Pandrol 75th Anniversary Supplement

75 years of service to railways

YEARS OF SERVICE TO RAILWAYS 75 YEA

Pandrol through the years 1937-2012

Max Rüping, a German engineer, developed such a fastening, and he went into business with an American importer of creosote named Max Bernuth in 1933.

The Elastic Rail Spike, as it was known, proved itself in track tests within a few years, and on October 8 1937 the Elastic Rail Spike Company Record breaker: the V150 test train sprints along the LGV Est high speed line in eastern France at more than 550 km/h.

This commemorative brochure follows the history of the company, from the humble origins of Sanson and his single product and now-famous slogan – ‘Export or Die!’ – through to the introduction of the first ‘Pandrol clip’.

It also details the foundation of the Pandrol Laboratory at the our Worksop facility in Nottinghamshire, UK, and how the introduction of a dedicated team of railway engineers scattered around the globe has enabled the company to hone its research skills and product development. Today the Pandrol group has an enviable portfolio of products suitable for every type of track and traffic, from metros

Photo: FMG

The company was originally formed to market a single product which addressed a need in the early part of the 20th century for a resilient fastening to secure the rail to the sleeper.

was formed in London, with L S Sanson, a former employee of the London & North Eastern Railway, as General Manager.

through to high speed rail and heavy haul freight.

Pandrol fastenings have been widely used on the world’s heaviest freight railways, such as Fortescue Mining Group’s heavy haul route in the Pilbara region of Western Australia.

In these 75 years, Pandrol Ltd has become the undisputed global market leader in rail fastenings.

We hope you enjoy a browse through our history.

Photo: Christophe Masse

Pandrol Ltd celebrates its 75th Anniversary on October 8 2012.

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The 1930s Pandrol will be celebrating its 75th anniversary in October 2012. Yet that name would have been unknown in 1937, since the entity incorporated on October 8 of that year was the Elastic Rail Spike Company, headquartered at 117 Fenchurch Street, London.

The company was founded to market a resilient rail fastening developed by German engineer Max Rüping, who had made his name in the treatment of rigid rail fastenings with creosote. And the firm had an American sister too — the Elastic Rail Spike Corporation Inc, founded by creosote magnate

Oscar Max Bernuth to sell Rüping’s fastening in north and south America. And they had achieved no mean success — even by 1935, some 4 million spikes had been delivered from the steel mills of Pittsburgh to the New York Central Railroad.

But in the early 1930s, the beating heart of the railway world was Britain. And if the elastic rail spike were to achieve global market domination, patents in the Americas would not be enough.

Enter London oil man Lancelot Newling Rawes: one of the defining characters of the early years of the Pandrol story.

Right: L N Rawes, the first Managing Director of the Elastic Rail Spike Company Ltd. Far right: Stewart Sanson, who was recruited by Rawes to manage the Elastic Rail Spike Company from 1938.

Rawes had worked with Bernuth’s creosote export company since the late 1920s, and he was well connected with many of Britain’s railway companies having supplied them with weedkiller to maintain the condition of their ballast.

Rawes had visited Bernuth in New York in 1934, and returned afterwards with one of Rüping’s rail spikes in his pocket. After three years of discussions and initial trials with the London Midland & Scottish Railway, Rawes felt he was making headway. In the Autumn of 1937, he met for lunch with the Chief Engineer of London & North Eastern Railway, W. A. Fraser, to discuss the spike’s potential. Unknown to Rawes, Fraser had invited another man to dine with them: a young engineer named Stewart Sanson, who would go on to work for Pandrol until 1969.

Recognising Sanson’s talent immediately, Rawes quickly recruited him to manage the newlyincorporated Elastic Rail Spike Company, and tasked him with selling the spike to a global market. Sanson took this mission to heart, and coined the slogan ‘export or die’. That credo has remained the hallmark of Pandrol’s business to this day.

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Making the news In its edition of May 14 1937, Railway Gazette reported on the trial installation of flat-bottomed rail along five miles of LMSR line. With the installation of flatbottomed rail instead of Britain’s traditional bullhead came the opportunity to test various novel rail fastenings. ‘Perhaps the most interesting of the various types is the elastic spike’, the report explains. ‘It is claimed for this type of spike that it minimises movement between the rail and the soleplate, and between the soleplate and the sleeper, and that while the powerful grip of the spike on the foot of the rail practically prevents relative movement laterally between the rail and the soleplate, thus eliminating creep, resiliency is retained.’

1937 The Elastic Rail Spike Co Ltd is formed in London on October 8 to sell the newly-patented Elastic Rail Spike. Its registered office was at Cory Buildings, 117 Fenchurch Street, London EC3.

1938 Stewart Sanson, a young Permanent Way Engineer recruited from the London & North Eastern Railway, is appointed as manager of the Elastic Rail Spike Company. In 1938 he heads to Cape Town for track testing of the spike in Africa. Manufacture of spikes commences at George Turton, Platts & Co Ltd in Sheffield, eradicating the need to import from Germany.

1938 – 39 Sanson begins travelling the world to market the elastic spike to railway engineers. He adopts the slogan ‘Export or Die’.

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The 1940s From 1938 onwards, Sanson had dashed across the world with all the zeal of a missionary, determined to convert the Chief Engineers of the railways he visited in South Africa, Australia and the Americas, where there was ample evidence of the ability of the resilient spikes supplied by Bernuth’s firm. While there was no doubting Britain’s status as the historical home of the railway, its railways were nevertheless cautious in adopting flat-bottomed rail over bullhead. But as flat-bottomed rail was an established choice for many overseas railways, Sanson and Rawes knew that overseas sales would be the catalyst for the growth of the Elastic Rail Spike Company (ERS).

To that end, refinement of Rüping’s patented design was already in hand. By 1940, ERS had received a patent for its Type T elastic spike: the ‘T’ referred to ‘twisted neck’,

1940 L N Rawes becomes Chairman of the Elastic Rail Spike Company as Sanson goes to war. During hostilities Sanson is put in command of an army railway construction company.

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1941 Registration of patents in India and Burma. 30 300 spikes are exported this year.

a design that would allow the rail to rest tight against the shaft of the spike, giving a substantially tighter hold. Better still for Sanson, it raised the prospect of those railways using hardwood sleepers to dispense with a baseplate altogether, bringing significant cost efficiencies.

In the summer of 1945, agreement was reached with the Custodian of Enemy Property for the transfer of Rüping’s shares to a restructured ERS, and the new company was established on September 14 with Rawes retaining his place as Chairman.

But the decade would, of course, be defined by the onset of world war, and all the attendant upheaval this brought to a company whose existence depended on global trade. One particular challenge was how to manage the stake in ERS held by Max Rüping: all agreements with Rüping were effectively void once war was declared between Britain and Germany. With a tranche of shares in the firm effectively frozen, the injection of new capital to keep the company going through the first half of the decade was all but impossible. And ERS was losing money each year.

But throughout the war and its aftermath, ERS continued to take out patents for its fastenings in markets across the globe, including India and Burma in 1941. In 1943, an impressive tally of 143 000 spikes was exported — a stunning achievement given the wartime pressures on ERS’s principal UK production facility, the Platts & Co steelmakers in Sheffield.

1942 80 000 spikes are exported during 1941 and 1942.

Immediately after the war, as the company braced itself for further growth, it became clear that creating its own production shop would be essential.

1943 Exports rise to 150 000 spikes.

1944 In November the company invoices for its One Millionth Spike.

Fortunately, Platts & Co had during the war taken a lease on a Government-owned armaments factory at Worksop in Nottinghamshire. Plans were drawn up for the company to undertake spike production at this site in the war years, but it was not until 1946 that an agreement was reached to set up a new company, Elasteel Ltd, to manage the plant; Elasteel was a three-way joint venture between ERS, Platts & Co, and ERS’s North American forebear, Bernuth, Lembcke Co, Inc.

Pandrol’s Worksop plant has served as the company’s UK manufacturing base since 1946.

Foreshadowing the domination of the market that was just around the corner, Malayan Railways announced in 1947 that it would adopt the resilient spike as its standard fastening. Two years later, the newly-created British Railways confirmed that the spike would be one of two standard fastenings for the national network, reflecting BR’s decision to adopt flat-bottomed rail.

1945 All four post-Grouping British railways (LMS/LNER/GWR/SR) put down flatbottomed rail with Elastic Rail Spikes.

This year orders totalling 590 500 are received by the Elastic Rail Spike Co Ltd.

1946 With the assistance of Platts & Co, a lease on a government-owned factory in Worksop is acquired to manufacture the spike under the name Elasteel Ltd.

1947 Major John Mahony, Chief Engineer of the New Federated Malay States Railway, announces that the company is to adopt the elastic rail spike as its standard fastening. The Elastic Rail Spike Co. (Australia) Pty is formed to serve the growing Australian market.

1948 British Railways is formed following the nationalisation of the network.

1949 British Railways standardises on flat-bottomed rail and two standard fastenings, one of which is the Elastic Rail Spike.

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The 1950s ERS had claimed roughly three-quarters of the British fastening market by 1950. But no sooner had ERS’s elastic spikes become more or less standard products than Sanson was hunting for the next generation of products.

In particular, Sanson and his colleagues recognised that widespread uptake of continuouslywelded rail and concrete sleepers was imminent, and none of the spikes offered by ERS in 1950 would be suitable for such applications.

Canada. The Lockspike was invented by Pittsburgh-based entrepreneur Arthur Jack to affix steel baseplates to timber sleepers; its spring pressure design all but preventing lateral or vertical movement of the baseplate. ERS found considerable success in selling Lockspikes to the Southern Region of British Railways.

Marketing of the Lockspike was entrusted to Lockspike Ltd, a newly-established subsidiary founded in 1953, which would be renamed Pandrol Ltd in 1970.

To that end, ERS reached an agreement in August 1950 to take on licensing rights to sell the spring steel Lockspike baseplate fastening in all markets except the United States and

Numerous experiments were undertaken to assess other resilient fastenings for concrete sleepers. But ultimately it was in Oslo that Sanson was to find the answer to the conundrum. Having spent many years visiting the Chief Engineer of Norwegian State Railways, Sanson was approached by a man

Elastic Rail Spikes installed on pointwork in South Africa.

1950 Manufacture of the spike begins in Australia.

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1951 The Elastic Rail Spike Co. (Australia) moves its manufacturing plant from Rydalmere to Hornsby in New South Wales.

1952 South African Railways sends two envoys to Europe to assess current engineering innovations in railway infrastructure. ERS subsequently receives an order from SAR for 1.5 million spikes.

1953 ERS continues to assess indirect resilient fastenings. Thompson’s Starfish Insert Design for concrete sleepers is considered for development, but not pursued. Lockspike Ltd incorporated.

1955 Elasteel Ltd achieves spikes.

named Per Pande-Rolfsen, a young NSB permanent way engineer who had invented his own indirect fastening. Although the design had been offered to and rejected by NSB itself, Sanson immediately saw its potential, untested though it was. A fully-resilient indirect fastening which did not transmit vibrations from passing trains, the self-tensioning spring clip was far more adaptable than any other product on the market, applicable to timber, steel and newly-developed concrete sleepers.

In May 1958 ERS registered international licensing rights under an agreement with Moller & Ringstad Export Co, which was acting on belhalf of Rolfsen. Taking two syllables from the name of its creator, the indirect fastening was rapidly christened ‘the Pandrol clip’.

daily output of 40 000

Per Pande-Rolfsen, a young NSB engineer, had invented his own indirect fastening.

The resilience of the Elastic Rail Spike is graphically illustrated in the aftermath of flood damage on the Scottish region of British Railways.

1956 An agreement is made with Simmel Industrie Meccaniche to sell ERS products in Italy.

1957 Per Pande-Rolfsen, an engineer with the Norwegian State Railway NSB, approa ches Sanson with his rail fastening design. This subsequently becomes known as ‘the Pandrol clip’.

1958 ERS reaches production landmark of 20 million spikes.

1959 First production of the Pandrol clip takes place in June.

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The 1960s The 1960s saw production of both the Lockspike and Pandrol fastenings continue apace. Indeed ‘the Pandrol clip’ rapidly became such common terminology in the railway engi-

neering field that no further explanation of the fastening was normally required. ERS moved to register the trademark. British Railways also confirmed its status as the latest standard fastening

for both timber and concrete sleepers, the latter using a specially-designed cast-in shoulder. The first Pandrol clips with ductile iron shoulders were tested by BR on the busy West Coast Main Line in 1963.

The decade also saw a substantial diversification of fastening production, in keeping with the company’s export-focused philosophy. The Pandrol clip found particular favour with railways in warmer climes, where substantial improvements to track performance were discovered when worn steel sleepers were refurbished with steel baseplates welded over the existing seats in order to fit the Pandrol clip. By 1969 for example, some 400 000 timber sleepers had been refurbished by NigeThe dawn of a new era: concrete sleepers and electrification are the order of the day on British Rail’s main line from London to Bournemouth in the mid-1960s.

1960 ERS introduces the Gauge Lockspike, a spring steel version of the traditional rigid cut dog spike. The design featured a shaped heart form to secure both rail and baseplate. The company is sold to Central Mining & Investment Corp Ltd.

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1963 Manufacture of the Pandrol clip starts in Australia.

The first Pandrol clips with ductile iron shoulders are tested by British Rail near Northampton.

1964 ERS’s parent Central Mining & Investment becomes part of the finance conglomerate Charter Consolidated.

1965 The Pandrol clip is adopted as the standard fastening for wooden sleepers by BR. An agreement is made with S A Robicel for the manufacture and sale of the clip in Belgium, Holland and Luxembourg.

rian Railways Corp using just this technique.

The Pandrol clip’s resilience in hostile environmental conditions was thus increasingly in demand, and manufacture under licence began in South Africa at this time. Plans were also laid for the opening of a wholly-owned factory in Australia to manufacture the Pandrol clip, creating a local source for the new fastening which was rapidly superseding the Elastic Rail Spike. This would prove a wise investment as the fastening would be ideally suited to heavy haul applications,

1966 British Rail adopts the Pandrol clip as the standard fastening for concrete sleepers.

1967 South African Railways makes the Pandrol clip its standard fastening.

with the growing network of iron ore railways in Western Australia arguably providing the ultimate challenge to the track engineer. The Pandrol clip was selected by the Hammersley Iron Company for use with timber sleepers as an alternative to dogspikes, which had failed to withstand the pounding of 32 tonne axleloads. True to its manufacturer’s claims, the Pandrol clip was truly a ‘fit and forget’ component — and just as well in the deserts of Australia.

Bookending the decade, Stewart Sanson retired from the Elastic Rail Spike Co in 1969; the LS Sanson Development Centre at the Worksop plant opened the following year to lead ERS’s research activities (p12).

But by the end of 1971, some 67 million PR clips had been produced.

1968 Torque Tension Ltd is incorporated into the ERS group.

Stewart Sanson (above, right) retired from ERS in 1969.

1969 Pandrol clips penetrate the ‘Iron Curtain’ with a trial installation in Romania.

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Putting research into practice The Pandrol group and its predecessors have long identified the need for a team of engineers which could design, develop, and test rail fastening concepts that would continue to meet the requirements of the world’s railways. Indeed, the first Development Centre opened in Worksop site in 1970, named in honour of our pioneering General Manager L S Sanson.

Today, this technical team has expanded and spread around the world, generally based within the group’s various manufacturing facilities. This team, possessing many varied skills and an indepth knowledge of the needs of the track engineer, comes under the control of the Technical Director, who is based at our offices in Addlestone, UK. The aim of the Technical Department within the Pandrol group is to convert an ‘interested potential customer’ into a ‘satisfied long-term user’.

This can only be achieved by continued dialogue and assistance.

To this end, the Technical Director and his staff travel the world to meet the customers, inspect trackwork, discuss future requirements and establish the parameters that can be developed further by the design team back in the UK. The engineers within this department liaise with a diverse cross-section of the railway supply industry, such as concrete sleeper manufacturers, switch & crossing producers and track machine developers, to ensure that the fastening system can be correctly applied in track. To improve product efficiency whilst sourcing the most cost-effective components, Pandrol maintains close contact with raw material producers and the manufacturers of those fastening components designed by Pandrol but not supplied through Pandrol’s own factories.

Pandrol engineers regularly attend the initial installation of its fastenings by new customers, as well as the initial deployment of any novel product. This activity has a two-fold purpose: firstly, it is a practical demonstration of Pandrol’s commitment to ensure that the product is fit for purpose and that the railway personnel are fully trained to install and monitor the fastenings. Secondly, it enables our engineers to obtain a better understanding as to future requirements for the fastenings, the instalThe L S Sanson Development Centre Development Centre at the Worksop plant was opened on September 11 1970.

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lation and removal equipment, and the environment within which the fastenings are to operate.

Such a level of product development and response could not be achieved if Pandrol did not possess the in-house capability of component testing. To this end, the Group Research & Development Laboratory in Worksop, which grew out of the initial L S Sanson facility, was significantly

expanded back in the early 1980s. Since then, the group has prided itself on fitting the laboratory with the most advanced diagnostic and investigative tools in the industry, which are focused on three core areas of research: Product Development, Product Testing and Metallurgical Analysis.

The activities of this R&D centre are, as ever, complemented by the dedication of Pandrol’s engineers around the world.

Keep the noise down The rapid evolution of track technology in the past 30 years has required Pandrol to increase its involvement with academic research. Having recognised in the early 1980s that railway infrastructure had to be viewed as a ‘single entity’ rather than individual components, by the early 1990s the next challenge would be to address noise and vibration.

Pandrol took its experience of designing resilient rail pads for concrete sleepers and turned its attention to mitigating environmental vibration and noise issues. That work was supported by a series of collaborations with universities; the first of which was a partnership with South Bank University in London between 1990 and 1994. This involved research work carried out in the laboratory and in the field, on the embryonic Docklands Light Railway and the Glasgow Subway.

At that time, there was an increasing awareness of the problems that could arise from noise and vibration from railways and mass transit systems in urban environments, but reliable methods for predicting rail noise nuisance were only just being developed. The team at South Bank University was particularly interested in understanding whether ‘scientific’ measurements of noise in decibels really indicated the levels of noise nuisance perceived by the public. That work led to further development of the Pandrol Vipa vibration-attenuating rail fastening, which was aimed specifically at the urban rail market.

Pandrol subsequently joined the teams working on the European Union-funded Framework research programmes Silent Track and CONVURT (Control of Noise and Vibration from Underground Railway Tracks). Working with other suppliers and railways in Europe, and with the Institute for Sound and Vibration Research at Southampton University, Pandrol was able to establish the scientific basis — and independent testing — for its Pandrol Vipa and Vanguard assemblies in reducing transmission of vibration from the track into nearby buildings.

Building on the co-operation with ISVR, Pandrol sponsored additional postgraduate research work at Southampton between 2001 and 2010, mainly aimed at predicting the effects of resilient fastening systems in reducing secondary noise emitted from steel bridges.

This year, Pandrol has extended its portfolio of collaborative research through RIVAS (Railway Induced Vibration Abatement Solutions), another European Framework research project involving 26 pan-industry partners. To support the increased use of plastics in structural applications, Pandrol has also established a partnership with the Polymer Engineering group at the University of Bradford, which is carrying out research into the combined effects of stress and weathering on materials used in both existing and potential future rail fastening systems.

The fruits of Pandrol’s noise and vibration research were applied on the Docklands Light Railway; the location would be unrecognisable today as the automated metro has spurred redevelopment of this part of east London.

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The 1970s Back in Australia, the Port Augusta – Whyalla freight railway opened in 1972, the first line in the country to be built entirely with PR clips, many of which were delivered from the new plant at Seven Hills on the outskirts of Sydney.

At Worksop meanwhile, total supply of fastenings surpasses the 360 million mark, requiring an extension to the Elasteel factory. An on-site galvanisation facility is also opened.

Reflecting an emerging pattern where ERS would effectively introduce a major product development in each decade, the 1970s saw the launch of the Pandrol brand e-clip, so called as the profile was shaped like a lower case ‘e’. Its principal asset was the generation of a greater clampA Pandrol delegation visits the first trial installation of the e-clip at Astley, Lancashire.

1970 With an investment of £50 000, ERS opens the L S Sanson Development Centre in Worksop to enhance its R&D capability (p12). Lockspike Ltd is renamed Pandrol Ltd.

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1971 Pandrol clip production passes the 67 million mark.

A new factory is opened at Seven Hills in New South Wales, Australia, to supply the local market.

1972 Freight railway from Port Augusta to Whyalla steelworks in South Australia opens to traffic. It is the first line to be built in Australia to feature Pandrol fastenings throughout.

1973 Fastening production at the Worksop plant totals 360 million.

ing force onto the rail than the original Pandrol clip (now designated the ‘PR clip’), whilst using less raw material and allowing installation into existing PR-type rail seat assemblies. The e-clip was tested for the first time in 1976 at Astley on the Liverpool – Manchester line, which appropriately was the world’s first inter-city railway.

A significant rebranding exercise began in the late 1970s, reflecting the dominance of Pandrol’s PR and e-clips: following the incorporation in 1977 of Pandrol Inc to sell Pandrol clips in the USA, the Worksop-based Elasteel business was subsequently renamed Pandrol (Worksop) Ltd.

Pandrol Ltd Managing Director Trevor Astley receives the Design Council Award HRH the Duke of Edinburgh in 1974.

1974 Pandrol Canada is formed on March 1. The Pandrol fastening assembly for use with concrete sleepers is granted a UK Design Council award.

1976 First in-track trials of the Pandrol e-clip are undertaken by British Rail at Astley on the Liverpool – Manchester line.

1977 Pandrol Inc established in the USA. Pandrol Ltd wins the Queen’s Award to Industry.

1979 Elasteel Ltd rebrands as Pandrol (Worksop) Ltd.

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The 1980s With ERS itself renamed Pandrol International Ltd in 1980, the company increasingly recognised that the track assembly needed to be considered as a ‘complete system’ rather than a collection of individual components. To this end, a dynamics hall was added to the existing R&D laboratory at the Worksop site. Divided into three sections — Product Development, Product Testing and Metallurgical Analysis — the laboratory contains state-of-the-art equipment and has the capability for developing and testing rail fastenings and associated components not matched by any other fastening supplier or independent testing organisation.

1980 Pandrol International Ltd is formed.

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Further entrenching this view of track as a single eco-system, in 1981 Pandrol agreed a partnership with Speno Rail Services, the North

1981 Pandrol agrees a North American rail grinding joint venture with Speno Rail Services.

American arm of Swiss rail profile specialist Speno, to co-operate on rail grinding operations in the USA. This partnership was later

Pandrol worked with the Swedish national railway SJ in the mid-1980s to develop mechanised clip installation equipment.

1982 Track Developments Ltd is incorporated to target bespoke applications for fastenings in the industrial railway and mining markets.

1983 Pandrol Korea established.

renamed Pandrol Jackson following the acquisition of track machinery supplier Jackson Jordan Inc, before ultimately being divested to Harsco Corp.

The Track Developments Ltd subsidiary was also established in 1982 to cater to the industrial railway and mining sector, offering the eclip design to this market segment for the first time.

The ‘Pandrolisation’ of the world’s railways continued apace of course, with manufacturing plants being opened in Canada and the United States, as well as Brazil, Belgium, Korea, Indonesia and Italy.

Production of the Pandrol e-clip surpassed 100 million units in 1987.

1985 Pandrol Indonesia formed.

1986 Production of Pandrol clips reaches 350 million mark.

1987 Production of e-clips totals 100 million. The company celebrates its 50th anniversary.

1988 A 2 km test section of Pandrol e-clips is installed on East Japan Railway’s Ome line in the suburbs of Tokyo.

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The 1990s Pandrol began to develop the first fully-captive, pre-assembled, non-threaded rail fastening in 1990.

Two years later, Norwegian national railway NSB was the first to install the pandrol fastclip on

a trial section comprised of 500 concrete sleepers.

Fastclip underwent a three-year period of design development and laboratory testing concomitant

with the first trials in Norway, and commercial sales began on a limited scale in 1995. Pre-assembled at the sleeper manufacturer’s plant, Fastclip is a ‘switch on-switch off’ assembly developed in response to growing demand from contractors and railway infrastructure managers for faster, more cost-efficient tracklaying methods and reduced maintenance costs. By the end of 2011, more than 200 million Fastclip assemblies had been sold across the globe.

Meanwhile, the Pandrol group continued to expand through acquisition, completing the purchase of the Multiclip Company in 1991. At that Left: The first in-track trials of the Fastclip took place in Lillehammer, Norway, 1992.

Right: Ceremonial installation of Pandrol fastenings marks the opening of the Yamagata Shinkansen in Japan in 1992.

1990 Pandrol Ltd acquires a 75% interest in ultrasonic rail flaw detection company Dapco Industries, and a controlling interest in Jackson Jordan Inc. The North American joint venture with Speno Rail Services is renamed Pandrol Jackson.

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1991 Pandrol Ltd acquires the Multiclip Company Ltd, to become Vortok International, and the rail assets of Ralph McKay Ltd, manufacturer of the Safelok System.

1992 The Pandrol Fastclip captive rail fastening design is introduced, marking an innovative addition to the product range. Pandrol purchases 100% of the shares of SIW of France, and a majority stake in Promorail, another French firm. Pandrol (UK) Ltd wins the Queen’s Award to Industry for a second time.

1993 US Class I railroad CSX becomes the first heavy freight railway in North America to install the Fastclip fastening. Pandrol forms a track maintenance joint venture with French group Seco-DG.

1995 First commercial orders drol Fastclip.

time, Multiclip was best known as the manufacturer of the Vortok Coil, used to repair loose screwspikes in wooden sleepers. But over the past two decades, the business — now known as Vortok International — has expanded from a single-product entity to a supplier of more than 65 bespoke rail infrastructure designs. Its expertise spans track renewal, electrification and signalling, with products as diverse as sleeper-borne balise mounting systems and trackside safety barriers.

The same year, Pandrol also acquired the rail assets of Australian firm Ralph McKay Ltd, manufacturer of the Safelok rail fastening, predominantly used in the USA, and the company has continued to refine the McKay design. Today the Safelok III design offers many of the same benefits as the Fastclip, including pre-assembly on the sleeper and rapid mechanical installation.

received for the Pan-

Pandrol’s research into track-borne vibration (p13) began to bear fruit in 1997 with the launch of the Pandrol Vipa assembly.

Developed to address vibration and noise problems with a strong focus on the urban rail market, Vipa uses unique resilient rail pad technology to attenuate vibration which would otherwise be transferred from the track to surrounding structures. The first two commercial installations took place in 1998 in Perth, Western Australia, and São Paulo, Brazil. To date 620 000 Vipa assemblies have been installed in 19 countries.

In 1999, the company celebrated another landmark: the production of its One Billionth Clip.

The first Vipa baseplate assemblies were installed on the São Paulo metro (right) and Perth suburban networks (left) in 1998.

1996 First deliveries of fastenings for the Heathrow Express airport rail link in the UK and the Seoul – Busan high speed rail project in South Korea.

1997 Pandrol completes the acquisition of IAT Ltda Brasil, which produces the DE clip for the local market. Pandrol also introduces its novel Vipa baseplate assembly.

1998 Fastclip installations pass the 5 million mark less than five years after the first field trials. The first commercial installation of Fastclip in Asia takes place in Singapore.

The Vipa baseplate assembly is installed in São Paulo, Brazil, and Perth, Australia.

1999 The company celebrates production of 1 billion clips. More than 8 million Fastclip fastenings now in use. The first light duty Fastclip FD fastening tested on the Melbourne tram network. The Pandrol group is sold by Charter Consolidated to investment house Candover.

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From 2000 to the present Since the turn of the century, Pandrol has continued to innovate, with the novel Vanguard assembly offering a further leap in technical development. Designed to offer both very low vertical stiffness and minimal rail roll, Vanguard delivers exceptional vibration reduction performance at a much lower cost than alternative floating slab products.

The rail is supported under the head and in the web with rubber wedges, leaving the foot of the rail suspended. The rubber wedges are held in place by cast-iron side brackets which are in turn attached either to a shoulder cast into a concrete sleeper or block, or to a baseplate fixed to the trackform using either bolts or screwspikes. The baseplate system can be used on all ballasted and non-ballasted trackforms as well as on bridges and viaducts.

2000 Four new products enter track testing simultaneously, with trial installations of Vanguard, Vipa-SP, K-Lock and Safelok III designs.

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First tested in 2000 on a section of London Underground’s Victoria Line between Green Park and Oxford Circus, more than 120 000 Vanguard assemblies have now delivered to 12 countries.

Pandrol’s presence in the Australian market remains strong, as evidenced by the decision in 2001 to equip the Alice Springs – Darwin railway with Fastclip assemblies to accompany more than 2 million concrete sleeper sets for the 1 420 km

2001 Sales of the Fastclip fastening reach 25 million units. The Fastclip is selected for the second phase of tracklaying on the KTX high speed network in South Korea.

route. In 2006, construction commenced on a 260 km heavy haul railway in the Pilbara region of western Australia for the sole use of the Fortescue Metals Group. Equipped throughout with Pandrol fastenings, the railway was built to accommodate 40 tonne axle loads, making it the heaviest railway in the world.

Back in Europe, Pandrol’s French subsidiary Promorail acquired Ars Industries in 2002, a French

manufacturer of screws, bolts and anchoring systems to complement the Vipa and Vanguard track support range. At the same time, the group made a significant commercial breakthrough when French national operator SNCF and infrastructure manager RFF overturned a 40 year preference for locally-designed rail fastenings, and agreed a contract for the supply of Fastclip assemblies for all renewal and new line construction projects in France. This agreement covered tracklaying on the first phase of the LGV Est high speed line linking Paris with Baudrecourt on the route to Strasbourg.

This co-operation reached its apogee five years later on April 3 2007 when the V150 test train The Vanguard assembly on test on London Underground’s Victoria Line.

2002 French infrastructure manager RFF chooses Fastclip as standard for concrete sleeper renewals and new line construction. It is also selected for the Alice Springs – Darwin project.

First commercial sale of the Vanguard assembly. Pandrol acquires ARS Industries, a French manufacturer of anchoring systems.

2003 The Pandrol group is acquired by Delachaux SA of France.

2004 Pandrol forms a joint venture with Indian firm Rahee. Construction work begins on Fortescue Metals Group’s 260 km heavy haul railway in the Pilbara region of western Australia.

Equipped with Pandrol fastenings throughout, the railway was built to accommodate 40 tonne axle loads, making it the heaviest railway in the world.

2007 SNCF and Alstom rail speed record u V150 test train trav Est high speed lin with Fastclip fasten

sprinted to 574.8 km/h along LGV Est to shatter the world speed record for steel wheeled rail vehicles.

manufacture of equipment for the mechanised installation and extraction of elastic rail fastenings.

Just as Pandrol’s Fastclip had proved itself at record-breaking speed, so in South Korea the Fastclip SFC baseplate design has been used since 2008 on the southern section of the Seoul – Busan high speed railway, where services routinely reach 350 km/h, placing it among the fastest dedicated passenger lines in the world.

Today, under the ownership of the French engineering business Delachaux SA, the Pandrol group adheres as fiercely as ever to the mantra ‘export or die’. Small wonder then that in 2011 Pandrol UK Ltd was awarded the Queen’s Award for Enterprise in the International Trade category, reflecting its commercial success in overseas markets.

Pandrol also began to deliver Fastclip components to another vast heavy haul project, the 2 400 km North-South Railway in Saudi Arabia, underlining the company’s status as supplier of choice for the world’s heaviest, longest and fastest railways. Its quest for novel additions to its product range also led to the acquisition in 2009 of Rosenqvist Rail AB, a Swedish firm specialising in the design and

At the end of 2011, the company had supplied in excess of 1·4bn rail fastenings to 415 customers in 105 countries. It intends to sell many, many more in the next 75 years.

shatter the world using the modified velling on the LGV ne, which is fitted nings.

2008 Korea Rail Network Authority specifies the use of Pandrol Fastclip SFC baseplates on slab track on Section 4 of the second phase of the Seoul – Busan high speed line. Delivery of Fastclip fastenings for the 2 400 km North – South heavy haul line in Saudi Arabia begins.

The high speed line used by SNCF and Alstom to shatter the world rail speed record in 2007 is fitted with Fastclip fastenings.

2009 Pandrol acquires Swedish firm Rosenqvist Rail AB, a supplier of equipment for the mechanised installation and extraction of elastic rail fastenings.

2010 Pandrol secures a long-term contract for the supply of Fastclip fastenings to Iraqi Republic Railways.

2011 Pandrol UK Ltd wins in the International Trade category at the Queen’s Award for Enterprise. The award was inaugurated in 1966 as The Queen’s Award to Industry, which the company had previously been awarded in 1977 and 1992

2012 Pandrol UK and Pandrol Rahee Technologies sign a contract for more than 250 000 Double-Resilient Baseplate assemblies for the Chennai metro in India. A derivative of the Vipa design, these resilient baseplate assemblies have also been supplied for metro projects in Dubai (2009) and Istanbul (2011).

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The future Throughout the past 75 years, some things in Pandrol’s history have been constant: Our focus has always been on track, and no other part of the railway system. But there have been no boundaries in terms of technical development or geography. Our policy has always been to innovate and to export, and continually to bring people into the organisation, so that the business continues to move forward. These constants will remain in the future.

Of course, we cannot be sure where the next 75 years will lead us. We see the development of new railways to bring raw materials from inaccessible parts of the globe, to move people more quickly between cities, and to move people more comfortably within cities. We understand trends towards automation, economic sustainability and reduced environmental impact. All of these things will play a part in shaping the future of railway infrastructure and, therefore, shaping our future. But one thing is certain: Pandrol will continue to take its place at the forefront of track technology.

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PANDROL, PANDROL FASTCLIP, PANDROL ’e’ Clip and PANDROL VIPA are registered trademarks of Pandrol Ltd. VANGUARD is a trademark of Pandrol Ltd except in North America where this name is used by Nortrak for a check rail design.

Pandrol Limited gratefully acknowledges the cooperation of all those contributing to this publication and who have given permission for the use of photographs.

All technical information was correct at the time of printing, but the company undertakes a continuing programme of research and development.

Produced by Railway Gazette International on behalf of Pandrol Limited.

Compiled by Kerri Murray Edited by Nicholas Kingsley Designed by Isabel Burton

© 2012 Pandrol Limited All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced in any form or by any means electronic, mechanical or by any information storage and retrieval system, without prior permission from the copyright owners. Multiple copying of the contents of this publication without prior written approval is not permitted.

Origination and printing in Great Britain by Williams Press (Maidenhead) Ltd.

Pandrol Limited 63 Station Road, Addlestone, Surrey KT15 2AR, England Telephone: +44 1932 834500 Telefax: +44 1932 850858 E-mail: info@pandrol.com Website: http://www.pandrol.com