysis. This is a more modest project of around five million Euros involving 16 partners comprising urban transport infrastructure managers, academic institutions, and supply industry members.

Solutions ready for use so far are: • Non-intrusive inspection of track based on image analysis techniques; • Assessment of internal integrity of grooved rails; • Assessment of track quality with on board diagnostics; • Scientifically validated methodology for establishing actionable wear limits; • Vehicle mounted sensors & analysis techniques for track inspection; • Track based sensors to impart intelligence into track components.

september 2012 | the rail engineer | 11

feature

Whitemoor S&C repair facility Out on the bleak, black Cambridgeshire Fens there is an establishment at Whitemoor occupied by rogues and villains. A place from which there is no escape. It’s Whitemoor HM Prison - rather than the Whitemoor National Track Materials Recycling Centre which is just down the road.

Network Rail’s Gary Munns and Richard Oliver are quick to emphasise that their facility is no scrap yard.

Certainly, some material goes off to meet its maker, but there are concerted effects to reclaim most of the larger permanent way components using onsite expert welders. They have established a purpose built S&C repair facility at Whitemoor and are ever improving the equipment available.

Their experienced welders use proven equipment, the ESAB BV1000 and the Matweld grinder, in an indoor environment so they have no possession limitations. They can also carry out “enhanced” 054 inspections because they have the necessary handling equipment to ensure that all parts of a component can be seen easily.

New cast crossings can have a long lead time - several weeks in fact. Gary and Richard have been able to supply a refurbished crossing within a few days.

And with such material now being suitable for higher category lines, savings in train disruptions caused by failed components are considerable.

The welding head is supplied by Holland Co. from Illinois, USA, and the generator is manufactured by Deutz and is rated at 450kVA. John Hempshall of Network Rail outlined the testing procedure that these machines go through before they can work on the national network.

Such is the prodigious output of these machines that it is vital their output is accurate and consistent.

Goldschmidt-Thermit-Group

Going the Distance The Thermit® Smartweld Innovation Project

A NEW GROUP OF PRODUCTS TO ENSURE HIGHER WELD QUALITY We also provide a diverse range of specialised products and services: • Single Use Crucible now in regular use

by Network Rail • Training, installation and inspection • Repair and re-surfacing of worn rails • Track measurement and performance monitoring • Rail grinding corrugation and wear • Ballast stabilisation by gluing.

Mobile flash butt welding testing Network Rail has made a commitment to mobile flash butt welding with the purchase of four machines mounted on 360° road rail excavators. The design and construction of the host RRV vehicle is a combination of a Doosan DX170W excavator with engineering carried out

by GOS Engineering in Blaenavon, Wales.

For more information contact: info@thermitwelding.co.uk alternatively call us on 01708 522626

www.thermit-welding.com

12 | the rail engineer | september 2012

feature automated process currently on trial. Further improvements are in hand but these were referred to only as “version 2” in order to safeguard patent issues.

Tri-metal weld issues

A new welding machine by GOS Engineering, ready for despatch.

The four machines that are currently being built will be used both for rail renewals and rail maintenance with a capability to ‘stress’ the rails in situ which will save valuable time and money. The machines have been going through the approval process over the last couple of months and should be in operation on the infrastructure later this year.

High Deposition Rate Surfacing In a valiant and highly technical presentation, Tamas Sandor, of the Hungarian subsidiary of welding equipment specialists ESAB, gave a comprehensive outline of research into High Deposition Rate Surfacing (HDRS - a process used to repair the surface of the running table).

Conventional wisdom has been to use a high temperature pre-heat. This leads to issues with possession times and the high temperatures can lead to damage to rail bedding materials such as are used in tram tracks or with crane rails. But, of course, the high pre-heat allows a lower current to be used in the deposition of the welds metal.

ESAB have experimented with a range of pre-heat temperatures with much higher deposition currents. The experiments were conducted with the three main rail repair techniques used today: MMA (manual metal arc), automated FCAW (flux-cored arc welding) with longitudinal weaving and automated FCAW with transverse weaving.

Results were tabled that showed that with automated methods, lower pre-heat temperatures could be used with little detriment to required hardness values.

Future aluminothermic welding moves Richard Johnson, Thermit Welding (GB) Ltd, offered an overview from a supplier’s perspective of significant improvements to their processes over the last ten years. He also speculated about the outlook, particularly in the light of important changes occurring in the industry. There is no doubt that there will be fewer aluminothermic welds in the future.

Network Rail is putting an emphasis on mobile flash butt welding, and rail is being manufactured in longer lengths. But the aluminothermic welding process continues to provide a unique solution for joining of rails at site. It remains the only proven method for full fusion welding. It is applicable to all rail profiles, steel grades, and support construction. It is portable, cost effective and generally reliable and, above all, it has over 100 years’ service.

Nevertheless, improvements can still be made, especially by focussing on reducing operator variability. Richard outlined developments in the GTSmartweld

Tri-metal welds are generally used at the leg ends of austenitic manganese cast crossings so that standard pearlitic grade leg end extensions can be fixed to the casting.

These two materials cannot be successfully welded directly to one another and therefore a narrow stainless steel transition piece is flash butt welded into place between them. The extended pearlitic leg can then be welded into track with conventional aluminothermic or flash butt welding techniques, eliminating the need for a fishbolted joint.

Brian Whitney from Network Rail gave a presentation on the failure of tri-metallic welds, discussing the incidences and the numbers of failures in recent years along with the types of failure, their mode and preexisting defects. He looked at the root causes and mechanisms of failure, the difficulties in managing them and the actions taken to reduce future occurrences.

Original failures occurred due to a manufacturing defect in the tri-metal weld.

Initially, the affected welds were produced during cold weather but further failures have occurred with crossings produced all year round. More recently a second mode of failure has been observed where fatigue cracks have initiated from small casting defects within the stainless steel insert itself.

Another 10?

The IoRW has demonstrably fulfilled its original aim of creating a professional “home” for the rail welding community, and it has maintained its appeal through some very significant changes in the industry over the past 10 years. It is difficult to predict what the next 10 years might bring but the IoRW stands ready to meet the challenges that lie ahead. One thing is for sure - the industry will be continuing to rely on welding for many, many years to come!

14 | the rail engineer | september 2012

feature

Driving Innovation

Cross-industry innovation in the UK

writer

David Shirres much written on the subject, W ithrailsoindustry innovation is a hot topic.

Catapult [verb] - to thrust or move quickly forward.

In his 2011 report, Sir Roy McNulty raised the profile of rail innovation, estimating that it could generate between 18% and 26% of the total savings he identified. the rail engineer has featured many articles about both specific innovations and the innovation process itself, for example Network Rail’s new approach to innovation (issue 84, October 2011).

Promoting potential cross-industry innovation is one of the roles of the Technology Strategy Board (TSB). It was established by the Government in 2007 to stimulate technology-enabled innovations in areas that offer the greatest scope to boost UK productivity. Sponsored by the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills, the TSB brings together business, research and the public sector to accelerate the development of innovative products. In October 2010, the TSB’s mandate was strengthened by a Government announcement that £200 million was to be invested in a network of technology and innovation centres. This followed a report by James Dyson, the noted British innovator, on making the UK the leading high-technology exporter in Europe.

As a noun, the word Catapult now has a new use, having been adopted by the TSB as the name for its innovation centres. TSB chief executive Iain Gray considers Catapult to be a dynamic word, hugely expressive of the momentum that will be created. The Catapult centres will bring together expertise in particular fields to develop products that meet market needs. The intention is to encourage innovation by giving businesses access to equipment and expertise that would otherwise be out of their reach, by helping with access to funding and by giving guidance on emerging technologies.

The first Catapult, High Value Manufacturing, is a consortium of seven technology centres and was created in October 2011. By 2013, a further six Catapults will be created for Cell Therapy, Offshore Renewable Energy, Connected Digital Economy, Satellite Applications, Future Cities and Transport Systems.

The Transport Systems Catapult will bring together the UK’s transport companies, leading IT companies, innovative small businesses and major universities to develop profitable new products and services. The

Themes

Project Areas Location detection

Interconnected systems

Healthy vehicles / infrastructure

Data & national transport model

New business models

X

X

X

X

Real-time information

X

X X

System performance Modal integration

X

X

X X

X

intention is that it will enable UK organisations to gain a major stake in the global transport market of around £3 trillion per annum. This will provide a unique opportunity for innovative collaboration between different transport sectors and related industries.

The TSB is currently in discussion with stakeholders to determine Catapult membership and to establish its priorities.

A survey has established interrelated priority themes and project areas as shown below bottom left.

Virtual community Just as Facebook brings individuals and groups together to exchange information online, the TSB’s Knowledge Transfer Networks (KTN) bring together businesses, universities, and research and technology organisations to create an online community that can discuss ideas and access innovation-specific resources. The KTN currently comprises 48 interlinked networks with around 30,000 members in total. The Transport network has 2,916 members and 29 groups and is linked with those on Intelligent Mobility, Energy Efficiency, Lightweighting and Funding.

As well as being able to post and respond to messages, each network gives access to information on forthcoming events, sources of funding and documentation. A quick browse of the Transport network reveals information about a low carbon vehicle technology exhibition, details of European Union funding for transport innovation, a group for accelerating innovation in rail, and all 124 slides from a European Railway Research seminar and live webinar on Composites for Rail Applications and New Concepts for Rail Infrastructure. The KTN is a worthwhile resource which anyone with an interest in transport innovation can join by registering online.

X Rail competition So far, this article has been concerned with innovation in transport, rather than rail, reflecting the TSB’s strategy of innovation

september 2012 | the rail engineer | 15

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across the transport sector. This does not stop the TSB promoting rail-specific initiatives such as the recent “Accelerating Innovation in Rail” collaborative R&D competition for funding - a joint initiative between TSB and RSSB which opened in November last year. Prior to its launch the TSB held a “Consortia Building and Information Day” attended by over 200 delegates from rail businesses, specialist technology companies, consultants and universities. The competition’s 19 winning projects were announced in April and have been awarded grants totalling £5 million.

The successful project consortia involved a total of 46 organisations.

Richard Kemp-Harper, the TSB’s lead technologist for transport and energy, explained that awards were given to about a third of those which entered the competition. Entrants had to have an innovative product, define a good business case showing the market they aim to reach, demonstrate their capability, and explain why they were not able to fund the innovation themselves. He considered that this last question demonstrated how the TSB added value with a grant enabling something to happen that wouldn’t otherwise.

Richard also stressed that the awards are dependent on project progress. Each winner had to provide a project development plan against which the TSB monitors progress.

Dependent on progress, the grant is paid quarterly until project completion. He also emphasised that a key aim was not just to develop products, but also to commercialise them.

Clearly the TSB thinks competitions are a good idea. It has already announced plans for a second rail competition in spring 2013 as part of its delivery plan for the next 12 months, and has also just launched a competition on climate resilient infrastructure.

The winners The winning projects cover a wide range and are led by a mixture of small, specialist and well known rail companies. All of the projects involve cross-industry innovation, either to or from the rail industry. Many involve consortiums with each company bringing their own expertise to develop the product.

One example is the flywheel energy storage project which draws on Artemis’s expertise in hydraulic systems, Ricardo’s high

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feature Expanding Interconnections

speed flywheel technology and Bombardier’s system integration expertise.

Bombardier is also supporting the project to develop magnetically geared motors.

Balfour Beatty Rail’s support for the Transport Research Laboratory’s project to improve rail adhesion provides a further example of a consortium with a large rail company supporting a smaller lead partner.

The Materials Engineering Research Laboratory’s (MERL) thermoplastic sleeper project provides another example. MERL’s expertise is contract research, consultancy, modelling and physical testing services in materials science. They are working with Testsure Technology, which has tested and quality-assured a large range of polymer structures, and Oxford Plastic Systems, the UK’s leading manufacturer of road cones

with considerable experience in recycled thermoplastic materials and large polymer mouldings. This combined expertise will produce a hollow thermoplastic sleeper with the same dimensions and mechanical properties as current sleepers that is both noise absorbing and fully recyclable.

Heating the UK’s 17,000 points to keep them clear of snow and ice clearly consumes a huge amount of energy. Heat Trace’s innovative project expects to result in energy savings of up to 60% and product lifecycle cost reduction of around 40%. Whilst this is clearly of great benefit to the UK rail industry, this project should also contribute to TSB’s aim of increasing the UK’s global competitiveness as Heat Trace currently exports 90% of its production.

In his opening presentation to the consortium building day, Neil Ridley, TSB’s director of the Transport KTN, illustrated one of the difficulties of rail innovation by quoting R&D spend as a percentage of turnover. For UK Rail this is 0.8%, whereas the overall totals for the UK, Europe and USA are 1.8%, 3.0% and 4.4% respectively.

Neil also welcomed delegates with the quote “the key to intelligent mobility lies in the interconnections which can be made between a range of different industries and technologies”. This would seem to be at the heart of TSB’s activities with its Catapults, competitions and Knowledge Transfer Networks creating more interconnections and leading to greater innovation.

For Richard Kemp-Harper, this is an encouraging time to be involved in rail industry innovation. He feels that the industry has historically been very conservative but that “now there is a lot of momentum and the Accelerating Innovation in Rail competition has been part of that landscape so we are looking forward to this being part of an ongoing programme”. He recognises that the TSB is not the only driver of rail innovation and is pleased to support what the rail industry is already doing, including Network Rail’s innovation process.

McNulty and others expect great efficiencies from rail industry innovation.

Richard is not alone in thinking that a good start has been made, for which the TSB can clearly take some credit. No-one knows what innovations will result, but it is clear that the TSB will help keep rail innovation topical for some time to come.

w www.innovateuk.org

Project Winners - RSSB/TSB “Accelerating Innovation in Rail” Winning Project

Consortia led by

1) Digital displacement rail transmission with flywheel energy storage - expected fuel savings of 10-20% and can be retro-fitted to existing stock.

2) Inspection of high manganese railway crossings by synthetic aperture focusing technique, a new automated ultrasonic inspection technique.

3) Develop a rail vehicle to measure formation stiffness.

4) Develop a rail vehicle to detect rolling contact fatigue at high speed using high speed alternating current field measurement.

5) XiSPAN bridge strengthening and life extension by the use of a polyurethane /ballast composite to spread bridge loading.

6) Cable theft prevention by detecting ground disturbance beforehand from cable vibration.

7) Enhanced broadband provision on passenger trains by innovative trackside link and train systems to improve data rates.

8) ECO Train interior: high efficiency and low cost through weight reduction and high efficiency heating and lighting.

9) Energy efficient heating systems for rail switch points using intelligent control, thermal insulation and dual power (mains / solar). 75% savings expected.

10) Improved remote condition monitoring of train doors using vibration analysis.

11) Integrated wayside condition monitoring system for axle bearings to give improved hot box detection combining vibration analysis and acoustic techniques.

12) Timetable advisory system that uses a GPS tablet to enable train drivers to monitor their position against timetable requirement.

13) Lifetime extension of rail track via laser cladding technology to selectively deposit high performance materials on rail head.

14) Lightweight rail carriage door using aerospace techniques i.e. state of the art composites and manufacturing.

15) Magnetically geared motor for low carbon traction using pseudo-direct drive motor in range 100-200kW, 10% savings expected.

16) Cable carrying and acoustically damped sleepers using recyclable thermoplastic sleepers.

17) Asset condition monitoring using rapid optical techniques to digitally assess condition.

18) Choice Rail - finding the best rail journeys taking into account road options to access stations.

19) Real-time rail adhesion monitoring system using both rail and road industry techniques.

Artemis Intelligent Power Ltd Balfour Beatty Rail Ltd Balfour Beatty Rail Technologies Limited Balfour Beatty Rail Technologies Limited Balfour Beatty Rail Technologies Limited British Telecommunications plc Broadband Access Strategies LLP Bombardier Transportation UK Ltd Heat Trace Ltd, Hitex (UK) Ltd Hitex (UK) Ltd Innovative Technology and Science Ltd Interfleet Technology Ltd Laser Cladding Technology Ltd London Underground Magnomatics Ltd Materials Engineering Research Laboratory Omnicom Engineering Ltd Trapeze Group Ltd TRL (Transport Research Laboratory)

18 | the rail engineer | september 2012

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Driving Innovation The Bombardier way

writer

David Shirres Technology Strategy T heBoard (TSB) provides a

(Above) JosephArmand Bombardier in B-12 snowmobile.

good example of cross-industry innovation within the UK. But what of innovation across a global rail industry? the rail engineer was recently offered an opportunity to talk to Martin Ertl, Bombardier’s chief innovation officer, and learn how Bombardier Transportation is driving innovation throughout its global rail business.

Bombardier has a history of innovation and diversification. The company’s name comes from its founder, Joseph-Armand Bombardier who produced his first commercially successful snowmobile in 1937. The company is now the world’s third largest aircraft manufacturer, a global rail company and continues to build snowmobiles showing that Bombardier is a company that focuses on innovation. This point is further emphasised by Bombardier’s involvement in three of the winning TSB projects. All of which explains Martin Ertl’s view that “Innovation is in our DNA”.

The focus for innovation Martin Ertl joined Bombardier Transportation in 2008, having previously worked on innovation at BMW. He considers that rail innovation is more challenging than that of the automotive industry where interfaces are minimal and, for a particular car model, innovations are an upfront investment financed over the product lifecycle. For rolling stock builders, however,

innovations are speculative investments and potential customers require clear proof of their benefits. Martin considers that customers are open to new concepts but first wish to see them proven in service so everyone wants to be the second to purchase new technologies.

Bombardier defines an innovation as “a new development creating a sustainable competitive advantage - an obvious clear benefit for the customer and economic success”. Martin explained that innovation has a very prominent place in Bombardier’s overall strategy to differentiate it from the competition, meet customer demands and build Bombardier’s brand and reputation. To promote and deliver innovation, Bombardier seeks to use internal and external knowhow.

Seeking and refining ideas Bombardier Transportation has 36,200 employees, operates in more than 60 countries and has six divisions: Locomotives, Light Rail Vehicles and Equipment; Mainline and Metros; Rail Control Solutions; Services; Systems; and Bombardier Transportation North America. In the past, the different nature of these

businesses resulted in a division-specific approach with each one innovating separately, even though in some cases they faced the same challenges.

Harnessing and co-ordinating employee input to develop innovations in a global company with six divisions is a challenging task. Phone conferences need to take account of time zones. Martin recognises that, although nothing beats face-to-face contact, this is necessarily limited by the expense of international travel.

New approach Bombardier recognised that a new approach to innovation was required and decided to focus corporate innovation activity on functional outcomes related to market requirements, rather than pure technology. Martin describes this as a two staged approach, with “guided ideation”, a focused and clearly defined process of forming ideas that will become the basis for generic solutions covering a wide range of customer projects.

Each R&D case is based on three innovation focus areas: • Energy - finding ways to reduce energy consumption to benefit the train operator in an economic and ecological way;

september 2012 | the rail engineer | 19

feature • Simplicity - reducing complexity to reduce cost and increased reliability; • Passenger delight - attracting customers or encouraging them to pay for a special service.

To overcome global and divisional barriers, Bombardier implemented HypeIMT web based innovation management software.

This was used, in October 2010, to create its Innovation Express system. Initially 2,000 people participated in first-idea campaigns.

Twelve months later, over 6,000 participants were involved.

Last year’s employee surveys showed a 12% improvement in the exchange and transfer of information. Individuals are also encouraged to recognise wider company needs and appreciate how their expertise can help others.

When an R&D Case has been defined, it is treated as a project with a budget and a clearly defined aim. These projects have three to five year timescales with a stage gate process that has clear Go / No Go and Technology Readiness Levels. Each project is sponsored by the board with cooperation from each divisional president.

Outside influences Externally, Bombardier is actively seeking innovations from its suppliers, universities, research institutes and others. It wishes to intensify its relationship with supply partners rather than seeing them as projectby-project component suppliers. Intensive workshops have been held with Bombardier’s three biggest suppliers, based on sales volume, which produced some interesting areas for collaboration.

Martin also advised that Bombardier is now working more closely with universities and research institutes. As an example, research by Dresden University resulted in readily available industrial diesels being used in Bombardier’s multi-engined TRAXX diesel locomotive.

Online competitions Bombardier is also using competitions to attract external ideas. In October 2009 it launched its YouRail Train Interior Design contest using a bespoke web platform developed in conjunction with Hyve AG. This was a crowd-sourcing social-media platform linked to Facebook, which Bombardier claim is the first use of this technique by a rolling stock manufacturer. As well as encouraging the submission of designs, the web platform also encouraged networking between participants. The contest invited entrants to give their “personal vision of modern transportation”.

2,486 people from 102 countries entered this contest, producing 4,239 designs between them. The winners were decided by a Bombardier appointed jury who took account of the web ranking of designs by those participating in the contest.

Martin pointed out that, unlike most other similar contests, participants retain their intellectual property rights and felt this to be important as “contestants will only go the extra mile if they can be sure they are not being ripped off”.

Second competition Bombardier has just announced the results of its latest online competition - YouCity. This concerned the evolution of mobility in fast growing urban areas. Contestants had to choose one of three target cities - London, UK; Belo Horizonte, Brazil or Vientiane, Laos representing countries with developed, BRIC or developing economies. They could choose whether to develop concepts in either an engineering, economic or urban planning work stream and had to provide an overview of mobility issues and present solutions.

Unlike the first competition, it did not ask for specific designs. Instead, it encouraged participants to think holistically to ensure engineering solutions met urban planning and economic constraints. Entrants were strongly encouraged to form an online community so that they could “enrich their concept with ideas from other work streams than their own”. The rating of each proposal by this online community was a key part of the judge’s assessment.

20 | the rail engineer | september 2012

The winners in the Engineering, Business and Urban Planning categories were respectively proposals for an Autoshuttle, Liquid Oyster and Colour Zones. The proposed Autoshuttle is intended to solve London’s traffic problems by transporting road vehicles in trains made up of individual vehicle carrying cabins. The guidance system allows individual cabins to join or leave the magnetically coupled train at predetermined pick-up and drop-off points.

Liquid Oyster automatically adapts ticket pricing according to usage to incentivise offpeak travel. For Vientiane, the Colour Zone proposal would divide the city into coloured zones to provide a low-tech solution to improve the city’s informal and uncoordinated public transport.

The end result Bombardier’s innovation process sounds impressive, but what is its end result?

Specific examples of Bombardier’s innovative approach are the multi-engined TRAXX diesel locomotive, ORBITA predictive maintenance, the FLEXX Tronic WAKO bogie technology used in double deck coaches, and PRIMOVE e-mobility technology.

The TRAXX F140 DE Multi-Engine locomotive is the latest member of the TRAXX locomotive family, which all share many common components. The TRAXX brand name was introduced in 2003 and stands for Transnational Railway Applications with eXtreme fleXibility. The TRAXX F140 diesel electric is a mixed traffic locomotive with a multi-engine configuration that markedly lowers fuel consumption and maintenance costs. This innovative locomotive concept meets the new stringent Stage IIIB emission standards using four 540kw Caterpillar heavy-duty industrial diesel engines. The engine control system selects one to four engines as needed to provide optimum power for each situation. The diesel engines are mounted in modular assemblies for easy replacement. In April 2011, DB Regio signed a nine-year

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framework contract for the supply of 200 locomotives, with the first delivery planned for mid 2013. At its 2011 innovation awards, Bombardier named this locomotive as its top innovation of the year.

The ORBITA predictive fleet maintenance system combines telemetry, information systems and processes with historic data to pro-actively identify problems. Currently, over 2,600 rail vehicles report to ORBITA. Its benefits were demonstrated initially on First ScotRail’s class 170 fleet, of which only the later vehicles were fitted with ORBITA. It was found that these vehicles suffered 33% fewer delay minutes than earlier vehicles without ORBITA. In 2009 the Institution of Engineering and Technology awarded ORBITA its Asset Management Innovation Award.

FLEXX Tronic WAKO bogies are a key technical feature of the new Bombardier TWINDEXX Express double deck trains. They compensate for the natural roll movement of the car body to maximise comfort for passengers and to provide a 15% increase in speed through curves.

The PRIMOVE e-mobility solution was initially developed to allow catenary-free operation of trams over varying distances using contactless inductive power transfer.

The system enables tram lines to operate in heritage protected areas, has no moving parts, and is not affected by adverse weather. The street cable is in eight-metre segments that are only energised when covered by the tram and can transmit 270kw of continuous output per vehicle. The system was first introduced as a pilot project in the historic city of Augsburg in Germany in 2010. Trials with a PRIMOVE-equipped bus on a 125-metre stretch of road in Lommel, Belgium also took place in 2011, demonstrating how the system can provide urban mobility in cities for all types of electric vehicles.

Compare and contrast It is interesting to compare the similarities and differences in Bombardier and the Technology Strategy Board’s approach to innovation. Both sponsor competitions and have created online communities to foster exchange of ideas. In Bombardier’s case, these two aspects are combined with the competition being run online. Encouraging competitors to collaborate and the use of online community ratings to judge competitions is itself an innovation.

The differences in approach are as a result of different target audiences. Bombardier wants ideas from individuals both within and outside their company. To do so, it developed software designed to encourage innovation. TSB wishes to encourage small businesses to innovate and so has created its Catapults to give them access to resources that would otherwise be unavailable.

Over 150 years ago, the early railways created a huge increase in economic activity from significantly improved transport and so proved themselves to be one of mankind’s most successful innovations. Since then, other modes of transport have become more competitive. As McNulty and others have identified, more innovation is needed if rail is to compete effectively. One impetus for this is the innovative approach to innovation promoted by Richard KempHarper and Martin Ertl. Who knows what will come of this? But one thing you can be sure of, the rail engineer will continue to report on this trend.

w youcity.bombardier.com w yourail-design.bombardier.com Many thanks to Martin Ertl, Bombardier’s chief innovation officer for his assistance with this article.

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Having a civil conversation President of ICE

Collaboration

Richard Coackley started his career in heavy civil engineering having graduated in 1975. He spent a couple of years working in water engineering delivering dams and water supply systems around the world then moved into hydro power - really fascinating, heavy duty civil engineering projects such as rerouting the river Indus in Pakistan. He returned to this country to look after nuclear decommissioning, nuclear outages and power station work - on occasions working alongside railway engineers. He became President of the Institution of Civil Engineers in November 2011.

And you’re doing this in association with other institutions?

“That’s right. Very much so. And it’s not just the engineering institutions, there are issues such as ethics, the way we consider “place,” our cityscape. Recently, I’ve been having discussions with the Royal College of Surgeons, the Medical Presidents and the Police President to encourage the delivery of quality hospital processes and quality urban infrastructure. So it’s just not looking at relationships with Mechanical or Electrical or Railway Engineers, it’s a much bigger picture that I see of encouraging a Society to value professional qualifications.

“And the fantastic opportunity I’ve had as President is to go to Hong Kong, to the States, to Europe and to see the high esteem in which civil engineers are held around the world. It’s that global meal-ticket of providing civil engineering infrastructure to Society. We do ourselves down in the UK yes, it is just the UK - other countries actually really value that global qualification.”

writer

Grahame Taylor President of the Institution of Civil T heEngineers is elected annually. One of the post’s key roles is to promote the profession to the public, making the President the highest-profile civil engineer in the country.

In order to find out more, the rail engineer despatched editor Grahame Taylor, himself a member of the Institution, to spend some time in conversation with Richard Coackley, the current President. On arrival, Grahame found that the imposing building at No.1 Great George Street in Westminster was occupied by the Olympics press corps.

Tackling the cloak and dagger high security head on, he was eventually let in to meet the President in his office in the depths of the building.

To the sound of the chimes of Big Ben and the Presidential long-case clock, Richard was quite animated when talking of his role.

“Being President is truly seven days a week.

It really is 150% full on because it’s only a short period of time that you are President and there’s a lot going on. £50 billion underwriting of major infrastructure projects was announced only this morning, for example, and we look forward to seeing if this ‘guarantees’ scheme actually leads to activity on the ground.

“This Institution is not just dealing with the interests of civil engineering, we’re acting in the interests of Society - emphasising what will be gained by having a decent infrastructure system. We’re at a stage where we need to be building infrastructure to keep ourselves effective and efficient in the world’s market.”

So, do other disciplines understand engineering?

“They do! And this is amazing to see. They really value the way that our professional institutions and our professional bodies work and they look, in some cases jealously, at the structure we’ve been able to create in the way our professional Institutions work.

I’m delighted to be able to be representing an Institution that is seen by our fellow professionals to be working at the highest level of ethics and communication.”

Knowledge retention With an ever moving workforce, how does “the Civils” attempt to retain knowledge?

“In many ways we can share knowledge much more effectively these days due to better technology.

“But we’re still a long way from maximising these opportunities and there’s a lot more we, and all other institutions, can do. But, you know, I can see great opportunities with having communities of excellence in specific areas of expertise, such as railway engineering, for knowledge and experience to be shared amongst members. This is what the institutions really are about - the dissemination of quality information, having virtual mentors, panels of experts sharing information. I’d love to see the day when we’re getting best practice in every discipline from wherever it is in the world and using it for the benefit of the UK Society.”

But are there specific areas of scarce resource?

“Indeed, there are some resources that are scarce - railway engineers to some extent and signal engineers in particular. They are a very small select group of people whose

work I’ve been trying to foster when talking to consultancies. How do you cultivate that sort of expertise, that excellence in railway engineering, or indeed parts of the nuclear industry, which are so important and so valuable but which we’ve let go over the years and could now find we haven’t got enough of? Suddenly a new wave of projects comes along. Society wants to electrify railways and get trains much closer together to increase line capacity and what have been ‘hens teeth’ become really important. How can we switch everything back on again?

“These are the challenges we have as engineering professionals - to have the ability and the courage to hang on to these resources at times of paucity. These people are national treasures!” There’s a slight pause.

“They are, you know - and that’s the first time I’ve used the phrase!”

Future generations There was a moment of reflection as Richard spoke about attracting the next generation of engineers.

“Any career starts off with simple work. But this grows quickly to bigger projects. You don’t realise how quickly time has gone by until you’re advising Government on billions of pounds worth of infrastructure when actually it was only a few years ago I was designing it!

“I say to youngsters that they can take their career anywhere they like in the world and to whatever level they want. But first of all it’s important that we provide our young people in school with an understanding of engineering. I visit schools in any moment I’ve got spare and specifically in primary schools. We have to capture the imagination of young girls and boys - it’s not a gender thing at that stage, it’s simply engineering and show them what can be done.

“I said in my inaugural address that science and maths needs to be your friend so that you can ask your friend what it’s all about.

And when they’re 11 - 14 years old, working out what they want to do, they need to realise that there is a career - a profession - in civil engineering that can give them fantastic satisfaction.

“Not many people talk about it, but there are a lot of senior civil engineers out there dealing with government at the highest level so I think that it wouldn’t do us any harm to put some of these people - these quiet civil engineers - on a pedestal and for some of the young people to realise what the profession can really offer them through their career.”

Railway qualifications The President was asked about the National Skills Academy for Railway Engineering and how it fits into the overall picture for granting engineering qualifications.

september 2012 | the rail engineer | 23

feature “It’s a valuable and pertinent query! I think that first of all, having areas of special practice to teach engineers to learn about areas of the profession, whether it’s in tunnelling or railway engineering or in any expertise, is sound because it goes back to my statement earlier. We have lost a lot of capability and therefore we need special academies to concentrate on these areas of expertise. I think there’s a lot more that needs to be done with the academies to strengthen them and this is just the start but I would like to see them be very successful.

“But as far as qualifications are concerned, it needs to be simple for Society see what a professional qualification is as a civil engineer. So Society can see that there are railway engineers, but they are part of the civil engineering community although having much more expertise in railway matters.

“When it comes to the global professional ticket I mentioned, the Institution of Civil Engineers qualification is that global ticket it’s right up there at the top - the gold star. I would not want to see a broken market place of professional civil engineers.”

The alliancing concept The railways have embarked on alliancing contracts. With the much wider view of construction generally, how does the President view the alliancing concept?

“Alliancing, for me, is the way forward. It’s all about people sharing concerns before the concerns have happened. It’s about realising the value from communication and dialogue between people who have wide knowledge and experience. It has got to be better for someone who’s delivering, to speak to someone who’s designing rather than having people sulking in their own boxes.

“There are vast changes of culture going on and it can be quite hard for some people to adapt. The ICE has moved entirely towards the NEC form of contract which is about alliancing. We’ve publicly stated that we believe the future is the NEC.” “The railways have a long history of conventional contracting and then suddenly engineers are required to encompass alliancing. Some people are actually enjoying it because at last they’re given a huge freedom to think and say something.

“Which all neatly takes me back to what I stated earlier. There will be a point when Society will realise that there’s a special profession out there - civil engineering - that works together for the benefit of Society.

“And this is, of course, what our original charter was for - it’s right there on the wall.

It’s not changed in nearly two hundred years and it is all about delivering for Society, not for the benefit of civil engineering.”

Visionaries and economists Sir John Armitt was recently reported as saying that he had little time for economists and that the industry needed visionaries.

“I have a similar issue when it come to economics - not economists - and the challenge we’ve got with economics is that it pays little regard to the value of infrastructure a long way into the future. We need to deliver major infrastructure that is

necessary for our children’s children. We alone can build it now for them to gain the value - however they gain that value. So, with the way in which economics and the rates of return work I would say that I strongly agree with Sir John.

“And I strongly agree that there need to be visionaries - leaders. We need leaders in politics. We really need leaders in politics! I believe we have leaders in the civil engineering industry, but what we need is leadership that provides those with the funding and finance with comfort that the political risk is minimised. Nowadays, construction risk is minimal. Currently I think it’s all about political risk. Leaders need to be showing the way ahead to reduce that political risk.”

And could these leaders be civil engineers?

“Yes! Certainly and very importantly.”

Multi-skilled engineers Perhaps one of the strengths of the profession is that engineers have many skills - many strings to their bows.

“You’ve read my Presidential address!

You’ve not necessarily seen my portrait though because it’s obscured at the moment, but there’s a double bass in the background - just hidden in the corner. That’s because I am a musician as well as a civil engineer. I wanted my double bass in there because I feel we know very little about our Presidents of the past as people. For example, if I researched John Rennie, who was as important as Telford, I would find that he journeyed around the country non-stop doing civil engineering. But, you know what, he was also a clarinet player and we never knew that until just a few months ago. He wasn’t just an engineer, he was a person with many other attributes and talents.

“For me, the whole engineering profession is like an orchestra and I would like to see all of the aspects of the engineering profession being like the musicians, the clarinet players, the double bass players, the violin players working together to produce a polished performance. It’s the end product that is important - not the violinist or the double bassist.

“For my Presidential reception in the summer here in ICE’s Great Hall, I invited civil engineers who played musical instruments to come and play in front of the assembled company. That was a first!

“You find that civil engineers have many talents. What my address was all about was making the most of those talents. For example I’d like to see more engineers including civil engineers - in politics. And involved in the House - both Houses in fact.

We’ve got two at the moment in the lower house. I know that people want to have their voices heard as civil engineers and I’m sure that Society would love to hear from them. That podium could be the Houses or in local councils working in our communities.”

Influencing government “So yes, this is a special time. A time when replacement and refurbishment of our infrastructure is needed and when we can plan for Society for the next hundred years.

And a time when we are confident Government understands the need for investment and the urgency. The ‘guarantees’ scheme launched this morning, which we spoke about earlier, is yet another example of government putting its money where its mouth is.

This follows the Prime Minister himself standing right here at the ICE earlier this year, setting out Government’s commitment to infrastructure delivering as a central plank of its growth plan. The challenge however is in implementation actually ensuring these plans and initiatives deliver the desired outcome. And the ICE is all about influencing the will of government to deliver.”

You reckon that they’ve listened to the Civils?

“Yes. Our closely working with the Treasury and quietly informing government has paid dividends. That’s the duty of this Institution - sharing the expertise of our members. Not just dealing with the interests of civil engineering, but acting in the overall interests of Society.”

Richard with Crossrail’s Chief Engineer Chris Dulake at the start of the Crossrail tunnelling in March.

24 | the rail engineer | september 2012

feature

Why Australia? is the world’s sixth largest A ustralia country by area, just behind Brazil and

(Below) The QE2 road bridge over the Thames.

(Right) Rope access on the Royal Albert Bridge.

twice the size of India. And with a population of just 22 million (Brazil has 192 million while India boasts a whopping 1.2 billion), its cities and communities are quite widely spaced.

This vast area and the enormous distances involved remain a challenge for railway engineers. the rail engineer issue 85 (November 2011) described Australia as the “land of opportunity”, and for many railway companies - it is.

One of the latest opportunities to present itself is the inspection, repair and possible replacement of bridges. There are over 30,000 small road bridges and many thousands more pedestrian bridges in Australia, many of which are coming to the end of their structural lives. The cost of replacement is colossal, and could impose a crushing burden on councils which are responsible for the vast majority of these, mostly timber, bridges.

To complicate matters, the legal responsibilities for councils and road authorities have changed enormously with the decision by the High Court to abolish the concept of nonfeasance. (The intentional failure to perform a required duty or obligation). While a number of Australian states have legislated to protect councils and other road authorities, the legal position has been dramatically altered and continues to evolve.

Greater loads and more traffic Bridges built decades ago now have to withstand far greater and heavier traffic, which is imposing greater risks and forcing councils and road authorities to search for cost effective solutions and to improve their management of their bridge assets.

Obviously, this situation presents opportunities for firms specialising in bridge inspection and reconstruction. British structural engineering consultants BridgeZone have noticed those opportunities and have taken steps to move into the Australian market. As managing director Paul Marshall puts it: “Australia is a land of great opportunity, with similarities with the UK as well as historic friendships.”

Unlike companies in the UK and across Europe, most Australian organisations tend to have a regional, state or territory focus given the size of this vast country that comes as no surprise. So BridgeZone is initially targeting opportunities solely between Brisbane and Melbourne, cities which are anyway 1040 miles apart by road.

Based in Tiverton, Fishguard and Ilkeston

in the UK, BridgeZone specialises in the close inspection of the seemingly inaccessible parts of structures such as viaducts, bridges, tunnels, harbour walls and dams. This often calls for the use of rope access, underwater inspections and working in confined spaces, and BridgeZone not only works for the rail industry but also for highways, utilities, ports, harbours and aviation companies. With the expertise to inspect, survey, assess, design and recommend remedial works, BridgeZone prides itself on excelling at “inspecting the uninspectable”.

september 2012 | the rail engineer | 25

feature Conference appearance

Learned paper

Because BridgeZone is a new entrant into the Australian market, the team will need to put extra care and effort into selecting local partners who have similar business principles. The company is therefore participating in the Australian Small Bridges Conference, which will take place on 19-20 November in Surfers Paradise, on the outskirts of Brisbane.

The conference is designed to alert bridge, highway and rail engineers, managers, contractors and suppliers to significant new developments in their field. BridgeZone anticipates there will be great interest in its use of sonar technology for sub-surface scanning. Recently deployed in a dam inspection project in Uganda, this system is used to deliver highly accurate, high definition, 360º images of underwater structures that cannot be obtained by traditional diving methods.

The two-day conference programme will focus on small to medium bridges, both road and rail. Local government authorities in particular are currently faced with major challenges, so local government projects are a major theme of the conference. Small bridges are located not only on roads but also occur on train lines, parks and gardens, national parks, mines, forestry areas, private property and in public areas such as zoos.

Small bridges can be for vehicles, trains, pedestrians or even stock and wildlife.

Structures such as elevated boardwalks and viewing platforms also fall within the scope of this conference.

As well as meeting potential partners and clients, Paul Marshall will be presenting a paper on “Inspecting Difficult Access Bridge Structures”, with particular reference to: • The cost effectiveness and efficiencies gained by employing non-disruptive methods to undertake a variety of types of inspections of bridges and structures difficult to access; • “The Perfect Team” - the make-up of the people who form the best inspection teams; their skills, their individual roles and their experience appropriate to producing professional engineering-led reports for engineers with accountants in mind; • The judicious use of appropriate technology such as sonar to assist in underwater inspection where visibility may be poor and a look at other equipment such as hand-held devices which can optimise time on site through the efficient transmission of asset data; • Specific case studies that demonstrate the best, the worst and the most innovative methods of producing high-quality and consistent inspections, including examples of rope access, diving and confined space access techniques.

The event will bring together councils, state government road managers, government agencies and the private sector.

State and local government engineers, leading practitioners and consultants in the bridge sector will present up-to-the-minute, highly relevant information to assist asset owners, road managers and engineers to perform their roles in an increasingly complex bridge/road environment.

The conference aims “to provide practical guidance to all delegates that can be immediately used.” One of the messages will be to take advantage of British expertise in this area, and BridgeZone are well placed to deliver that message.

Underwater inspection by BridgeZone director Mark Musgrave.

26 | the rail engineer | september 2012

feature

writer

Grahame Taylor

Lille - top cluster France Invest (NFI), the economic N ord development agency for Northern France has done its sums. And from the Lille Region point of view they are very encouraging.

They’ve worked out that they have direct access to Europe’s largest concentration of consumers, providing a marketplace population of 78 million with a purchasing power of €1.5 billion. The region has a GDP of €96 billion, and 324 inhabitants per square kilometre, of which 34% are under 25 years old.

NFI also promotes that particularly French concept of “clusters”. A cluster, in France, refers to a group of similar industries and partners that can work together to promote competitiveness. So these can include manufacturers and their supply chain, but also academic institutions along with research and development resources.

Top rail cluster The Lille region is France’s number one rail cluster with 40% of the French rail construction market and 100 rail related companies. These include four of the world’s top trainset manufacturers. In fact, it claims to be Europe’s top rail cluster.

All of this is emphasised by the excellent rail links with fast, frequent services serving Brussels (35mins), Paris (1hour) and London (1hour 20mins) - just three of the 65 cities in Europe served on a daily basis by high speed trains from Lille.

NFI is keen to emphasise the links between engineering and academia. Seven percent of all French students attend higher education in the Lille region, that’s 16,000 of them and this produces 10% of all French engineers through seven universities and 23 engineering schools.

One of France’s top universities - or Grandes Ecoles - is the Institut Catholique d’Arts et Metiers (ICAM) located in Lille. Professor Jean-Pierre Rigaut explains that ICAM provides engineering degrees up to, and including, masters level and offers engineering training through laboratory based R&D internships. Prof.

Rigaut is developing a railway engineering masters in close collaboration with nearby Alstom and Bombardier.

Specialist training Further specialist railway training is located at the Eurotunnel site at Coquelles. The Eurotunnel Group recently unveiled its Centre International de Formation Ferroviare de Cote d’Opale (CIFFCO) into which €3 million has been invested. The Coquelles site is huge. Having been reclaimed from marsh and sparsely populated land, space doesn’t seem to be a problem - the Eurotunnel maintenance facility nearby has the longest railway maintenance shed in the world.

CIFFCO has facilities to carry out training on all aspects of railway infrastructure in a modern building of 1,100m².

There are eight training rooms, a 135-seat auditorium and a room with eight mobile Eurotunnel train simulators. France’s Railway Security Organisation has just entrusted CIFFCO with the training of its evaluators who examine France’s high-speed rail drivers. Alstom will also use CIFFCO to train its test-centre drivers.

The Technopole Near Valenciennes, which is to the south east of Lille, is the site of the massive Technopole project. The Technopole, Valenciennes Metropole’s new international centre for sustainable transport, has been in the making for a decade. Development of the park is now taking place on a 30 hectare site linked directly to the local university. In a region that specialises in sustainable transport research and innovation, Valenciennes was an ideal choice.

With railway industry giants like Bombardier and Alstom in the area, along with the European Railway Agency as well as Toyota, PSA and Mercedes Benz from the automotive sector, the i-Trans competitiveness cluster and the university of Valenciennes and Hainaut Cambresis have benefited from the government’s “innovative Campus” label for sustainable transport. The Technopole offers easy access to highways and a tram line links it to Greater Valenciennes and the national rail network.

It’s in its early construction stages at the present. Initial transportation links have been installed and so there is currently an isolated tram terminal sitting in the middle of a field, but by 2015 this impressive, multimillion Euro project will be in full operation. Associated with the venture is a test track due to be constructed from 2017.

This will be a 5km durability test loop with vehicles running at up to 120km/hr. It will be located in a more rural location so as to minimise impact on inhabited areas.

So, with their sums done and with all the population and geographic advantages of the region, Nord France Invest is well placed to help find land and premises as well as source and apply for French government subsidies for national and international railway investors alike.

september 2012 | the rail engineer | 27

feature

RVE2012 viewing live CCTV images in an I magine off-train facility, counting passengers

automatically with exceptional accuracy and sending text and RSS-based bulletins directly to information screens on the train.

Imagine also providing location-based advertising or advising train drivers of the optimal speed to minimise energy usage whilst they are kept cool in an airconditioned cab. Whilst it sounds futuristic, all of these technologies are available today and can be installed retrospectively to existing rail assets.

Often, uplifts are driven by the need to be innovative in the franchise bidding process or to look more deeply into how assets can remain not only leasable, but of increased value to operators whilst delivering real beneďŹ ts to the passenger.

Passenger expectations

Multiple Systems

Passengers want a good travelling experience, to be well informed and to travel in cool carriages. They also expect value for money within the ticket price. These provide challenges to operators balancing service and cost.

Travellers expect to be kept safe, and the latest CCTV systems enable timely intervention to intercept the perpetrators of crime, not just to bring them to justice afterwards. Train loading is key in certain areas, as is maximising revenue by targeting fare dodgers or planning services without the cost of consultancies modelling predicted passenger numbers when real information can be available.

Many of these technologies bring social beneďŹ ts such as reducing carbon foot print whilst also delivering sound economic business cases for implementation based on reduction of fuel use, safety or by providing advertising revenue streams.

The ability to support a multiplicity of systems on train is now all the easier by utilising on train hard wired ethernet connection between equipment, ensuring the installation costs are minimised by utilising a common platform.

The need to keep rolling stock in continued service means that investment in rolling stock assets is essential to ensure that they are up to date, meet passenger expectation and are sought after by train operators. These initiatives make it all the more timely to take the opportunity to overlay maintenance and refurbishment with enhancement programmes.

The companies that can deliver the products that enable all of these train enhancements and more are assembling at Rail Vehicle Enhancements 2012, in London on 3rd of October and in Derby on 4th October.

supported by Organised by

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www.rve2012.co.uk

28 | the rail engineer | september 2012

feature

Promoting with a wealth of experience in K arltheJones, railway industry, realised that there

KJ Rail’s indoor training facility.

was a need for a flexible organisation which could provide experienced qualified manpower at a moment’s notice. He founded KJ Rail in 2008, and since then has developed a multi-skilled workforce which can be deployed throughout the United Kingdom.

From the outset, developing every employee’s skills was at the core of the business. Staff are PTS licensed and every one holds five basic plant skills. With an emphasis on health & safety, KJ Rail experienced steady, sustainable growth and delivered over 300,000 man hours without incident in 2011 to a variety of clients.

Decline in skills Finding that it was becoming more difficult to recruit skilled workers, KJ Rail conducted a survey. These investigations identified that the industry had approximately 10,000 fewer people qualified to work on the rail infrastructure than it had only two years before. This was partly

talent attributed to a lack of investment within the supply chain, which has fundamentally led to a decline in skilled PTS competence within the rail infrastructure.

The response was to establish KJ Training Solutions and to build a bespoke training academy in Wigan.

At the same time, two new executives were brought in to manage the enlarged business. Chief executive officer Steve Sharkey, with a background in finance before he joined the rail industry in 2008, brought management expertise to the company while new managing director Paul Ellis has 35 years experience working for leading companies such as British Rail, Northern Track, Fastline, First Engineering / Babcock Rail and AmeyCOLAS. A highly respected individual, Paul has a reputation

for always delivering and is looking to take and grow the business while being a great ambassador for KJ Rail.

First apprentices The new training academy opened its doors to the first candidates in January 2012.

The new facility boasts nine state-of-the-art training rooms and an IT suite. It has both an indoor and outdoor railway facility where trainees are able to familiarise themselves with rail tasks in a safe environment.

After three months in-house training and induction, apprentices interlace into existing work gangs. This exposure to very experienced trackmen and safety critical staff is vital as they continue learning their trade.

Six months later, KJ Rail now has more than 180 apprentices working on the Network Rail infrastructure, with a further 40 still undergoing training.

Once qualified, the new apprentices will join KJ Rail’s established pool of skilled staff which includes trackmen, COSS, Engineering Supervisors, Level Crossing Attendants,

september 2012 | the rail engineer | 29

feature

Picops and Hand Back Engineers. In total, KJ Rail has a substantial workforce, with 83% sole sponsorship who work solely for the company, a proportion that is much higher than for most labour suppliers.

Having tackled the training shortfall, KJ Rail’s next objective is to become a Flagship Preferred Supplier on the railway infrastructure. With a ready supply of multiskilled staff, the company is now able to tailor its services to not only match but often exceed clients’ expectations.

However, management is well aware that the company’s reputation is only as good as its performance on the last shift. Therefore Paul Ellis is introducing a programme of continuous improvement and betterment as he endeavours to help staff to become “all that they can be”.

New innovations

From trainee to worker

KJ Rail has introduced a new “plant card”, looking a little like a PTS card, which is being rolled out within the business. The card will identify what additional skills or small plant certifications the individual holds. Thus any foreman or team leader can instantly recognise the skill-set of each member of his team, making the allocation of individual tasks quick, simple and safe.

So that both KJ Rail management and clients know where their work teams are at any time, the fleet of 20 vehicles are all fitted with trackers. This makes it possible for main contractors such as BAM Nuttall, Babcock Rail, Balfour Beatty Rail, AmeyCOLAS and Lundy Projects to know at what time a crew arrived on site, where they are, and when they departed.

KJ Training Solutions has taken almost 200 unemployed people, trained them up and then passed them onto KJ Rail to put them out to work, to the benefit of both themselves and the company. This training programme will continue, both at Wigan and at satellite branches up and down the country, to satisfy the continuing demand for trained staff.

Putting these newly qualified railway engineers together with existing experienced staff to build dynamic and flexible gangs has worked well. Local people are placed in local work wherever possible, as the reduced transport requirement will lower both the carbon footprint and reduce costs.

Which all benefits today’s railway.

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30 | the rail engineer | september 2012

signalling & telecoms

writer

Clive Kessell

Cardiff Area

Resignalling (Monmouthshire) project from Pilning through the Severn Tunnel and Newport to Ebbw Junction introduced progressively during 2010 and 2011.

Project scope and phasing

Signal Boxes of the 1960s and T he70sPower were mostly associated with the rationalisation era; four tracks down to two, singling of lines, reduction in switch and crossing layouts, often single leads into terminal stations. Whilst these may have saved money, the operating flexibility was decimated and train service opportunities were thus limited with performance suffering.

The modern Control Centres now being introduced are invariably coupled with new layouts that often reinstate the trackwork of 40 years ago to create the capacity that the current railway demands. One such project recently authorised is at Cardiff, where not only is the existing signalling equipment life expired but the shift in local employment patterns has greatly swelled the commuting population into the city centre.

The Cardiff scheme plugs the gap between the earlier Port Talbot East project from Baglan to Llanharan commissioned in 2007, and the first phase of the Newport

The heart of the scheme is the new Wales Railway Operations Centre (WROC) at Cardiff Central. This is the equivalent of those recently commissioned at Didcot, Derby, Cowlairs and elsewhere and will be the nerve centre for all train operations in Wales. The project embraces not only the South Wales main line but includes the commuter lines that feed into the city, including: • The Rhymney Valley route, which is double track from Cardiff Queen Street to Bargoed and single line on to Rhymney including the single line branch to Coryton and the freight only branch to the open cast mine at Cwmbargoed; • The Treforest line from Ninian Park to Radyr and the Llandaff line from Cardiff Queen Street North Junction to Radyr where a fringe to the Rhonda lines will exist; • The Vale of Glamorgan (VoG) line from Bridgend to Barry (reopened to passengers in 2005) via Rhoose, the station for Cardiff Airport and the Barry line from Barry Island to Cardiff West Junction including the Penarth branch; • The vital link between Cardiff Central and Queen Street plus the short single line to Cardiff Bay. The Central to Queen Street Valley lines corridor will have an enhanced capacity from 12 to 16 trains per hour at peak times in each direction.

Some changes in layout are planned, the first being the junctions between the main and relief lines east of Cardiff. These will be moved from the constricted east approach to Central station out to Longdyke with 75mph points allowing faster entry into the down platforms at Central station. Bidirectional signalling will be provided on all four lines between Cardiff East and Longdyke.

At Tirphil, on the single line section between Bargoed and Rhymney, a platform loop will be installed to enable a half hour service. At Caerphilly, a new bay platform will be built aimed at facilitating the 16 trains per hour service through Cardiff Queen Street, where a disused platform on the west side will be reinstated and a new bay platform built on the east side for the Cardiff Bay shuttle service. A new station entrance will also be built at Queen Street to facilitate access to the new platforms.

At Cardiff Central, a new platform is to be built on the south side where a new south entrance to the station will be provided.

Barry station will have a new back platform loop to be dedicated to the Barry Island service. The Treforest curve out towards Radyr will be made double track and extra signals plus line speed improvements will be provided on the City Lines to Radyr so as to increase capacity.

Timeline The commissioning phases of the project will cover two years: • January 2013 - The VoG line where re-control of the existing signalling will allow closure of Cowbridge Road and Aberthaw boxes;

september 2012 | the rail engineer | 31

signalling & telecoms • June 2013 - The Valley lines from Rhymney to Cardiff Bay with the closure of Bargoed, Ystrad Mynach and Heath boxes; • January 2014 - The Barry lines and towards Cardiff West from Queen Street with the closure of Barry box although Radyr will remain a fringe box to the WROC; • May 2014 - East from Cardiff to the Newport boundary including some transfer of control from the existing Cardiff PSB; • Christmas 2014 - Cardiff Central station westwards to the Port Talbot boundary and including the closure of the old PSB and St Fagans gate box.

Established technology With the WROC already built and in operation for the Newport project, incorporating the Cardiff area will largely be by adding more of the same equipment and systems, although there will be some significant differences.

The centralised interlocking will be an additional eight units of the Westlock interlocking product from Invensys making a total of thirteen in all.

However, where the signallers’ work stations for the earlier projects were WestCad, it has been decided to use a GETS (GE Transportation Systems) product for the Cardiff area. So as to make this similar in operation to WestCad, minor modifications have been carried out as a result of formal HAZID (Hazard Identification Study) workshops with all stakeholders. One significant change for GE will be having the system controlled via a tracker ball as opposed to the normal mouse operation. Distribution of the interlocking data links will be by the Fixed Telecom Network (FTN) giving full resilience by diverse routings to every lineside device.

A big difference for the Cardiff operation will be the total use of ARS (Automatic Route Setting). This will be an enhanced system known as ARS+ and sometimes called the Signallers’ Assistant. The facility will be available for all timetabled moves including entry and exit from depots and berthing sidings. As such, the workload of the signaller will decrease and only three extra work stations are planned for the entire Cardiff area as compared to the four for Newport, plus a supervisor position. All train moves will be controlled automatically. Signaller intervention should only be necessary for unplanned moves and at times of service disruption.

New technology is being introduced within the project to reduce costs and provide improved reliability. Signals will be of the standard Dorman LED type where steel cross portal structures are to be used, but others will be the new lightweight variant design of post and signal head. The main line and busier branches will be 3 aspect with signal

spacing aligned to the aspiration for future line speed improvements. This will enable considerable savings to be made. Only on the main line approaches to Newport and Cardiff will 4 aspect signals be used so as to give better regulation of speed reduction into the platforms. On the lighter loaded branches, 2 aspect signals in discrete block sections will be sufficient.

Points will primarily be equipped with In-Bearer Clamp Locks utilising the Hydrive system for the higher speed switches. Where points remain unchanged, either standard Clamp Locks or HW2000 point machines will remain. In the areas that currently have mechanical signalling, HW2000 machines will be used, these being reliable and familiar to the local staff.

and Llantrisant are all relatively new so only the CCTV control will transfer to the WROC thus permitting St Fagans gate box to close.

The AHB (automatic half barriers) at Pontsarn will remain unchanged as will the AOCL (Automatic Open Crossing, Locally Monitored) on the minor road into the Ford factory.

Axle counters Train detection will be entirely by axle counter but using a product from Frauscher, an Austrian company, where a safety case is well advanced based upon cross acceptance of existing usage in continental Europe. Trials are taking place in both AC and DC electrified areas (Rugby and Farlington) to prove suitability of operation in the UK. The big advantage is that no rail drilling is needed, the unit being clamped in place on to the rail.

During the early GRIP 5 design phase, Atkins and Network Rail utilised the 3D aerial survey completed at GRIP 4 to ascertain whether the Cardiff Central and West areas could be fitted with axle counters and thus remove the original intention to use track circuits. This allowed more efficient assessment by using desk top analysis. Only two of the 109 sections required an actual site visit. The system will need its own distribution network using Westermo modems operating over dedicated star quad cables with diagnostic reporting and diversity being achieved by use of the Network Rail FTN. Level crossings in the area are of varying types. At Rhoose, the CCTV controlled barriers will be renewed with transfer of control to the WROC. The barriers at St Fagans, St Georges

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SIMULATE VALIDATE CONTROL

32 | the rail engineer | september 2012

Artist’s impression of the new Cardiff Central southern entrance.

PHOTO: MOTT MACDONALD

Power provision will be by the standard 650V lineside cables being fed through Principal Supply Points backed up by a UPS. Telecommunications requirements still call for SPTs at every signal even though the GSM-R radio network will be available by the time of project implementation. The WROC concentrators will use the Siemens HiPath product, well proven in other centres.

signalling & telecoms

embankments, also platform works and minor station enhancements; • Station Buildings - BAM Nuttall for the new entrances and platforms at Central and Queen Street; • Minor Track Works including insulated rail joint recoveries - MDR (Maintenance Delivered Renewals), a division of the Network Rail route maintenance organisation.

Contract Management

Artist’s impression of the new Queen Street Station.

PHOTO: MOTT MACDONALD

Network Rail will take on the role of principal contractor using the hub and spoke contracting mechanism. The main contractors will be: • Signalling - Atkins for all the design, construction and test & commissioning, subcontracting to Invensys for Westlock equipment and data preparation, and GETS for the work stations; TRE (The Railway Engineering company) to design and provide the ARS system and the simulators for signaller training; • Telecoms - Siemens at York for the FTN upgrades needed for interlocking and axle counter circuits plus SPT and miscellaneous telecom requirements; • Power and Distribution - Atkins for the design, build and commissioning of all supply points, point heating systems and various lighting solutions including ongoing monitoring; • Permanent Way - Balfour Beatty for all the track and S&C work; • Civil Core Works - Birse Rail covering route works, UTXs, REB and limited lineside locations in cuttings and on

No separate contract is envisaged for Passenger Information System requirements, the existing equipment being adapted / expanded on a station by station basis via the relevant station contracts.

A joint project team of Network Rail and Atkins is located in Milford House, Swindon.

The Atkins resource will be supplemented by design staff in Bangalore, Birmingham and Croydon. A co-located site construction office and depot is established at Newport. Atkins expects to have a core team of 40 people supplemented by around 45 installation staff and 35 testers at peak per shift.

Most work will be done using weekend and mid week possessions. 52 hour possessions are envisaged for the earlier commissioning phases and a Christmas blockade will be needed for the main Cardiff Central Phase in 2014. Some residual work will continue into 2015, including the opening of the new platform at Cardiff Central. The programme is challenging but achievable and significant work by all contractors has already started on-site. Off-

site testing is envisaged for all of the signalling location and REB equipment assemblies.

The project cost is around £220 million, being primarily funded by Network Rail, the DfT and the Welsh Government, but also including private funding parties.

Future considerations Electrification has been approved for some time on the main line from London to Cardiff but recent announcements have extended this to Swansea and the Welsh Valley lines. The signalling and telecom systems have therefore to be immunised against traction interference.

ERTMS will also be installed on the GW main line in the midterm future. As far as is possible, the new signalling is being designed with this in mind but the capacity of the interlocking may be a crucial factor. ETCS compatibility is called for in the contract.

In parallel with the Cardiff project, a new station at Energlyn, north of Caerphilly, has been agreed and any passive provision of any signalling adaptations needed for this has been taken into account within the main project.

The next two and a half years are going to be a busy time, but with the enthusiasm and co-operation that is already being shown, this project looks set fair to succeed in all respects.

Thanks go to Richard Angove, senior project engineer, Network Rail and Conor Linnell, programme manager Wales and West region from Atkins, for their help in preparing this article.

Cardiff Area Signalling Renewal project Delivering technical excellence and innovation to improve the UKâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s railway network.

For further information, please contact: Steve Higham, +44 (0)207 121 2686 rail@atkinsglobal.com www.atkinsglobal.com

34 | the rail engineer | september 2012

signalling & telecoms

information for an individual set of points.

These units include external temperature probes which require a further, smaller, trackside enclosure.

With each installation featuring ten or more enclosures placed right by the trackside, a lot of time is spent considering options to guarantee that 25 year promise.

Increasingly, this has led to a move away from the traditional metallic enclosures, which are prone to corrosion, denting and are highly conductive, to non-metallic alternatives. Samuel James now exclusively uses the Spelsberg range of glass reinforced polyester (GRP) enclosures for trackside installations and the polycarbonate TG range to house the temperature probes.

Switching to Spelsberg

a

non-metallic writer

Chris Wall Design Engineer, Samuel James Engineering James is one of the UK’s largest S amuel manufacturers and suppliers of points heating systems for the UK rail network, helping to ensure that in cold weather Britain’s travel infrastructure doesn’t freeze.

The company is committed to improving its technology to prolong the lifespan of its products and maximise their safety.

When designing any external electrical application one of the first, and most important, considerations is the choice of enclosure. Apart from the obvious considerations, such as its level of ingress protection and how it will stand up to the massively varying temperatures that will be experienced, it is essential to think about the location of the product and any possible hazards that it may face during its lifespan.

In the rail industry there are many of these hazards that spring to mind.

future A hard life

Life by the trackside can be very tough.

Fumes and brake dust can be incredibly abrasive and debris is often sent flying at extremely high speeds. All Samuel James’ products are delivered with a 25 year lifespan guaranteed, so it is vital to be sure that the enclosures in which they are housed will not corrode or weaken in the harsh environment.

Samuel James’ points heating systems are installed at thousands of railway junctions across the UK. Each system consists of a large control unit which is designed to constantly monitor and maintain the temperatures of multiple points at a predetermined, optimum temperature.

Connected to these control units are approximately four or five smaller units, located by the track, which each provide the

Spelsberg’s heavy-duty GRP enclosures provide effective corrosion resistance for electrical and electronic controls in the harsh and abrasive environments found trackside.

The material offers a high level of rigidity at minimal thickness meaning that maximum internal space is provided for installation while protection from external impacts, such as stone chippings, is assured.

Having subjected the enclosures to rigorous testing, it was found that the tough GRP and polycarbonate construction provides improved protection against knocks when compared with traditional metal enclosures. In addition, they provide IP68 protection, are resistant to the corrosive effect of brake dust, fumes and the weather, and afford superb electrical insulation - in turn improving safety for maintenance crews.

Doors can be left or right mounted and the hinging allows door opening to up to 240 degrees for easy access into the enclosures. An integral drip shield directs liquids away from the door shield in external

september 2012 | the rail engineer | 35

signalling & telecoms

environments and options include key locks for security and a stylised window door which provides easy visual inspection of interior components.

CNC machining of plastic enclosures is readily available and all enclosures are received fully assembled with entry points pre-drilled and fitted with hinged lids to improve access once on-site. Together with the ability to customise designs, this means that installers simply need to mount three or four terminals and they are finished, which reduces trackside installation times significantly. Samuel James expects to receive PADS (Parts and Drawings System) approval for the new enclosures which will allow their use for all future projects.

Significant benefits There have been many benefits from having a partner with the technical expertise and in-house manufacturing facilities of Spelsberg. Its GRP and polycarbonate enclosures are available in many standard sizes, which can then be quickly customised and assembled in large or small order quantities. Entry points can be sealed with traditional IP68 dome topped cable glands or quick action grommets which provide IP67 seals with installation in under a minute.

Spelsberg also offer a range of modular enclosures which allow the user to build large enclosures to specific dimensions.

Development work is taking place with

uk Spelsberg UK is the largest supplier of non-metallic enclosures, ex stock in the UK; it has over 4,000 standard products available with extensive CNC customisation abilities.

The company has almost 100 years experience in the industry and its team of sales engineers is on hand to develop bespoke solutions for almost any application.

Tel: 01952 200716 Email: sales@spelsberg.co.uk

the company’s sales engineers to develop a solution for the larger main control units.

Working trackside will always be a dangerous place for maintenance crews and a harsh environment for equipment. As manufacturers, Samuel James has a responsibility to ensure that all components prevent further hazards from being introduced whilst simplifying the work that needs to be undertaken. Having found that plastic enclosures provide significant benefits to the protection and longevity of trackside electronics, it is now committed to investing in this technology and providing complete electrical insulation at every stage on all systems.

www.spelsberg.co.uk uk Customisation

GRP Range

36 | the rail engineer | september 2012

signalling & telecoms

Cutting-edge

communications writers

Dave Palmer and Gary Porter Programme Sponsor and Senior Programme Manager FTN/GSM-R Programme, Network Rail Rail is in the midst of one N etwork of the largest

(Inset top) Logging in to a GSM-R (Inset middle) A tunnel repeater.

(Inset bottom) A trackside base station.

telecommunications programmes that the railway has ever seen. Once completed, the FTN/GSM-R Programme will have introduced a step change in the way that telecoms support the operational railway. Not only is it bringing railway telecoms fully into the digital age, it is also unlocking a plethora of future capabilities by providing a robust fixed network and radio bearer capable of supporting a wide range of applications from ERTMS in-cab signalling to advances in real time passenger information and on train ticketing systems.

The programme to replace analogue legacy cab radio systems (the National Radio Network (NRN) and Cab Secure Radio (CSR)) with a new digital GSM-R system is driven by a number of factors, not least the revocation of the licence to radiate NRN frequencies in Great Britain. In addition, introducing GSM-R now mitigates for the fact that the technology on which existing systems are based is reaching life expiry and is becoming progressively more difficult and expensive to maintain.

GSM-R satisfies the requirements of a number of incident inquiry safety recommendations, enabling the mainland UK railway to comply with European interoperability legislation and capitalise on the benefits of modern technology and the significant safety and performance improvements that it can bring. With the arrival of GSM-R the UK railway will, for the first time, have access to a single national system of driver-to-signaller radio communications specifically designed to cater for the needs of a modern railway.

Introducing this new radio network across the entire country has been a major undertaking. From the early stages, Network Rail had active support and participation from many of the train operators, both passenger and freight, notably FirstGroup which supported the Strathclyde Trial, Virgin which took GSM-R on early on the West Coast Main Line and East Coast which was the first to embrace GSM-R under the national rollout (and has subsequently provided sterling support in ironing out some technical issues). East Midlands Trains provided director-level representation to the tactical management group and Southeastern’s managing director championed GSM-R across all passenger operators.

The programme had support from all three major RoSCos (Angel, Porterbrook and Eversholt Rail) throughout the programme and also from ATOC which embedded key people with vehicle engineering and train operations skills within the Network Rail

A GSM-R cab radio where you need it, when you need it GSM-R transportable cab radios siemens.com/gsm-r

Siemens 8 watt GSM-R Transportable cab radio allows flexibility in provision of train to ground communications.

The fully EIRENE compliant GSM-R transportable cab radio is a self contained robust unit, complete with a textual display, handset and loudspeaker.

The Transportable can be easily carried onto a train, brought into operational service and then removed at the end of the journey. Complete with a quick fit mounting, it can be used on all train classes and supply voltages.

The device is ideal for use on networks that are undergoing analogue to GSM-R network migration, where a permanently installed cab radio is not yet required.

The Transportable provides fixed radio performance and maximises utilisation of the GSM-R infrastructure, whilst minimising on-train investment.

Easily able to be updated to future EIRENE versions, the Transportable is backed by exceptional ongoing support.

Answers for mobility.

38 | the rail engineer | september 2012

Frequentis’ Dicora-S terminal, as used by the signallers.

signalling & telecoms

programme team, as well as providing senior management level representation into the tactical management group. There was consistent support from ORR, DfT and Transport Scotland, who sit with representatives of all the other groups on the Programme Control Board.

RSSB has been involved at all levels, leading cross industry teams on much of the operational design work and providing expert advice to both Network Rail and the Train Operators in such areas. Many other parties in the industry have been actively engaged to varying levels dependent on timing and level of their involvement.

Over the life of the programme, the relationship across the industry parties has developed from the relatively dark days of a somewhat dictatorial Railtrack position, to a position of mutual trust. This gets past the limitations of the commercial nature of the industry structure and creates the opportunity for a true and positive collaboration, without which the success of the programme would have been far from assured.

Designed for expansion The GSM-R system has been designed both to meet the requirement to replace existing driver to signaller voice radio and to provide expansion capacity for growth in GSM-R voice usage over the life of the GSM-R standard. In addition, the design provided for higher signal strength on the High Speed Trans European Network routes to support future deployment of ETCS. At the time the UK GSM-R network was being designed, there were no plans to provide a packet switched ETCS solution, consequently the deployed GSM-R system does not incorporate GPRS (General Packet Radio Service). However, the spectrum available for GSM-R is insufficient to support a circuit switched ETCS solution in high traffic density areas, so a GPRS capability will have to be added to the GSM-R system as and when the ETCS requirement for packet switching is more clearly understood.

Nevertheless, the GSM-R system is already in use supporting ETCS in a circuit switched capacity on the Cambrian Line.

A purpose-built central Telecommunications Engineering Control Centre (TECC) in the Midlands monitors and controls the GSM-R network on a real time basis. From this centre, proactive management of the network can identify and address system failures before they affect service.

The total network will comprise approximately 2,800 radio base stations covering 15,000 kilometres of the railway.

These base stations are linked to two switching centres (one at the TECC and one in the south of England) using a new Fixed Telecoms Network (FTN) built with optical fibre cables and digital transmission equipment.

The key user interfaces for the system will be around 1,000 GSM-R fixed terminals to provide the primary means of communication between signal boxes, control offices, electrical control rooms, and 8,700 GSM-R cab radios fitted to virtually all rolling stock that operates on the infrastructure controlled by Network Rail. In addition, GSM-R hand portable radios will be provided as replacements for active NRN “Brunel” hand portables on withdrawal of NRN coverage.

UK-specific features The implementation of GSM-R in the UK goes beyond the requirements of the European Directives by introducing certain UK-specific additional features.

These include an extra yellow button (high priority point-to-point call), alphanumeric train numbering (head codes) and the “waiting at signal” function.

Primarily these additional features replicate useful functionality that exists in current CSR systems but is not present in the standard GSM-R feature set. These functions are considered to be worth retaining, as they bring GSM-R closer to the way the UK railway is used to operating.

A key factor that had to be considered was implementing the UK specific features into the GSM-R system in a manner that did not present a barrier to interoperability, as mandated by the European Directives. Equally, the GSM-R train radio needed also to be demonstrably interoperable to enable vehicles fitted with this radio to be able to operate elsewhere in Europe.

The GSM-R Programme has faced a number of challenges over the years, not least finding a solution to co-ordinating a technically and operationally complex, cross-industry programme that involves and affects stakeholders from infrastructure and train/freight operators, vehicle owners and government departments to manufacturers, suppliers, maintainers, trainers and end users. These challenges have arisen in many forms, including operational, commercial and technical difficulties unique to the use of such technologies to support an operational railway.

One example was finding a solution to the requirement to ensure calls from specific vehicles travelling at line speed are automatically routed to the appropriate signaller, an issue not normally faced by an operator of GSM-based systems in the public domain. The resolution of this challenge required a detailed technical investigation over a period of several months to determine root causes. The resultant

40 | the rail engineer | september 2012

signalling & telecoms

•

•

•

solution involved careful management of the location and frequencies of transmitter sites (the cell plan) and the transitions from cell to cell through the control of the neighbour lists (which determine the handovers between cells as the train progresses along a line of route) and the codes that are used to segregate individual routes.

Additional benefits

A typical operational comms network.

Whilst primarily a renewal programme, the introduction of GSM-R delivers significant additional safety and performance benefits to the operational railway. These include: • The elimination of areas where there is no means of immediate and direct communication between driver and signaller (e.g. tunnels and deep cuttings), thus increasing the probability of successful delivery of emergency calls/emergency stop messages and improving the effectiveness of the radio system in mitigating certain hazards.

• Direct communications between signallers and the drivers of all trains by way of a GSM-R Railway Emergency Call. This enables all drivers in the vicinity of an incident to be included in the call and therefore to be advised of the emergency at the earliest possible moment, thus

•

reducing the probability of an accident or secondary collision.

The opportunity to improve communications capabilities in possessions. The existing communication systems used by track workers have several limitations, all of which can be reduced or eliminated through the use of GSM-R. The net result for the operational railway would be a reduction in the risk of a safety incident in a possession leading to a delay in resumption of normal operation.

Central recording of all radio calls involving driver or signaller. These recordings may be used for post incident analysis and for monitoring and managing user competence.

Maintaining direct contact between driver and signaller, facilitating timely and efficient passing of information with a reduced requirement for the use of SPTs. Faster recovery after an incident or equipment failure. By being able to make broadcast calls to all drivers in a particular area or through the ability to make pointto-point calls to all trains, signallers are able to minimise the time required to get vehicles moving again.

Timeline The first implementation of GSM-R was in Strathclyde in 2007 in the form of a threeyear operational trial with legacy radio as a backup. In parallel, the system was introduced on the Cambrian line to support the operational pilot of the ERTMS in cab signalling system on that route. A further trial was implemented on the southern part of the West Coast Main Line to enable the system to be tested at speeds that could not be achieved on the Strathclyde suburban network.

As these trials drew to a close, national implementation began in February 2011 with the southern part of the East Coast Main Line, between London and Grantham, and has proceeded in a series of geographically based packages called Completion Areas. These areas are determined principally by the range of operation of specific vehicle fleets and constrained by the scale of the resultant exercise to bring the system into operation.

A significant number of other factors were taken into consideration in order to minimise the operational impact of the transition from legacy system to GSM-R whilst maximising the operational benefit that can be derived from the introduction of the new system.

Deployment is split into two major sections, dictated by the planned revocation of the licence to use NRN in the south of the country at the end of 2012 to make way for high definition digital television broadcasting in the UK and Europe.

To date, nearly 4,500 route kilometres of the GSM-R system is in live operation, leaving less than 3,000km to go to meet the end of year deadline in the south and just under a further 8,000km to complete the UK wide rollout before the end of the current control period. The most notable recent achievement is the delivery in July of the remainder of the English routes operated by First Great Western, which brings infrastructure delivery up to 29% of the overall network in live operation.

Interwoven with the Network Rail infrastructure delivery programme are the train operators’ delivery programmes. These cover the fitting of GSM-R radios to each vehicle and the training of drivers and maintainers in the processes and procedures for managing and using them as the railway’s primary driver-to-signaller communication system. To date, 57% of all the vehicles that will be fitted with GSM-R by the programme have been brought to a state of GSM-R readiness, with brackets, wiring, antennas, etc fitted, and 25% of the national fleet is fitted with an operational GSM-R radio.

The GSM-R Programme is a landmark in collaborative whole-industry project delivery. It is well on the way to achieving its primary objective - replacing ageing analogue radio systems with the latest railway telecommunications equipment. The cross-industry team approach has helped overcome the significant challenges inherent in the delivery of such a complex and far reaching programme.

GSM-R base station

Signalling interlocking

SDH transmission node

Telephone concentrator

Office telephones

Signaller’s telephone

GSM-R Mobile Switching Centre (MSC)

Cabinet for copper cross-connection or HDSL equipment Signalling long distance terminal Network terminating point

Telecoms Engineering Control

Fibre cable Multipair copper cable Copper tail cable Signal post telephone

Lineside signalling equipment

september 2012 | the rail engineer | 41

signalling & telecoms

writer

Clive Kessell

beyond saying that they both use red, yellow and green lights, the answer will be “Not Much”. But is this true? And are there opportunities for technology convergence between the two philosophies? The IRSE explored such possibilities at a recent seminar with some surprising outcomes.

Setting the scene was IRSE President, Francis How, who predicted that a cross fertilisation of ideas will be forthcoming with opportunities for technology transfer and business promotion. The challenge will be to overcome the long-held principles and perspectives that many hold dear.

Road and Rail Management

remarkably similar: cart track with horses to the metal track to powered traction (steam then diesel and electric) to high speed lines; but what comes next?

Modular infrastructure, “guiding mind” control systems, energy harvesting, passenger flow management, integrated mobile communications, predictive asset management, automated mobile cargo handling, maybe even mixed passenger and freight trains. In short, rail will also need to be smart, intelligent, dynamic and resilient.

Future roads will have to be adaptable, automated and resilient with the recognition that present roads will be difficult, if not impossible, to convert. In Holland, ModieSlab prefabricated roads are already undergoing trials and look to be successful; a similar trial with installing a “road on a roll” tended to break up but more development will follow.

The opportunities for convergence of the materials and technology are there to be taken and the big infrastructure companies are likely to drive this. More difficult will be the mindset required to integrate journey and transit opportunities for the mixing of traffic, seamless transfers, automated handling and network optimisation across both road and rail networks. The EU is to reveal future strategy in the form of a White Paper.

Traffic Management

The Road Train concept Mention road trains to most people and the vision is one of juggernaut lorries with multiple trailers thundering across the American or Australian wilderness. The EU SARTRE project is very different to this, and focuses how to operate “platoons” of up to five vehicles in a safe convoy on motorways and other trunk roads. Tom Robinson, from the Intelligent Transport Systems division of Ricardo, explained how it would work. On the basis that drivers cause 87% of all road fatalities, could a lead vehicle with an “expert” driver be used to control a group of following vehicles in terms of speed, steering, distance separation and fuel efficiency? This could free up the other drivers to make calls, work on a laptop, read paperwork or simply relax. All of this would need to be feasible on existing roads.

The transmission of information between vehicles in this “road train” would be by radio and both the Lead Vehicle (LV and expected to be a lorry) and Following Vehicles (FV) would need equipping with sensor and driving control equipment as well as having an automatic gearbox. Seven companies from UK, Sweden, Germany and Spain have formed a consortium to develop the trial which will take place in Spain later in 2012.

Many operational scenarios have to be taken into account: how to join or leave a platoon,

Road versus Rail

Transmission of information between vehicles in this ‘road train’ would be by radio.

PHOTO: RAILPHOTOLIBRARY.COM

Bob Collis from the Transport Research Laboratory gave insight into how “the forever-open road and rail” vision may be fulfilled in the future. Several institutions are working on this within Europe, the objective being to ensure transport is always there for the conveyance of people and goods.

Looking back at road history, we have progressed from cart track to paved road to tarmac road to motorway; but what comes next?

The Technology Road is the likely answer being smart, dynamic and intelligent. This will be a difficult change for the infrastructure but will yield many cost savings and benefits. Such things as prefabricated surfaces, use of recycled material, in-built drainage, bolt-on lanes, instant crack repairs, condition monitoring, electronic vehicle guidance and driver information systems are all either already designed, in prototype form or well under way with research.

Parallels with rail system development will be obvious to many readers of the rail engineer. The historical development is

PHOTO: VOLVO

most people if there is any similarity A skbetween rail and road signals and,

42 | the rail engineer | september 2012

obstacle avoidance, emergency stop, differing road conditions, loss of radio signal, as well as all the human factors that conceivably could disrupt the continuity and safety of the road train.

Interesting as it is from a technological viewpoint, one could not help wondering whether any investigation had been done into whether the average motorist would accept the concept. The subsequent discussion had very mixed views on this but perhaps only when the trial has taken place can these questions begin to be answered.

signalling & telecoms Once a traveller pushes a call-button at a station, a Pod will arrive normally within two minutes, being directed off the main track into the terminal platform. Inside the pod the Pod, the passenger selects the required destination and the Pod reverses out onto the main track and proceeds on its way. All completely automatically.

The track is a narrow concrete roadway equipped with four lasers either side to track and control vehicle movement. A central control provides all the movement instructions and interfaces with a trackbased Automatic Vehicle Protection (AVP) system that gives the safety integrity.

Each Pod is equipped with a guidance and navigation system that includes a “health check” to ensure that the vehicle is performing correctly. 20 Pods are provided on this small network, each being capable of a maximum speed of 25mph.

As soon as a destination is selected, the system checks that space is available at that point and a direct route is programmed. With stations sited off the main track, this prevents incorrect egress by passengers at any intermediate point.

Induction loops disable the space behind a

moving Pod to achieve a guaranteed vehicle separation and a 6.4 second headway is obtained.

Pod design The Pods are fitted with rubber-tyred wheels and have air conditioning, powered doors and emergency egress. They are powered from conventional lead acid batteries and floor mounted charging points at stations enable a quick top up.

The system is clever enough to monitor / predict usage and capacity peaks, so empty vehicle movements are programmed in from time to time to ensure minimum waiting times.

The contract for Heathrow T5 was let in 2007 with the system being commissioned in 2011 after extensive usage testing.

350,000 passenger journeys were made in the first year. An average 99% performance availability has been achieved to date with 99.8% reliability in both track and vehicles for the overall journey time of 11 minutes.

The system has replaced all bus links to and from the T5 car parks, is much more efficient in terms of energy usage and has freed up road space around Heathrow.

Is it a car, is it a train?

One good example of the crossover between road and rail is the new Heathrow Terminal 5 Pod system. This links the car parks to the terminal and consists of a rubber-tyred steerable vehicle on a dedicated concrete track. It is completely automatic in operation and is controlled by what is essentially a modern railway-type signalling system.

Developed by Ultra Global PRT, it offers personalised transit from two car park “stations” for anyone arriving by car. The four-person vehicles, known as Pods, travel via a dedicated guideway on an elevated viaduct.

Use of COTS Commercial Off-The-Shelf (COTS) equipment is low cost by design and made by more than one manufacturer. Can such equipment be used in railway safetycritical control and communications equipment, be it for road or rail systems?

This was the question posed by John Slinn from Park Signalling, one of the smaller rail signalling companies that have emerged over the last decade. Seeing how commoditisation has impacted on devices such as Satnav and other traffic information systems in the road sector, why cannot similar technology be applied to rail? Signalling is basically a means of ensuring the safe passage of trains and, to do this, it must interlock signals and points, deadlock points and prevent multiple trains from entering a block section or conflicting route. A railway signal is a means of communication to the driver.

If COTS equipment were to be used for these functions, it would be difficult to apply conventional safety techniques. The safety certification time would probably exceed the product lifetime and any

september 2012 | the rail engineer | 43

upgrades may require re-certification.

Thus cheapness may be offset by costs associated with the short product life.

To untangle this conundrum, a goingback-to-basics approach is needed, which may necessitate defining suitable types of systems for different categories of railway lines.

The Park Signalling system is known as VLS (Virtual Lineside Signalling) where encryption of information sent to the driver’s cab is used as the basis of system safety, rather than the use of high integrity hardware. Commercial 3G networks are used for the intermittent communication of information between track and train with radio frequency ID tags (RFID) placed in the ballast to give positional information to the train. An in-cab monitor displays the equivalent of lineside signals. This could be a commercial laptop, thus overcoming the logistic and expense problem of rolling stock fitment.

The use of COTS products will keep costs low. The system is not envisaged for high density or high speed lines but might be suitable for secondary or freight only lines, maybe even as a temporary signalling system during remodelling work.

All this sounded remarkably similar to the ERTMS Regional (Level 3) system being trialled in Sweden (the rail engineer issue 82, August 2011). Whilst COTS based technology may be cheaper, ERTMS equipment will be compatible with all other ERTMS equipped lines and rolling stock thus facilitating interworking. That said, full marks to Park Signalling for progressing the idea of adapting COTS equipment for rail use, a concept that recently won the Innovation Award at the RIA annual Technology and Innovation conference.

autonomous system, decisions concerning movement and situational awareness are achieved on board the vehicle, although sometimes with advice from an on-board computer receiving external information.

For aircraft, autonomy of around 97% is normal even allowing for the nuances of certification and flight clearance. Road vehicles are autonomous in operation whereas rail transport is largely automatic in nature.

Indeed driverless metros are by definition fully automatic. Regardless of transport mode, the acquisition of data and the fusion of such data is the key to making safe decisions on vehicle movement. Technologies are being developed, currently mainly in the military, for changing the automatic / autonomy balance and both road and rail sectors need to be aware of the opportunities that could emerge.

The FASSI system now used on the Tyne & Wear Metro (NEXUS) incorporates an Electronic Train Running Board and Energy Meters to give re-iterative advice for timekeeping and energy wastage to drivers by an in cab screen showing information on timetabling and driving accuracy with feedback, punctuality reports in real time, and interchange information.

Project MERLIN aims to expand this into main line rail applications in Europe for smarter energy usage optimisation, which is particularly important where mixed traffic operation takes place.

Whilst rail is developing improved Driver Advice Systems (DAS), and road is majoring on telematics for driver performance, there is considered to be clear scope for knowledge transfer between the two modes.

PHOTO: VOLVO

PHOTO: VOLVO

signalling & telecoms

Engineer the future with Park Signalling

New concepts Autonomy or automatic Understanding the fundamental differences between road and rail technologies necessitates defining the features of automatic and autonomous systems, and which decisions are to be made by humans and which by machines. A presentation by Stewart Webb of BAE Systems looked at the differences.

In an automatic system, decisionmaking about movement is made away from the vehicle and situational awareness is similarly not done by or on the vehicle. However, in an

Neil Ridley, Director of the Transport Knowledge Transfer Network, reviewed the day’s discussions. Information availability is key to all transport success and a huge explosion of data is now happening. However, the challenge is to capture and use the right data for the support of transport needs and users.

Both road and rail transport will be needed for the foreseeable future and wherever possible, a converging of the respective technologies so as to maximise efficiency and reduce cost must be a goal for both industries.

A design and consultancy company providing specialist knowledge in the field of railway signalling.

0161 975 6161 tel. email: info@park-signalling.co.uk web: www.park-signalling.co.uk

44 | the rail engineer | september 2012

signalling & telecoms

writer

Clive Kessell

Communicating in the Chunnel

five years ago, the operational T wenty telecommunications systems for the Channel Tunnel were being planned and designed. Radio systems were very important in this provision for, as well as providing continuous communication with the trains, there was need to reliably communicate with all the personnel who worked in the tunnel and to the emergency services who might need to venture inside.

Thought was given to the provision of the new GSM public cellular service (2G) but the cost of providing a system on the radiating cable with sufficient capacity to meet the perceived demand from the travelling public was seen as prohibitive. Being out of contact for the short journey time of less than 30 minutes was not seen as a show stopper.

In the intervening period, attitudes have changed and the public expect to be able to use their mobile phones wherever they may be. Both Paris and London metros have had to react to this demand and are equipping

their tunnels with appropriate systems. It would be strange if the Channel Tunnel was not to be similarly equipped. How, therefore, to make a suitable business case and get a system implemented? This has been the big challenge.

Existing radio renewal opportunities The track-to-train radio network in the tunnel is based upon the ex-BR Cab Secure UHF system and the general usage VHF radio network was bought as an analogue proprietary system. Both are now obsolete technology and need replacing with GSM-R. Planning this renewal started in 2009 and, during this process, the question of providing the public with mobile telephone facilities emerged yet again. By this time 2G was well established and 3G services were also widely available. Engineers realised that it should be possible to superimpose these services on the infrastructure being used for the new operational system.

The GSM-R system operates in the 870 930MHz band, roughly twice the frequency of the existing track to train radio, and thus the attenuation will be much greater. To avoid excessive use of repeaters, a new radiating cable of very high quality has had to be installed. This has been supplied by Radio Frequency Systems (RFS), a subsidiary of Alcatel-Lucent, and is positioned on the far wall of the running tunnels - the opposite side from where the present radiating cable exists.

The authority to proceed with GSM-R was granted in 2009 and the cable has been progressively installed during routine possession times. These allowed four to five hours per night on three days a week during the period January to May 2012 but only on one night per week from June to December.

The cable is supported every metre and has needed 53,000 fixing points in each tunnel, no mean challenge.

With public mobile service provision in mind, the cable is designed to support both the 2G networks operating in the 900MHz and 1800MHz bands and the 3G service in the 2.1GHz band. The forthcoming 4G service (sometimes known as LTE - Long Term Evolution) is allocated space in the 2.6GHz band and this must also be catered for as it is due to commence in 2014. Thus public cellular services (GSM-P) in all three bands would now be possible, and the plan to provide these commenced in June 2011 with a contract being let to Alcatel-Lucent in France for the necessary design and turnkey work.

september 2012 | the rail engineer | 45

signalling & telecoms

Dealing with International boundaries The Channel Tunnel has always been a problem in determining where the France UK boundary is to be located. Legally it is half way across but this makes little sense for engineering system designs. Discussions with the Regulators arrived at a pragmatic solution for public cellular provision with the south tunnel (normal direction France to England) being determined as French and the north tunnel (normal direction England to France) being allocated to the British.

Negotiations commenced with both the French and UK network providers to establish whether they would collaboratively join with Eurotunnel to provide a public mobile service. These have been far more successful in France than Britain and an agreement was signed in 2011 with Orange, SFR and Bouygues Telecom to equip the south tunnel. ‘Free Mobile’ will also join this consortium later on.

Discussions with the UK operators, Vodafone, O2, Everything Everywhere (the new consortium of Orange UK and T Mobile) and Three, have been protracted. The Olympic Games have held up a decision, but it is hoped that progress can now be made quickly. Thus the bizarre situation exists that the south tunnel currently has service provision but the north tunnel does not.

Solving the technical challenges With the radiating cable installed in each of the running tunnels, the design for a combined GSM-R and GSM-P system could proceed. The contract with Alcatel-Lucent proceeded to a fast timescale with the intention of having a service operating prior to the London Olympic Games. This required the design for the overall configuration and the supply of the necessary equipment to be completed by July 2012.

Each tunnel has two BTS (Base Transmitter Station) sites. These will be the equipment rooms sited at the shaft surface location some three kilometres from the tunnel mouths. In these rooms the transmitting equipment for both the operational railway (GSM-R) and for each network provider will be located. Feeder cable is run down the shaft to connect to the radiating cable.

Repeaters are required at 750 metre intervals in the tunnel, these being located in the central service tunnel and connected via feeder cables routed through the tunnel cross passages known as adits. A separate repeater is required for each of the GSM-R and GSM-P services. Power for the repeaters is taken from Eurotunnel’s safeguarded supply. The repeaters are two way - thus amplifying both the transmit and receive signals - and cover the 900MHz, 1800MHz and 2.4GHz bands. Band pass filters prevent unwanted interference from impacting on the particular service provision.

The provision of the repeaters has been sub contracted to a UK firm, Axell Wireless from Maidenhead, which has an internationally-recognised expertise in radio repeater technology. Additional repeater equipment will be necessary for the 4G service but this will need to establish itself with a large enough customer base before extending the service into the Channel Tunnel becomes justified.

Each tunnel will have six cells each of nine kilometres length. For every user, a potential bandwidth of minimum 384kbit all along the tunnel is available that will allow good speech communication and a usable data rate for mobile devices to connect to the internet. Once established, it is anticipated that the 3G service will be able to offer a

maximum data rate of 8Mbit to a user and an average rate of 3Mbit. Thus the data service offering inside the tunnel is likely to be better than that in the normal outside environment.

46 | the rail engineer | september 2012

signalling & telecoms

Usage, maintenance and other technologies The south tunnel service was introduced in late July 2012, just before the start of the London Olympics, and it is still too early to predict what the take up rates will be.

Aimed at both Eurostar passengers and those travelling in cars and coaches within a Shuttle train, it is possible that demand will exist for several hundred simultaneous conversations. The worst case scenario will be with two trains in a single cell area, both of which are stopped because of an operating or signalling problem in the tunnel. In such circumstances, it is possible the system will overload and in anticipation of this, the Eurotunnel operators may seek to use the SMS service to give a general message update on the situation.

No special equipment is being provided on either the Eurostar or Shuttle trains.

Users will communicate with the system directly by the on-air connection and thus the transmit signal from the cable and the receiver sensitivity of the system have to be good enough to overcome any attenuation caused by the metal cage of the train carriages. The offering is therefore no different to using a mobile device in open country and no special tariffs will apply.

The total cost of the project is €14 million for both tunnels, the majority of this being borne by Eurotunnel who have provided all the radiating cable and the equipment needed for GSM-R. The mobile network providers’ contribution is the supply of BTS equipment, the repeaters needed for their own service provision and the connectivity to their main network nodes.

An overall maintenance contract has been negotiated with Alcatel-Lucent but, with its high security requirements, the

maintenance of the tunnel-mounted equipment is subcontracted to Eurotunnel which has needed to train their engineers and technicians for the combined cable and repeater system. However, with the BTS equipment located at the shaft top sites, the contract with Alcatel-Lucent will allow their staff access for both routine maintenance and fault rectification. The Service Level Agreement (SLA) calls for 99.5% availability with a 6 hour return to service when faults occur, and should either Eurotunnel or Alcatel-Lucent fail to achieve this, then penalties will apply.

It is perhaps ironic that the catalyst for the project - the provision of GSM-R - is not due to be commissioned until 2014, it being necessary to tie this in with the fitting of radios to the trains that operate in the tunnel.

The GSM-R system will therefore have had a good soak test on its infrastructure before being brought into service.

One unknown is whether the Eurostar train provision of an on board WiFi service, let as a three-year contract to Nomad Digital in September 2011 to equip the trains, will be modified to permit the ontrain network to communicate with the 3G service. It is not Eurotunnel’s intention to extend the unlicensed WiFi service in the 2.4Gbit or 5Gbit bands on to their infrastructure.

All looks set fair for the future. This project is another small step in the concept of having mobile coverage available wherever you are in the world, something that could perhaps never have been envisaged when cellular radio first started in the early 1980s.

Thanks go to Laurent Zimmermann and Stephane Popiolek from Alcatel-Lucent and Michel Boudoussier and Christian Rémond from Eurotunnel for their help in preparing this article.

48 | the rail engineer | september 2012

signalling & telecoms

pages of railway magazines, T heincluding the rail engineer, tend to be full of glossy new trains and high-profile projects. King’s Cross Station, Blackfriars and Crossrail tend to hog the headlines, followed

by Thameslink, Borders, HS2 and IEP. But much work goes on around the country, away from London, which not only is essential to the smooth running of the railways but is also good engineering.

These projects often go unreported, even inside the organisation that is carrying out the work, as there too, they can be overshadowed by more glamorous projects.

So it is good to report that, in the midst of an intensive programme of activity for Invensys Rail’s delivery teams, which included the final commissionings of Thameslink Key Output 1 and the Water Orton resignalling programme, the company successfully completed the Salisbury to Exeter Signalling Recontrol project.

Complex geography Commissioned at the end of March 2012, this multi-disciplinary scheme posed a number of technical and logistical challenges and was delivered within an exceptionally tight timeframe. The project featured new technology, new applications, the integration of new and old infrastructure and interfaces to seven level crossings. The project’s geography also added to its complexity, with the core area covering 70 track miles and fringe works being 90 miles apart.

Thanks to a truly collaborative approach to the project, with teams from Network Rail and Invensys Rail co-located to ensure fast and efficient information exchange and communication flows, the project was delivered in just 11 months from contract award to commissioning. This culminated in an intensive period of six back-to-back weekend possessions to carry out level crossing renewals, and three staged signalling commissionings. The final stage was completed over the weekend of 24/25 March 2011.

Invensys Rail’s contract included all elements of signalling, telecoms, electrification and plant (E&P), permanentway (P-way) and level crossing work, with the company managing specialist subcontractors for the E&P, P-way and telecoms elements and the civils installation work being delivered by an Invensys Rail team.

As well as trackside works, the project also delivered a fully refurbished and reconfigured control room at Basingstoke Signalling Control Centre, housing a new push button panel to take over control of the signalling and telecoms systems from the life expired mechanical signal boxes throughout the route. A new control room and panel carcass were also provided in preparation for the forthcoming Poole to Wool project.

With control transferred to Basingstoke, the mechanical signal boxes and gate boxes at Gillingham, Sherborne, Templecombe, Yeovil Junction, Chard, Honiton and Feniton were all abolished, with four buildings being completely dismantled and removed; Gillingham has been retained as a ground frame and Templecombe and Feniton continue to function as part-time ticket offices.

Life expired interlockings were replaced with three new Solid State Interlockings (SSIs) housed at Basingstoke, together with two new axle counter evaluators - all communicating with trackside equipment via Fixed Telecoms Network (FTN) links interfacing to 20 FTN nodes.

Signalling

out in the sticks

We deliver Water Orton resignalling Invensys Rail successfully completed the commissioning of the final phase of the Water Orton Corridor Resignalling project - handing back into operation, on time, after a 98 hour possession.

A complex commissioning, it was approximately double the size of Phase 1, involving 273 track circuits, 103 signals, 58 point ends and 4 fringes. It also involved an extension to the WESTLOCK previously commissioned under Phase 1.

Thanks to months of planning and preparation by all the project disciplines, the work was smoothly carried out over nine shifts without any engineering or incidents.

Find out how we can help you deliver, visit www.invensysrail.com or call +44 (0) 1249 441441

Come and see us at InnoTrans We are in Hall 4.2 stand 205

50 | the rail engineer | september 2012

signalling & telecoms

Lightweight signals Following a value engineering exercise undertaken by the integrated project team, the existing signals were replaced with new VMS lightweight signal heads. These were housed on a

mixture of existing and new structures, including 27 new lightweight posts and three new two-track cantilever structures. The project was the first to commission VMS Miniature and Standard Alphanumeric Route Indicators and also the first to retrofit signals to existing structures. At trackside, Invensys Rail also installed a total of 120 new location cases, together with four relocatable equipment buildings, four principal supply points, and seven new distribution network operator supplies.

Both train protection and automatic warning systems were retained where possible, with new tail cables to the SSI location cases. Train detection was achieved with a mixture of AZLM axle counters and DC track circuits through the station areas, the latter requiring the installation of 122 new insulated rail joints and the subsequent recovery of 48 existing joints. 13 mechanical point ends were converted to clamp lock operation, with a further nine ends recontrolled with new tail cables to the SSI location cases.

Level Crossings The project interfaced to seven manually controlled barrier (MCB) level crossings, with two complete renewals undertaken at Sherborne and Feniton as well as the conversion of the MCB crossing at Chard to CCTV control. All three of these sites were provided with new lighting and CCTV coverage. A fourth MCB at Axminster was recontrolled from Chard

to Basingstoke, whilst three Automatic Half Barrier (AHB) crossings were also recontrolled to the new signalling system.

Systems and telecoms work included the recontrol of all lineside telephones to an upgraded concentrator at Basingstoke, as well as modifications to the existing train describer (TD) and cab-secure radio (CSR) systems to interface to the new signalling arrangements. Emergency alarms were reconfigured to the new fringes and new power and intruder alarm systems were provided for all new equipment.

Commenting on the work, Invensys Rail’s Delivery Director, David Attmere, said: “This was a particularly challenging scheme given the extraordinarily tight timescale, the geographical spread of the work and the need to interface new signalling with the old. The project timescales not only created delivery challenges for the construction and testing teams, but also for the designers who needed to maintain configuration control of three enabling stages and three main commissioning phases - creating five final fringes and four temporary fringes, which existed for just two weeks at a time.

“The fact that the combined Network Rail and Invensys Rail project team delivered the programme on schedule is a tremendous achievement and great credit goes to all those involved.

Without the level of collaboration that was achieved, the project would not have been delivered within such a tight time-frame”.

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52 | the rail engineer | september 2012

signalling & telecoms

Signalling Initiatives

from Plymouth Bombardier have developed the EBIGate 200 system for use at footpaths and farm track crossings.

writer

Clive Kessell is a name now well B ombardier established in the rail industry, but that was not always the case.

Joseph Bombardier started the company in Canada to make snow mobiles during the 1930s, and this was the mainstream business for many years.

The company entered the rail sector during the 1970s, with its first major contract being to build subway cars for the Montreal Metro and soon after for New York City Transit.

Aerospace activity started in 1986 with the acquisition of Canadair and the company has expanded on a worldwide scale to become a leader in the transport arena.

In the UK, Bombardier is best known for its purchase of the former Derby Carriage Works of British Rail, where it has manufactured hundreds of carriages for many of the UK train operating companies as well as London Underground. Less well known is its acquisition of the former ADTranz signalling company. Now known as the Rail Control Solutions Division of Bombardier Transportation, it has an engineering centre in Stockholm, design and manufacturing facilities in both Plymouth and Poland, and a company presence throughout Europe and the world. the rail engineer was recently invited to visit the Plymouth facility. This was first established in the 1960s by ML Engineering who settled at the current site in Estover when they won their first big contract for Stoke Power Box as part of the West Coast Line electrification. ML was later acquired by ASEA Brown Boveri and, following a merger

with Daimler Chrysler Rail, became part of ADTranz. After yet another takeover, it became part of Bombardier in 2001.

The story of change does not end there.

Recognising that the key to on-going success is to have an installation and testing capability, Bombardier has entered into a partnership with Carillion to form a new project implementation company named Infrasig.

Products Bombardier has been a manufacturer of signalling equipment for many years. It designed its own solid state interlocking known as EBILock, which has been widely used worldwide. Nevertheless, adapting the

early version of this to UK signalling and operating principles proved difficult and a contract for the re-signalling of the Horsham area had to be abandoned. This was a disappointment for the company, forcing it to rethink how it would supply the UK market into the future.

Engineering expertise in the UK is now concentrated at the Plymouth facility where, in addition to manufacturing traditional signalling products, the company also produces various components of its ERTMS portfolio for global export. This wide mix of products has necessarily resulted in a flexible production arrangement. Automated testing facilities are integral to the process and every item of equipment that leaves the factory will have undergone a full test for both mechanical and electrical integrity.

september 2012 | the rail engineer | 53

signalling & telecoms The most famous product manufactured in Plymouth is the TI21 Track Circuit, now known as EBITrack 200. This was originally an all-analogue device using different frequencies for adjacent jointless track circuit operation on multiple tracks. However, it now comes with a digital receiver and transmitter.

Additionally, the latest version can have the equipment frequency set by the insertion of programmed electronic “keys” (akin to a memory stick) which, along with automated track setup, reduces the track circuit setup time considerably. The use of configurable units also has benefits of reducing maintenance stockholding requirements, as it negates the need to hold spares for all eight frequencies of equipment.

Recent developments A more recent development is the EBITrack 400, which is a fully digitallycoded track circuit, allowing each installation to have a unique code. This is the logical successor to the EBITrack 200 and is now under trial on Network Rail and other railway networks worldwide.

Another variant is designed specifically for metro applications. The EBITrack 300 is similar in principle to EBI Track 200, but incorporates a coding overlay for ATP purposes.

In addition, the EBI Lock interlocking has been redeveloped to operate on a COTS (Common Off the Shelf) platform with the capability of controlling up to 4000 objects, whilst still maintaining a SIL4 specification.

Having mentioned that the Plymouth site also manufactures a wide range of products, other items manufactured by Bombardier in the UK include: • Impedance Bonds, used to ensure the safe passage of traction return current on both AC and DC railways without adversely affecting the operation of track circuits; • Signal heads of the classic lens and bulb type; • Point machines, both motor driven and clamp lock; • Axle counters, as an alternative to track circuits; • Telemetry products which are also deployed in the oil industry; • Electronic timers.

ERTMS No world-class signalling company can afford not to be involved in ERTMS - the European Rail Traffic Management System. Bombardier is one of the few supplier organisations to have a full complement of ERTMS Level 2 products, which includes both trackside and train borne equipment.

As well as the radio block centre and integral interlocking, the company produces the track mounted balise and line encoder unit, and the on board EVC (European Vital Computer) equipment including under train

antennas and balise readers. Odometry equipment, for positional information updates, is bought in from specialist suppliers.

The Infrasig partnership is one of Network Rail’s approved suppliers for its impending ERTMS programme.

Having a rolling stock capability may give the firm a competitive advantage when both resignalling and train provision is part of a project.

Of great equal significance is the equipment supplied by Bombardier for the recently commissioned ERTMS Level 3 system in Sweden (see issue 82, August 2011). This application (known as Regional ERTMS) is designed for lightly used lines and avoids the need for lineside cabling or conventional train detection equipment. The installation near Borlange, is attracting much international interest, and Bombardier is hopeful that the system will be extended to other similar lines in Sweden and beyond. Ultimately it is expected that Level 3 will become acceptable for busy main line application and, with its established experience, the firm will be well placed to be a market leader.

Level Crossings With TPWS (Train Protection and Warning System) having largely overcome the Signal Passed at Danger (SPAD) problem, one of the biggest remaining safety risks is level crossings, particularly for pedestrians and road vehicle users. Recent RAIB reports have revealed a continuing occurrence of accidents at user worked crossings, where over-familiarisation and minimal warning equipment have contributed to many incidents and a number of fatalities. Something has to be done and a level crossing improvement framework contract is in the offing.

Bombardier has been separately developing new equipment for use at footpath or farm track crossings.

Designated the EBIGate 200, it features an integral equipment cabinet with two lights and a push button displayed to the user. The lights are normally unlit, but on pushing the button either the green (safe to cross) lamp will be lit or the red (train coming) will display together with a two tone warning sound.

The red lamp circuitry is activated by strike-in treadles positioned at maximum line speed distance from the crossing on every approach track. This will give a minimum time of 40 seconds before the train arrival. If trains are slower, then a longer time period will elapse. For a multi-track railway, should a second train approach before the first has cleared, a verbal message ‘second train coming’ will be broadcast.

Treadles beyond the crossing, operating on the last-wheel principle, clear the warning cycle and enable a green light to be displayed. Reversion to the no-light condition will occur after a time unless the push button is

54 | the rail engineer | september 2012

In addition to manufacturing traditional signalling products, Bombardier also produces ERTMS components for global export.

reactivated. A dual digital judicial recorder is incorporated such that if an incident occurs, both Network Rail and the police can extract identical evidence. The judicial recorder will normally store ten days worth of crossing activity.

An additional feature which Bombardier are keen to promote is an interlock system with either a full width road or wicket gate, that would be prevented from opening if the red light is displayed. Further, the whole set up is capable of being powered from a solar or wind energy source if no local power supply is available.

The high cost of providing automatic half barrier (AHB) crossings has attracted much criticism from within the rail industry. In an effort to combat this, Bombardier has designed a new AHB package using a standard programmable logic controller (PLC) for the logic functions.

Branded EBIGate 2000, it is hoped that the reduced cost will lead to a resurgence of AHB schemes.

Metro applications In addition to main line signalling activity, Bombardier is well established in the metro signalling business. Its most recent projects have been the conversion to CBTC (Communications Based Train Control) of Metro Madrid, where the new system was installed, tested and commissioned without any loss of revenue service, and the equipping of the Shenzen Metro in China.

Closer to home has been the winning of the London Underground Sub Surface Lines resignalling contract in 2011 - the largest single signalling contract ever awarded by LU. This work was described in issue 95

signalling & telecoms

(November 2011) and Bombardier are under no illusions as to the complexity of the work to be done.

A joint project team has been set up with the Bombardier engineers working alongside their LU equivalents in the same oďŹ&#x192;ce near to Victoria station in London.

The fact that Bombardier is also the supplier of the new S Stock trains is a big factor in ensuring effective integration between trackside and on board equipment.

Future positioning Bombardier is realistic enough to know that the signalling business is a global market. Competition is intense and, in the longer term, there may be only enough room for perhaps ďŹ ve main suppliers. The Plymouth operation is very much part of the company structure, for whilst it is away from the main UK railway centres, its dedicated workforce has a lower than average staff turnover. Acquiring and

retaining the right skills base is very important in these days where engineering knowledge is at a premium.

With this strong local and global structure, it forms a solid foundation for the company to succeed with its visions for the future.

EBIâ&#x201E;˘ is a trademark of Bombardier Inc or its subsidiaries.

SHAPING THE FUTURE OF MOBILITY Bombardier Transportation, a global leader in rail technology, is delivering what forward-looking cities and countries need today sustainable interconnected mobility that gets you where you need to go. Efficiently, comfortably and safely: Highly innovative, best-fit rail solutions that overcome traffic congestion, restore freedom of movement and help cities around the world breathe.

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56 | the rail engineer | september 2012

innotrans

Anticipating InnoTrans writer

Nigel

Wordsworth two years, the world’s railway E very industry gathers on the outskirts of Berlin for InnoTrans. Billed as the “world’s leading trade fair for rail transport technology”, it attracts exhibitors and visitors from all over the world.

The exhibition is vast, and the numbers are impressive. Last held in September 2010, a total of 2,243 exhibitors from 45 countries showed off their products and services to over 106,000 visitors. 81,000 square metres of floor space were rented out, and there were 121 vehicles on display outside on 3,500 metres of sidings.

This year, InnoTrans will take place from 18-21 September at the exhibition grounds on the outskirts of the German capital, and once again the rail engineer will be there to talk with industry contacts and find out what’s new. There will even be a Rail Media stand, Stand 212L in Hall 2.2, so if you come along, pop in and say hello.

British showcase Some 117 UK exhibitors will be present, and will always be pleased to greet visitors.

However, they are mainly there to talk with foreign buyers and specifiers, so it will be the overseas companies that will be most interested to meet with British attendees.

From the home countries, Balfour Beatty Rail will be showcasing the latest smart solutions for sustainable railways, including demonstrating Building Integrated Management (BIM) - where physical meets digital by linking 3D/4D design models with

highly efficient, often robotic production techniques enabling off-site assembly in a way that’s never previously been possible.

Balfour Beatty Rail will also be updating visitors on Denver Eagle - the multi-billion dollar Eagle P3 commuter rail project for the Regional Transportation District in the USA. There will be a display on the work done for London 2012, looking at the influence of a major event into the infrastructure planning of a city in terms of sustainability and the lasting legacy. And Balfour Beatty will also have an outdoor display showcasing innovative solutions for improving cost efficiencies and performance.

Depot equipment specialist Mechan will be in hall 2.2. The Sheffield-based firm, a regular at InnoTrans, will be displaying the latest version of its Microlink jack control system following a complete redesign to

provide a technically and commercially viable solution for the synchronised lifting of multiple rail cars.

These recent upgrades to the patented jack controller have enabled Mechan to install the largest single system of lifting jacks in the UK at the Alstom Transport Traincare Centre near Manchester.

Microlink’s bespoke software is now operating a set of 44 jacks used to service the new 11-car Pendolino trains. It can be operated from anywhere in the chain, via a single cable, whilst a new touch screen panel provides constant feedback during the maintenance process.

In the same hall, rail systems engineers Rowe Hankins will be showcasing their ability to design and deliver effective products that solve rail safety and engineering problems and provide

58 | the rail engineer | september 2012

continuing development and whole-life technical support. Examples of this on the stand will include a growing portfolio of wheel/track interface (WTI) products and NICS, their Non-intrusive Current Sensor for the early warning of electrical problems, as well as the company’s range of world leading speed probes.

Gioconda, the specialists in high definition (HD) video filming and 3D virtual reality (VR) modelling, are regular exhibitors in the UK. This year they will be taking in InnoTrans as well. Gioconda provides HD video filming of railway routes to provide a train driver’s point of view for train driver briefing and combines it with positional logging for route assessment or asset logging prior to signalling system design. The company also undertakes 3D VR modelling of proposed plant or railway routes for assessment prior to construction.

These technologies are also cleverly combined to produce accurate motion-

innotrans

tracked VR models of objects, which appear and move as real objects in real-world HD video footage. This combination has a number of possible uses including desktop signal sighting, accurately locating signals without the need to go trackside. Other than on the railways, this technology and is currently used in TV advertising and Hollywood movies!

Siegrist-Orel, a leading supplier of highperformance cable markers, sleeving and printing systems, will introduce a new dieselresistant cable label at InnoTrans 2012 (pictured left). Designed to survive environments where wire and cable identification is exposed to organic fluids and oils for long periods at high temperatures, the diesel-resistant label is ideal for mass transit applications.

Federal-Mogul Corporation will exhibit its new Ferodo® sintered brake pad range.

“Trains are carrying heavier loads, travelling faster and further between service intervals, increasing the need for sintered friction materials for brakes,” said Dr. Tim Hodges, Federal-Mogul’s chief engineer (railways).

“Federal-Mogul’s extensive knowledge and experience of friction materials enables it to produce the sintered brake products that the rail industry is demanding. These advanced materials are developed in-house

using the dynamometer test facilities at our friction technical centre in Chapel-en-leFrith, UK and will be produced at one of Federal-Mogul’s specialist sintering plants.”

Many other companies will be present, either in their own right or in one of the two British Pavilions. These will include regular contributors to the rail engineer such as Unipart Rail, Pandrol, Tata Steel and Parsons Brinckerhoff.

The multinationals Naturally, the big boys will be there, with huge stands and large outdoor displays.

Siemens will be presenting its extensive green portfolio which includes Inspiro, the new-generation metro train, Avenio, Siemens’ most advanced tram, Desiro RUS, a powerful regional train for the Russian broad gauge network, as well as innovative concepts for predictive maintenance and service. In the exhibition hall, Siemens will be presenting its Rail IT portfolio, including an integrated dispatching and service centre as well as an intermodal real-time passenger information system. The e-ticketing solution shows just how easily cashless payment can work - charging for the service or route actually used, whether riding a train, using a bicycle or parking a car.

!

"

60 | the rail engineer | september 2012

Outdoors, Siemens will be exhibiting a number of Vectron locomotives along with an RIC sleeping car for standard and broad gauge. The company’s offerings at InnoTrans are rounded off by smart grid solutions for intelligent traction power supply, which are tasked with having to rely increasingly on renewable energy sources.

Not to be outdone, Bombardier will be showing off its newest, smartest mass transit and e-mobility technologies for both fast-growing urban areas and longer journeys. These will include monorails and metro systems running through buildings, at-grade, elevated or underground, as well as next-generation solutions for electric vehicles.

As well as the shiny new trains, including the newly launched Frecciarossa 1000 high speed train for the Italian market, Bombardier will be showing off it’s expertise in signalling and level crossing control, hightechnology components such as bogies and traction systems, all under the banner of The Evolution of Mobility.

Alstom will be showing the breadth of its technologies. As well as manufacturing trains and trams, the company specialises in signalling systems such as ERTMS, for which it has just won a major contract in Denmark. Overhead electrification is another area which Alstom is promoting, and of course the company has a leading position in the technology of very-highspeed rail travel.

innotrans

Overseas manufacturers The vast majority of exhibitors at InnoTrans are medium sized companies that are based abroad and produce highquality products. Some are well known here in the UK, Matisa for their high-output on-track plant and tamping machines, ZF and Voith for gearboxes and transmissions, Knorr-Bremse for braking systems and Thales and Ansaldo for signalling. There will also be lots to see from companies who are less well known.

Crouzet of France will be showing its PBX Secure direct opening action switches, recently specified for door detection systems and emergency buttons installed on Russian trains.

Norgren, specialists in pneumatic motion and fluid control with more than 30 years’ experience in the rail sector, will be demonstrating its solutions to the daily challenges facing train operators, such as managing obsolescence, improving reliability and performance, extending maintenance intervals and reducing overhaul costs.

Track technology The new Schwihag systems for ballastless track will be on display, including rail fastenings for heavy-duty applications and a new anchor for concrete sleepers. An elastic railway fastening system for bridge crossings on ballastless tracks, developed in conjunction with DB Netz, will also be on the stand.

Schwihag products for switch technology, from the classic IBAV slide and roller baseplate to the new spring roller device and roller assembly for use in moveable

crossings, as well as point locking technology in a locking hollow steel bearer, shall all be exhibited.

RAIL.ONE specialises in the development, manufacture and delivery of concrete sleepers and railway track systems. Over the last decade, the company has expanded its portfolio of products and services as a result of intensified research and has implemented pioneering innovations for passenger, freight and heavy-haul transport.

Based on its existing RHEDA technology, RAIL.ONE, together with RockDelta, part of the Rockwool Group, has developed a solution for metro systems that reduces the vibrations produced by underground trains.

The new RHEDA RX system features RockXolid rock-wool mats installed under the RHEDA track-support layer. These mats have an extremely long life, are simple to install and produce good attenuation of structure-borne noise. RHEDA RX are also quick to install in tunnels, providing a cost effective solution to transmitted vibration.

Track workers aren’t neglected as there are many machines designed to make their work easier. This year, the Plasser & Theurer machine and technology presentation will focus on its new fully-automatic rail welding robot the APT 1500 R (pictured left) - a technological advance in mobile flash-butt welding. The new machine includes automatic rail alignment as well as the capability of performing closure welds without any external assistance.

Specialist power tool manufacturer ROBEL will show its new petrol-powered 34.02 clipping machine, a Fastclip work module and an e-Clip module. These three basic components are representative of a wider

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Visit us at InnoTrans 2012 Stand 310, Hall 25

62 | the rail engineer | september 2012

innotrans

range of different power packs and work modules. The patented quick changeover between applying and removing Fastclips without the use of additional tools has been retained. A powerful hydraulic system is still included, while the modular design allows it to be transported more easily than similar machines.

Complex electronics Deuta has introduced the safe+ module of the DEUTA REDBOX (pictured right) recorder family. This “black box” recorder integrates functions such as dead man’s handle, rollback protection, standstill detection, monitoring of maximum speed, monitoring of speed limit and speed relay. Deuta also manufactures speedometers, sensors and multi-function terminals for control train desks, and has introduced the “Deuta Academy” which offers a complete training programme in the subject areas of sensor technology, travel data recording and display technology.

Swedish ethernet specialist Westermo will have its well-known routers and switches on display. Westermo feels that the best way for visitors to understand the quality and robustness of its solutions is to see and touch the actual products. As well as this, there will be a chance to meet some of the communications experts who have been involved in data communications solutions for the rail industry going back over many years.

In comparison, German manufacturer Moxa’s total solutions combine high quality products for railway applications such as passenger oriented services, passenger information systems, communication based train control, remote diagnostics and monitoring with advanced technologies such as Ethernet Train Backbone (ETBN), automatic device configuration, and automatic carriage connection. An impressive range of products include wide temperature IP cameras, mobile communication units plus hardware and software for high-end roaming which deliver reliable video solutions for the use in both onboard and train to ground applications.

Moxa´s new TC-6100 rackmount train computer features modular design with removable storage trays for maximum flexibility.

Frequentis, the leading supplier of voice communication and dispatching systems, will be exhibiting its new solution for the operational management of emergencies. If an incident occurs, the Frequentis Rail Emergency Management 2.0 system leads its users through the emergency process in a quick and user-oriented manner. Designed for 24/7 continuous operation, the tool determines the responsibilities of individuals and organisations in a matter of seconds and provides a rapid overview of the situation.

Specialising in electronic systems, Berner & Mattner supports rail operators in generating complex requirements catalogues, modeling and simulating system behavior as well as designing modular system architecture. At InnoTrans 2012, the company will cover industry-relevant topics such as the pan-European harmonisation of rail traffic, the growing complexity of electronic systems and current approval requirements for rail vehicles. Experts will be on hand to explain how they support manufacturers in the development of train controls and which methods and tools they use for verifying functional safety.

Building on more than 20 years of expertise in optical fibre technology applied to the railway market, R&D teams from French manufacturer Souriau have succeeded in incorporating its ELIO® contacts into the VGE1 range of railway-

qualified connectors. ELIO is claimed to be the easiest optical contact to use in demanding environments as it is a hermaphroditic contact, and insertion and removal is simple and can be carried out without the use of tools.

Optical fibre technology is increasingly used for railway equipment data transmission requirements due to the increased data transfer rates, enhanced security and reliability, increasingly long life, and energy savings from reduced equipment weight. Optical fibre can handle practically unlimited data rates, provides immunity to electromagnetic interference without shielding, and avoids any risk of electrostatic discharge. Souriau’s new connectors are more compact than standard electrical connectors, while providing higher performance.

Mechanical essentials Lubricants play an important part in maintaining and repairing railway components. To ensure that trains and rails work reliably under all weather conditions, equipment such as wheelset bearings, traction motors, brakes and the entire railway infrastructure must be maintained in the best condition. Klüber Lubrication will be presenting its comprehensive range of powerful speciality lubricants for the railway industry at InnoTrans 2012.

Klüber’s new range includes a wheel flange lubricant which is suitable for automatic spray systems, a biodegradable lubricant for switches, fully synthetic rolling bearing grease for traction motors, and lubricants to keep train doors operating smoothly at low temperatures.

Talking of bearings, Schaeffler Technologies will be exhibiting its complete range of FAG and INA bearings. Experts will be on hand to discuss applications varying from safety for high speed trains to noise reduction in freight traffic.

The French Connection Over 25 businesses and organisations from the Nord-Pas-de-Calais and Picardy regions of France will exhibit in the Northern France Rail Pavilion, which will demonstrate the latest innovations in the regions’ rail sector and will cover over 320m².

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64 | the rail engineer | september 2012

and technology, the Nord-Pas-de-Calais and Picardy regions (in northern France) are home to 40% of France’s railway industry, with 13,000 people working in more than 150 companies across the sector. Businesses in these two regions offer the skills and know-how to provide a complete rail system, including infrastructure, rolling stock, control systems, maintenance and services.

Amid the new features to be presented on the pavilion will be the Transalley Sustainable Transport and Mobility Centre, which combines innovative R&D centres and higher-education organisations, together with businesses. Located next to the University of Valenciennes (in the northern French city), on the Campus for Innovation in Sustainable Transport, the centre’s 34 hectares are due to house a hi-tech transport hub and the University’s innovation centre. Additionally, the construction of a cluster of low-energy buildings (180,000m²) is also underway.

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The Railenium Technological Research Institute will also be showcased at the exhibition. The institute, which is the only one of its kind in Europe, is dedicated to railway infrastructure and intends to become the world’s leader in rail-related R&D. Railenium combines exceptional testing resources with an extensive workforce of public- and private-sector researchers at a site that will soon create 300 direct jobs.

A total of 27 individual companies and organisations will be featured in the Northern France Rail Pavilion, offering a wide range of products and services.

The world gathers InnoTrans has such a reputation that manufacturers are almost forced to exhibit if one misses a year, everyone thinks they must have gone out of business! So everyone who is anyone in the railway supply industry will be going. the rail engineer will be there, you should be too. We’d like to hear about reader’s experiences and discoveries, so please write to us when you get back. See you in Berlin!

e editorial@therailengineer.com w www.innotrans.de

Premium rail products to take you into the future Start the journey and discover how our range of premium products helps reduce rail life cycle costs at InnoTrans 2012, Hall 26, Stand 217 At Tata Steel, we believe that the secret to developing rail products and services that address the demands of today and tomorrow, lies in our lasting relationships with customers.

Our premium range is designed for different track environments experiencing wear, rolling contact fatigue, plastic deformation and noise pollution, responding to our customers’ needs for reduced life cycle costs. Join us on a journey of discovery at InnoTrans.

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september 2012 | the rail engineer | 65

senior appointments

S&T Technician

Greater Manchester, £28,462.72 - £35,578.40 per year Transport for Greater Manchester is the body responsible for public transport in Greater Manchester, making sure the right infrastructure, investment and policies are in place to support a local economy that is second in size only to London.

may on occasions be required to work at our new Trafford depot.

current driving licence and maintain this throughout your period of employment.

S&T Technicians are responsible for the performance of preventative and corrective maintenance on the Signalling infrastructure including but not limited to:

Previous experience in railway signalling working to SMTH and (or) telecommunications would be an advantage.

Metrolink is part of the Transport for Greater Manchester family; owned by the people of Greater Manchester and operated under a ten-year contract by the RATP Group. As the operator, RATP is responsible for the day to day running of the Metrolink service and employs all of the people who work on it.

• • • • •

The hours of work will be based on 37½ week.

The position requires shift work with the flexibility to cover 7 days a week, 24 hours a day and 365 days a year.

Metrolink by RATP Dev, are looking for committed individuals to join their team. You would be predominantly based at the Queens Road depot but

You will ideally be qualified to minimum of ONC (BTEC National Diploma) level in Electrical / Electronic Engineering. You must also be in possession of a full

SCADA and Control Systems Telecommunications and transmission systems CCTV Passenger Information Systems Radio in accordance with current standards and specifications

For more information, or to apply please contact: Katie Huthwaite, HR Advisor, Metrolink RATP Dev khuthwaite@metrolink.co.uk

66 | the rail engineer | september 2012

senior appointments

Job Title

Location

Ref

Principal Engineer Specialist

Bristol

88186

Procurement Specialist

Leicestershire

88184

Overhead Linesman

Across Scotland

ORSGLA4

Electronics Engineer

Chippenham

89168

Senior Category Manager

Warwickshire

89065

Visit our website for a complete list of Rail positions across the UK and apply online today quoting the ref above.

Orion Rail Services (ORS) are part of the UKâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s largest engineering recruitment specialists Orion Group.

ORS are a Network Rail approved company and are Link-Up accredited to supply a number of rail related positions.

The Group work with some of the largest industry players across rail providing manpower throughout the UK and overseas.

People are our business worldwide

Upload your CV today orionjobs.com or email - ors@orioneng.com

Glasgow London Manchester

0141 892 6666 0207 405 6300 0161 662 4900

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Make Atkins Your Destination London Recruitment Open Evening Euston Tower, 286 Euston Road, London, NW1 3AT Thursday 27th September 2012 4pm Âą 7pm At Atkins we understand that it is our people who make us who we are. As part of our recruitment event we would like to give you the opportunity to meet with our talented Atkins employees within the Rail teams, that will help you gain an insight into what it is really like to work for Atkins.

Come and learn more about Rail projects at Atkins and understand what challenges and rewards they can bring to you.

There is the option to have a one-to-one for those who wish to discuss their career aspirations with our managers and directors in the strictest of confidence.

If you are an experienced Rail Engineer or are just interested in progressing your career within Rail and would like to learn more about what Atkins can offer, come and join us at our Open Evening on Thursday 27th September.

To register your attendance for this Open Evening please visit www.atkinsglobal.com/careers/Londonopenevening So if you'd like to work for a company that is as committed to diversity as it is to excellence come along and meet us at our open evening.

As committed to Diversity as we are to Excellence

If rail moves you, weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re hiring.

URS is a leading provider of engineering, construction and technical services. Due to recent major project wins in the UKâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s railway industry we are recruiting at all levels of qualification and experience. URS has a strong heritage in rail through our acquisition of Scott Wilson Group and extensive experience of rail design around the world. In the UK we have delivered major multidisciplinary projects, such as West Coast Route Modernisation, Airdrie Bathgate Reopening and Crossrail ONW. Our current portfolio includes High Speed 2, Borders Railway, new programmes of work for Crossrail, North Doncaster Chord, CASR and the national S&C Renewals programme.

As a provider of design services spanning the entire project lifecycle, we are hiring across a broad range of disciplines, including civil and structural, permanent way, signalling, telecoms, OLE, electrical, geotechnical engineers, ops managers, project and engineering managers.

These opportunities are available across the UK in our Birmingham, Glasgow, London, Swindon and York offices.

URS is a major global business with exciting growth plans in rail that can provide great opportunities for career development.

Please email your CV and covering letter to transportation.recruitment@urs.com

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Contact us by visiting: www.ukpowernetworksservices.co.uk

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