26 | the rail engineer | october 2011
feature Interlocking
The new Rochdale West panel.
Manchester delivery unit team - largely from those who had worked on the Oldham Loop severance scheme in 2009.” This initiative has worked well and has proved to have other advantages, as Colin Howell, Network Rail contract engineering manager points out. “Our own personnel have been able to cope extremely well with project implementation issues as they have arisen. We’ve been able to quickly decide upon design changes and workarounds and this in turn has speeded up the process and reduced costs.” There is the added advantage that the team that has installed the new infrastructure will now be responsible for maintaining it and can therefore use the knowledge they have gained to increase maintenance efficiency.
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At the heart of the new signalling system is a route relay interlocking (RRI). Together with a new Principal Supply Point installed by Baldwin & Francis, the RRI is located within an REB to the east of the old Rochdale signal box. A total of three REBs were required by the scheme, all of which were fitted out and delivered by Babcock Rail. Communication between the RRI and the panel in Rochdale West signal box is by means of an Invensys Rail Westronic 1024 time division multiplexor (TDM) system. The panel itself was designed and manufactured by TEW Engineering and is of the NX type. TEW also undertook the work to fringe Rochdale West with Preston PSB. The Rochdale West panel covers 5.5 route miles, stretching roughly from Castleton station to Littleborough station. A mixture of 2-aspect and 3-aspect signal heads has been installed, all of which are of the Dorman LED type. The existing clamp lock point actuation has been upgraded and new power packs have been fitted. The newly installed track circuits are of the TI.21 audio frequency type in order to provide immunity from the Metrolink tram systems. Elsewhere, medium voltage DC track circuits have been used. In all, there are 12 new colour light signals and 2 new PLS signals in the scheme. Some thirty new location cases were installed at the rate of three per week. All were fully equipped prior to installation on site. A six week cycle of mid-week possessions was employed, plus weekend 8-hour rule possessions. Leading up to commissioning there were three 24-hour blockades, culminating in a 48-hour blockade over the August Bank Holiday weekend for final commissioning. The scheme was brought into service, three hours early, at 00.20 on Tuesday 30th August, nine months from site set up and with no RIDDOR accidents.
Buried The area around Rochdale has been highlighted as a cable theft hotspot. For this reason, the new cable routes have been deeply buried using similar methods to those employed on the Durham Coast and Moorethorpe resignalling schemes (the rail engineer issues 75 & 81). On this project however, over 4 miles of the cable route has been installed using Multiduct. This product, manufactured by Carson Industries Ltd, is a multi-way cable ducting system, formed using a structural foam moulding process. This system has been used extensively in Europe, the USA and in Northern Ireland, but not previously on the UK mainland. Consultation took place with Network Rail’s Cable Theft Strategy Group and extensive use has been made of SmartWater, backed up by both the deployment of warning signs and even by radio and TV coverage.
This strategy was endorsed by British Transport Police, which has supported scrap yard visits jointly with Network Rail in order to raise the profile of the SmartWater campaign.
Phase two The second phase of the resignalling scheme, due for completion in October 2012, is valued at around £6.5 million and will also be funded by Transport for Greater Manchester. It will involve an upgrade to Castleton East signal box and the conversion of the Castleton down goods loop to passenger loop status. Some plain lining will occur too, but the 65-lever mechanical frame at Castleton will be retained. LED colour light signals will replace the existing semaphore signalling and the mechanically operated points will be converted to clamp lock actuation. At the same time, the Absolute Block section to Rochdale West will be converted to Track Circuit Block (TCB). The existing TCB section to Vitriol Works signal box will remain unaltered.
Into the future As has been widely publicised, Network Rail has announced its intention to eliminate 800 signal boxes over the next 15 to 20 years, using just 14 signalling centres to control the entire network. Until such time as this plan crystallises in the north Manchester area, Castleton East Junction and Rochdale West signal boxes will remain in what must surely be a unique juxtaposition. When Rochdale West sends “train entering section” to Castleton, the train is almost two miles away from both boxes. Similarly, the signaller at Rochdale West can actually see down trains from his box windows before he receives the two beats on the block bell from Castleton. Unique too has been Network Rail’s use of an Infrastructure Maintenance CAPEX Team to install new signalling infrastructure. Kevin Clough has no doubts about the effectiveness of his workforce. “When you look at the difficulties of the task we have undertaken, the challenges we have overcome and the tight timescale constraints under which we have worked, it’s clear that we have the capability, knowledge and skills within our own teams to undertake further installation projects of this type. Our ambition is there for all to see and, for Network Rail, I believe this method of project implementation represents a very beneficial model for the future.” Gracie Fields once said that although she travelled the world over, home to her always meant Rochdale and its gradely folk. In Lankeyspeak, she meant that the people were fine and excellent. Clearly then, her view is as relevant today as it was then. A fact that has benefitted the ‘Metrolink Phase 3 - Rochdale resignalling’ project. It is, as Gracie might have said, reet gradely!