This year, we celebrate the 200th anniversary of the first practical steam-powered public railway. The 7% of GDP spent building early railways was a worthwhile investment as it gave a profound economic benefit by drastically reducing the time and cost of transportation. Cardiff coal shipments, for example, increased twentyfold...

This year, the railway community celebrates the 200th anniversary of what is said to be the birth of the modern railway. On 27 September 1825, George Stephenson’s ‘Locomotion No. 1’ set off on its inaugural journey from Shildon to Stockton to open the 26-mile Stockton and Darlington Railway (S&DR)....

As we reported in the last issue, the Innotrans rail trade fair in Berlin offers a great insight into railway operations outside the UK. At this fair, the only diesel-only freight locomotives on display were shunters as almost all freight trains are electrically hauled in Europe where it is...

To learn about the major rolling stock changes planned for the Midland Main Line, Rail Engineer was pleased to meet Rachel Turner, head of new trains at East Midlands Railway (EMR). The Midland Railway Main Line from London St. Pancras to Nottingham, Sheffield, Derby, and Leicester has had a varied...

In Rail Engineer 208 (May-June 2024), we reported that Dr Mark Burstow, Vehicle Track Dynamics Engineer at Network Rail, had identified hunting as one of the causes of poor ride on some fleets resulting from high equivalent conicity between wheels and rails – a system problem. Although not all...

The communities of Ashington and Blyth have been without a train service for 60 years. Following the Beeching report, their branch of the Blyth and Tyne Railway (B&TR) closed to passengers in 1964 but remained open to serve local collieries. Although these have since closed, the line has around...

With staff drawn from across all areas of the rail industry, KeTech is an innovative technology company with a deep pool of expertise and experience, real-time data, software, and electronics both on the wayside, and on-train systems. Rail Engineer caught up with and Sales Director Paul Warren and Technical Consultant...

Much has been written in recent times about the operation and inadequacies of London’s Euston station and what it will look like when HS2 finally arrives there in the early 2030s. Although not the busiest of the London termini, it is the station with the biggest inter-city catchment serving...

We all live in a very connected world. There are said to be over 50 billion connected devices and, in rail, there are tremendous opportunities to realise greater value and to remotely monitor and manage a vast range of assets. Technologies like Siemens Mobility’s Digital Station and Power Manager...

Rail electrification presents an unprecedented opportunity to revolutionise transport networks globally. It is a key enabler of decarbonisation, offering a sustainable solution for modernising infrastructure and reducing the carbon footprint of one of the most significant sectors in terms of energy consumption. However, the implementation of rail electrification presents...

There are continued calls for more of Britain’s railways to be electrified in order to improve traction efficiency and meet carbon footprint reduction targets. We are well behind the rest of Europe in increasing the percentage of electrified lines. The reasons for this are many, but electrifying lines is...