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| RAIL PROFESSIONAL INTERVIEW
Interview
Colin Johnson, D/Gauge Managing Director Sam Sherwood-Hale spoke to Colin Johnson of D/Gauge about the D/Gauge Rift, gauging software and the answer to the question: ‘why doesn’t the train fit’? You are hosting a D/Gauge Rift launch event on 8 June, tell our readers what they can expect from the event. The launch event is a celebration of the innovation that has been happening within D/Gauge for clearance assessment. For the last 24 months we’ve been working on gamechanging clearance assessment software to make gauging simpler, faster, and smarter. There is an element of safety in there too, as there is a much simpler interface with less opportunity to make mistakes. The event itself is going to be exciting and full of variety! We’re starting with David Johnson, Technical Director (and gauging guru), who will look at the history of gauging software and what the future of gauging looks like for the railway. He’s followed by a software demo to see the phenomenal D/Gauge Rift software, guest speakers from Bonner Rail and a live Q&A session to finish it off. It’s going to be great to get the industry together (although unfortunately not physically) to celebrate innovation in gauging. I’m very proud to be leading this new phase of D/Gauge’s contribution to the gauging world. What was the inspiration behind developing D/Gauge Rift? We have been batting off requests to make faster gauging software for the past decade. Speed, however, is only one aspect of the gauging process that was really in dire need for modernisation. As the volume and complexity of gauging datasets grew, the audience for gauging results changed and the availability of data developed. I knew we had to approach gauging assessment in a very different way, especially to futureproof it. Gauging calculation has had a bad reputation for some time, as something that is overly complicated and far too cumbersome which I feel is a little harsh. The reality is that gauging calculations have a lot of parallels with tax calculation. In some way they are both a necessary ‘evil’ – leave it too Rail Professional
