Rail Engineer - Issue 176 - July 2019

by rail engineers for rail engineers

JULY 2019 – ISSUE 176

Have you heard the whisper about new developments to WSPER…?

FELIXSTOWE BRANCH CAPACITY ENHANCEMENT A new 1.4km loop increases capacity from 33 to 47 train paths a day in each direction on this busy freight route.

THE BEST OF THE BEST

WATER NEVER HURT ANYONE

Network Rail recognises the excellent work delivered by its supply chain over the last year at the 2019 Rail Partnership Awards.

This year’s Railworx/Plantworx open-air exhibition was a great success despite the British summer weather.

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28 CONTENTS

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News

10|

Have you heard the whisper about the new developments to WSPER?

16|

New era at Doncaster Carr

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Goodbyes, HS2 bids.

Malcolm Dobell visits DB ESG’s new home for its wheel-slide protection test rig.

Stuart Marsh was invited to tour Hitachi’s new depot for LNER’s Azuma fleet.

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Are you sitting comfortably?

Comfortable seats or ‘ironing boards’?

RSSB has a new way of defining comfort.

72 28|

The Best of the Best

48|

Felixstowe Branch Line: capacity enhancement goes live

56|

Railway signalling equipment power systems earthing

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New main-line interlocking enters service

68|

Barnards Lock Underbridge: a spongy and successful lift

72|

A little water never hurt anyone

78|

Rail Electrification: Building confidence

The annual Rail Partnership Awards gives Network Rail a chance to honour its supply chain.

David Bickell reports on how £60.4 million increased the line’s capacity by over 40 per cent.

Paul Darlington explains how both railway staff and the travelling public are protected.

Atkins’ ElectroLogIXS electronic interlocking is brought into service on the Shepperton branch.

Collin Carr looks at a bridge replacement in the middle of a “triple-SI”.

Plantworx/Railworx was certainly wet, but it was also a great success.

Peter Stanton organised, and attended, a conference on the future role of electrification.

Rail Engineer | Issue 176 | July 2019

RAIL ENGINEER MAGAZINE

EDITORIAL

A signal from the north

A midsummer event in the far north that provided an indication of the industry’s future was the Friends of the Far North Line (FoFNL) AGM in Brora. This line was a Beeching survivor that has seen its passenger numbers double over the last fifteen years.

The meeting heard proposals for an overnight train from Edinburgh and Glasgow to Thurso and a shuttle service between Thurso and Wick operated by Vivarail’s battery train. There were also presentations from Network Rail’s chairman, Sir Peter Hendy, and Transport Scotland’s director of rail Bill Reeve, both of whom considered the line’s services and gave their perspective on wider industry issues.

Sir Peter reflected on his time running Transport for London (TfL) where, unlike at Network Rail, he was in charge of everything and so could ensure that service improvement investments were the best mix of rolling stock and infrastructure. He liked the way the railway is run in Scotland, which he felt was not unlike what he had at TfL as, in Transport Scotland, there is an intelligent client delivering the Scottish Government’s objectives for a competitive railway that supports the economy.

Both he and Andrew Haines are committed to putting passengers and freight customers first. Hendy explained this needs a regional organisation that gives people sufficiently far down the organisation the empowerment and resources they need. He advised that midsummer weekend was auspicious, as it saw Network Rail’s regional organisations going live.

Bill Reeve welcomed this new organisation which brings together previously geographically spread departments so that all those responsible for the delivery of the Scottish High-Level Output Statement (HLOS) were now working for one Network Rail organisation. He felt that the detailed requirements of the HLOS could be summarised as the ABC of Alignment, Building on success and a Competitive railway.

As an example of alignment, he cited Network Rail’s £1.6 million investment to improve the train service by providing a wheel lathe at ScotRail’s Inverness depot. Reeve felt it was critical that everyone within Network Rail had a shared idea of “what good is”.

In his experience, the lack of alignment in delivering a railway that customers want has been a significant problem.

Reeve is proud of what has been achieved in Scotland. He is also passionate about having a railway that provides attractive services for passengers and freight companies in an efficient manner. Such a competitive railway, he felt, was well placed to deliver social inclusion and climate change objectives.

Hendy noted how last year’s timetable debacle highlighted how it was wrong for the Secretary of State to be the only person responsible for the whole railway and, as a result, the DfT is an

extraordinary centralised department. This led to the independent review by Keith Williams, which is to report in the Autumn. Hendy and Reeve are clearly aligned in their thinking and have been closely involved in this review. Although neither can predict the review’s conclusions, it would be surprising if these did not reflect their views.

Midsummer also saw the installation of the first ElectroLogIXS electronic signal interlocking at Feltham. Paul Darlington explains why this new type of interlocking will bring significant capital and operational savings, in part by dramatically reducing the number of relays required and halving the lineside equipment locations.

This summer also saw a new 1.4 km loop brought into service on the single-line Felixstowe branch which carries the UK’s highest rail freight tonnage. As David Bickell describes, this involved significant signalling works with four level crossings upgraded and six closed requiring the provision of a bridleway bridge.

Earthing such signalling equipment whilst ensuring continuity of power supplies is a complex issue, especially as some legacy power supplies did not meet current legislative standards. Our feature explains Network Rail’s strategy for ensuring compliance.

Peter Stanton was at a recent joint RIA/IMechE seminar to rebuild confidence in electrification. His report explains how this made the case for electrification and showed how recent successful schemes which have incorporated lessons from previous problematic projects.

Following the introduction of Hitachi’s Azuma trains on the East Coast main line, Stuart Marsh describes how these trains are maintained at the new £80 million Doncaster Carr depot. New types of trains are not always greeted with acclaim, due to complaints about hard seats. An RSSB research project is addressing this issue by developing objective seat comfort criteria, as our article describes.

New trains also put new demands on wheel slide protection (WSP) systems which, for 30 years, have been evaluated by WSPER (WSP evaluation rig). Malcom Dobell was invited to Derby to see WSPER in its new laboratory and explains how new developments are being incorporated into this complex test rig.

As Nigel Wordsworth describes, a huge amount of construction plant was on display at Plantworx and Railworx, with almost 500 exhibitors’ displays spread out over the 140,000 square metres of the East of England Arena.

For ten years the Rail Partnership Awards have celebrated and showcased the achievements of Network Rail’s supply chain which, as our feature shows, includes great examples of collaborative working.

This would seem to contrast with the need for better alignment between Government and the different parts of the rail industry.

RAIL ENGINEER EDITOR

DAVID SHIRRES

Rail Engineer | Issue 176 | July 2019

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THE TEAM

NEWS

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

Production Editor Nigel Wordsworth nigel.wordsworth@railengineer.co.uk

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

Engineering writers bob.wright@railengineer.co.uk clive.kessell@railengineer.co.uk collin.carr@railengineer.co.uk david.bickell@railengineer.co.uk graeme.bickerdike@railengineer.co.uk grahame.taylor@railengineer.co.uk lesley.brown@railengineer.co.uk

An evening of goodbyes

malcolm.dobell@railengineer.co.uk mark.phillips@railengineer.co.uk paul.darlington@railengineer.co.uk peter.stanton@railengineer.co.uk stuart.marsh@railengineer.co.uk

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Rail Engineer | Issue 176 | July 2019

The Rail Supply Group staged a reception at the London Transport Museum on Monday 17 June, ostensibly to mark the retirement of Gordon Wakeford, who has stepped down as both CEO of Siemens Mobility in the UK and as co-chairman of the RSG. But, as often happens on these occasions, there was more to it than that.

Gordon started off proceedings by recapping some of the things that had happened on his watch. Most memorable was the Rail Sector Deal, a collaboration between government and the rail industry that aims to both make the railway more efficient and also boost exports.

“The sector deal will be transformational. It’s a deal that builds upon the here and now but, importantly, lifts our heads to the future, five to ten years hence, where we will change the landscape,” he said.

Returning to a theme he started at Railtex recently, where he spoke in the Rail Engineer Seminar Theatre, Gordon revised the wording of the Beach Boys’ hit ‘Wouldn’t It Be Nice’ to include the vision he and the RSG have developed for the industry.

Thankfully, nobody sang.

Gordon paid tribute to the team that had delivered the rail sector deal, and singled out Anna Delvecchio of Amey: “I really wish to wholeheartedly thank Anna Delvecchio for all of her hard work and dedication over the last three years where

she has steadfastly acted as programme director, driving us all forward for the common cause. Anna, the RSG would not be where it is today without your perseverance."

Anna is also stepping down, in her case from the role of co-leader for the sector deal, being replaced by Neil Ridley, formerly with the Railway Industry Association and the Transport Systems Catapult, and now managing director of Transport Genesis. However, she will still head the workgroup on productivity.

As a surprise, during a tour of the museum with Rail Minister Andrew Jones and Network Rail chairman and museum trustee Sir Peter Hendy, in the section

NEWS

coming soon...

‘Untangling the Tracks’, Anna was shown a plaque on the wall that featured - Anna Delvecchio!

It has been placed on display in the museum, alongside those of historical transport figures such as Hannah Dadds (first female train driver on London Underground), Ellen Bulfield (one of the female conductors on London’s buses during World War 1 and the last to hand her job back to a returning male conductor once the war ended) and Joy Jarvis (designer of the tube’s ‘moquette’ seating fabric in the 1940s), in honour of Anna’s work, both in developing the Rail Sector Deal and her leading work promoting diversity and inclusion across the industry. She has also been made a patron of the London Transport museum.

“I am incredibly humbled and grateful to the Rail Supply Group and the London Transport Museum for this incredible gesture,” she said afterwards. “I am more committed than ever to continue what I have started and make the transport profession a more inclusive place for all.”

Gordon Wakeford had one last role to play, introducing Atkins president Philip Hoare, who is taking over as co-chair of the RSG. Unable to attend, Philip addressed the meeting over the internet from North America. He thanked Gordon for his leadership and enthusiasm and also thanked the RSG Council.

Niall Mackenzie, director at the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, spoke of the government’s satisfaction at the delivery of the rail sector deal, and then Sir Peter Hendy presented two retirement presents.

The first went to Gordon Wakeford, who received a distant semaphore signal, and then Sir Peter presented a home signal arm to David Waboso, who recently retired as head of Network Rail’s Group Digital Railway but also from the RSG board.

It may have been an evening of goodbyes, but it also celebrated how strong the rail industry can be when it works together.

AUG/SEPT 2019 ELECTRIFICATION & POWER As the UK rail network is one of the biggest consumers of electricity in the UK, it is always investigating ways to innovate, reduce costs, introduce new power alternatives and reduce carbon. Safety is also a major topic, as are ways to take possessions more quickly and to install new electrification more efficiently.

Cabinets, Components, Connectors, Control Equipment and Systems, Cables, Distribution Networks, Earthing, Fasteners, Generators, Housings, Insulation, Lamps, Lightning Protection, Monitoring, OLE, Pantographs, Power Supplies, Security, Substations, Transformers.

OCTOBER 2019 RAILWAY INFRASTRUCTURE As CP6 gets fully underway, Rail Engineer’s expert writers take a look at what’s involved in maintaining and renewing the railway’s infrastructure and at the latest advances in technology and techniques that aim to make the process faster, easier and more cost effective.

Asset Management, Bridges, Cable Hangers, Concrete, Construction, Drainage, Examinations, Lifting, Modular Systems, Painting, Plant & Equipment, Precast Sections, Refurbishment, Replacement, Rope Access, Scaffolding, Spray Concrete, Surveying Equipment, Surveying Techniques, Tunnelling, Tunnel Boring, Ventilation, Waterproofing.

NOVEMBER 2019 RAILWAY INFRASTRUCTURE With trains and their systems becoming ever more complicated, Rail Engineer’s specialist writers cover everything that improves performance, increases efficiency, and keeps passengers happy. New trains, refurbished older ones, improved technology and alternative fuels are all considered and evaluated.

Comfort, Components, Condition Monitoring, Depots, Driverless Technology, Equipment, Inspection, Interiors, Lifting, Light-Rail Vehicles, Lighting, Maintenance, New designs, Passenger Information, Platform-Train Interface, Refurbishment.

Rail Engineer | Issue 176 | July 2019

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NEWS

The shape of things to come Five organisations are bidding for a contract to design, manufacture and maintain the trains for the first phase of HS2, as Rail Engineer reported in issues 172 and 173 (March and April 2019).

The original list was Alstom, Bombardier, Hitachi, Siemens and Talgo. When Bombardier and Hitachi decided to make a joint bid, CAF was added to the list to maintain five bidders.

The first phase, for at least 54 trains to run on both HS2 and the ‘classic’ network, is likely to be ordered in Spring 2020 with a contract value of around £2.75 billion.

Although graphics of the new designs have been released, technical details have been withheld, but the field includes a range of new designs and adapted existing platforms.

Bombardier/Hitachi.

Alstom A new design, although based on existing technology, Alstom’s UK managing director Nick Crossfield commented: “Alstom’s vision is to make HS2 trains a timeless design classic, with a passenger experience that is as smooth, calm and spacious as it is high-speed.”

Bombardier/Hitachi Alstom.

Rail Engineer | Issue 176 | July 2019

This partnership has already delivered the Frecciarossa (Red Arrow) ETR1000 for Trenitalia

in 2015, which is the fastest yet quietest in-service high-speed train in Europe. Operating at speeds up to 225 mph, it has “transformed passenger experience and connectivity across Italy”.

CAF CAF has stated that its offer to HS2 is based on its Oaris platform. CAF UK director Richard Garner said: “The Oaris platform uses the latest technology to offer high-speed

NEWS

Talgo.

Siemens.

travel and has demonstrated its capacity to operate at speeds over 360 km/h - combined with the advantages of proven reliability, comfort and safety.”

Siemens Siemens’ Velaro family of high-speed trains is already in operation in Spain, China, Russia, Germany and the UK, where its Eurostar e320 fleet runs at 320km/h.

William Wilson, CEO of Siemens Mobility, said: “Our team has worked tirelessly to develop an offer that transforms how passengers experience high speed trains and set the standard for other global highspeed rail systems to follow.”

Talgo Talgo has based its offer for the supply of trains to HS2 on Avril - its latest generation rolling stock platform. This represents the latest evolution of very high-speed vehicles, which has been developed over several decades using experience gained from supplying trains to Spain, Saudi Arabia and Central Asia.

Talgo UK’s Jon Veitch commented: “HS2 will be crucial as the UK economy grows. We humbly believe that Talgo’s combination of experience and adaptivity is the best option for both train operating companies and taxpayers.”

CAF. Who will win?

That’s anyone’s guess. All five companies have the pedigree.

Bombardier and Hitachi already have factories in the UK that could build these trains tomorrow, so they must be strong contenders as splitting the volumes between the two locations would make the quantities more manageable and keep the work in the UK. Siemens is building a factory in Goole to build London Underground’s deep-tube trains - but would it get two major contracts or would the DfT want to spread orders around?

CAF’s new factory in Wales is now in operation, as is Alstom’s technical centre in Widnes, and Talgo has said it would like to build a factory here.

So let’s see, in one year’s time we should know…

Rail Engineer | Issue 176 | July 2019

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FEATURE

Have you heard the whisper about new developments to WSPER?

MALCOM DOBELL

Y

our writer first became aware of WSPER (Wheel Slide Protection Evaluation Rig) in the 1990s. It is a method of carrying out type testing of wheel slide protection systems (WSP) using ‘hardware in the loop’ simulation techniques, which were described by Nigel Wordsworth in issue 123 (January 2015).

It is notoriously difficult to test WSP systems thoroughly on track. Reliably delivering low adhesion, obtaining sufficient access time and managing the risk of wheel flats are all issues making track testing difficult to organise and, even then, the quantity of data obtained is usually quite limited.

In the late 1980s, BR was experiencing high levels of wheel tread damage on BR-designed WSP equipment and the then brakes engineer, Brian Nicholas, believed there was a better way of testing WSP than by applying soapy water to the track. The need to understand the former provided the opportunity to initially develop the WSPER.

Rail Engineer | Issue 176 | July 2019

Thus, in 1988/9, WSPER was created by BR Research (sold to AEA Technology and later became DeltaRail). When DeltaRail decided to leave that part of the rail market, the rights to WSPER moved to ESG Rail (now called DB ESG - part of DB Systemtechnik).

Moving forward 30 years, it was on a rather autumnal day in June 2019 that Rail Engineer and other guests visited DB ESG’s office in the Railway Technical Centre (now called RTC Business Park) in Derby to hear about the latest developments with WSPER on, more or less its 30th birthday celebration, and to view the new, bigger and better WSPER facility. Guests included representatives

from companies who use WSPER and, as guest of honour, one of WSPER’s founders, John Tunley, who was invited to officially open the new laboratory.

Reminiscing, John Tunley observed that WSPER made it possible to control the parameters affecting the WSP equipment and if, for example, a coefficient of 0.03 was required, it was delivered by WSPER, whilst on the track no one could be absolutely certain of the outcome.

He added that it successfully identified why BR WSP was causing wheel damage, something that had remained a mystery, even with track tests. Modifications were tested to ensure an optimum solution, which was implemented, thereby largely solving the wheel damage problem. John also observed that many hard-bitten brake suppliers were more difficult to convince until they had put their own equipment through its paces on WSPER.

FEATURE What is “hardware in the loop”?

Wikipedia defines it as “Hardwarein-the-loop (HIL) simulation is a technique that is used in the development and test of complex real-time embedded systems. HIL simulation provides an effective platform by adding the complexity of the plant under control to the test platform. The complexity of the plant under control is included in test and development by adding a mathematical representation of all related dynamic systems.”

For wheel slide protection systems, this means simulating the performance of the railway, the adhesion between the wheels and the rails (which varies by location along the line, location along the train and the amount by which the wheels might be slipping), the interaction of the friction and electrodynamic brake where not all axles are motored, the dynamic interaction between vehicles, the behaviour of brake systems, and the inertia of the wheelsets which, again, vary between trailer and motor axles.

WSPER involves connecting the WSP system, including dump valves, and simulating everything else. The complex friction maps were originally obtained from the BR tribometer train in the 1980s, but Stuart Brown seizes every track test opportunity to ensure that those maps remain valid.

Especially with the new developments of 12 car trains, electro-dynamic brakes, sanding and ATO, very considerable computing power is required, although it is ultimately controlled by and displayed on a Windows 10 PC, albeit one with a 4k large-screen monitor.

Developments Back to the present day and Nick Goodhand, DB ESG’s managing director, introduced principal electrical engineer Stuart Brown, who has been WSPER’s ‘minder’ for nearly 20 of its 30 years. In those 30 years, WSPER has become the standard way of evaluating WSP systems, but the WSP systems and the trains have

also changed over time. So, following an overwhelmingly positive customer survey in 2018, DB ESG embarked on a development programme, so that WSPER could cope with: »» Train control architecture: Train control is becoming more integrated, particularly between individual vehicles and between friction and electrodynamic braking. »» Longer formations: WSPER is being modified to accommodate a simulated 12-vehicle, 24-bogie train. »» ATO: Standard WSPER evaluation is carried out against a given brake demand, such as ‘step 2’. For example, the evaluation might assess the stopping distance for the defined brake demand with different levels of adhesion, or it might evaluate performance for varying brake demand on a consistent friction map. In ATO operation, the brake demand is varied depending on the achieved brake performance, aiming at a target stopping distance, irrespective of adhesion. »» Sanding: evaluating the impact of braking sanders on WSP and stopping performance, together with the ability to estimate the mass of sand used in a given stop. »» Electro-dynamic (ED) braking: increasingly, the main service brake on modern trains is ED. This is far from trivial to simulate, especially when not all the axles are motored. »» Articulated formations: Increasingly being used in the UK, Stuart described work being carried out for the Docklands Light Railway and also for Greater Anglia’s Stadler trains.

»» Kwet: Determination of the Kwet value for homologation of ETCS-fitted trains. Kwet is the factor that defines the deceleration degradation between wet and dry rail conditions for ETCS (whereas Kdry represents the statistical dispersion of braking effort on dry rails).

The laboratory All these developments are being incorporated into WSPER, which has been moved into much more spacious accommodation in the RTC Business Park in Derby, with three times as much office space and four times as much equipment space. Stuart Brown said he was especially pleased that the noisy compressor is housed elsewhere, leading to a much quieter workplace.

The new laboratory was formally opened

by John Tunley on 12 June, who said: “Amazingly, it is now 31 years since we first built the WSPER facility. I am proud that it is still developing and that it is providing an invaluable service to the rail industry.”

Stuart Brown demonstrated the capability of the system. Four test cases were used: 1. Dry rail, fixed brake demand; 2. Low adhesion, fixed brake demand; 3. Low adhesion, fixed brake demand and sanding; 4. Low adhesion, simulated ATO and sanding.

These tests took about 10 minutes to run; they might have taken several hours on a test track. It was no exaggeration to suggest that hundreds of tests can be carried out in the time it would take to carry out just a few tests on track and, moreover, with no risk of flatting any

Rail Engineer | Issue 176 | July 2019

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FEATURE train wheels. WSPER also avoids having to spend hours setting up the paper tape needed for low adhesion tests.

As the simulations ran, the noise of compressed air venting from the brake components in the equipment room filtered through the door, bringing back memories of Rail Engineer’s visit to RIDC Melton, reported in issue 157 (November 2017), where variable-rate sanders were being tested in low adhesion conditions on a real train!

The results of the tests are shown in figure 1.

Stopping distance (m) Service brake, 7% g demand, level track 1. Dry rails 2. Low adhesion 3. Low adhesion + sand 4. Low adhesion + sand + ATO (target stopping distance based on nominal stopping distance for 7% g demand on dry rail)

369.6 462 421 369.6

Sand used (kg) For each sander

0, 1.2 0.66, 1.17

Figure 1 - simulated stopping distance against brake demand and adhesion.

The sheer complexity, both of the simulation and of brake control, is illustrated by comparing test 1 with test 4. A screen shot from test 1 is shown in figure 2. This shows a velocity:time plot of an intermediate car on a London Underground S Stock train with electrodynamic and friction brakes on

Rail Engineer | Issue 176 | July 2019

clean dry rails with a brake demand of 0.75m/s2. The plot shows the velocity profile of each of the four axles, but, as there is no wheel slide, these profiles are superimposed on the actual velocity.

In comparison, test 4 illustrates a much more complex situation, representing a 0.75m/s2 brake demand on low adhesion.

Figure 2 - Braking in dry conditions.

S stock is a seven-car or eight-car train, with sanders on only two of the cars (the first sander is in front of the trailing bogie on car 2). As not all cars have any or full benefit of sanders, it is necessary to consider each car individually in order to gain a picture of the behaviour of the train.

Four plots are shown in figure 3 - from top left to bottom right - a driving car with no sander benefit, the first intermediate car where only one bogie benefits from the sander, the second intermediate car with a sander and finally the third intermediate car with no sanders. It is immediately obvious that the behaviour of the four wheelsets on each car is different.

An example is illustrated in figure 4, an enlargement of the bottom right plot on figure 3 and is described in more detail.

The target velocity, with a slope of 0.75m/s2, is a straight orange line.

The actual speed of the train is the white line above it, showing that the train speed is exceeding the target velocity.

Four “wiggly� lines in cyan, red, green and yellow show individual wheel velocity. As the adhesion is poor, the wheels immediately slow relative to the target velocity, braking more quickly than the train and beginning to slip, provoking WSP activity.

Because of the poor adhesion, the actual velocity (white line) is reducing more slowly than the target velocity.

At around four seconds after brake initiation, sanding is initiated (point [a] on the chart) and the slipping wheels almost immediately resume nearly actual train speed.

By about seven seconds, the actual velocity, while higher than target velocity, is decreasing at the same rate

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FEATURE

Figure 3 - Four plots from the same test. (top left) driving car with no sander, (top right) 2nd car car with one sander, (bottom left) 3rd car car with one sander, (bottom right) 4th car car with no sander positioned after the two sander cars. [b], but, by about 11 seconds, the ATO realises it needs to increase the brake rate if the target stopping distance is to be achieved and the slope of the white line becomes steeper than the yellow line [c].

This situation is quite complicated to simulate just for one car, but all this interaction is being simulated for each of the seven or eight cars individually. And, whilst target speed remains a constant factor, the brake effort contribution for each of the 28 or 32 axles has to be integrated to calculate the actual train velocity. Moreover, the impact of sander operation on all axles behind them has to be assessed - all being calculated in real time. A very complex simulation!

The ATO test has been a vital part in developing the case for ATO running in the London Underground Metropolitan,

a

b c

Rail Engineer | Issue 176 | July 2019

District, Circle and Hammersmith and City lines, without having to specify excessively low brake rates. Stuart acknowledged the partnership with Gilbert Rowe, London Underground’s brakes engineer, who has been in the vanguard over the last 20 years of safely and reliably delivering comparatively high brake rates of around 0.7 m/s2 for ATO operation, even under adverse adhesion conditions.

Sanders were a late addition to LU’s S Stock design and there was insufficient space for large sand hoppers, so it was particularly important to minimise sand consumption whilst achieving the required performance. The delivery of the Sanding and ATO modules on WSPER were part of this work, which was validated with extensive testing at RIDC Melton.

In discussion, Gilbert Rowe highlighted the challenge presented by ATP systems using two tachometers on adjacent axles. In poor adhesion conditions, the two axles may end up rotating at different speeds or decelerate at a rate above the value the ATP considers to be feasible. The ATP may then trigger an emergency stop, demanding the highest brake demand, usually in low adhesion conditions, and sometimes leading to flatted wheels.

Could WSP be altered to help and be evaluated by WSPER, Rail Engineer mused?

Stuart advised that this is something that could be considered for the future.

This led to a further discussion about using WSPER to evaluate trains where the ATP tachometer(s) are fitted to an unbraked axle, as is increasingly being specified.

Perhaps the last word should go to Stuart Brown, who probably won’t thank me for calling him Mr WSPER: “We are proud to be able to provide our customers with a more comprehensive WSPER package.

WSPER has a 30-year pedigree and we are developing the system to meet the future needs of our customers, ensuring that it is the system of choice for the next 30 years.”

Figure 4 - Enlargement of the bottom right plot from figure 3 with three areas highlighted.

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Rail Engineer | Issue 176 | July 2019

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FEATURE

STUART MARSH

NEW ERA AT

Doncaster Carr

"Y

ou’re in the wrong place, mate." No, this wasn’t a further comment from the monotone Sat Nav voice that had moments earlier insisted on a left turn onto Ten Pound Walk. Indeed, the destination loomed large enough, right there, over the fence. Network Rail’s adjacent car park, your writer was loudly informed, does not give access. The widened and extended roadway that leads to a security barrier beyond the rows of parked vehicles ought to have provided something of a clue.

Coinciding with the 15 May advent of Intercity Express Programme (IEP) train services running on the East Coast main line, Rail Engineer had been invited to view the train maintenance facilities now in operation at Hitachi Rail’s entirely new Doncaster Carr depot.

Plans Ten years have gone by since Hitachi Rail became the preferred bidder for the IEP; a programme aiming to procure mainline high-speed intercity trains to replace the aging HST fleet. Contracts were signed in 2012 for the first phase of the project, for trains for the Great Western main line (GWML). Agreement was also reached at that time on a second phase, for the replacement of HSTs and Intercity 225 trains on the East Coast main line (ECML).

As part of the ECML contract, Hitachi was required to build a maintenance depot at Doncaster.

The initial specifications for the depot, submitted for planning application in 2010, called for a four-road maintenance shed able to accommodate ten-car trains, which would be 262 metres long. A single road shed would be used for maintaining

Rail Engineer | Issue 176 | July 2019

diesel power cars and there would be facilities for refuelling, wheel re-profiling, carriage washing and toilet emptying.

The plans also included sidings for stabling four full trainsets and twenty half trainsets. Office space and warehousing were also to be included within the main building, which was to measure roughly 300 metres by 55 metres on a site of approximately 13 hectares (32 acres).

Modifications to the plans, submitted in further applications between 2011 and 2013, saw the removal of the separate

power car maintenance shed and some of the cleaning facilities. Expected changes in the train timetabling also meant that the siding layout could be reduced to accommodate up to 24 five-car (half) train sets.

The 2013 plans reinstated a bio cleaning pit, extended the enclosed train wash and now included a second mainline connection at the south end of the site.

To state the obvious, the depot was designed to maintain the Hitachi AT300series Class 800 bi-mode trains and Class 801 electric trains - collectively known as AZUMAs (in Japanese an archaic word for east) - that were to be operated by Virgin Trains East Coast, now of course superseded by LNER. However, the depot would also be used for the maintenance of Class 802 ‘Nova 1’ bi-mode trains operated by TransPennine Express (TPE).

FEATURE Firmed up The contract for the second phase of the IEP programme, including the running of trains on the ECML, was finalised in April 2014, allowing the construction of the Doncaster depot to begin. The main contractors were VolkerFitzpatrick, on behalf of Hitachi Rail Europe, with RPS Group acting as the project architects. Costs for the depot works was estimated at about £80 million.

There has been a railway depot located on the site since 1876; originally in the form of a 12-road steam loco shed built by the Great Northern Railway.

Modernisation came in the mid 1950s, and, more recently, the facility had become the Doncaster Carr DB Schenker maintenance depot, which was closed in April 2014.

Work to construct the new Hitachi maintenance facility started the following December with the demolition of all existing buildings, the excavation of contaminated soil and the removal of a multitude of vaulted brick arches that had supported the original Doncaster Carr steam sheds on the soft ground (the word carr meaning an area of swamp or fen woodland).

After a century of servicing locomotives, the ground was, unsurprisingly, found to be heavily contaminated. Rather than being transported away, this was successfully treated on site and it was later re-used within the scheme.

Taking the place of the brick arches to support the new 11,000m2 rail maintenance shed and its ancillary buildings, a total of 2,250 CFA (continuous

flight auger) piles were sunk. Steelwork, totalling over 1,000 tonnes, for the three main buildings was supplied and installed

by Caunton Engineering of Nottingham.

Some 26,000m² of cladding was needed to complete the structure of the buildings.

In total it’s reckoned that about 2,000 people worked on the project and that £22 million was spent on locally sourced parts and services from 37 local suppliers.

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FEATURE Nitty gritty A total of 4km of new trackwork and overhead wire was installed by VolkerRail, which involved 25,000 tonnes of ballast being brought to the site. All of the yard points have point heaters and are power operated using clamp locks controlled from a central location within the office complex. The signalling system was installed by Bombardier, utilising a mix of axle counters and track circuits.

Within the depot, there are four raised maintenance roads that have overhead line equipment (OLE), monorail hoists and platform level access. The OLE lock off systems for these were provided

by ZoneGreen. In addition, high level platforms allow easy access to carriage roof mounted equipment.

At present, the OLE within the depot area is powered from the local ECML supply. To improve OLE reliability, a second, independent, power supply, serving only the depot, is currently being installed. Completion of the new supply is scheduled for October 2019.

The non-wired fifth road of the maintenance shed is equipped with Mechan lifting jacks that are capable of lifting an entire 10-car train simultaneously. Not surprisingly, this track is called the lifting road. Two Mechan turntables allow bogies to be run out and moved easily into the adjacent workshop areas. There is also a three-

Rail Engineer | Issue 176 | July 2019

road equipment drop, again supplied by Mechan. At present, the intention is to subcontract bogie maintenance off-site, but the facilities exist for this work to be done in-house.

Road 5 also has SchenckProcess Multirail® WheelLoad equipment that can simultaneously measure the individual wheel loadings of a train’s carriages. It is used to ensure equal weight distribution within bogies. The workshop area is also equipped with a Multirail® BogieLoad press that provides vertical force on bogies under test, whilst at the same time measuring the individual wheel loadings.

Into action So much for the wherewithal, but how does Hitachi Rail intend to make use of its £80 million investment at Doncaster?

Hitachi has responsibility for all aspects of maintenance for the IEP trains running on the ECML. Train cleaning, which includes the charging and emptying of tanks, will be carried out by the train operators or their contractors, but everything else, even the rectification of trivial faults, falls to Hitachi Rail.

On the ECML, maintenance of the new Hitachi trains will be shared between Bounds Green (North London),

FEATURE

Doncaster Carr berthing diagram.

Craigentinny (Edinburgh) and Doncaster Carr. Bounds Green depot will maintain all thirty Class 801 electric trains, whereas Doncaster is responsible for maintenance of all the Class 800 bi-modes. In addition, nineteen TPE Class 802 ‘Nova 1’ trains will use Doncaster - with Hull Trains’ Class 802s being based at Bounds Green.

Capacity at the depot is measured in half sets - therefore a nine-car set would count as two half sets. Outside there are 14 stabling positions. The equivalent of 12½ Azuma sets return to Doncaster each night for servicing, maintenance or stabling.

Condition The IEP trains are subject to comprehensive remote condition monitoring (RCM), coupled with a condition-based maintenance regime.

This programme attempts to use RCM to link maintenance engineering, reliability in service and maintenance development.

There are essentially two stages to this, the first being the comprehensive testing of the new trains to find out how systems perform and wear. Faults or unexpected wear rates that arise need to be understood so that the maintenance regime can be tailored to eliminate costly failures in service.

Some obvious components that need to be monitored include brake pads, bogie parts, wheel bearings, wheel profiles and wheel wear characteristics.

The Hitachi maintenance regime goes much further than this, such that the

trains are festooned with sensors.

Bearing temperatures, door mechanism performance, engine and transmission parameters are but a few of the items on a long list that are reported. Wi-Fi and 4G can be used to download the data in real time.

Data accrued as the trains operate can then be used to tailor the second stage of the programme: maintenance and overhauls. The more evidence that becomes available on how the systems operate and can potentially fail, the easier it becomes to make sensible decisions on maintenance intervals (for fixed-period servicing) and wear allowances (for condition- based maintenance).

Developing faults will reach a threshold at which an automatic alert is raised.

This might for instance be due to a door

operating system that isn’t performing to specification. If the failure mode is understood, a decision can then be made on whether to carry out repair work immediately, or on whether the problem can wait until the next scheduled depot visit, or perhaps on whether the train needs to be re-diagrammed in order to bring forward a planned maintenance intervention.

The introduction of a fully conditionbased maintenance system is new to Hitachi, both in the UK and in Japan.

Ashford depot uses condition-based information to make maintenance decisions on the Hitachi Class 395 fleet, but the IEP programme represents Hitachi’s first fully integrated application of remote condition monitoring and a condition-based maintenance regime.

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FEATURE

Bathtub curve Rolling stock reliability is measured as Miles per Train Incident (MTIN), in which a delay of over three minutes counts as an incident.

As with any complex engineered system, early component failures are inevitable teething problems to you and me. As the train delivery phase nears its completion, Hitachi is close to achieving long-term levels of high reliability. In the most recent period, an MTIN figure of 10,308 was achieved and the best to date has been 12,172. The figures fluctuate, but by plotting the Moving Annual Average (MAA) of MTIN the increasing reliability of the fleet is revealed.

Service As has been widely reported, electromagnetic emissions from the new trains can cause interference to the railway infrastructure, especially to older signalling installations. It is for this reason that services on the ECML are currently operating only between Kings Cross and Leeds. The issue has been attributed to high frequency harmonics in the primary return current, as a consequence of switching the input converters rather than the traction three-phase inverter.

In conjunction with the ORR, both Hitachi Rail Europe and Network Rail are working to eliminate the interference problems. The work involves fitting isolation transformers to signalling equipment and reactances (filters) to the trains - adding an additional weight of about 750kg per affected vehicle.

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This programme should be complete by August, when the first service trains are scheduled to run to Scotland.

The IEP roll out on the ECML will see 65 new Class 800/801 Azuma trains in operation by the spring of 2020, bringing to an end the 40-year era of HST services and even the displacement of the Class 91 fleet. This represents an important step change, not only in terms of passenger service, but also improved reliability and reduced environmental impact. Within the IEP programme, there has been a lot to deliver - improved infrastructure, a new manufacturing facility at Newton Aycliffe and the investment in new and refurbished maintenance depots across the UK, not to mention the

866 new carriages (122 trains) being manufactured - 369 for the GWML and 497 for the ECML. That shiny new depot at the end of Ten Pound Walk is vital to the success of the IEP programme on the ECML and, under the terms of the Hitachi Rail contract, will continue to be so for at least the next 27 years.

Except, it seems, for one Rail Engineer writer, it’s very easy to find, down there at the end of Ten Pound Walk. Easier still if you happen to be LNER or TPE with an 800 to service. Most definitely the depot is in the right place for that.

Oh, and what of that curiously named access road? Apparently, it was the route taken by drivers in the days of steam when they collected their weekly pay. Things have certainly changed at Doncaster Carr Depot!

Plot of MTIN and MAA shows the increasing reliability of the fleet.

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22

FEATURE

MALCOM DOBELL

Are You Sitting Comfortably?

PHOTO: GREATER ANGLIA

Rail Engineer | Issue 176 | July 2019

FEATURE

A

lthough a number of new train fleets have been introduced onto the British rail network in recent years, with more still to come, they haven’t all met with universal passenger approval. Some have described the seats as “ironing boards”, a reference to their comparative hardness. Others have observed that the initial impressions might lead one to think that the seats are hard, but in fact they remain comfortable after a long journey.

After a safe and punctual train, seats are probably the most important customer requirement, but, with people coming in all shapes and sizes, and journeys being for a variety of purposes, customer requirements for seats would not come into the category of “one size fits all”.

In days gone by, the importance of seats would be inferred by a requirement that seat comfort be judged by the managing director and his (in those days it was inevitably a man) directors - a process that survived until at least the 1990s.

More recently, enlightened project directors have organised customer clinics and provided the seats that the customers liked most. Less-enlightened project directors have bought the cheapest seats compliant with the various requirements (that do not include comfort).

Then there must be a special mention for project directors who organise a customer clinic but then buy the cheapest compliant seat, irrespective of the result of the clinic.

Compliance is everything, and modern trains must comply with the interoperability regulations. In the case of seats, train buyers have to ensure that the seats meet some pretty basic ergonomic requirements, show they are strong enough in service and in a crash, and meet stringent fire safety requirements.

Moreover, a train operator’s franchise agreement might require a particular number of seats to be operated into and out of key nodal points at specified times. Comfort might be an objective, but without means of measurement.

Claims have been made that compliance with fire safety standards leads to hard seats, others disagree.

The result has been a large number of complaints about socalled “ironing board” seats, and recent customer satisfaction scores show seats (at 67 per cent) fall a long way short of overall passenger satisfaction (at 83 per cent).

All this led to RSSB commissioning research into seat comfort, with the aim of producing objective criteria for assessing seat comfort and, hopefully a standard against which compliance may be measured. If customers dislike the seats on a new train when this process is in use, it will be easy to see whether the specifier has been too undemanding or whether the seat supplier has failed to comply.

The project set out with a literature review which was used to help define minimum seat comfort requirements, to develop a seat comfort test methodology and seat comfort scoring system and, finally, to test and validate the proposals.

The report identified ten factors; seat dimensions, passenger anthropometry, passenger activity, train seat arrangements, static, dynamic and temporal factors of comfort, psychosocial factors of seat comfort, seat durability, international best practices regarding

Comfort factors RSSB Research Project T1140 “Defining the requirements of a seat comfort selection process” was initiated in February 2018 and the final report was delivered in May 2019. The work was carried out by Arup and the Furniture Industry Research Association (FIRA).

The report highlights that “quantifying seat comfort is a complex area that depends on the human, the product and the environment…comfort can be defined as ‘an absence of discomfort’ and so discomfort is sometimes easier to quantify”.

Putting this into a mouthful of other words, the different shapes and sizes of passengers, and the activities they perform whilst sat in the seat, together with the shapes and sizes of seats, seat pad compression, variations in journey length and train vibration, can and do affect feelings of comfort.

Seat properties affecting comfort.

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FEATURE

seating, seat ‘accessories’ such as folding tablets, power sockets, and ancillary items that effect the passenger seating area and legroom such as tables, possible future train seat design scenarios which, together with Arup’s and FIRA’s background knowledge and experience, were used in the subsequent stages.

The project team worked on the four key factors that influence seat comfort. Firstly, the journey type, as passengers expect different comfort levels on different types of journey. For example, people may tolerate a lower level of comfort on a short journey compared with a long one.

Secondly, the dimensions and weight of people with the objective of determining minimum dimensions suitable for the majority of the population from large to small.

Thirdly the seat pad, as most of the complaints about seat hardness come about when people first sit in the seat and find the seat pad to be unyielding. The pad thickness, hardness and durability are important factors. Indeed, if a seat pad looks reasonably thick but feels hard the impression of discomfort might be increased. For a comfortable seat the pad must provide enough compression for lighter people and enough support to prevent the pad “bottoming out” (sorry!) for heavier people.

Finally, seat accessories such as armrests and tables are valued by customers and were included in the process.

Results As people and their journeys vary so much the report recommends a number of seat factors be evaluated for each category of journey defined.

Journey types Four types of journey were identified - metro, regional, intercity and first class/very high speed. For each journey type, a comfort rating scale was proposed, made up of four attributes; seat dimensions, seat pad requirements, seat attractiveness and seat accessories. Each of these attributes is described in turn.

Rail Engineer | Issue 176 | July 2019

Seat dimensions The report proposes minimum seat comfort dimensions to ensure that a seat’s features such as seat depth and legroom will fit the majority of the UK population. People’s sizes were defined from “BS EN ISO 7250-2:2013 Basic human body measurements for technological design, part 2: Statistical summaries of body measurements from national populations” and a test method was designed using a weighted chair measurement device, to be used in accordance with “ISO TR 24496:2017 - Office furniture - Office work chairs - Methods for the determination of dimensions”.

A number of dimensions were specified; either pass/fail or varied by type of journey. These included seat height, depth and width, backrest width and armrest height, the position of the headrest, legroom and the angle of the seat itself. Figure 1 shows the dimensions and scores for the four journey types.

FEATURE

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Rail Engineer | Issue 176 | July 2019

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FEATURE Seat Pad Requirements For the seat and back pads, the following attributes were specified seat pad minimum thickness, seat back minimum thickness, seat pad hardness with 500N load, seat pad hardness with 1100N load and long-term seat durability.

Figure 2 shows the full table.

Although there are only five requirements, this is probably the most difficult set to deliver a good score, as an appropriately ‘soft’ seat that scores highly on the compression test might not perform so well on the durability test.

Seat Attractiveness This attribute takes account of the complex nature of determining comfort. It is a qualitative, survey-based measure, and is intended to help a train operator decide which seat to choose from candidates that have passed the dimension and compression tests. The three attributes are: »» How comfortable does the seat look? »» How attractive is the seat? »» How comfortable is the seat to sit in?

What does this all mean in practice?

There is a total of sixteen objective measures and three qualitative measures.

Minimum requirements are listed in figure 3. For the eleven seat dimensions alone, the fail criteria and the maximum scores

Rail Engineer | Issue 176 | July 2019

for each of the four journey types are shown in figure 4.

As an example, the maximum score for a Regional train is 25.5 and, as part of the evaluation, three sample seat types were compared, shown in figure 5. It is interesting that one seat is a clear winner, but even this good seat might still fail if the seat pad requirements were not delivered or it was disliked in the qualitative assessment.

Neither spacious seats with poor padding, nor well padded but cramped seats are acceptable.

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FEATURE

When this project was commissioned, its objectives were to: »» Define minimum (baseline) requirements for train seat comfort; »» Create a seat comfort test methodology with scoring system that allows TOCs, ROSCOs, seat manufacturers and seat suppliers to test and score a range of seats for comfort; »» Test and validate the requirements; »» Improve seat comfort on UK trains.

In addition, the seat comfort specifications, testing and scoring methodology had to be robust and credible and to be accepted by the rail and train seating industry. The requirement is not intended to be a barrier to new innovative seating solutions, but to promote it.

Many were sceptical that objective criteria for seat comfort could be set, and it is laudable that a practical system has been developed in a little under over a year. It remains to be seen how well this works in practice, but any reasonable review of the requirements shows that some significant improvements will be made if the requirements are indeed incorporated into the Key Train Requirements document and hence into contracts.

Your writer wonders, however, whether any operator would have the courage to specify seat comfort values at the bottom end of the ranges suggested for the various duties and, indeed, whether some of the minimum dimensions specified spell the end of 3+2 seating on future UK size rolling stock?

PHOTO: FISA

Conclusion

Further, do these requirements help resolve the situation where legroom is compromised because body side heaters encroach into the space of window seats?

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RAIL PARTNERSHIP AWARDS

NIGEL WORDSWORTH

The Best of the Best

Network Rail’s supply chain recognised at the Rail Partnership Awards

T

he Rail Partnership Awards, in which Network Rail shows appreciation and recognises its supply chain for its achievements over the previous year, took place in Birmingham in June. First held in 2009, when 11 awards were presented and Balfour Beatty won the coveted Supplier of the Year trophy, the 2019 version saw a total of fifteen categories on the list.

Thirteen of these could be entered by the suppliers. 214 nominations were received from organisations both large and small, all hoping to win an award for categories as varied as collaboration, diversity and inclusion, safety and putting passengers first.

The fourteenth category was for the Standards Challenge.

To increase innovation and creativity, and to reduce costs,

Rail Engineer | Issue 176 | July 2019

Network Rail introduced a new process at the end of March 2018 to enable suppliers and other stakeholders to raise a challenge to a standard where they considered it to be incorrect, to not enable the application of best practice, or to drive increased cost without comparable benefit.

The best challenges were put forward for this year’s special award.

Then, of course, there is the fifteenth award - the Supplier of the Year - which would be chosen from the fourteen individual winners.

This year, every category had two judges, one from Network Rail and one from the industry.

Between them, they would whittle shortlists of six to eight entries down into a winner and, if they felt the standard was high enough, one or two ‘highly commended’.

Hello and Welcome Network Rail chief executive Andrew Haines (pictured) welcomed guests on the evening. He spoke of the work that the industry and supply chain does, throughout the year.

“It’s right that we take times like this, not to slap ourselves on the back, but to recognise the really fantastic work that’s done by such a diverse group of people.

“This is a brilliant, brilliant opportunity to recognise just how diverse the railway family is, a partnership that does brilliant things, day in, day out.”

He then spoke of the money that was being spent on the railway over the next five years. “£42 billion that could have been spent on schools, hospitals, defence, policing,” he said, “so we have to fight to make that case and that we’re value for money.”

RAIL PARTNERSHIP AWARDS Your host for the evening

Andrew’s ‘catchphrase’ is Putting Passengers First - it was on the front of the booklet in front of every diner, replacing 2018’s “A better railway for a better Britain”.

“I make no apologies for being unremittingly relentless talking about putting passengers first,” he exclaimed, “because I believe it is absolutely where our future lies.

“All too often, we talk about the system as being congested, and the system being nearly full, as if it’s a bad thing. But is it? How many of you would choose to carry a significant amount of spare capacity? Earning nothing for you, month after month, because your assets are not sufficiently reliable or because your maintenance practices weren’t up to scratch, or because your systems and skills were not fit for purpose? And if you did, what would your shareholders make of it?

“We must stop talking about the railway being full as a bad thing. It is actually a fantastic thing. It’s an indication of the long-term economic growth that actually underpins the economy of our country and it’s what we do.

And, as colleagues would have heard me say, I passionately believe that trend of growth will continue to be strong over the next few generations.”

Safety is another big topic, and Andrew remarked on the industry’s significant change to worker safety since he has left and come back to rail: “In the years that I’ve been out of the industry, I’ve seen a complete transformation in the approach to that, the significant reduction in worker injuries and fatalities as a consequence.

We can do it when we put our minds to it and, frankly, the supply chain is leading ahead of us in many ways.”

“If we can do it on safety, we can do it on reliability.” Which brought him back to serving the customer, and Putting Passengers First.

One of television’s most experienced, and versatile presenters, Julia Bradbury (pictured below) was the host for the evening. A former presenter of both Watchdog and Countryfile, Julia can currently be seen in her new series ‘Australia with Julia Bradbury’ on ITV, in which she travels 12,500km from the western coast of this giant continent across to the east.

Outside of her presenting duties, she is the current President of the Camping and Caravanning Club.

“It is wonderful to see you all here tonight, gathered in the heart of the country, at this amazing venue, to celebrate your achievements,” she told the audience. She then joked with Andrew Haines, who claimed that, since he joined Network Rail in August 2018, he had done more public speaking than she had!

Following dinner, and plenty of conversation between the audience that filled the room at the NEC’s Vox conference centre, Julia returned to the stage.

She then spoke about her career in television, where she is perhaps best known for Countryfile.

“Countryfile was an amazing show to work on,” she said, “and there are too many highlights to recount here - travelling up and down the country to some of the most beautiful locations, covering such diverse stories, from county shows to the plight of our crayfish populations in the UK, under threat because of a ‘crayfish plague’ (carried by the American signal crayfish).”

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RAIL PARTNERSHIP AWARDS

Earlier, she presented the consumer show Watchdog on BBC1 for five years with Nicky Campbell, and it was during that time that she became involved in a four-part series on Alfred Wainwright, and his famous walks around the Lake District. That spawned a second series, of six episodes this time, and then Railway Walks.

“The walks followed Britain’s lost rail empire,” she said. “The first episode explored a route in the heart of Derbyshire - the Monsal Trail. (This runs along the former Midland Railway line for 8.5 miles between Blackwell Mill, in Chee Dale, and Coombs Road, at Bakewell.)

“We also went to Cornwall where tin and copper once made the area around Redruth the richest patch of land in the country.

They inspired great engineering feats and pioneering tramways, the forebears of the rail empire. I crossed an entire county, winding past Cornwall’s crumbling engine houses and following a railway that has not operated for 140 years.

“The Railway Walks series inspired many people to head out walking, and every day we get people heading to my website, The Outdoor Guide, and downloading the routes. We’re all passionate about getting people into the great outdoors, sharing outdoor adventures, getting some green therapy.”

All too soon, it was time for Julia’s fascinating reminiscences to end and for the awards to start.

Sponsors This year, the evening was sponsored by five organisations, without whom the evening would not have been possible.

Atkins, a member of the SNC-Lavalin Group, is one of the world’s most respected design, engineering and project management consultancies. One of very few firms to provide clients with comprehensive end-to-

Rail Engineer | Issue 176 | July 2019

end project solutions, including financing & asset management, consulting & advisory, digital & artificial intelligence, design & engineering, procurement, construction & project management, operations & maintenance and sustaining capital, Atkins was “delighted to share an evening with Network Rail, Rail Media and supply chain teams to celebrate the very best of 2018’s achievements in the rail industry”.

Colas Rail is fully committed to the continual maintenance and upgrading of the UK’s rail network. Thinking, investing and operating at the forefront of the industry trends ensures the company has the capabilities to meet the future demands of its customers. Ian Anderson, managing director of Colas Rail Urban, said: “Our leadership in this industry is directly linked to our attention to our customers’ needs, executing effective solutions to meet and exceed expectations and our talented staff’s dedication to achieving success.”

RSSB helps the industry work together to deliver a better, safer railway, so celebrating successful partnerships is something it values very highly. The next five years are set to be a transformative time for rail, and RSSB wants to ensure the supply chain can do business with rail unhindered, but also safely. This is where supplier assurance comes in. The organisation’s work includes managing industry schemes that provide supplier assurance services, including RISQS - the Railway Industry Supplier Qualification Scheme.

Total Rail Solutions is investing in the future.

The on-track plant hire specialist was the subject of a management buy-out last November and, under new CEO Paul Bateman, is continuing to invest heavily in the three areas which it considers its operational enablers - its plant, its people and its processes. “The focus for the next six to 12 months is to be looking at the business and professionalise things,” Paul Bateman explained. “That means introducing new systems to enable us to upscale, with a big push on recruitment too, but all while trying not to lose the company ethos that has got us to where we are today.”

Total Rail Solutions:

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RAIL PARTNERSHIP AWARDS Story Contracting's Fit4Future business strategy won the Investing in People award.

VolkerWessels UK is a leading multidisciplinary contractor that delivers innovative engineering solutions across the civil engineering and construction sectors, including rail. The skilled teams in its VolkerRail and VolkerFitzpatrick businesses are recognised as sector leaders, delivering high quality projects through a safety conscious and collaborative approach. VolkerWessels UK said it was proud to sponsor the Rail Partnership Awards, highlighting its commitment and contribution to the industry, and recognising the efforts of those who dedicate their career to improving the national network.

Best Collaboration

The Liverpool Lime Street station upgrade saw Buckingham Group Contracting clinched the Best Collaboration Award.

Jo Kaye, who is managing director of Network Rail’s System Operator, joined Julia on stage for the first award.

She had judged the category alongside James Brewer, head of rail supply chains at the Department for Business, Energy & Industry Strategy.

Between them, they had selected the Buckingham Group Contracting as the winner for its work on the Liverpool Lime Street station upgrade.

Delivered by a fully integrated team, applying ISO44001 principles and working from a bespoke co-located project

Rail Engineer | Issue 176 | July 2019

office, the £148-million Liverpool Lime Street upgrade project provided increased platform capacity by reconfiguring and improving asset condition within the 1.5mile approach and 24-metre deep footprint of this Grade 2 listed station.

The project was a key regulatory milestone for the Northern Hub and Great North Rail Project programmes, that was undertaken whilst ensuring Liverpool was ‘kept open for business’.

Collaboration was key to the successful delivery of the works, with all parties working as one team to deliver the project under a hub and spoke arrangement. The ‘hub’ was led by Network Rail IP Signalling (The Client).

The key stakeholders were Buckingham Group (principal contractor under CDM), Buckingham Group (civil engineering contractor), IP Northern Programmes (programme management), S&C North Alliance (track and OLE contractor) and Siemens (signalling contractor).

Amey, Atkins and Siemens, on behalf of the Rail Supply Group, were highly commended for the Rail Sector Deal - launched by government as a process to create partnerships between the government and industry on sector-specific issues that can create significant opportunities to boost productivity, employment, innovation and skills.

So too were Siemens Mobility and Galliford Try for the Derby Area Remodelling Project, a major £200 million enhancement and renewal programme that was successfully commissioned on 8 October 2018, following the completion of a 79-day partial closure - the longest continuous partial closure ever undertaken in the UK.

Investing in People Alison Rumsey, group HR director of Network Rail and attending the event on her last day working for the company, came on stage to make the award for Investing in People.

Her fellow judge, San Johal, HR director of Highways England, has also recently changed jobs.

This category recognises suppliers that have created an environment that promotes accountability, opportunity and diversity. In the judges’ opinion, Story Contracting’s Fit4Future business strategy was the best example from the entries.

When the company was founded 30 years ago by Fred Story, he had just three colleagues working with him on a variety of projects in and around Carlisle. Today, the company employs over 700 local people across the UK, delivering a wide range of rail, civils, housing and manufacturing projects.

Story Contracting recognises that it is successful because of the skills, commitment and professionalism of its people,

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RAIL PARTNERSHIP AWARDS

The award for Diversity and Inclusion went to Babcock.

The Safety award was won by Colas Rail.

who define its uniqueness and ability to deliver the high level of service and quality demanded by its growing customer base.

As the business expands further in Cumbria, Yorkshire, Birmingham, Manchester and Scotland, investing in people, and encouraging them to achieve their full potential, is a critical part of the company’s Fit4Future business strategy to keep this growth going.

GB Railfreight was highly commended for its Seat to Seat training programme. Four trainee drivers, with no previous experience in the railway industry, underwent training at the company’s recently renovated Peterborough facility, which houses three high tech classrooms and, in 2018 alone, delivered 60 trainee drivers.

Once trained, they would be driving in the London area, based out of GB Railfreight’s Willesden facility in North London.

Diversity and Inclusion Recognising suppliers that can evidence success in initiatives which recognise and respect differences between people whilst valuing the contribution everyone can make to the rail industry, winners in this category had to demonstrate inclusion and evidence safe

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and welcoming workplaces and fair cultures that encourage innovative and fresh ways of thinking.

Once again, Alison Rumsey judged this category for Network Rail, joined this time

by Chloe Chambraud, gender equality director for Business in the Community.

Babcock’s ‘Being Babcock’ training programme was developed to help the company understand some of the cultures and behaviours within its business and the actions that can be taken, as individuals as well as a business, to address diversity bias and discrimination in the workplace.

Employees were invited to complete e-learning training and attend a half day workshop to address the subject of Respect, with a particular focus on a zero-tolerance approach

to inappropriate behaviours and the end to discrimination in the workplace. The judges were impressed by this initiative and gave it the Diversity and Inclusion Award.

Capita was highly commended for its 20by20 campaign, to help Network Rail employ 20 per cent more women by 2020. To do this, Capita’s aim in 2018 was to change people’s attitudes and perceptions towards working within railway and infrastructure and to communicate the opportunities and benefits of working within the sector, and in particular with Network Rail.

Babcock had a second success in this category, being highly commended for its Workplace Equality project. In a bid to end mental health discrimination in the workplace, Babcock engaged once again with the Scottish mental health charity ‘SeeMe’ to pilot a project designed to create a more inclusive, stigma-free working environment focused on proactively managing the mental health of all employees.

Safety Chief engineer Jon Shaw stepped on stage to present the Safety award. The judges for the category had been Allan Spence head of public and passenger safety with Network Rail and Johnny Schute, chief operating officer of RSSB. Safety should never be taken for granted, and this award highlighted organisations that

RAIL PARTNERSHIP AWARDS

showed a continuous improvement towards safety within the workplace and on or near the railway.

Colas Rail set about creating a means to gain robust and constructive feedback from the business on how to improve safety and sustainability within the industry. From this, the Safety and Sustainability Challenge was born.

To do this, Colas needed to embed a culture of continuous improvement and empowerment within graduates and apprentices and instil the message that their voices are powerful and that they can make a positive change in improving the safety and sustainability within the rail industry.

The project takes place across all three of Colas’ divisions and spans every office and depot within the organisation. It includes all individuals on Early Careers programmes, including graduates and apprentices.

A consortium of ABB and UK Power Networks Services was highly commended for having managed to maintain a Lost Time Injury free record while delivering 27 sub-stations across a 140-mile area, from Berkshire to South Wales, and working 1,200,000 hours. This is an outstanding accomplishment considering the nature of the environment in which the consortium’s employees - the ‘best of the best’ from both companies - work.

Balfour Beatty, principal contractor delivering the Angerstein signalling renewals project, working closely with Siemens and its subcontractors, is responsible for managing the interfaces which this collaboration brings, especially the safety of all those involved.

Realising a clear opportunity to continuously improve on project performance, learning and embedding lessons learnt during earlier projects, the Angerstein project was successfully commissioned in April 2019, on time, to budget and without injury at any point - achieving Zero Harm and sending Everyone Home Safe Every Day. A result that was well worthy of a Highly Commended certificate.

Community Engagement Network Rail’s Caroline Murdoch, director of communications, was the next judge invited by Julia Bradbury to make her presentation. Aided

by ACoRP chief executive Jools Townsend, Caroline had decided that Story Contracting, which has been working hard to remove the stigma of mental health, would be a worthy winner of the award.

The driver was simple - no-one should have to face a mental health problem alone. To gain buy-in from staff, Story held workshops with employees from all levels of its business to identify ways this could best be achieved. It had to be something sustainable, that would first of all make a tangible difference to people in the local area, and it needed to be a long-term commitment to employee wellbeing.

To enable this, Story set up a strategic partnership with MIND, the mental health charity, which provides advice and support to empower anyone experiencing a mental health problem. MIND also campaigns to improve services, raise awareness and promote understanding of mental health.

Story Contracting won the Community Engagement award.

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RAIL PARTNERSHIP AWARDS VolkerFitzpatrick was similarly commended for having volunteered its services to ensure the creation of an extraordinary and emotionally moving art installation at Aerospace Bristol and the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, Stratford, marking the centenary of the end of the First World War. The Shrouds of the Somme memorial, designed by artist Rob Heard, took five years to complete and is a graphic representation of loss and remembrance for the commonwealth servicemen who fell at the Battle of the Somme and whose bodies still lie beneath the battlefields in France. For both events, VolkerFitzpatrick donated, supplied and installed the viewing platforms, temporary walkways, fencing and marquees needed for visitors.

The team also provided construction advice, planning and the full development of the events’ design layout, ensuring each shroud would be placed with precision.

Preserving the History of the Railway was awarded to the Ferryhill Railway Heritage Trust.

The project to remove the stigma of mental health at Story was hugely successful. Wellbeing sessions, which were delivered in-house by the occupational health team, created a wellbeing calendar, created a network of mental health first aiders and launch a promotional campaign. The result has been a palpable change in people’s attitudes towards mental health and sickness absence reduced by 600 days, equivalent to one day per full-time employee per year.

Enhancing Lives, a programme delivered by BAM Nuttall in conjunction with Network Rail, Mott MacDonald and B Keogh Construction, is part of BAM’s sustainability agenda, led by the culture and diversity team. It includes education support, working with charities and community groups, work placements, employment support and training, and helping local businesses and SMEs to grow. It was also Highly Commended by the judges.

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Preserving History The category for Preserving the History of the Railway was judged by two noted heritage enthusiasts, Network Rail chairman Sir Peter Hendy and Andy Savage, executive director of the Railway Heritage Trust.

Sadly, neither could attend the dinner so it fell to Andrew McLean, head curator of the National Railway Museum, to present the award. To the Ferryhill Railway Heritage Trust.

Working with Network Rail and Babcock Rail, the trust has recently restored the 70’ Ransomes and Rapier turntable, built in 1906 and located near Aberdeen, to full working order. Apart from restoring the turntable, the works included a substantial de-vegetation operation, replacement of the main-line access railway track to the turntable, replacement of two sets of points, and general clearance and tidying of the site.

RAIL PARTNERSHIP AWARDS Provision was made for public access (including disabled access) by the construction of a new footpath to the site, funded by the Common Good Fund of Aberdeen City Council.

The turntable restoration was funded by Historic Scotland (40 per cent), the Railway Heritage Trust (40 per cent) and the Association for Industrial Archaeology (20 per cent). The upgrade of the trackwork was funded by Network Rail.

To date, steam locomotives hauling three charter trains have been turned. Fourteen more charter trains have been planned for 2019 and 2020. The public have been able to safely observe the coaling and turning operations, with a dedicated viewing area being protected by crowd control barriers.

Buckingham Group Contracting was highly commended for its work on the three-span Runcorn Railway Bridge, also known as the Queen Ethelfleda Bridge, which was first opened in 1868 and carries the West Coast main line over the River Mersey and the Manchester Ship Canal.

Now grade II* listed, it required extensive maintenance after 150 years of service. The project designer, Arcadis, highlighted the deteriorating condition of the structure plus concerns over the articulation of the structure, caused by the bearings all being seized so that

articulation was made through flexure of the piers, which had cracked and flexed seasonally as the temperature varied.

Buckingham refurbished the bridge, using both recovered and remade parts, and replaced the bearings so that the bridge should be safeguarded for the next 100 years.

The other team highly commended was Construction Marine, working with Arcadis, David France and Metalock Engineering. Following examination and inspection by Network Rail’s LNE Structures Route Asset Management

team, the footbridge at Thickley Wood, Shildon, was deemed weak in several key structural areas and without intervention would have had to close. The multi-span listed structure carries pedestrian traffic over the Darlington to Eaglescliffe railway as well as the redundant sidings that, when laid down in 1875 had a total length of 27 miles, making them the largest in the world at that time. While refurbishing/remodelling the bridge in compliance with its listed status, close liaison was required with Durham Council and the adjacent rail museum ‘Locomotion’ in designing and planning the works to achieve the required outcome.

SME of the Year was awarded to Senceive.

SME To recognise the work of its smaller suppliers, often in second or third-tier roles, this award recognises outstanding SME suppliers with annual turnovers of less than £25 million. It was judged by Eoin O’Neill, Network Rail’s commercial and development director, who also presented the award, and Darren Caplan, chief executive of the Railway Industry Association.

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The award for Driving Efficiencies went to Great Western Railway, Network Rail, Oxford University, Incremental Solutions, Icomera for the OLErt project.

The Award went to Senceive, a company of around 30 people specialising in wireless solutions for geotechnical and structural monitoring, which has launched two major products/services in the past year. The first is the Optical Displacement Sensor (ODS) with in-built triaxial tilt meter. This ODS uses a highly accurate laser to measure submm sliding movements up to 150m range, whilst at the same time measuring rotation using a triaxial sensor. This highly precise and reliable device is completely wireless and has a battery life of approximately 10-12 years.

An even bigger advancement is the launch of GeoWAN, a wireless platform that offers long-range monitoring at up to 15km range. This complements the existing FlatMesh system, which is used for dense sensor distributions. The new GeoWAN platform allows clients to have even more remote locations, such as those in Australia, and also has the ability to penetrate through buildings, which is ideal for urban environments and buried equipment geotechnical sensors.

ATL Transformers was highly commended for supporting Network Rail in its copperelimination, Class II safety and sustainability charter initiatives to reduce carbon emissions.

ATL engaged with the industry

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to define the requirements specific to magnetics, to find a solution and to deliver that solution to Network Rail while, at the same time, further beneficial enhancements that could be engineered into the product solutions presented.

Driving Efficiencies This category recognises companies that have made strides in designing and delivering work more efficiently, to generate cost savings and value for money to create a more efficient railway. Network Rail chief financial officer Jeremy Westlake and Graham Richards, director of planning and performance for the Office of Rail and Road, were the judges for this one.

They decided to recognise Great Western Railway in this category, supported by

Network Rail, Oxford University, Incremental Solutions and Icomera. Although electrified railways offer huge customer experience, operational and environmental benefits, the costs and challenges of operating and maintaining them can be significant, particularly when things go wrong.

As an example, the Schedule 8 cost of OLE and pantograph incidents on Network Rail’s Western route for the last 12 months was £5.5 million, with 750 trains failing to arrive within the allotted time. To address this, OLErt is a groundbreaking project that exploits imaging from the cameras that are fitted as standard to all new electric trains to enable early interception of potential faults. Based on cutting-edge research by Oxford University, developed through collaboration between Great Western Railway (GWR) and Network Rail, this new technology helps to avoid potential disruption to the train service and will benefit passengers, train operators, infrastructure managers and the tax payer.

Currently deployed on a Class 387 unit running in the Thames Valley, OLErt has successfully demonstrated how image recognition technology can be used to monitor the OLE and pantograph interface, enabling the early intervention that prevents potential faults turning into failures.

RAIL PARTNERSHIP AWARDS WINNER

SAFETY

Award winning railway specialists There are many exciting opportunities that lie ahead in creating tomorrow’s railway High-speed rail, light urban systems, high-output automated track maintenance and commercial rail freight are all areas that have become increasingly important to the UK transport industry. Thinking, investing and operating at the forefront of industry trends ensures we have the capabilities to meet the future demands of our customers.

We build open relationships with customers, suppliers and partners and communication is encouraged at all levels to generate new ideas and the unique Colas Rail team spirit. All this is achieved through our greatest asset, our people, so that together we play a leading role in creating tomorrow’s railway.

» HIGH SPEED LINES » FREIGHT OPERATOR » TRACK LAYING, RENEWAL AND MAINTENANCE » OPERATION AND MAINTENANCE OF ON TRACK PLANT » HIGH VOLTAGE AND TRACTION POWER » ELECTRIFICATION & SIGNALLING » CONTROL & COMMUNICATION SYSTEMS » ROLLING STOCK REFURBISHMENT AND MAINTENANCE » MULTIDISCIPLINARY PROJECTS » LIGHT /METRO LINES » ENGINEERING » TRAMWAYS

www.colasrail.co.uk

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Best Use of Technology was awarded to the Cambridge Centre for Smart Infrastructure and Construction.

Staying with an electrification theme, Alstom was highly commended for its work to reduce the cost of rail electrification projects and increase efficiency. This initiative looked at developing the optimum solution for installing 25kV overhead line contact and catenary systems, using efficient equipment and processes, within an operational possession regime, to achieve unrivalled production rates in UK electrification, showing the rail industry that electrification can be undertaken cost effectively and efficiently, and so removing the stigma around the cost of electrification.

Also highly commended was the way in which VolkerRail and Unipart Rail have transformed overhead line electrification by developing new, innovative solutions around pre-fabrication build, facilities and tracking of over 250,000 multiassets. A step-change in material fabrication, installation, delivery and traceability capability was needed to ensure the successful installation of over 1,100 overhead line structures and over 200km of overhead line cable between Preston and Blackpool within an 18-month period, and the complete overhead electrification installation needed at Blackpool depot. Together, VolkerRail and Unipart Rail used existing systems and

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dedicated facility solutions from previous projects to develop a plan to open a prefabrication facility in Crewe, which would house all materials and pre-fabrication requirements.

Technology Aidan Hancock, chief information officer for Network Rail, presented the award for Best Use of Technology, judged by Route Services managing director Susan Cooklin and Professor Phil Blythe, the chief scientific adviser to the Department for Transport.

The award went to the Cambridge Centre for Smart Infrastructure and Construction, along with AECOM, Network Rail and the Alan Turing Institute, for the development of innovative Structural Health Monitoring (SHM) systems that combine high-end sensing technologies with ‘big data’ analytics, providing effective asset management tools for better maintenance, protection, and operation of ageing railway bridges.

Roughly 50 per cent of bridge stock is ageing masonry arch bridges, most built over a century ago, before the enforcement of building codes, and their condition continues to deteriorate with time. Working on two bridges in Yorkshire, the team was able to test and compare new smart-sensing technologies and explore optimum configurations. Over time, these can be developed into structural alert systems, moving towards a digitised railway with smart infrastructure.

Great Western’s OLErt system, already a winner in the Driving Efficiencies category, was highly commended for best use of technology.

Also highly commended was WSP, which worked with fixed-wing UAV (drone) specialist SenSat to survey an area of rail, road, crossings, greenfield and urban spaces. Due to the complexity of the site, and to compressed timescales, a conventional survey would have taken too long. However, this novel use of UAV technology reduced to two months the delivery of a survey that would typically have taken five.

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Join the rail industry scheme and reduce the cost of your supply chain risk

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RISQS is managed through the rail industry’s independent safety body RSSB, and proud to sponsor the Rail Partnership Awards.

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All the photos and videos are available at www.railpartnershipawards.com Rail Engineer | Issue 176 | July 2019

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Siemens take the win for the 'Major project over £50 million' award. (above and below)

Major project - over £50 million Mike Putnam, a non-executive director of Network Rail, joined Julia Bradbury on stage to present the first of two project awards, this one for projects valued at over £50 million. Mike had judged the closely competitive entry with Alasdair Reisner, the chief executive of the Civil Engineering Contractors Association (CECA).

The winner was Siemens Mobility for the Derby Station Area Remodelling Project, a £200 million scheme that included a 79-day partial blockade of Derby station, the longest continuous partial closure ever undertaken in the UK. The project represented a ‘once in a generation’ opportunity to replace and upgrade the life-expired infrastructure and bring enhancements and improvements both to the station and its approaches. It

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is already delivering a range of significant benefits to passengers, train operators and the infrastructure owners and maintainers.

Highly commended was the Brighton Main Line Improvement Project - an extensive £67 million engineering programme, carried out in partnership by Network Rail, the UK Government and Govia Thameslink Railway (GTR), to improve the reliability of the railway as part of the Thameslink Resilience Programme. The work took place between September 2018 and May 2019 and focused on an area at the southern end of the Brighton main line, from Three Bridges to Brighton/ Lewes, where four Victorian tunnels (Balcombe, Haywards Heath, Clayton and Patcham), ageing track and signalling systems were causing almost half of all delays experienced on trains entering the southern end of the Thameslink Core.

Despite its bad press, also highly commended were the teams working on Great Western Electrification. The Amey, Amey Inabensa and Network Rail teams, working with Keltbray Aspire and Lundy Projects, have delivered transformational improvements to rail service capacity and performance between Maidenhead and Westerleigh junction and Reading to Newbury. A staggering 134 track miles of OLE installation has been constructed across a number of distinct programmes in an array of disciplines.

Smaller project - under £50 million The same judges had reviewed the entries for projects under £50 million, which can sometimes be overshadowed by their bigger siblings but are nevertheless still vital to the railway’s wellbeing.

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BAM Nutalll won smaller project - under £50 million.

Eoin O’Neill, Network Rail’s commercial and development director, had the job of opening the envelope to reveal that BAM Nuttall had scooped this one for the upgrade of the Highland main line.

A programme of infrastructure improvements, undertaken in 2012 during phase one of the project, increased the number of services from nine to 11 trains per day in each direction.

BAM Nuttall was awarded a £10.3 million contract, as part of Phase Two of the scheme, to deliver enhancements at Aviemore and Pitlochry stations. These enhancements will deliver an hourly service with average journey times reduced by around 10 minutes, alongside other timetable improvements.

In simple terms, the project benefits are delivered through three strands: station and track enhancements delivered by BAM Nuttall, an overhauled signalling system delivered by Siemens and ScotRail’s revised timetable that brings more trains through Pitlochry and Aviemore than ever before.

Atkins’ Cornwall capacity enabling scheme was highly commended. It provided an additional 10 signal sections (21 new signals and associated signalling equipment), and seven level crossing upgrades, to enable the Department for Transport and Cornwall Council

(a project funding partner) to meet their aspiration to run an additional hourly train service from Plymouth to Penzance from May 2019.

Highly commended, too, was Morgan Sindall’s involvement with the Stirling-DunblaneAlloa (SDA) project that formed part of a wider Scottish Government rolling programme of electrification works being delivered by Network Rail.

Under SDA, Morgan Sindall’s rail and electrification team in Scotland undertook a £37 million package of works on a route that spanned 50km, starting at Falkirk in central Scotland and up to Dunblane in Stirling and Alloa in Clackmannanshire.

Sustainable Excellence Jon Shaw, Network Rail’s chief engineer, and Professor Miles Tight of the University of Birmingham collaborated to come up with a winner of the Sustainable Excellence award, which is open to organisations that can clearly demonstrate sustainable and responsible ways of working.

It can cover anything from working effectively with lineside neighbours through to carbon off-setting and reduced waste and recycling innovations.

The award went to AmeySersa and the S&C North Alliance, which are working on improving freight routes in Scotland.

Combining their expertise and knowledge, they improved

AmeySersa, winners of the Sustainable Excellence Award.

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Winner of the Standards Challenge was British Steel.

collaboration and joint accountability by developing innovative solutions, adopting engineering excellence, sharing best practice and common policy on key strategies, all while successfully tackling the most complex projects.

In Scotland, that means working closely with Transport Scotland’s strategy to deliver a safe, efficient, effective and sustainable transport system, for both passengers and freight, supporting sustainable economic growth and by transporting products and materials in a greener way.

Buckingham Group Contracting continued its excellent record for the night by being highly commended for extending the Up Relief Sidings at Buxton, allowing 525-metre-long freight trains to undertake the run around manoeuvre required to egress to the Peak Forest Line. This required extending the sidings through a disused unlicensed council tip, which dates back to the 1970s, and into privately owned farmland.

Skanska’s Sustainability Performance Tracker, which it is using on its ONW (onnetwork works) contract

Rail Engineer | Issue 176 | July 2019

for HS2 enabling works at Euston, was also highly commended. Skanska is working with Network Rail and other stakeholders to ensure Euston station is ready for the arrival of HS2. To ensure that sustainability excellence has been considered and achieved across all of the work packages from the design through to construction, a team of engineers and sustainability professionals produced a tracker which, to date, has identified over 41 sustainable initiatives.

Standards Challenge This year’s new award, for entries into Network Rail’s Standards Challenge, was judged by Jon Shaw and HS2 technical director Andrew McNaughton.

The winner was British Steel, a company which has had its problems recently, for its challenge to the standards for OLE mast design. This identified that some current overhead line mast standard designs are fabrication intensive, may use higher cost products and may require structural steel that is not produced / stocked domestically within the UK. An industry workshop was held in December 2018, with British Steel and other suppliers, to discuss potential changes to standard designs resulting in the identification of short, medium and longterm proposals. The shortterm proposals have been progressed into new standard designs. In the case of Twin Track Cantilever masts the new design will reduce the cost by around seven per cent.

Two other challenges were highly commended. Kwik-Step submitted three challenges, all relating to the standard for Lineside Facilities for Personnel Safety, which dates back to 2005, and the need

RAIL PARTNERSHIP AWARDS

for improved clarity relating to a number of requirements. Kwik-Step has provided excellent input on how this standard can be improved.

Train operator Grand Central has challenged the controls that are applied to trains following measurement of forces at Wheel Impact Load Detection (WILD) sites. In response to this challenge, Network Rail conducted a detailed technical study and the resulting technical report is currently being peer reviewed. It may enable the speed restrictions that are imposed for certain train types following a Level 2 alarm to be raised to a higher speed, benefitting train operators and improving the consequential impact on train performance.

Putting Passengers First Andrew Haines’ catchphrase has become a Partnership Award category, judged

by Network Rail’s managing director of transformation, Becky Lumlock, and Paul Plummer, chief executive of the Rail Delivery Group.

This award was established to celebrate suppliers who have put the needs of rail passengers at the heart of what they do and can demonstrate that they are genuinely putting passengers first.

Buckingham Group Contracting’s name came out of the hat again, this time for the Liverpool Lime Street station upgrade. This £148 million

Winners of the Putting Passengers First Award - Buckingham Group Contracting.

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Buckingham team celebrating their wins.

Winners of Supplier of the Year - Buckingham Group Contracting.

project was wholly about putting passengers first, from the main driver, which was to increase capacity to enable the doubling of passenger numbers to more than 32 million per annum by 2043, to enhancing the passenger experience through improved concourses plus new and extended platforms to facilitate more frequent reliable services and longer trains.

People using Lime Street were 93.8 per cent satisfied, according to the National Rail Passenger Survey published in January 2019, putting the Liverpool station ahead of both St Pancras (93.6 per cent) and King’s Cross (92.9 per cent).

Amery Sersa and the S&C North Alliance also did well, highly commended for high-speed handbacks. A collaboration between Network Rail, Amey and Rhomberg Sersa, the S&C North Alliance has spearheaded the initiative to hand back at line speed following major track renewal interventions. Work sites have been handed back at speeds of up to 125mph, a world first. Crucial to this achievement are various techniques to fully consolidate the track during construction, which means it no longer requires the passage of trains to do this.

Osborne received the second Highly Commended certificate for its use of virtual reality (VR) at stakeholder events. Combined

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Building Information Modelling (BIM) technology with Virtual Reality equipment makes design solutions accessible to a wider range of stakeholders, helping those who would never have usually commented on a scheme see how it would impact them, and offer their opinions on the solution.

Supplier of the Year So that was it for the individual categories. All that remained was the big prize, the coveted Supplier of the Year Award, to be presented by chief executive Andrew Haines.

He joined Julia on stage to announce the winner. Everyone present was a winner in some way - they were all on the short list, many had won or been commended for their work in the individual categories, and together they represented the cream of Network Rail’s suppliers.

So, without further ado, and without too much of a shock considering the results of the other categories, Andrew Haines announced that Network Rail’s Supplier of the Year was Buckingham Group Contracting.

Two category wins and one highly commended had sealed it, and it was an impressive performance from a company that had won the same overall award in 2015.

Fergal Kiernan, senior project manager at Buckingham, said afterwards: “Buckingham Group, for the last two years, has been top of the charts with regards to the KPI performance.

That’s down to the dedication of the teams and a number of people who are assigned to manage and coordinate the KPI process for us, and that was testament to the excellent job they’ve done.

“Buckingham has, over the last two to three years, delivered a huge amount of work for IP Signalling and for the various rail contractors, and I think receiving the award is a really, really pleasant surprise. Our rail director Simon Walkley, who couldn’t be here tonight, will be absolutely chuffed.”

And probably sorry he missed the evening…

Tel: 01280 823355 www.buckinghamgroup.co.uk

Liverpool Lime Street Upgrade Other awards won on the night >

RAIL PARTNERSHIP AWARDS

WINNER

PUTTING PASSENGERS FIRST

Buckingham Group has won the Rail Partnership Awards overall Supplier of the Year…

2019

Liverpool Lime Street Upgrade

…again.

RAIL PARTNERSHIP AWARDS

WINNER

BEST COLLABORATION

2019

This award places Buckingham Group Contracting Ltd in the unique position of being the only contractor to be

Peak Forest Sidings, Buxton

awarded The Supplier of the year twice by Network Rail for 2015 and, again, in 2019.

RAIL PARTNERSHIP AWARDS WINNER

RAIL PARTNERSHIP AWARDS HIGHLY COMMENDED

SUPPLIER OF THE YEAR

201 2018 201 We wish to extend thanks to Network Rail, Design and Supply

SUSTAINABLE EXCELLENCE

2019

Runcorn Viaduct

Chain Partners for their help and support in all these award-winning – and other – projects, over the past few years.

These awards very much represent the success of the project teams, together.

RAIL PARTNERSHIP AWARDS HIGHLY COMMENDED PRESERVING THE HISTORY OF THE RAILWAY

2019

48

FEATURE

Felixstowe Branch Line CAPACITY ENHANCEMENT GOES LIVE

DAVID BICKELL

F

unded by the Strategic Freight Network, with a contribution from Hutchinson Ports UK (HP-UK), a £60.4 million investment to create a new 1.4km loop on the Felixstowe branch line in Suffolk was successfully brought into service on 29 May 2019, on time and on budget. It facilitates an increase from 33 to 47 freight train paths a day in each direction on this key artery, carrying the highest freight tonnage in the country and serving the largest container port in the UK.

Trimley freight approaches from North Terminal branch.

Trimley track installation.

With each train taking the equivalent of up to 76 lorries off the roads, the strategically important Felixstowe to Nuneaton Freight Corridor (F2N) has seen considerable investment in recent years.

This has included gauge clearance for W10 ‘High Gauge’ containers and capacity improvement including the Ipswich Bacon Factory Chord (issue115, May 2014), Ely Freight loops, and Nuneaton north chord.

As built in 1875, the 12-mile branch was single track with a passing place at Orwell, roughly mid-way. In 1891, two more passing loops were added, at Derby Road and Trimley. The original loop at Orwell closed with the station in 1959, leaving an eight-mile single-track section. In 1999, the passing loop at Derby Road was extended to accommodate container trains and the whole line was resignalled and controlled from Colchester Power Signal Box (PSB).

Rail Engineer | Issue 176 | July 2019

The Trimley loop scheme Following on from a 2005 GRIP 4 (single option development) study undertaken

by HP-UK for doubling the branch between Orwell and Trimley for 4.5 miles, subsequent extensive option development work concluded that a 1.4 km loop at Trimley with bi-directional signalling at Derby Road would facilitate the aspiration to operate the additional paths, with a maximum train length of 775 metres - a Network Rail standard, although HP-UK currently operates trains around 600 metres long.

The scheme will allow pent up demand to be realised from the December 2019 timetable change, giving operators a few months to familiarise themselves with the new signalling.

It will also improve the reliability of the hourly passenger train shuttle between Ipswich and Felixstowe, shortly to be upgraded with the introduction of new Stadler Class 755 bi-mode units later this year.

This infrastructure improvement project is being delivered within the Network Rail Anglia Route CP5 multi-functional framework contract, which was awarded to VolkerFitzpatrick. The collaboration to deliver these works is known as the Anglia Route Collaboration (ARC).

Rail Engineer was recently invited to meet VolkerFitzpatrick project manager Dan Smith at the

FEATURE

Trimley project offices and to see some of the work at first hand.

The scope of the project includes: »» 1.4km of additional track at Trimley; »» Closure of six pedestrian crossings; »» Construction of a bridleway bridge; »» Re-alignment of the existing public rights of way network; »» Replacement of three Automatic Half-Barrier (AHBC) level crossings with Manually Controlled Barriers with Obstacle Detection (MCB-OD); »» Replacement of one AHBC level crossing with MCBCCTV; »» A new signalling workstation; »» A new signal interlocking; »» New lineside signalling on the branch line as required; »» Bi-directional signalling on both lines at Derby Road; »» Installation of a new 650V DC Class II signalling power supply; »» Installing a diverse Fixed Telecommunications Network (FTNx) system and associated infrastructure.

Such a diverse project required an equally varied group of contractors and suppliers to complete, and these are listed nearby.

Public rights of way A network of footpaths and narrow lanes criss-crosses the railway along the stretch that has been doubled,

necessitating detailed level crossing risk assessments. The study identified significant increase in risk to crossing users on the duelled stretch of line: »» Double track creates a particular hazard for ‘Stop, look and listen’ crossings; »» New loop exit signals could cause waiting trains to obscure the view of an approaching train; »» Trains could be held at signals, thereby blocking footpath crossings; »» Trains could be held at signals and cause existing AHBCs to ‘time-out’; »» Log of many incidents /near misses.

Accordingly, the report recommended the closure of six pedestrian crossings and conversion of the AHBCs to MCBs. As there were 10 objections to the Level Crossing Closure Order, a public enquiry was convened. The Inspector found in favour of Network Rail and the order was duly endorsed by the Secretary of State for Transport.

The project worked closely with Suffolk County Council to devise alternative provision for the six footpaths being closed, the centrepiece of which is a new bridleway/footbridge across the line near Gun Lane.

New footpaths are being created alongside the railway, connecting existing rights of way with the new bridge, which has equestrian ramps at the Trimley end and footpath steps

at the Ipswich end.

With advice from the British Horse Society, the Network Rail standard holly green ramped footbridge design has been expanded to fit the scale needed for horses with 3.5 metre width.

(Left) Trimley before loop opened. (Right) Trimley after loop opened.

Contractors and suppliers Contractors: »» VolkerFitzpatrick - Principal contractor; »» Volker Rail - sub contractor for signalling, level crossings, signalling design including the scheme plan; »» Atkins (part of the SNC-Lavalin Group) - design for GRIP stages 3&4, TWAO support; »» Mott Macdonald- GRIP 5 detailed design track, Civils, E&P, telecoms and level crossing ground plans; »» Pod-Trak - Permanent way, earthworks; »» Global Rail Construction- E&P - 650V signalling supply and points heating, ancillary works including under track crossings, ancillary civils; »» Network Rail Telecoms (NRT) Anglia Route - telecoms testing and commissioning; »» PLS Civil Engineering - LX civil engineering, pedestal bases, highway works, white lining; »» Alstom - Smartlock 400 interlocking, MCS workstation and Vital Harmon Logic Controllers (VHLC) for MCBs; »» Sotera Risk Solutions - GRIP 3 level crossing risk assessments; »» Carver Engineering Services - bridleway bridge, steel work pre-fabricated at Doncaster and craned in over four weekends using a 750 tonne crane.

Suppliers: »» »» »» »» »» »»

Progress Rail - Switches & Crossings Unipart Rail - Barrier lights Honeywell - Level-crossing radar Collis Engineering - Lightweight signals SPX Rail Systems - Barrier machines L B Foster Telecoms - Red light violation ANPR (automatic number-plate recognition) cameras »» CISCO - routers »» Keymile - first line multiplexers »» Kestrel Telecom - Hawk telephone concentrator.

Rail Engineer | Issue 176 | July 2019

49

FEATURE

Gr im s

to nL

an e

THORPE COMMON

gh Hi

e Lan rpe Tho

ad Ro

ST MARTINS

GUN LANE

STEPPED ACCESS

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-^ -^ -^ -^ |– |– |– |– |– |– |– |– |– |– |– |– |– |– |– |– |

-^ -^ -^ -^

Existing Provisions - Unchanged

|–

-^

BRIDLEWAY RESTRICTED BYWAY

Shortest alternative route for each level crossing THORPE COMMON LX ALT ROUTE - 300m GRIMSTON LANE LX ALT ROUTE - 270m TRIMLEY LX ALT ROUTE - 1km ST MARTINS LX ALT ROUTE - 70m GUN LANE LX ALT ROUTE - 300m KEEPERS LANE LX ALT ROUTE - 1.7km

Footpath plan.

Gun Lane equestrian bridge.

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KEEPERS LANE

|– |– |– |– |– |– |– |– |– |– |– |– |– |– |– |– |

Stablesoft equestrian flooring is fitted on the deck, and mounting blocks at the start of the ramps encourage horse riders to dismount and walk the horse over. The bridge is due to open at the end of July.

The three new MCBs, at Morston Hall, Thorpe and Levington, utilise Obstacle Detection (OD) technology comprising radar primary obstacle detection (POD) the safety-critical component required to detect objects that would be a danger, such as vehicles, people or large animals - and Light Detection and Ranging system (LiDAR) as the complementary obstacle detection (COD), to reduce the risk of an object in the crossing area below 500mm from the road surface remaining undetected.

In short, the COD uses infra-red technology to detect

Rail Engineer | Issue 176 | July 2019

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–| –– |– |– |– |– | – ||– |– |– |– |– |– |– |– |– |– |– |– |– |– |– |– | – |

PUBLIC FOOTPATH | – | – |

|–

-|

|–

RAILWAY LINE

-^

-^

|–

LEVEL CROSSING CLOSURE

-^ -^ |-–^ |– |– |–

-^

-| –

EQUESTRIAN BRIDGE

-^

-^

-^

Cor dy’s Lan e

RAMP ACCESS

-^^-^ -^^-

NEW BRIDLEWAY

-^

|–

NEW FOOTPATH | – | – |

-^

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Proposals

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Key

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ston Grim

TRIMLEY

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Lan e

GRIMSTON LANE

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50

Trimley Station

objects such as prone bodies and small children in the space below that covered by the POD’s radar, which is mainly looking for large objects.

The conversion of the existing Westerfield AHBC is outside the immediate area of the new loop but will be affected by the increase in freight traffic.

Increased road traffic resulting from a new Ipswich Garden Suburb Development of 3,500

new homes in the vicinity of Westerfield clinches the need for conversion to MCB. The configuration of the crossing in relation to footpath ramps to the platforms means that OD may not operate reliably, so this crossing will be MCB-CCTV. The conversion of this crossing will benefit Up East Suffolk trains. Hitherto, most Lowestoft to Ipswich trains that are not scheduled to stop at Westerfield have to pause in the platform due to the lack of ‘non-stopping’ provision in the controls of the existing AHBC. This will, of course, be rectified with separate ‘stopping/nonstopping’ strike-in points for the new MCB. However, the ‘Auto Lower’ control (provided as standard with ‘Auto Raise’ at all of the new MCB crossings) at Westerfield will not initially be used, as there have been a number of incidents including blocking back over the crossing.

Red light violation cameras, already in place at Westerfield, have been installed at all the new AHBC crossings.

Colchester PSB The signalling was controlled from the Entrance-Exit (NX) Ipswich panel. However, with the addition of the Bacon Factory curve in 1999, the increase in freight traffic, and an increase in passenger train frequency in recent years on the main line and East Suffolk lines, the workload threshold has been exceeded.

Operating Ipswich station can be challenging if trains arrive

FEATURE out of sequence and upset the planned platform sharing.

Perturbation of passenger traffic here can react onto the Felixstowe branch. Similarly, trains using the single-line sections on the branch have to run to path in order to avoid reactionary delays elsewhere.

All this gives the signaller little or no thinking time when things go awry.

With the upcoming further increase in traffic on the branch, it was decided to provide a new Alstom Modular Control System (MCS) workstation.

This is positioned right in front of the Ipswich NX panel, with VDU screens low on the desk to allow the Felixstowe signaller to view trains approaching from Ipswich station/yard and coming around the chord from the north.

The Felixstowe branch hasn’t been completely expunged from the NX panel.

Basic indications and train descriptions alert the Ipswich signaller to the approach of traffic from the Felixstowe and

East Suffolk directions.

A new Smartlock 400 interlocking has been provided to replace the previous Alstom MkIIIA Solid State Interlocking (SSI) and this aligns with the jurisdiction of the new workstation from the mid-point between Boss Hall junction and Westerfield, through to the branch. Saxmundham signal box MCS already controls the East Suffolk line north of Westerfield. The Smartlock central interlocking processor

(CIXL) contains two virtual interlockings (VIXL), with a geographical split between Derby Road and Trimley.

The CIXL is connected via a new FTNx link utilising Keymile first-line multiplexers and Cisco routers, interfacing the field long distance terminals (LDT) at a new location at Westerfield.

Here, the SSI data passes onto the existing SSI trackside data links.

Diverse routing was originally provided by renting BT private

Thorpe Lane MCB-OD being tested out.

Global Rail Construction Limited’s capability supports the latest technology, management and engineering know-how to deliver rail projects and services to the highest standards of quality and safety.

We offer our clients a service that helps them plan, build and maintain their railway infrastructure. We have the skills and experience to deliver multi disciplinary turnkey design and construct projects. We work to meet and exceed their needs on time and within budget. We understand the importance of minimising disruption to their operations while we work.

Working on mainline railways, metro systems and light rail, we offer as a group a full in-house solution and provide full design, build, test and commission services in the following areas:

• Civil/Structural Engineering and Building • Mechanical, Electrical and Power

• Signalling • Telecoms • Façade Solutions

t: +44 (0)1332 947500 e: info@grcl.co.uk Get in touch with us www.theglobalinfrastructuregroup.com Rail Engineer | Issue 176 | July 2019

51

52

FEATURE »» Provision of new standardissue AC-immune DC track circuits to BR 867 track feed sets.

Electrical & Power (E&P)

circuits. This has been replaced by the installation of a new, small, green-sheathed, double insulated, super armoured cable (DISAC) 24-fibre cable, designed to be laid on the surface, running the length of the branch. SSI track function modules (TFM) interface the data link via optical data link modules.

Signalling

Trimley track installation.

On the ground, the signalling modifications and additions were extensive. In summary: »» Cutting the existing SSI data links into the new location areas to bring them onto the existing data stream; »» 86 location equipment cabinets have been affected (59 altered, five abolished, 22 new); »» Existing signals re-allocated with new identities relating to the new Felixstowe workstation rather than Colchester prefix; »» 25 new lightweight LED signals (21 main aspects, four three-state banner repeaters but with only ON/GREEN used, two additional route indicators either side of Derby Road);

Rail Engineer | Issue 176 | July 2019

»» Recovery of SPAD indicator signals (surplus since the provision of TPWS); »» 24 new AWS (Automatic Warning System); »» 35 new TPWS (Trains Protection and Warning System); »» Five new In-bearer Clamp Lock (IBCL) point ends; »» Eight existing point ends recontrolled and re-numbered; »» Four new MCB level crossings; »» Existing Felixstowe Beach and Trimley MCB-CCTV crossings and associated Time Division Multiplex (TDM) systems re-controlled to new workstation; »» Alterations to insulated block joint (IBJ) positions to extend or reduce the length of existing track circuits;

E&P teams installed a new 650V DC signalling power supply feeder throughout the branch comprising a new power supply point (PSP) at Westerfield, upgrade and modifications to other existing PSPs, the installation of 42 functional supply points (FSP) and installation of 45km of new cabling.

The works also covers the installation of direct power and lineside power supplies for a number of level crossings, as well as new level-crossing lighting.

In addition, three points heating cubicles (PHCC) were supplied and installed along with points heating supplies, transformers and heating strips for point ends.

Permanent way Track panels and switches and crossings (S&C) were brought in by road, rather than the more usual unloading from tilting rail wagons, due to limitations of the single line. There are two new modular crossovers and a single turnout. Switches are type CEN56 EVS. Redundant trap points were removed from Trimley.

Thankfully, the line was originally well built, with a welldrained and stable formation including embankments and cuttings, well able to support the heavy pounding from today’s freight tonnage.

FEATURE Staging the project Work on the ground commenced in April 2018.

The port runs no trains between Saturday evening to Monday morning, so it was possible to schedule complete possessions during this time for most weekends through to May 2019. During these possessions, stone, sleepers, rails and track panels were run out for the loop, new signals erected, new 650V DC signalling supply cables run out, SSI data links cut into the new locations, and the steel sections of the equestrian bridge (pre-fabricated at Doncaster), craned in over four weekends using a 750T crane.

A blockade over the Christmas 2018 holiday period saw the all new loop S&C installed into the existing running line using a Kirow crane. Point ends were detected and cut into the track circuit, such that a point failure would show up as a track circuit failure, a scenario covered by a

special signal box instruction.

The new 650V supply system was fully commissioned.

A further possession during the 2019 spring bank holiday saw the signalling system put through ‘out and back’ rehearsal testing. All the external equipment and data links were connected for testing to the new Smartlock & MCS. New signals, TPWS and

AWS were correspondence tested and the existing equipment through tested, before being switched back to the original system, giving a few days for outstanding issues to be resolved.

The final commissioning of the new signalling workstation took place overnight on 28/29 May. On this night, the systems were changed over to final

Felixstowe work station.

Rail Engineer | Issue 176 | July 2019

53

54

FEATURE Morston Hall barrier controls and VHLC.

Felixstowe container terminal.

and assets tested that were not picked up on rehearsal were correspondence tested.

Signalling data was 90 per cent factory tested in a simulation, just leaving any outstanding principles testing and those elements that couldn’t be done in the factory, such as the fringe to Saxmundham SSI and Ipswich Bacon Factory Curve Route Relay Interlocking (RRI), which can’t be simulated on the workstation. Some traindetection alterations could not be implemented prior to this commissioning.

With the signalling up and running, the installation and testing resources moved to bring the MCBs into service, one at a time, in the order Morston Hall, Thorpe, Levington and finally Westerfield, due for completion in the middle of July. During the main commissioning, level crossing indications were strapped out to fool the interlocking into thinking the barriers are down. At each stage, as a new barrier is brought into service, the temporary wiring is recovered, with barrier control inputs and outputs working live thereafter.

Rail Engineer | Issue 176 | July 2019

Inevitably, the scheme has involved temporary road closures, for which Network Rail devised a strategy in conjunction with local councils. For example, Thorpe and Morston Hall didn’t have diversion routes, so the plan was to close one and use the other as a diversion, then swap around.

be addressed before embarking upon further capacity upgrades on the branch itself.

The vision of entrepreneur George Tomline, who built the docks and railway back in 1875, and the subsequent commitment of port and railway owners, has assured the continuing growth of this booming port.

The future The current project effectively uses up all the existing freight network capacity. Pinch points elsewhere, including the single line from Soham to Ely, Ely North single lead junctions, and Syston junctions, will need to

Thanks to Dan Smith of VolkerFitzpatrick, Tom Fitzgerald of Pod-Trak, Darren Welch of VolkerRail, and Martin Spencer, Arun Jacobs and Ian Martin of Network Rail for their help in preparing this report.

56

FEATURE

Railway signalling equipment

PAUL DARLINGTON

POWER SYSTEM EARTHING Principal Supply Point A signalling power supply comes onto the rail infrastructure from a Distribution Network Operator (DNO) network via a Principal Supply Point (PSP). DNOs are companies licensed to distribute electricity in the United Kingdom. At the PSP, the incoming supply is converted to the distribution voltage of, typically, 650V. The incoming supply is usually 400V, but can be other voltages.

To maintain continuity of supply, PSPs use additional sources in addition to the 400V DNO supply, including the railway’s own three-phase high voltage traction-power system and standby generators.

A PSP for an important route may also have an uninterruptible power supply (UPS), so that the supply is maintained during the changeover between the two sources. In simple terms, a UPS is a big battery fitted with an inverter that converts the battery’s DC output to AC. It may also provide insulation monitoring equipment.

Functional Supply Point

A

railway must be supported with a safe and reliable power system for signals, points, interlockings and communications. This power system must be tolerant against failure and provide a constant, stable supply in

order for the control and communications equipment to operate correctly.

Often either taken for granted or overlooked, power systems for railways can be difficult to provide, given that the infrastructure is long and narrow and not always close to an external power source. In addition, the earthing arrangements differ from domestic, industrial and commercial electrical systems, a situation that has caused compliance issues with safety requirements.

The signalling power supply must always be available, with a continuity of supply similar to other safety-critical applications, for example airport ground lighting or hospital operating theatres.

So, it is not acceptable to turn everything off when a fault arises, which has been a traditional electrical engineering solution for such hazards.

The power system must be safe, both for maintenance staff and for members of the public, when the equipment is located on platforms or at level crossings, even should faults occur that result in accessible metal becoming live.

Railways have invested a lot of time, effort and money in providing reliable power supplies with multiple sources of energy, but, in some cases, they have neglected the power distribution network that moves the power to the current-using equipment.

However, over the last few years, new maintenance processes and the introduction of Class II equipment have improved matters, after a lot of effort by both signalling and power engineers in Network Rail and the supply industry.

Rail Engineer | Issue 176 | July 2019

The major elements of a railway signalling power system are the power sources, the distribution network and electrical loads (sometimes referred to as current-using equipment). The power supply voltage is often transformed down to a lower voltage to minimise voltage drop when distributed over longer distances.

Historically, a two-wire 650V AC distribution system has been used for railway signalling power in the UK.

CableGuardian is the only product to offer proactive monitoring, detection and location of both insulator and conductor faults on live signalling power systems as specified in Network Rail specification NR/L2/SIGELP/27725.

JOIN THE

REVOLUTION to prevent signal failures This unique product provides continuous monitoring of live signalling power supply systems at a cable section level without the need to power down the system, reducing the need for manual trackside fault-finding, reducing maintenance costs and ‘boots on ballast’.

CableGuardian is the technological alternative to the 5 yearly manual cable testing requirement in NR/L2/SIGELP/50000. Empowering the rail industry to move from the uncertainty of periodic testing, to a real-time condition based approach.

Key Benefits:

• Fewer boots on ballast fault finding and cable testing • Quickly and accurately locate cable faults and cable theft • User friendly web portal for fault diagnosis and location • Allows trending of insulation resistance and insulation capacitance at a cable section level.

CableGuardian - helping passengers to arrive on time.

For more information or to book a demo, visit

https://cableguardian.viperinnovations.com or speak to one of our experts on:

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58

FEATURE In domestic situations, Class II power supplies (such as laptop chargers) will have a two-wire power cord as opposed to a three-wire power cord with a safety earth connection. Products designed with Class II insulation are often labelled as “Class II” or “double insulated” or will have a concentric square safety label symbol.

Earthing

Within a trackside case, equipment known as the Functional Supply Point (FSP) normally converts the 650V AC to 110V AC using transformer(s). The FSP contains transformers and rectifiers to convert the power distribution voltage to the AC and DC voltages used by the track-side train control system equipment.

It may also accommodate lockable switchgear, to allow for safe working practices on the power distribution and train control equipment.

Location Cases (Locs) accommodate railway signalling equipment to detect the location of trains, control the trackside signals and switch the points. Locs and FSPs can be the same physical asset, containing both power equipment and train control equipment. The equipment may typically use both AC and DC voltages less than 110V, so transformers and rectifiers are required to obtain the correct voltage from the incoming supply.

Class I and Class II protection Protection arrangements in power distribution networks are generally Class I or Class II. In Class I, exposed metal parts must be connected together and connected to electrical earth by a separate earth conductor (coloured green/yellow in the UK). The basic requirement is that no single fault can result in dangerous voltage becoming accessible so that it might cause an electric shock and that, if a fault occurs, the supply will be automatically disconnected. Traditionally, railway signalling power supply distribution systems have been based on Class I individual earth designs, which require an effective earth arrangement.

Class II, or double-insulated, electrical equipment is designed in such a way that it does not require a safety connection to electrical earth. The basic requirement is that no single fault can result in dangerous voltage becoming accessible so that it might cause an electric shock, and is achieved without relying on an earthed metal casing. This is usually met by having at least two layers of insulating material between live parts and the user, or by using reinforced insulation. Not only is there a safety benefit with Class II, but the availability is far greater as the supply is not tripped due to a cable fault.

Rail Engineer | Issue 176 | July 2019

BS 7671 (the IET Wiring Regulations - informally called “the regs” by some) covers the primary types of power system earthing arrangement called TN, TT or IT. These use the French terms for Terre (earth), Neute (neutral) and Isolé (isolated).

The first letter indicates the connection between earth and the power-supply equipment, so ‘T’ indicates a direct connection of a point with earth (Terre) while ‘I’ means that no point is connected with earth (Isolé).

The second letter indicates the connection between earth or network and the electrical device being supplied, so ‘T’ corresponds to an earth connection by a local direct connection to earth (Terre) or ‘N’ shows that the neutral connection is supplied by the electricity supply network (Neutre).

The traditional way of distributing the power trackside along the railway for signalling has been using the IT earthing system.

The output of the source transformer is isolated from earth, whilst all exposed conductive parts of the installation are connected to earth.

The source transformer output is isolated from earth, although the system will be still earthed by the stray capacitances of the cables. Should there be a fault with the cable insulation or FSP equipment, creating a direct short circuit to earth, there is no return path for the earth fault current with the equipment remaining operational.

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60

FEATURE Improvement Notice

The trackside cables are usually, but not always, two-core, and each FSP is individually earthed using an electrode formed of one or more buried earth rods. An appreciable earth fault current may flow, but the length and resistance of the feeder circuit conductor to the fault locations, as well as the resistance of the Loc connection to earth, can result in a fault current that is insufficient to cause automatic operation of the protective device in an acceptable time.

The general mass of earth can be variable, which makes the magnitude of earth fault current difficult to predict.

The problem is that this arrangement is not compliant with the Electricity at Work Regulations 1989, nor BS 7671 (Wiring Regulations). The highest permitted accessible voltage is 50V (BS7671) or 60V (EN 50122-1). This may be exceeded on some large legacy power distribution 650V networks.

An even bigger problem on a system with an IT Earthing arrangement is with a second earth fault situation, as an accessible harmful voltage is very likely to be present for an unacceptable duration. The ratio of the two earth fault resistances will determine how much of the 650V system voltage appears on each faulty equipment case.

It is believed that the non-compliance with BS 7671 may have arisen because there is an exemption for ‘railway signalling equipment’ in the standard, which railways relied upon for many years. However, the Office of Rail and Road (ORR) took the view that the exemption to the regulations is only for the ‘signalling equipment’ itself and not the electrical distribution networks feeding signalling equipment. In any case, the Electricity at Work Regulations 1989 are applicable, so non-compliance is not an option.

Rail Engineer | Issue 176 | July 2019

The legacy design, and, in particular, the hazard from exposed conductive parts of signalling equipment in public areas, resulted in the ORR issuing Network Rail with an Improvement Notice on 19 November 2013. In the notice, the ORR stated: “650V power distribution networks used to supply power to trackside signalling equipment at various locations on Network Rail managed infrastructure are not constructed to prevent, so far as is reasonably practicable, danger. Signal location cases, to which members of the public have access, are not adequately earthed and bonded to prevent danger should exposed conductive parts become charged at dangerous voltages”.

The scope of the notice applied to all of the 650V power distribution networks across Network Rail managed infrastructure, and the ORR considered that the situation contravened the statutory provisions contained in Section 3(1) of the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 and regulations 4(1), 4(2) and 8 of the Electricity at Work Regulations 1989.

Network Rail was required to undertake a review of 650V power distribution networks to which members of the public have access, to: 1) Identify assets with exposed conductive parts that are not adequately earthed and bonded to prevent danger, should they become charged at dangerous voltages; 2) Subject to the findings of 1) above, undertake suitable remedial works, prioritised on the basis of risk, to ensure that 650V signal location cases which may reasonably foreseeably become charged as a result of an electrical fault are earthed and bonded; 3) Devise and implement inspection and maintenance arrangements for ensuring that 650V signal location cases to which members of the public have access are maintained to prevent, so far as is reasonably practicable, danger; 4) Implement any other equally effective means of achieving compliance with the notice.

FEATURE Compliance strategy A number of solutions were identified by Network Rail to comply with the Improvement Notice. These are linked and need to be combined in addressing the risks to the signalling power distribution problem.

A suite of Class II-based power system equipment and designs were developed and approved. Signal power network insulation monitoring and fault location equipment have been introduced, based on risk. The design and installation of signal power network earthing arrangements have been revised, together with a muchimproved signalling power system inspection and maintenance regime.

Competences and training have been reviewed and greatly improved, both for signalling power system inspection, testing and maintenance, together with improved safe working practices for work on or near signalling power equipment.

The inspection and maintenance regimes have also been improved. Responsibility and accountabilities are clearly defined and include a requirement to inspect and take action based on risk.

A consistent national method of classifying defects by codes and the required response, and by whom, has been implemented.

Additional resources, where required for the inspection and implementation of identified control measures, have been authorised, which includes the required competencies. Where a hazard is identified, a feasibility design, based on risk and the ground resistance, may require a Class II system to be installed retrospectively, should an improved earth electrode not be sufficient.

Traditionally, feeder insulation monitoring equipment can identify that a fault has occurred, but not where the fault is located. The fault could be anywhere on the power network, which can total more

Relevant Network Rail standards »» NR/L2/SIGELP/27416 Alternations to Signalling Power Supplies »» NR/L2/SIGELP/27418 Design, Installation and Testing of Earthing in Signalling Power Systems »» NR/L2/ELP/27408 Product Specification for Signalling Power Distribution Cables »» NR/L2/ELP/27409 Product Specification for Functional Supply Points (FSP) »» NR/L2/SIG/30007 [Issue: 2], Product Specification for Power Transformers for Signalling Systems »» NR/L2/ELP/27410 Specification for Class II Based Signalling Power Distribution Systems.

The key standards are issued as both signalling and electrification/plant e.g. SIGELP standards and are designed to be user friendly and to inform the right person what they need to do to control the risk.

than 30km in a large signal box area, requiring time-consuming inspection and testing to locate the fault. Network Rail is currently trialling ‘smarter’ insulation monitoring equipment, which is able to trace the location of any fault better. The equipment is based on designs used in the offshore oil and gas industries, and the results are encouraging. Full approval is expected soon.

The Class I collective earthing system (which complies with the regulations) was not specifically identified as part of the improvement notice response, but such systems had been used selectively around the network for a number of years, such as on the Mickle Trafford resignalling in 2006 and Crewe-Winsford remodelling in 2008. With the Class l collective earthed system, a three-core armoured cable is used rather than a two-core 650V supply cable. The third core and armour are used together in parallel as a circuit protective conductor (CPC) to bond all the equipment together equipotentially. The bond ensures that, in a second fault situation, there is a low impedance path present.

The problem with this arrangement is a financial and environmental one, as it requires 50 per cent more conductor than the Class 1 individually earthed arrangement, increasing not only cost but also the risk of theft.

Class II power supply design Class II was selected, not just as a means of eliminating safety risk arising from second earth faults, but also as a means of eliminating harmful voltage on accessible conductive parts with first earth faults. An effective local electrical safety earth electrode is no longer required at an FSP on a Class II power distribution network.

Using Class II for railway signalling power distribution satisfies the requirements of BS 7671 regulation 410.3.3 by utilising double or reinforced insulation instead of the traditional automatic disconnection of the supply as protection against electrical shock.

This also has the benefit of lower capital cost. However, effective continuous monitoring of the distribution system insulation remains an essential safety feature of any Class II power distribution network.

A Class II-based design solution has been identified for new-build signalling power distribution systems and the renewal of legacy signalling power distribution systems, using two-core unarmoured cables. A number of resignalling schemes have already been

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FEATURE installed using Class II and, over the next two years, a significant amount of signalling power system renewals will replace Class I with Class II. This includes the West Coast power signal boxes north of Crewe.

Location case and equipment buildings will be provided with Class II switchgear housings and Class II signalling transformers, with approved conduit and fittings, will be used to provide supplementary insulation and protection to wiring between the items of Class II equipment. Distribution equipment can be connected by either two-core enhanced unarmoured cable or two-core armoured solid-bonded cable, provided that the armour is not allowed to traverse the Class II-fitted functional supply points. However, extensive testing identified that an enhanced unarmoured cable option presents the highest overall level of safety.

The overall Class II strategy will result in improvements to personnel safety, compliance with standards, greater tolerability to DC corrosion, simplified earthing and bonding in AC electrified areas, along with reduced capital costs, better reliability, less maintenance and the ability to integrate into legacy systems.

To support the strategy, Network Rail has issued a range of new standards. The key standards are issued as both signalling and electrification/plant (SIGELP) standards, are designed to be user friendly and to inform the right person what they need to do to control the risk.

The strategy was accepted by the ORR and the Improvement Notice was closed down on 22 August 2017, with the ORR monitoring the situation.

Thanks to Graeme Christmas, Martin O’Connor and especially Graeme Beale, of Network Rail, for their help with this article.

The challenge of implementation…

In history, there are often moments or circumstances that turn necessary actions into unforeseen opportunities. As a result of the improvement notice, the introduction and roll out of retrofittable Class II as a compliance strategy now provides Network Rail with the tools and the methodology to deliver widespread enhancements to all signalling power supplies, with minimal disruption.

As with most new systems and technology, one key challenge is its implementation within the existing infrastructure. This challenge is one of understanding and joined-up process driven by survey, integrated design, option selection and efficient deployment. It has been discovered that, over the Installation at Stenson befo past four to five years, this package of works is ideally suited to support Network re (left) and af ter rework.

Rail’s existing route delivery teams. An example of this efficient process can be seen above.

New technology born out of change!

Maintenance of the existing signalling power network places a high demand on existing human resources. Routine testing and the assessment of the existing 650V signalling power cable presents existing maintenance teams with both safety and logistical challenges.

Cable and system monitoring technology offers a significant improvement in the management of these assets. Insulation monitoring and fault location devices enable rapid response and proactive maintenance regimes to be implemented. The key success of the roll out of this technology is the ability to deploy alongside the Class II retrofitting process, thereby leaving the asset in both a fully compliant and digital-ready state.

There have already been several examples of significant infrastructure reliability improvements as a result of Class II deployment. One is the elimination of low insulation monitoring values as a result of prescribed Class II retrofits, a second is confirmation of potential cost savings in unnecessary cable replacement across a large section of the Thameslink Route.

Lewis Westbury - Ilecsys Rail

Rail Engineer | Issue 176 | July 2019

Can you afford to put a price on safety?

Class II and composites delivers a new level of safety to the railways supporting a further reduction in earthing systems Design, implementation and maintenance of earthing systems costs Network Rail millions of pounds per year.

Class II and composite systems reduces the requirements for expensive earthing systems and enhances safety for both maintenance teams and public personnel.

Contact us today to discover how Class II and composites can save you money and increase safety on your project! +44 (0)1844 397300

enquiry@ilecsysrail.co.uk

ISO 9001 Registered

Quality Management

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FEATURE

NEW MAIN-LINE

interlocking

ENTERS SERVICE

PAUL DARLINGTON

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he Shepperton branch line in the south west of London and north Surrey, which is part of the Feltham signal box area, connects to the Kingston loop by a triangular junction between Strawberry Hill and Teddington

stations. The line opened on 1 November 1864 and was briefly named the Thames Valley Railway, with access only from the Twickenham direction. The line was electrified using 630VDC third rail on 30 January 1916.

Demand and population in the area rapidly increased after the railway’s relatively late introduction to the network, and today Hampton station is the line’s busiest, with more than 1.2 million journeys, up from 0.7 million only ten years ago.

Feltham signal box is a large route relay-interlocking system dating from 1974 and it was high-time that it was replaced resignalling had already been deferred and the asset condition was such that further deferment was not an option. The Shepperton branch was selected as the first stage of the renewal of Feltham signal box, with full renewal taking place in six stages over several years, such is the complexity of the Feltham signalling area.

The task of resignalling was to be delivered using ‘future signalling systems by Atkins’- a strategic programme to change the way signalling projects are delivered in the UK. The system involves 11 separate product acceptance approvals and uses a wide range of products and components to deliver a full train control, signalling and power system - from interlockings to level crossings, barrier arms, power supplies and cables.

Over the weekend of the 22/23 June, Atkins recommissioned the Shepperton branch - the first use of its first ElectroLogIXS electronic interlocking and level crossing controller system on the main line railway.

ElectroLogIXS is a proven programmable logic controller licensed to Atkins, exclusively for UK rail use. It is the first all-new type of interlocking to be introduced onto the railway for some time, so the commissioning was a significant milestone in the introduction of modern state of the art signalling interlocking systems to the UK, together with new innovative ways of

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providing signalling infrastructure which have been developed

by Atkins. All this will deliver many benefits to railways and the travelling public.

Initially, the Shepperton branch will be controlled from a single workstation located at Feltham signal box before being transferred to Basingstoke rail operating centre (ROC) in a later stage within the overall Feltham resignalling. A maintenance training facility has been provided at the ROC, which will allow technicians to familiarise themselves with the state-of-the-art signalling equipment. The training facility will provide the ability to generate physical and virtual faults, to practise equipment repair and reconfiguration - essential for modern IP networked assets in an off-network environment.

The recent Atkins commissioning followed the successful introduction of the ElectroLogIXS system at Old Oak Common depot in 2018. This was the first installation to use the ElectroLogIXS digital interlocking, which is now performing well as part of the validated signalling system for this vital Crossrail depot.

The new signalling system is not just about new equipment though, as Atkins has successfully introduced innovative production methods to deliver a flexible, future-proof, digitalsignalling-compatible solution. Its approach is technology agnostic - Atkins has considerable expertise in a wide range of signalling products and is not tied to any one product, being able to choose and work with the best equipment available. This knowledge and experience of all types of signalling also means that Atkins is ideally placed to manage the interface requirements with other types of signalling, often the most difficult and risky part of any signalling scheme.

FEATURE Ladder logic The ElectroLogIXS interlocking is a flexible, ‘ladder logic’ driven device that deploys software written using the Atkins Signalling Method (ASM).

The introduction of this interlocking in the UK is intended to remove reliance on existing interlocking products and solutions, with the system enabling the rationalisation and reduction in the quantity of trackside cabling, along with many other benefits.

Ladder logic was originally a manufacturing industry and process control method to document the design and construction of relay racks.

Each device in the relay rack would be represented by a symbol on the ladder diagram, with connections between devices shown. Other items external to the relay rack, such as pumps and heaters, would also be shown on the ladder diagram. It then evolved into a programming language based on the circuit diagram relay logic hardware.

Ladder logic is now widely used in other industries to develop software for programmable logic controllers (PLCs) that are being used in industrial control applications. Ladder diagrams were once the only available notation for recording programmable controller programs, but today other forms are standardised in IEC 61131-3, the international standard for PLCs that is over 20 years old and is accepted in many industries.

Less equipment The standardisation of equipment and a reduced number of trackside equipment location cases is a major benefit, which will deliver significant capital and operating savings. There will also be no reliance on bespoke software languages used in previous electronic interlocking technologies, with the system designed to be future proof, scalable and ETCS compatible.

Atkins has calculated that resignalling all of the Feltham signalling project area using conventional SSI would have required in the order of 3,000 relays and 450 lineside equipment locations. Using the new future signalling system, this will reduce to approximately 130 relays and 220 lineside equipment locations, a reduction that will bring with it a step change in reliability.

The solution developed by Atkins is based on a design using more readily available non-discipline-specific software engineers, rather than scarce signalling designers, allowing the signalling engineers to focus on the core functional signalling requirements.

With traditional SSI interlockings, there was also a large number of data errors leading to failures resulting in significant resources required to resolve. So, Atkins has identified new methods of data production and testing, using modelling techniques and empirical processes as part of their new way of working.

The design and testing of electronic interlocking data was also taking too long, so one requirement for the new way of working was for repeatable data modules, designed and tested once and then used many times.

Some current interlocking technology (SSI trackside functional modules, for example) are reaching the end of their life, so new equipment solutions are also required. An interlocking capable of communicating with a Radio Block Centre (RBC) was essential to enable a future, easy upgrade to ETCS, once compatible rolling stock is available on a route.

Network Rail’s technology strategy requires new interlocking technology to comply with the EN 50128 functional safety standard (Railway applications Communication, signalling and processing systems - Software for railway control and protection systems), so the ElectroLogIXS interlocking creates a new solution that is designed from the start using EN 50126 (Railway Applications - The Specification and Demonstration of Reliability, Availability, Maintainability and Safety), EN 50128 and EN 50129 (Railway applications - Communication, signalling and processing systems - Safety-related electronic systems for signalling standards).

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FEATURE The ElectroLogIXS hardware is manufactured by Alstom (formally GE) and is a vital logic controller (VLC), using internet protocol (IP) communications and advanced diagnostics via a scalable remote condition monitoring system and a common hardware platform for both trackside and control parts of the system.

Its chassis-to-chassis communication uses RP2009 (SIL4) protocol with no safety reliance on the network. The equipment’s product acceptance has been developed to cover both ‘interlocking’ and ‘level crossing controller’ applications, both of which have been used on the Shepperton branch commissioning.

Compliance with EN 50128 is considered a step change improvement in safety when compared to SSI data software, with the automation of the design process along with the production of the ladder logic. This enables far more testing to be carried out automatically, delivering consistency and reliability in results. High levels of automated testing will save time to commission projects, while reducing the dependency on scarce testing resources required and the associated risks.

The interlocking is provided in three sizes, with either a one, four or nine slot capacity. New input/output cards have been designed for the UK that are ‘hot swappable’, with personality modules provided to ensure their correct location in the chassis.

The hardware is designed to work reliably between -40°C and +70°C. Its power supply requirements are only 70W, with an internal 5V supply derived from a

12V external feed. The processor is a twoout-of-two arrangement that can handle 10,000 vital equations extremely reliably.

Up to 32 interlockings can be multidropped together if required, making it truly scalable.

With the new Atkins system, all trackside equipment is contained in a smaller number of location cubicles with no equipment buildings required, thus saving both cost, access and space.

The actual ElectroLogIXS interlocking is contained on a very small circuit board within one equipment location housing - a relay interlocking to deliver the same functionality would have required a room the size of a garage.

It can be very costly and time consuming to erect bases for lineside buildings, which may also require several line blockages to install. Once in place, power is required for lighting and heating, and the buildings create a maintenance liability for the life of the signalling project. Atkins has now eliminated all this risk, with all the signalling equipment located in low-cost, smaller lineside equipment cubicles.

The lineside digital communications network consists of Layer 2 network switches (housed within each signalling location case), while the control centre network uses Layer 3 switches (housed within each cubicle). The Network Rail Fixed Telecom Network (FTN) is used to ‘bridge the gap’ between the lineside and control centre elements of the network.

A 24-fibre optic cable to NR/PS/ TEL00014 between FTN access nodes forms a sub access layer to the telecoms network. This is supplemented with a twofibre pre-terminated cable to connect the lineside equipment.

Atkins Signalling Method A significant change in approach to the design of a scheme has been the introduction of the Atkins Signalling Method (ASM). This is intended to maximise overall efficiency across the design (including interdisciplinary design interfaces), procurement, installation, testing and commissioning.

Deviations from the ASM are prohibited without the formal agreement of the ElectroLogIXS Technical Authority Group, to avoid changes that appear to give

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FEATURE a benefit (such as a reduction in materials) but actually cause inefficiency on a scheme. The ASM also allows the use of another programmable logic controller (PLC) hardware platform in the future far more easily than was the case with previous bespoke designs.

Level Crossing in a Box The ‘Level Crossing in a Box’ (LCiaB) concept arose from the idea of delivering a complete crossing in a container ready for installation. This has now evolved to an element of ‘just in time’ delivery, but the concept of a complete and ready to install crossing. In the Shepperton scheme, the solution has been provided at Hampton MCB-CCTV (manually controlled barriers with closed circuit television) crossing.

Currently, LCiaB is specified for MCB-CCTV, but it has been designed so that is can easily be configured for other types of MCB and as a miniature stop light (MSL) crossing. The crossing solution consists of two or four barriers. It can be deployed either as a standalone installation or part of an Atkins ASM signalling system. Up to six sets of traffic signals (wig-wags) and four ‘Standing Red Man’ signals can be supported.

The barrier machine, supplied by Newgate, is also new to the UK signalling market and is 110V AC powered, with the boom driven by a three-phase inverter and motor through a gearbox.

Angular detection of the barrier is by factory-set rotary blades detected by proximity sensors. There are a pair of industrial safety switches which mechanically detect the drive spindle when it is in the lowered position.

A small safety controller (PLC) provides machine control via a set of 24V DC control and indication lines connected to the level crossing controller (LXC) case. Manual operation is achieved with a small hydraulic pump and cylinder system. A machine has already completed in excess of 3,000,000 fault-free operating cycles in the factory.

Going forward The benefits of this new signalling system include both safety, reliability, programme, scalability and cost. Atkins believes that, once the solution is fully accepted, it can deliver an overall saving of 20 per cent in capital cost compared to other solutions and a 65 per cent saving in whole life costs over 35 years. In terms of programme, Atkins estimates an 18-week improvement over conventional signalling should be achievable, with more to come.

The June commissioning of the Shepperton branch Feltham will be followed by the re-signalling of the Norwich - Yarmouth - Lowestoft routes, also using the ‘future signalling systems by Atkins’, with interfaces to existing signalling at Norwich and to the East Suffolk line at Oulton Broad. The area will be controlled from Colchester ROC. Other schemes using the new system should include phase two of East West Rail - the Bicester to Bletchley section - using the system to provide both interlocking and level crossing controls controlled from Thames Valley ROC. The system is compatible with several RBCs (radio block controllers) for ETCS deployment, while further innovative Atkins enhancements to the system may include integration with intelligent infrastructure, IP-enabled barrier machines, IP-enabled signals, integration with ETCS and level crossings, VoIP telephony, replacing ElectroLogIXS VLC with a commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) PLC product and radio-based communications between lineside ‘objects’.

Rail Engineer naturally looks forward to returning to report the complete renewal of the Feltham signalling area with the ‘future signalling systems by Atkins’. If the scheme goes to plan, completion will be achieved by 2024, when the whole complex area will be under the control of Basingstoke ROC. Thanks to Nicky Brunker, James Sykes and Matt Phillips of Atkins for their assistance with this article.

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FEATURE

Barnards Lock Underbridge A SPONGY AND SUCCESSFUL LIFT COLLIN CARR

B

arnard’s Lock is a rail underbridge structure spanning the river Kennet, located 3.7km west of the centre of Newbury, West Berkshire. The underbridge carries the Berks and Hants Line (BHL) between Hungerford and Newbury, a section of the Reading to Taunton line, which is a major branch of the Great Western Main Line.

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channel of the river Kennet, so the brick bridge abutments are aligned with the direction of the river flow. The clearance between the bridge deck and the river is very small, so the bridge has the capacity to become a barrier to the river flow after heavy rainfall.

Well over fifteen years ago, structural inspections and assessment of the underbridge, carried out by JBA Consulting, identified significant deterioration of the timber deck and section loss of the main and cross girders throughout the structure. As a consequence, the structure was considered to be life expired and required renewal.

However, subsequent load monitoring of the structure has enabled Network Rail to PHOTOS: JBA CONSULTING

Barnard’s Lock underbridge is located in a saturated, wooded area with the nearest road access about 2km away.

The area is a Site of Special Scientific Interest, often referred to as a “triple SI”. The location would attract the attention of the Environment Agency if any form of engineering work were to be proposed due to special concerns for the local population of otters, water voles and other forms of wild life in the area.

The bridge comprises three wrought-iron half-through girders with intermediate wrought-iron cross girders supporting a timber decking.

It has two spans, is 40 metres in length and is skewed at an angle of 57 degrees to the

Significant deterioration

FEATURE

maintain the bridge to ensure trains are able to run at line speed, which is 110 mph, in line with its ‘Putting Passengers First’ policy, but they knew that this could not last. The timber deck continued to deteriorate, ballast was being lost and, with the advent of electrification, and new rolling stock with different breaking and accelerating characteristics, the forces on the superstructure were becoming unacceptable.

It was decided that the bridge needed to be replaced.

Tony Gee & Partners were invited by Network Rail to develop options for replacing the bridge. An emerging initial plan was to construct a new culvert structure within the railway embankment to the west of the underbridge. A new river channel would then have to be excavated, offering a permanent diversion of the river away from the current underbridge, under the new culvert.

The new river channel would be approximately 135 metres in length and would take water from the existing channel, at a point approximately 50 metres upstream of the current underbridge, and convey it northwards through the new culvert and then eastwards before connecting back into the existing river channel immediately downstream of the underbridge. This would then enable the underbridge to be demolished, and the railway embankment filled in.

Environmental concerns It was a good plan, but close scrutiny by the Environment Agency raised serious concerns about changing the flow of the river as it could lead to a change in the flood plain which could affect local communities and also local wildlife habitats. There were too many unknowns, and the estimated cost of the work also

exceeded budget allocation, so, eventually, the proposal was dropped.

Therefore, it was agreed that the old bridge would have to be replaced insitu. However, the location with its restricted access points, woodland copses and sodden spongy ground, the length of bridge spans involved, as well as the radius for lifts required, adjacent to the bridge, meant that engineers had to get their thinking caps on. Network Rail’s project engineer Matthew Roberts and programme manager Scott Pillinger told Rail Engineer what happened next.

A new plan and design emerged and the principal contractor appointed for the £4 million contract. They had sixteen weeks to get the site ready, as the essential work to replace the bridge was planned to start at 00:10 on Saturday 4 May and finish at 05:10 on Tuesday 7 May 2019. It was decided that the bridge had to be assembled on site in four sections. Tony Gee & Partners designed eight Z-type steel main girders plus cross girders, and the decking would be a reinforced concrete design.

The steelwork was fabricated in Wigan by Time DMG. This included manufacturing 1.5-metre-deep Z type girders and associated cross girders that would be transported to

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site and spliced together to form the four deck structures that were up to 34 metres in length. But how would they get the steelwork to site and how would they create enough space and solid ground to construct the four decks? As Matthew pointed out the “problems kept snowballing”.

160 elephants Once the four elements of the superstructure were constructed on site, they would need to be lifted into position.

It was calculated that the biggest lift would exceed 105 tonnes and the radius would be more than 60 metres. This was not work for a normal crane and they eventually sourced a Sarens Gottwald 1,200 tonne crane, apparently capable of lifting 160 elephants!

How would they get this crane to site and how would they ensure that it did not sink into the spongy, sodden ground adjacent to the river?

Well, firstly they had to create a 2km haul road using more than 10,000 tonnes of fill material.

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They were able to source much of this material from three other Network Rail sites and Scott explained that the intention is for the material used to be passed on to a school project in the vicinity. Recycling at its best!

Once the crane was on site and the four superstructures constructed and ready to be lifted in place, how would they ensure that the crane would be stable when the lift commenced? To do that, they had to construct four sheet-piled cofferdams, ten metres deep and six metres square in section, and fill them with engineering fill. These cofferdams would be placed so that the load from the outriggers would be transferred to stable ground.

Whilst the cofferdams were being constructed, a substantial amount of woodland needed to be cleared to create the workspace for the bridge superstructure construction and for the site offices and accommodation, and the sixteen weeks were ticking away.

Traction forces At the design stage, Tony Gee & Partners became concerned about the ability of the breaking and traction forces of the trains to transfer through to the deck to the supporting abutments.

Their solution was to include fifty-six 100mm diameter, fourmetre-long dowels into the design. These dowels would need to be placed into holes in the precast sill beams and then drilled into the brick abutment during the possession, after the old decks had been removed.

Matthew had calculated that it would take two hours using a diamond drill for each dowel. In a 76-hour possession, this was a significant undertaking and the golden rule was that there must not be an overrun – ‘Putting Passengers First’.

The team prepared contingency plans which would involve additional temporary speed restrictions, dependent on the number of dowels in position. They carried out trials and adjusted the resources with the intention of completing all the drilling within the possession.

FEATURE The contractors would also need to have access to both sides of the river when the old superstructure was removed, so a floating pontoon, made up of interlocking plastic units, was positioned across the river. This created a walkway, working platform and support for temporary troughing for the signalling cables and other equipment.

Wind and water A ‘Go/No-Go’ plan was drafted before the possession started. Weather forecasts were analysed for potential heavy rain. There were sluice gates that could regulate the water flow, but that could also cause problems, as outlined earlier.

Wind was a fairly critical factor.

The crane would only attempt the lifts required if the wind was less than 35mph. If this was exceeded, work would have to stop.

Fortunately, the weather was kind with no rain and little wind throughout the possession. The

line was handed back to traffic on time with a 50mph speed restriction.

The track was reinstated by local track engineers, underpinning another Network Rail policy known as the ‘Orange Pound’. In the past, contractors have been responsible for reinstating the track after such work. Now, the view within Network Rail is that this work should be done in-house, using engineers who know the area and can maintain it on a daily basis, ensuring that not only the track

is maintained properly but also the speed restriction boards, track magnets and temporary track crossings are also looked after.

Many readers would identify this approach with a similar one adopted some time ago.

So, the new bridge is in place, the myriad of engineering challenges addressed and the local environment left in peace with the water voles now admiring the new structure that has emerged from this sodden, watery part of the Berks & Hants main line.

Creating value through innovation

Barnards Lock Rail Bridge

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

BAM Nuttall

www.tonygee.com Rail Engineer | Issue 176 | July 2019

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PLANTWORX/RAILWORX

NIGEL WORDSWORTH

“A

little water never hurt anyone..."

PLANTWORX & RAILWORX A SUCCESS DESPITE THE SUMMER WEATHER

E

very two years, the Construction Equipment Association organises a big plant show - Plantworx. And it is big - the likes of Caterpillar, JCB, Doosan, Volvo and Komatsu spend weeks building their stands, to show their equipment in the best possible light and, above all, to show it working.

For 2019, two things were new. One was the location - the show moved to the East of England Arena at Peterborough for the first time.

Secondly, due to the amount of rail construction that has been going on recently, and with more to come in the shape of HS2 and Crossrail 2, to name just a couple of projects, the decision was taken to add a Railworx section to the show. Here, rail suppliers would be able to show off both plant and equipment.

So, Rail Media was tasked with arranging for the key players in rail to come along and join in the show. Some 50 exhibitors, from all areas of the industry, accepted the challenge and came to Peterborough.

First among equals Chief among them was Network Rail itself. The Signalling Innovation Group took a stand to show off some of its latest ideas, and Hitachi Information Control Systems Europe took the stand next door.

In contrast, Genwork chose Railworx to launch its brand new Klik-Lok range of purpose-designed environmental noise barrier solutions, specifically aimed at infrastructure projects involving road and rail where noise reduction is of critical importance. A series of panels lock together in a vertical frame, with the frame giving good vertical stability and the locking action reducing the assembly time and removing the need for heavy plant.

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PLANTWORX/RAILWORX

On its stand, Genwork was displaying a pair of three-metre-high barriers, which business development director Roger Kemp explained was the minimum height for effective sound reduction. Made in the UK, the panels, which were a fetching shade of green at Railworx, can be manufactured in any colour to suit a contractor’s needs.

With an estimated life of 40 years, the Klik-Lok noise barrier system can be used for both permanent and temporary installations. The show organisers were so impressed that they presented Genwork with a New Product Launch award on the middle day of the show.

Soggy Tuesday The award was presented on the middle day because, however much one plans for an outdoor show, there is one thing that can’t be predicted - the British weather. On the first day, Tuesday 11 June, the heavens opened. Literally. It rained ALL day.

To avoid the weather, the depleted crowd of visitors stayed in the indoor section of the show, which they had to walk through anyway as it was straight after the visitor entrance.

This was where staging the show at a permanent facility really paid off, tarmac walkways and hard standing parking

saved the day. From there it was a short walk to the show entrance, a quick scan of the pre-printed badge, and then into the show.

Through the door into the main hall, and there was plenty to see.

Peli Products had a stand that required no lighting - they had brought enough of their own! LED lights, protective cases (the well-known ‘Peli Cases’) and even covers for iPads - all were attracting interest. One of the appeals of Plantworx is its cross-industry spread of visitors, and Peli confirmed they had been visited by a number of utility contractors, and at a very high level. They were certainly pleased with the level of interest.

Oilaway occupied a double-size stand and also seemed to be doing business with visitors from a range of sectors.

Protective clothing specialists Portwest Clothing and Safeaid were glad they were indoors so their racks of clothing weren’t soaking up the rain like a sponge, and Role Recruitment was talking to anyone who walked past about - recruitment.

Platform Edge Protection had started off outdoors. When part of their stand blew away, one of three that did, organisers found them a space indoors.

Nijhuis Engineering.

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At a corner of the hall, Rail Media colleagues Railway People were also talking to visitors and sheltering exhibitors alike. The charity Mind and JW’s CVwriting service were in the same area.

When contractors are on site, safety is naturally a priority. Minor injuries outnumber major accidents, so on-site treatment of wounds, abrasions and sprains is important. Aero Healthcare supplies everything from first-aid kits to AEDs (automated external defibrillators), even the lightweight stretchers used for medical evacuations, and used Railworx to showcase its first-aid solutions for the rail industry.

Into the rain Outdoors, it really was soggy. Those exhibitors who had trailers or cabins were sheltering visitors, like Dual Inventive, whose trailer displayed their workforce safety and railway sensing technology.

James Fisher Prolec had a Quattro roadrail excavator siting on a length of track outside the (crowded) hospitality cabin.

The reason it was there was to show off PMX. Combining two well-established technologies - excavator hazard mitigation and geolocation - PMX helps prevent plant equipment from striking pre-defined hazards and increases machine efficiency by up to 30 per cent when compared with existing systems, so the manufacturer claims.

Suited for a wide range of high-risk sectors, including civil construction, highways and rail, PMX is the first system of its kind to receive accreditation from Network Rail for Any Line Open (ALO) projects.

Rail Engineer | Issue 176 | July 2019

Also on show, and combining rated capacity limiter (RCL) and movement limiting devices (MLD) technology into a robust, safety-critical solution, was James Fisher Prolec’s TrackPilot™ - a nextgeneration hazard mitigation solution for ALO on-track operations that has been specifically designed for excavator rail-road vehicles (RRVs) and, apparently, can achieve ten times faster processing and functionality speeds than any other solution on the market.

Ilecsys, manufacturer of GRP location cases and walkways - and anything else you care to order - had a trailer, and Peter Dickson and the team kept snug in that.

Geismar weren’t so lucky, except their open-fronted tent was right opposite the Rail Media trailer, where hot coffee and pork pie was available. Network Rail track director Steve Featherstone visited as well, so Richard Cradock was a happy man despite it all. He also commented that Railworx was the place to be going forward, so hopefully he’ll be back for the next one.

Better Wednesday Sheltering in cabins was not so necessary on day two, as the pouring rain gave way to a light drizzle. Some, however, chose to sit indoors for part of the day and attend the Get Set conference, which looked at skills and skill shortages. Joe Guy, group HR director for integrated talent solutions at Network Rail; Trudy LaydenFreeman, lead HR business partner for rail at Costain; Clair Mowbray, chief executive of the National College for High Speed Rail; Mohanad Ismail, senior systems consultant, Young Rail Professionals and Neil Franklin, head of skills intelligence at the National Skills Academy for Rail (NSAR), spoke on this important topic.

Outside, things were looking up.

Network Rail was open for business while Bollé, manufacturer of safety glasses, had opened its doors and looked inviting. The company had run a competition before Railworx, giving 20 pairs of Tryon Tryoflash safety glasses to registered visitors to the show. Well done, Bollé!

Colin Burnikell’s team at Hilti emerged into the (weak) sunlight and demonstrated their powerful tools and specialist drilling equipment, the distinctive red equipment being put through its paces.

Gioconda were managing to keep their electronics dry and were in good spirits.

Santon Switchgear, which both supplies new circuit breakers and also upgrades old ones to give them a new lease of life, and Duvine/DMS Technologies, which “has a long experience working with Network Rail engineers designing and manufacturing rugged battery systems for trackside installations, operating in all weathers”, displayed their wares.

The team from Marshalls CPM displayed their Redi-Rock modular walling system, which is ideal for protecting the rail line against erosion, landslips and rock falls.

PLANTWORX/RAILWORX Mixamate’s giant concrete mix-and-pump trucks and Van Elle’s piling rigs were immune to the troublesome weather, though their operators were not, and Van Elle was another company to report real commercial results from the Railworx show.

Exhibitors around the event reported solid interest, Kinshofer received lots of interest in their tiltrotator, ballast tamper and sleeper changer attachments, whilst Nijhuis Engineering, from the Netherlands, reported overwhelming interest in their BE-AR rail system.

Taylor Construction Plant also had some big kit, a TXM road-rail excavator fitted with a manipulator which waved a large pole - it looked like an OLE structure or a signal post - around the sky throughout the show.

And there’s more Tools and equipment hire specialist A-Plant was in amongst the construction exhibitors. So too was Wacker Neuson, whose compactors are used extensively in track renewals to flatten and compact the trackbed before track is laid.

Force One, which specialises in the vacuum excavation of aggregates and earth - and ballast around track and S&C - has developed a three unit ‘train’ to work on track. The front unit is a road-rail excavator fitted with the suction head and hose. It’s coupled to a storage trailer, that can hold up to 15 tonnes of spoil, and that in turn is connected to the vacuum fan unit which provides the suck. It’s still under development, with a conveyor unloader system planned for the spoil truck, but should be working out on the rail network next year.

GreenMech, which Rail Engineer visited years ago, was also at Plantworx. The latest Sure-Trak self-propelled chipper now can cope with uneven ground as

well as steep slopes. An interesting demonstration had the machine climbing over unequal ramps - a good simulation of conditions out on a railway cutting face or embankment. Apparently, Network Rail has recently placed an order.

Mecalac, a sponsor of the show, won the award for best live demonstration.

The way its compact equipment moved around the muddy compound was fascinating to watch, and must have taken lots of planning.

Further features Throughout the three days of the show, one large indoor area was converted into the Drone Zone. Here, around a dozen suppliers had small stands, showing off unmanned aerial vehicles (drones) and what can be done with them for surveying and photography, while the bulk of the area, behind a safety net, was used for flying demonstrations.

In a flat, enclosed space, even one as large as 2,300 square metres, it was difficult to show what drones can do

in terms of surveying the underside of viaduct arches and pinpointing track layouts, but the skill of the pilots was certainly on show as they landed their buzzing devices on predetermined targets.

COMIT (Construction Opportunities for Mobile IT), the organisation that aims to improve understanding between the construction and technology industries and speed up the adoption of mobile IT within the construction sector, had helped stage the Drone Zone.

Tony Shooter, COMIT’s chair for drone technology, commented: “What better way to showcase today’s drone technology in the construction sector, than at Plantworx, where there is a strong focus on innovation and leading technologies. This event is probably one of the most important developments in advancing drones in the construction sector.”

Joanna Oliver, CEA’s director of global programmes, agreed: “Drones are already changing the way the construction industry operates and is growing at a rapid rate. Plantworx is delighted to showcase this advanced drone technology to our visitors.”

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PLANTWORX/RAILWORX Plantforce sponsored the Simulation Zone, located at one end of the indoor exhibition. Here, six state-of the-art simulators replicated a ‘real working construction site’ - but in a virtual world.

Each of the simulators was linked and represented an individual construction machine - an excavator, wheel loader, tower crane, dozer or an articulated dump truck - as examples. Visitors to the zone were invited to work together on the simulators in the virtual world to complete tasks on a construction site. Spectators were also offered oculus rift headsets, allowing them to join the virtual world as bystanders and offer encouragement and support to the participants!

In another Plantworx initiative, students from schools in the Peterborough area came to the show on the third day. They looked around the exhibits and also took part in specially organised activities, aimed at encouraging them to see construction and engineering as good career options for the future.

Particularly popular amongst the students was Diggerland. The theme park, part of HE Services, “world leaders in digger hire”, which was exhibiting at the show, brought some of its equipment for young people to try. There were miniversions of excavators that the students could use to dig holes, others with converted arms that could play ten-pin bowling or ‘hook a duck’, and even small dumpers to drive around an oval track.

Great fun, and at least one Rail Engineer staff member was spotted hooking ducks!

Rail Engineer | Issue 176 | July 2019

So, was Plantworx/Railworx wet?

It certainly was.

But was it a washout? No way! With almost 500 exhibitors’ displays spread out over 140,000 square metres of the East of England Arena, there was something for everyone, and too much to see in a day.

One Railworx exhibitor, for example, commented that, although the rain had held some visitors back, he had six really worthwhile meetings over the three days, which he said made it all worthwhile.

And there will be even more to look at and discuss in 2021! Hopefully the weather will be better but, in any case, it will be an event not to be missed.

See you there!

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FEATURE

Rail Electrification: REBUILDING CONFIDENCE

PETER STANTON

T

he Institution of Mechanical Engineers recently held the latest in a series of roughly biennial seminars highlighting railway electrification, with the emphasis being mainly on the United Kingdom although it did also look at other countries.

The current state of electrification design and construction in the country is in rather a contrast to the optimism of the first seminars. At that time, electrification was very much in active progression, although, following mobilisation, there had been some hesitations along the way. These hesitations were followed by a pause and then the current English and Welsh limited stop. However; as will be seen, Transport Scotland has taken a different path, with electrification delivery proceeding apace, to the extent that there are now five electrified routes between the two principal Scottish cities of Glasgow and Edinburgh.

With the institution sharing concerns with the industry, and in partnership with the Railway Industry Association, the latest seminar was organised in the light of the need to demonstrate the ability of the industry to achieve commercially acceptable progress and show that electrification will form the core preference for the decarbonisation of rail transport, as guided by national government targets.

There has recently been considerable study of possible alternatives to conventional electrification and the

Rail Engineer | Issue 176 | July 2019

Institution’s conference and seminars organising committee felt strongly that there should be an analysis and discussion of some of these alternatives, as well as of the issues that have driven electrification costs upwards and caused timescales to be extended.

Scottish success A broad cross-section of industry and associated professionals were invited to present and help to achieve a method of demonstrating to the country that electrification was the solution to traction power for most of the core railway system.

Ian Flynn, as chairman of the organising panel, opened the seminar on behalf of the IMechE and the RIA, stating that the industry was ready to prove it could deliver electrification projects at an optimum rate and economic cost.

Setting the scene on a positive note, the keynote address was by Bill Reeve, commercial director of Transport Scotland, with his subject “Success in Scotland - A rolling Programme of Electrification”. Delegates were treated to a brief history of recent construction in Scotland with the emphasis all the way through on keeping a rolling programme with a continuity of workload.

The central belt of the country has a significant concentration of the country’s population and has a well-used rail network. Some parts of the network had been closed during the ‘Beeching’

FEATURE

period, and a strategically positive view had already been taken to reopen those sections of the system. There had been challenges all the way but lessons had been learned and as the programme ‘rolled out’, these lessons learned were taken on board to add success to the next phase of installation.

The Scottish programme showed how positive application of electrification could succeed and provided a beacon for the rest of Britain - that very positive story then set the pattern for the day.

Learning for the future Next, the assembled audience heard from Phil Doughty, professional head of contact systems at Network Rail. Phil had presented at previous seminars and, on the basis of the current situation, decided this time to concentrate on a headline of “Doing it better next time reflecting on recent experience”. A very pragmatic view of where the industry was given - costs had been too high - we could do better but didn’t and there was an awareness that there were “No more second chances!”

This presentation looked, in particular, at international comparisons, particularly within Europe and the costs and progress made. There was a contrasting attitude to traction on the mainland of Europe, with a more consistent workload and a correspondingly lower cost per single track kilometre, in striking comparison with the UK. Work flow, however, was not the only issue, and Network Rail had been studying closely the questions of standards, staff qualifications, technical files and lessons learned within the UK again. Phil pointed out that the currently de-scoped Midland main line electrification delivered, in fact, a good news story with positive progress in areas which had caused excessive costs for the Great Western programme, such as piling designs and positions and

structure spacing for example. This was already showing significant savings and could be a potential route to the desired level of electrification cost per single track kilometre appropriate to system delivery.

Silver bullet With the seminar having looked at the technical issues, Stephen Kent, research fellow at the University of Birmingham, followed on with his element titled “Electrification, the Silver Bullet”. This looked at how much power and energy trains needed and the different sources of power available related to their respective carbon emissions. He also looked at the practicality of different power options for different train types.

The subject of decarbonisation centred well within Stephen’s talk and he clarified some of the practical challenges around the provision of traction energy - in the case of hydrogen, this was notably storage capacity and refuelling methodology.

Studies have shown that overhead wires are the most efficient way of powering a train - the technology is proven and

has lower operating costs than diesel.

His robust, and it seemed inescapable, conclusion was that there was no other solution for high-speed, high-performance or freight lines than electrification.

However, he did comment that bi-mode trains could use new wires as soon as they were up!

David Clark, technical director of conference sponsor the Railway Industry Association, gave a forthright delivery on the subject of “Making Electrification Economically Viable.” He reflected on the 2007 electrification strategy and how the industry had reacted to its output. From the arising national electrification programme, what did we learn? And how much should electrification cost?

The history was one of significant optimism through emerging high costs to a ‘pause’ by government, followed by the stopping of much of the proposed works. David reviewed how the industry had reacted and moved towards the Electrification Cost Challenge report; all in the light of the government’s own challenge to remove all diesel-only trains by 2040, but not including electrification as the solution.

The purpose of the report was to assist industry and government decision-making on rail electrification; restore government confidence in the rail industry and deliver electrification schemes at an affordable cost - on time and to budget. The approach would be to highlight evidence that electrification can be, and is being, delivered for 33-50 per cent of the Great Western scheme costs, using examples from around the United Kingdom and internationally.

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FEATURE that expertise is lost with any hesitation, and Alstom are keen to retain resources in the UK, possibly as part of a multi-skilling process.

Bi-modes, bridges and hybrids

We need to identify good practice and effect a significant change across the industry in the way projects are delivered, from initial business case to energisation.

The delivery proposals would call for a minimum ten-year rolling programme of electrification to enable the industry to deliver schemes at significantly lower cost, retain learning skills and incentivise investment.

The industry must heed a health warning that this is not a blame game, accept that the whole industry is culpable in the cost escalation seen in some recent projects, and remember that many projects have been successfully delivered. David ran through the story of how electrification ran and came to where we are. Now, those lessons learned need to be acted upon so the industry can go forward with a revived railway traction philosophy.

Delivering the projects Next came a report from the ‘front line’.

Brian Sweeney is a senior project engineer within the Scottish delivery team and he gave a most valuable account of the construction of the various schemes north of the border. He showed how expertise was gained as installation progressed and methods were refined, culminating in the very effective delivery of the latest stage from Stirling to Dunblane.

He was confident that the abilities so developed could be applied further afield and looked for new work packages to attack.

The seminar then moved to the views of a delivery contractor. Within the session entitled “Confidence in Electrification Delivery”, we were given a very positive presentation from Steve Cox, Alstom’s engineering and technical director, accompanied by his colleague Livia Serafini, operations director for systems

Rail Engineer | Issue 176 | July 2019

and infrastructure. The session illustrated how the industry was willing and able to innovate and draw experience from successful projects within and outside the UK. Alstom has a very important development and innovation plant in Italy, contributing to the company’s continuous product development, and has multiple capabilities. It produces a modular OLE system (overhead line equipment, called OCS on the continent - overhead contact system), which can be used for maintenance replacement in situations where heritage UK-designed equipment is to be replaced, and it also has a maintenance and high-productivity construction process.

Steve and Livia summed up their presentation by emphasising the need to maintain competence right across Europe and develop the maintenance capability. There was a real drive to refine the method of delivery so that, when electrification returns to favour, innovative solutions can be delivered. The threat is

Much has been made of the possibilities of bi-mode trains and a presentation from Mark Hopwood, director of Great Western Railway, continued that discussion.

He has been with the company since 2008 and has watched and lived the electrification and its various scope and form changes. He was able to illustrate the current situation with the audience and give a personally experienced view of the current solution of mixed electrified and non-electrified routes, together with the challenges mounted by timescales not emerging as originally predicted and integration with Crossrail works onto the Western infrastructure.

Mark left a powerful message that, in his view, a series of overly risk-averse standards had been imposed on the Great Western programme based on experiences from the past - twenty years had passed since the last major highspeed-route electrification.

Although electrification brings benefits, it also brings a level of disruption in the delivery and he did voice a view that large-scale improvement work might be better served by the application of a transport and works act process.

Richard Stainton delivered a general electrical engineering view from the Network Rail angle. Having had wide and varied experience of electrification power systems, including the conversion of the West Coast route to auto transformer mode, he was able to demonstrate how standards could be safely developed in

FEATURE line with modern risk-based practices to allow what may be very large savings in electrification costs, particularly the ability to take an optimum view of clearance needs. He highlighted, as an example, the significant saving in costs through the intersection bridge at Cardiff, which a well-thought process of risk management and developed design had enabled.

The final paper was delivered by Helen Simpson and Stephen Gossling from Porterbrook and Ricardo. As there will always be a need to deal with stretches of railway that may not necessarily deliver a robust case to justify full electrification, the construction of hybrid trains was discussed and shown to be a very viable option in those circumstances. In particular was the ability to re-engineer and re-equip older electric-only rolling stock, showing what could be achieved with class 319 EMUs displaced from the South.

Back to basics The main presentations over, the conference gave way to a ‘Brains Trust’ session, where speakers were invited to give short modules on electrificationrelated subjects. Several useful outputs were delivered with plenty of food for thought!

Finally, the seminar was closed by the keynote speaker Mary Hewitt, strategy and policy director of Arriva. Mary took the audience back to basics, to remind them what railways are for and the role played by electrification and other power systems.

Mary delivered a most enlivening item in what had been a very educational day for all concerned.

Overall the audience was convinced that electrification was the only real traction solution for high-speed, high-density and freight rail and that, while other traction options were relevant, they could not provide the core performance the modern railway needs. The government’s targets for the 2 reduction of pollution and CO are on the horizon, and yet rail performance needs to be maintained and to be able to deliver its best.

The industry wants to deliver electrification and is determined to show politicians and the nation that electrification can provide the desired traction solution at an appropriate cost and at an optimum pace. The seminar noted that the most effective results came where there had been a rolling programme of delivery, without the significant peaks and troughs of the past.

Thanks to colleagues in the Institution of Mechanical Engineers and the Railway Industry Association for their work in organising this conference and getting the message across that railway electrification can succeed - the will and capability is certainly there.

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