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Rail Engineer • January 2017
Bromsgrove
PAUL DARLINGTON
Corridor resignalling
I
n November 2015 (issue 133), Rail Engineer reported on the extensive West Midlands resignalling plan with all new signalling being controlled from the WMSC (West Midlands Signalling Centre) at Saltley. This was originally built, close to the existing power signal box (PSB), for the aborted Railtrack West Coast Passenger Upgrade 2 (PUG2) signalling for 140mph running. However, Network Rail has quietly been getting on with replacing the 1960s PSBs with control transferring to the WMSC. Saltley PSB (1969-2016) has now followed Coventry (19622007), Bescot (1965-2013), Wolverhampton (1965-2015) and Walsall (1965-2013) into retirement, leaving only Birmingham New Street (1966) still operational. Rail Engineer recently met up with Network Rail to learn more above the latest West Midlands resignalling project of Bromsgrove corridor resignalling, which was successfully commissioned on 7 November 2016. The Bromsgrove Corridor programme consists of three elements: 1) A third party funded new Bromsgrove station (opened in July); 2) Signalling renewal - with capacity enhancements between Five Ways and Ashchurch, along with some track remodelling; 3) Electrification between Barnt Green and Bromsgrove, with the overhead electrification equipment due to be energised in September 2017.
onto the new Kings Norton workstation in the WMSC to create a new turn back facility. The benefit is that, in the event of any major problem with the Birmingham New Street PSB, trains can be controlled and turned back at Five Ways. To the south, the boundary of Saltley PSB was at Barnt Green at the top of the famous Lickey Incline, but this has now been moved further south to Ashchurch, with control of the former Gloucester PSB interlockings areas of Blackwell, Bromsgrove, Stoke Works, Spetchley, Abbotswood and Eckington transferring into the WMSC. This area is controlled from a new Bromsgrove workstation. This is to better regulate and manage train services approaching the complex Birmingham rail network and is part of the overall Network Rail control strategy. It has created some interesting cross-route asset management and maintenance responsibility boundaries, but organisational boundaries change quicker than asset configuration changes and it is the right thing to do.
Control area changes
Siemens is the framework resignalling contractor for the route, with the early GRIP stage signalling design work undertaken in-house by Network Rail’s Signal Design Group (SDG).
The northern fringe boundary to Birmingham New Street PSB has been moved slightly north of Five Ways (Birmingham), with control transferred
First train - Lickey Banker at Bromsgrove.
Workstations and interlockings
The two workstations use the Siemens Rail Automation Westcad and Trackguard Westlock interlocking system. Dorman LED signals have been used throughout the scheme with train detection using axle counters. At one point in the design, it appeared that track circuits may have to be retained for the AHBs (automatic half-barrier level crossings) but, in the end, a way was found of using axle counters. The asset condition of the AHBs at Dunhampstead, Wadborough and Pirton was assessed and it was decided they did not require renewal. However, this created some interesting design challenges as the original intention had been to use central evaluation of the axle counters. However, with remote triggering by axle counter sections, it was found that critical timings would be problematical because of the timing cycles and processing time required as a result of the propagation delay in passing the data to WMSC and back out to the AHBs. An alternative design has been devised, which provides for the grouping of evaluators in relocatable equipment buildings (REBs) located at the AHBs. The attendant-operated manual crossing at Oddingley was replaced with a full barrier obstacle detection monitored and controlled crossing, known as MBC-OD. This automatic full barrier crossing is the first installation on the LNW South route. MBC-ODs have now been used a number of times in other parts of the network and are proven and reliable.