The new Class 710 London Overground trains being built and tested at Bombardier in Derby
Bombardier’s new Class 710/2 ‘Aventra’ train, destined for London Overground’s Gospel Oak to Barking and Watford lines, has received its first limited approval from railway regulator the Office of Rail and Road (ORR).
Originally planned to enter service in May 2018, the new
trains have been dogged by ‘technical problems’ which have delayed the programme.
There are still outstanding issues. The ORR approval limits the new train to “single unit operation only, fitted with AWS and TPWS (stand-alone mode only), GSM-R voice only, maximum speed of 75mph, 4-car dual voltage units 710256 to 710273 AC passenger operation only”.
In total, a list of 13 restrictions prohibit the use of Correct
Side Door Enable (CSDE) and Automatic Selective Door Operation (ASDO) as well banning
use of the de-icing system and setting speed restrictions.
There are also five conditions which have to be met. Interestingly,
two of them require both Bombardier and operator Arriva “to reduce the risks of
climbing and surfing in the inter-car area to a level which is as low as
reasonably practicable (ALARP)”, so it seems the ORR is not only concerned with
the safety of passengers but is now having to account for the actions of trespassers
and joyriders as well.
Railtex, the UK’s definitive exhibition of railway products
and services, returns to Birmingham’s NEC next month. As always, the show will
have an international flavour and is expecting visitors from more than 50
countries, with lots of exhibitors bringing products and services from
countries in Europe, Asia and the US.
Natalia Charman, exhibition manager for Mack Brooks
Exhibitions, told Rail Engineer: “Since its origins in 1993, what has made
Railtex unique, and why the exhibition has stood the test of time, is that it
encompasses the entire railway equipment, systems and services sector, and
brings together these organisations in a collaborative and informative setting.
It is the definitive exhibition for the industry and anyone with an interest in
the sector should look to have a presence there.
“The industry continues to experience a period of growth,
with passenger numbers expected to increase by a further 40 per cent by 2040.
Alongside this, the transition to a digitally-led rail network and the key
milestones of major projects, including HS2, Crossrail and the Great North Rail
project, make 2019 a huge year of opportunity for the sector’s suppliers, buyers,
infrastructure managers and operators.
“Beyond the main exhibition, we will once again be offering
a comprehensive supporting programme, including insights from leading industry
figures and a comprehensive seminar programme across the three days. Keynotes
will be provided at Rail Engineer’s Seminar Theatre while the Railway Industry
Association’s Knowledge Hub will host a selection of project updates and
industry briefings from key figures.
“We look forward to welcoming the industry to Birmingham for
three days of insight, learning and networking next month.”
Rail Delivery Group chief executive Paul Plummer added: “Record investment from the private sector will help to fuel the largest improvement in our railway since Victorian times. This will see customers benefit from the roll-out of 7,000 new carriages and improved stations across the country as part of the rail industry’s joint long-term plan.”
Railtex is the UK’s largest indoor show for the rail industry supply chain, and literally everything you can think of will be on show. Signals, track, cables, toilets and even trains – it will all be there.
In this issue, Rail Engineer has tried to capture some of the flavour of the show. To help you plan your visit, there is a floorplan and a list of exhibitors, many of whom have also supplied details of their exhibits and the new products or services that they will be proudly showing.
Rail Engineer is once again hosting the Technical Seminar programme, so you can find details of all the talks in the print issue.
Visiting Railtex in a single day will be long but rewarding. Plan in advance, wear comfortable shoes, and prepare to be enthralled.
Several railway engineering companies featured strongly at
the recent Plantworx Innovation Awards, and several others of the innovations
that were applauded have obvious applications in the sector. These were
indications of the stronger links between Plantworx organiser the Construction
Equipment Association and the rail industry, which has brought about the
inaugural Railworx show, taking place at Peterborough in June.
Now in its fourth year, interest in these awards has grown
since they were first held in London at the home of former Prime Minister
William Gladstone.
This year the venue had changed, moving north to
Peterborough, the new home for the Plantworx show. As these are Innovation
awards, all entries (except for the Skills & Training category) had to be
new to market within the last year. Entries were invited from all Plantworx and
Railworx exhibitors.
The 2019 Plantworx Innovation Awards attracted 120 entries
reflecting the interest in innovation that is now prevalent throughout the
industry, and representative from many of those companies, along with industry
guests, gathered at the CEA’s annual black-tie dinner to hear how they had
done. With eight categories to be announced there was plenty of chances for
success.
They were welcomed by CEA chief executive Rob Oliver who said: “It’s great – we had a record amount of entries this year and the standard of innovation has been terrific. I am sorry that we couldn’t have more winners, because every entry seemed to have something very positive to the market. Of course, the big showcase for these new products will be at Plantworx.”
Six-times world snooker champion Steve Davis at the 2019 Plantworx Innovation Awards.
After dinner, snooker legend Steve Davis took to the stage
to provide the evening’s entertainment. Steve talked about playing snooker
during the sport’s heyday in the 1980s, attempts to fight off the ‘boring’
persona that the media built up of him, meetings with the Queen and talking
about butter with Joey Essex in I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here!
Then is was time for the most eagerly awaited part of the evening – the awards themselves.
Skills and Training
The first to be announced was the award for Commitment to
Skills and Training. Nine companies were on the shortlist for this one, which
was to be presented to the company that had demonstrated a commitment to
investments in training in personnel across all levels of the business or
offering unique training to companies within the sector.
This year’s judging panel, which included executives from the industry, the specialist press and Network Rail, had thought long and hard about this one as, without a skilled and well-trained workforce, the industry would not be able to make the progress that it is doing. Attracting the first thunderous applause of the evening, snooker legend Steve Davis OBE announced that the Gold winner was Nylacast.
Nylacast Sales apprentice Tibor
Mikula receiving the Gold award for
Commitment to Skills and Training
from CEA’s CEO, Rob Oliver.
One of the world’s leading manufacturers of engineering
polymers, Nylacast works with manufacturers of engineering equipment to replace
traditional engineering materials, such as steel, cast iron, bronze and
ceramics, with its wide range of engineering polymers.
Recognising the need to actively combat the skills shortage
within engineering, Nylacast established a robust, rigid apprenticeship program
in 2011 and to invest in a dedicated engineering training academy. The company
now takes on 8-12 new apprentices each year and, to date, 35 apprentices have
graduated from students to engineers.
Silver was presented to leading equipment-hire company
A-Plant. With over 190 service centres nationwide, and a workforce of over
3,600 people, the company carried out an impressive 15,000 training days for
staff over the last 12 months, delivering over 70 different training courses to
help A-Plant staff reach their full potential. Wherever possible, this training
is accredited and certified and trainers work alongside several partners and
NVQ awarding bodies so that employees have the opportunity to gain an external
qualification.
Bronze went to construction equipment manufacturer Mecalac, which has adopted a training initiative that encompasses every stage of the education system, from primary schools right up to universities, and even includes training modules for experienced employees of Mecalac to learn new skills and competences.
The Siltbuster team collecting the Silver award in the Digital category for its Clarityonline, real-time water-quality monitoring and reporting system.
Digital Innovation
Sponsored by Leica, and one of the new awards for this year,
this award was open to all innovative developments that use digital technology
to improve any aspect of performance, efficiency or safety. It recognises that
digital technology is taking over every aspect of the industry, whether it be
automation, control, data collection, planning or operations.
A good entry of twelve nominations was received, but the
judges assessed that the outstanding one, and recipient of the Gold award,
would be Bomag, well-known as a leading manufacturer of machines for the
compaction of soils, asphalt and refuse. Bomag rollers have even been fitted
with road-rail conversions so they can travel along the railway to sites where
they compact ballast ready for track relaying.
In this instance, the award was for Bomap – the ‘Bomag app’
that is compatible with standard smartphones and tablets and is revolutionising
the way compaction documentation is carried out today. It follows the
“Bring-your-own-device” approach and therefore feels familiar right from the
start and makes adoption of the technology much easier.
Ready to go within seconds, Bomap can be used with the
internal GPS of the mobile device but also can be equipped with a
high-precision GPS receiver when more precise documentation is required.
Clarity, an online, real-time water quality monitoring and
reporting system from leading water treatment specialist Siltbuster, won the
Silver award. Designed with the end user in mind, Clarity not only eliminates
the chance of a company inadvertently releasing polluting water back to the
environment, reducing the chance of prosecution and fines in the process, but
also provides ‘real time’ assurance for senior managers who are responsible for
the environmental performance of their business.
Despite the large entry, the judges decided to set the bar very high this year, and so they only gave these two awards.
David Thomsom of Thomson Engineering collecting the Gold Award for Efficiency
from Alex Woodrow of category sponsor Kinbb Gormezano & Partners.
Efficiency
The Efficiency Innovation award, sponsored by Knibb
Gormezano & Partners, was for companies who were able to demonstrate how
their product or service could improve the efficiency of the construction
operation, whether it be by organising people, machinery or the supply chain or
by completing a task faster or using less manpower and machinery.
Thomson Engineering developed and manufactures its EDC15-01
De-Clipper in the UK. It is a heavy-duty attachment for road-rail vehicles that
is used for the safe and efficient removal of Pandrol ‘E’ and ‘PR’ clips.
Removing traditional Pandrol clips has always been a slow
and labour-intensive and risky task, with reports of back strain, repetitive strain
injury, hammer strikes to legs and feet and workers being struck by flying
clips, ballast or surrounding debris.
Deploying Thomson Engineering new De-Clipper enables the
rapid removal of Pandrol E-Clips and PR Clips with no manual intervention.
Equipped with Twin Hydraulic circuits it can be used for the removal of clips
on one rail or both at speeds of up to 2.5km/h, greatly increasing the work
rate possible in the time available. The enclosed mechanism also prevents the
released clips from flying across the worksite and the risks therefrom.
With the on-track time available for any form of maintenance
works on railways always in short supply, the judges felt that this new
attachment significantly improved both safety and efficiency in the permanent
way maintenance industry.
While re-bar tying tools are not new to the concrete sector,
the new model RB441T/CE TwinTier from Young Black combines both speed of
application with a reduction in wasted material, which earned it a Silver Award
for Efficiency,
The new tool also addresses several of the health and safety
issues of the steel fixer industry with regard to repetitive strain on the
forearms and wrist. It helps reduce the possibility of Carpal Tunnel Syndrome,
caused by the twisting motion and snapping of the finished tie, and it also
features a ‘walking stick’ attachment that goes on the end of the tool with the
trigger being held whilst standing in an upright position to prevent
musculoskeletal disorders to the lower back.
Bronze went to Caterpillar’s new range of 1-2 tonne
mini-excavators, which have reduced total cost of ownership improvement by up
to 15 per cent due to lower maintenance costs, extended service intervals, and
a design that simplifies the most common repairs.
Engineering
Caterpillar was the sponsor for the next category. The award
for Engineering Solution is designed to recognise engineering innovations,
either mechanical or electronic, that overcome particular problems or
significantly advance the abilities of existing equipment. This could range
from new tyres and improved drivelines to new machine types or unbreakable
lights.
As it turned out, the Gold winner was none of those. British
Steel had looked at new approaches to descale products made from special
profiles (track shoes, cutting edges, forks, mast channels and a hundred other
bespoke items) so that automotive surface finishes could be applied.
Descaling systems work by applying water at high pressure to
hot steel. This breaks the surface scale and the water then sits trapped under
the scale, superheats and explodes the scale off – all of this happening in
less than a second. It is essential to get the spray headers close to the
product, there being an exponential relationship between this distance and the
impact energy on the material.
The focus of the new descaling system is to dynamically
position the descaler sprays so every product had the optimum spraying
distance. Specifically, every piece is laser measured and the guides offset to
around 100mm stand-off, resulting in impact energies over 300 per cent higher
than when using the previous system.
Atlas Copco’s Power Technique approach to reducing noise and
emissions on worksites won Silver. A good example of this approach is the E-Air
compressor, in which proven technologies from other products have been combined
to develop an electric-powered compressor capable of meeting the demands of
construction sites.
Continuing that theme, Derbyshire-based manufacturer
Tufftruk took Bronze for its new Truxta EV mini-dumper, a machine specifically
designed for no-emission no-noise environments. This battery-powered dumper,
with an eight-hour duty cycle, offers construction firms a proven eco option
that can be used in any emission and noise-free environments, indoor and
outdoor.
Security
Datatag sponsored this category. As plant theft remains a
big problem for the industry, this award looked for significant innovation in
terms of construction site security, machine or attachment theft prevention or
for locating, retrieving and identifying stolen items.
CanTrack Protect is purpose designed to combat the tools and
techniques used by thieves to locate and remove a tracking device from stolen
property. CanTrack Global’s technology can detect when it is being jammed and
automatically switch to an alternative location technology. A national team of
former police investigators will then physically locate the stolen asset so
that police can execute warrants and enter private premises and property.
The system is not only Thatcham Cat S7 certified, it also
won the Gold award for Security Innovation.
Stopping tool theft from vans is the intention of Amber
Valley Developments, perhaps better known as Europe’s largest manufacturer of
vehicle reversing safety systems and winner of the Silver award. Using
technology originally developed to prevent vehicle catalytic converter thefts
from vans, trucks and buses, ToolDefend monitors the vehicle’s doors with
ultrasonic sound wave detecting sensors. Any attempt to breach them will result
in an alarm being triggered and a loud siren sounding. GPS is optional for text
messages being sent.
Once again, no Bronze award was presented in this category.
Silver in the Environmental category went to AJC Trailers for the company’s
EasyCabin EcoSmart ZERO.
Environmental
Nylacast sponsored the category for innovations that are
beneficial in terms of reducing the environmental impact of construction
activities. They could reduce fuel consumption, emissions, noise and waste or
may minimise/prevent damage to the worksite, watercourse or surrounding area.
Gold-award winner Wacker Neuson’s DW15e is a zero-emission,
all-wheel-drive electric site dumper with a 1500kg payload. Power is provided
by a maintenance-free absorbent glass mat battery, charged by an onboard
charging which just requires connecting to a 16A 230V single-phase supply.
The machine will operate for a whole day on one charge, and
the DW15e produces the same performance as the manufacturer’s equivalent
diesel-powered site dumper, with zero emissions and reduced noise levels.
Primary energy costs are reduced, compared to an equivalent diesel-powered
machine, as are maintenance and service costs.
Welfare units on work sites consume a considerable amount of power, usually delivered by a diesel-powered generator that often remains on full power at all times. Working in close liaison with UK’s Intelligent Energy, AJC EasyCabin has brought to the market a range of welfare units powered by a combination of a hydrogen fuel cell and an advanced solar power system, meaning that the unit operates almost totally silently and emits only pure water vapour. Impressive, and it impressed the judges too, winning Silver.
The Certas Energy team collecting the Bronze award for its Shell GTL Fuel.
Shell GTL Fuel is a paraffinic product which can be used as
an alternative to conventional diesel. It can be used in construction plant and
generators as a direct replacement for diesel, without the need for expensive modifications
to engines or fuel storage tanks. Created from natural gas using the
‘Fischer-Tropsch’ process rather than being refined from crude oil, Shell GTL
Fuel’s combustion properties have been proven to deliver a number of benefits
including reduced emissions of harmful pollutants such as CO2, NOx and PM,
improving local air quality and reducing noise levels in some engines by as
much as 3-5dB.
Certas Energy is the exclusive supplier of the cleaner
burning diesel alternative Shell GTL Fuel and picked up the Bronze
environmental award for doing so.
Non-operated plant
Caterpillar was back as sponsor of Non-Operated Plant and
Support Products, a products and services category open to non-operated plant
and tools, alongside essential construction support products and services.
Ballast dust is a problem on the railways, particularly in
dry conditions, and dust suppression is a hot topic. Brendon Powerwashers has
developed the Dustec DT00 which requires only a supply of high-pressure water
(100-250 Bar) and can be situated up to 75 metres from the power washer used to
supply it. 60 per cent of the water is used to drive the fan that then
distributes the remaining water as droplets over a wide area to suppress the
dust. The ‘drive’ water is then returned to the power washer and recycled.
Lightweight and quiet in operation, the Dustec 400 won the
Gold award.
Silver went to the Kerbguards range from Ground-Guards.
These kerb guards, manufactured from recycled PVC, protect kerbs from damage by
plant and equipment – a major problem on new housebuilding sites where often
more than 50 per cent of the kerbs on an estate will need to be replaced before
final top-coating of roads and pavements prior to adoption.
Despite 11 entries being received, no Bronze award was made.
Dual Inventive scooped the Silver Award in the Safety Innovation Category for its
MtInfo 3000 system. Key account manager Gilles Vanblarcum received the trophy.
Safety
Perhaps the most important category as well as the final
award to be presented, the judges had to sift through 26 entries to make their
decision. They were looking for the device or system considered to offer the
greatest boost to the safety of site workers, be that PPE, electronic systems
or physical devices.
Wacker Neuson won its second Gold award of the night. Its
Dual View Truck features 180-degree rotation of the entire operator’s station,
giving a perfect view during loading, unloading and transportation. Having
supervised loading and unloading while having a panoramic view of the skip, the
operator then turns the seat through 180 degrees and has an unobstructed view
in the main forward driving direction. The Dual View Truck exceeds the visibility
requirements set in the line of sight standard ISO 5006:2017. The rotating
operator’s station also reduces operator fatigue by eliminating reversing and
reducing manoeuvring on site.
The machines feature hydrostatic transmission, allowing the
operator to focus on the task without frequent gear changes, while hydrostatic
braking will decelerate the machine as soon as the operator takes his foot off
the accelerator pedal. The travel speed is 30km/h when in the main forward
driving direction, reducing to 15km/h when looking over the skip and 8km/h when
reversing.
The Silver award was presented to Dual Inventive which has
developed the next evolution of open railway interlocking systems, one which is
not solely focussed on the safe movement of trains but also designed to provide
the highest levels of protection for staff on the tracks. As the interlocking
is directly controlled by the protection staff in the field, they no longer
need enter the track to set up their protection.
Classified as a Signal Controlled Warning System (according
to EN 16704-2-1), the MTinfo 3000 system uses the train position data received
directly from the interlocking to warn trackworkers of approaching trains,
meaning that they always have adequate time to reach a position of safety.
A new, simplified safety system developed by GKD
Technologies won Bronze for safety. Designed to support its range of motion
safety indicators, GKD adapted its trusted and unique algorithms to provide a
height and slew system combined into one slim lightweight display. The
SensorHeight&Slew system uses reliable hardware platforms, supported by
software developed in-house to measure the real-time movement of the machine
dynamically, including the boom and slew positions, to ensure that pre-set limits
are withstood.
That concluded the awards for the evening. In congratulating
the winners, and commending those that were unsuccessful as “we are all winners
here”, the CEA’s Rob Oliver wished his audience well and looked forward to
seeing them at Plantworx/Railworx at the East of England Arena on 11-13 June.
London, UK - October 18, 2016: Commuter checking timetables at Waterloo train station
Train operators and Network Rail are set to publish new
measures for train punctuality as part of plans to reduce delays across the
network and boost customer satisfaction. From April, up to the minute
train performance data will be used as the primary method for
measuring punctuality.
The rail industry began recording the on-time measure in
2017 and around 90 per cent of all stations in Britain have technology that
accurately records the time that a train arrives. Work is ongoing to
increase this to all stations.
This means that trains will now be measured as to whether
they are: early, within a minute of the timetabled arrival, late,
very late or have been cancelled, to the minute, at each stop.
Operators and Network Rail are already using the data to
pinpoint issues that cause delays and improve punctuality, including at the
country’s busiest railway stations.
The current punctuality measure, known as the Public Performance Measure (PPM), considers a train to be ‘on time’ if it reaches its final destination within five or 10 minutes for short distance and long-distance services, respectively. New ‘on time’ measures will now be published alongside PPM, which will still be published by rail companies every four weeks.
For the first time, performance information for specific
journeys can also be viewed on the industry-funded ‘My Train Journey’ website.
This will give passengers the power to see the punctuality and reliability of
every train in Britain on a smartphone, tablet or computer, revealing how that
train performed in the last week, month or any period up to one year.
They can also look up historic real-time information from a
national rail database, to compare the performance of different trains and
routes such as the percentage of journeys when an early morning service arrived
on time or early, and how many times it was more than 15 minutes late or
cancelled.
The range of measures are expected to create a way of
tracking train punctuality that better matches the real experience of customers
in different markets.
Network Rail’s performance will be monitored using these on time measures during CP6 but franchises will continue to be monitored against the measures in their existing contracts. The new measures are expected to be used in future franchise commitments.
King’s Cross station as passengers wait for news on delayed trains.
Reaction
Announcing the change, industry body the Rail Delivery Group
(RDG) said the measures, which will see data published nationally, by
train operator and by journey, are the most transparent of all major
railways in Europe.
Chief executive Paul Plummer added: “Every second matters to
us and our customers, which is why rail companies have together developed and
are now using these to-the-minute measures for train punctuality at every
station part of our plan to improve the railway today.
“Record investment to upgrade the railway, including the
roll out of thousands of new carriages, will continue to help improve journeys
over the coming years and, in the shorter term, we’re using a more transparent
measure of punctuality to help us cut delays and reduce disruption.”
Anthony Smith, the chief executive of independent watchdog
Transport Focus, described the change as “a positive step for passengers”.
“Passengers want a reliable, on-time train service. How that
performance is measured and reported should, our research shows, mirror passengers’
real-life experience to help build passenger trust,” he added.
“Train timetables need to be a work of fact, not fiction. So, it is good to see train operators reporting true, on-time performance to the minute at every station.”
Co-ordinated campaign
The introduction of the new measure is part of a
co-ordinated programme of work led by the National Task Force – a cross
industry group of operations leaders, and the RDG board of rail industry CEOs –
to improve performance across the network now and in the long term. This
includes:
Using shared best practice to improve performance and
analysis of challenges causing poor performance. Teams have also been
established to prevent suicides on the network and stop people trespassing on
to the railway;
Preparing for and improving co-ordinated responses to
changes in seasonal weather, including autumn leaf fall, snow and high
temperatures. Each train operator and Network Rail route developed plans to
improve preparations for Autumn 2018, helping to ensure more trains were able
to run between October and mid-December – the equivalent of an
additional days’ worth of trains ran, approximately 23,000 services, compared
to 2017;
Supporting the new cross-industry timetabling task force to ensure that the roll out of 6,400 additional services by the early 2020s goes smoothly. As announced earlier in March, over 1,000 extra train services are being introduced across the network in May 2019 and hundreds of rail planners and engineers have been working hard over many months to implement these improvements effectively.
How Britain’s measure of train punctuality compares to European counterparts
France: SNCF services are deemed punctual if they arrive within six minutes. There are exceptions for high-speed TGV services, where the definition of a delayed service varies depending on the length of journey, however, there are no delays attributed for delays less than six minutes;
Germany: A short-distance service is deemed punctual if it arrives within six minutes. Long-distance services are deemed punctual with a delay within 16 minutes;
Italy: Punctuality is measured with a lateness threshold above or equal to five minutes;
Spain: A service is defined as punctual if it arrives within five minutes.
Information courtesy of the RDG.
According to ORR data covering the period between 2017-18,
Hull Trains recorded the smallest percentage of trains arriving at recorded
station stops on time (within 59 seconds) at 38.8 per cent. C2C recorded the
highest at 83.5 per cent.
abstract motion-blurred view from the front of a train in Tokio, Japan
Technology Readiness Levels (TRL) were first defined by NASA
in 1989 as a method of classifying the maturity of a technology or product during
its development and acquisition.
Originally seven in number, this was increased to nine in 1991 and the concept has since been adopted by other organisations.
In 2009, the European Commission published a paper entitled ‘Preparing
for our future: Developing a common strategy for key enabling technologies in
the EU’. This introduced the concept of Key Enabling Technologies (KETs) as
foundational technologies on which industrial prowess depends. These were
listed as nanotechnology, advanced materials, biotechnology, micro- and
nano-electronics (including semiconductors), and photonics.
These KETs were already using the concept of Technological
Readiness Levels, due to their contacts and contracts with the US Department of
Defence, as a measure of how far a technology is from being ready for use in
its intended operational environment.
A group of engineers, academic, business and commercial experts adapted the concept of technology readiness specifically for the British railway system. It retained the nine levels, but put them into a railway concept as follows:
RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT
RIRL 1: Conception
Early awareness of a need and potential outcomes thought worthy of developing
The Industry is aware of the opportunity and may have some ideas about implementation and high level benefits, but does not have a clear route to market, a defined customer or a good understanding of the manufacturing process.
RIRL 2: Opportunity Development
Thinking, supported by research, to develop understanding of need and possible approaches to obtain qualitative benefits.
Opportunity is defined to the state that the Industry is able to conceive plans to develop the necessary facilities required for delivery. Co-operation and co-financing amongst several independent entities may be required, but no business case exists as yet and barriers to implementation are not understood.
RIRL 3: Proof of Concept
Conceptual design supported by experimentation proves viability and feasibility of the concept.
Initial business and production plans, with associated test, qualification and certification are available. Draft business case is developed and end customer is identified along with analysis of their needs.
DEMONSTRATION
RIRL 4: Industry Specification
Qualitative plans to deliver the concept are supported by positive market and business analyses.
Technologies required to manufacture/produce or deliver are understood and associated facility capability planning is underway in accordance with the Market potential and supported by the Business Plan. Customers and suppliers have agreement on how realistic demonstration of the research project might be undertaken.
RIRL 5: Prototype
Prototype assets and/or services, developed under quality controlled methodology are available.
The Industry is capable of pre-production using bespoke processes and able to deliver ‘pre-production standard’ goods and services in support of whole system and market development. The conditions for implementation are understood. Agreement between project partners stipulates how the successful project should be exploited.
RIRL 6: Operational Transition
Supply of goods and/or services of appropriate and repeatable quality meets market needs..
The Industry is capable of repeated standards of production to the required levels, and realistic operational demonstrators are in place. The competitive landscape is understood.
DELIVERY
RIRL 7: Initial Deployment
Operational credibility builds as goods and services are employed, feedback used to confirm user expectations.
Low level production begins to ramp up to full production rates in a controlled and planned manner that matches demand and marketing strategies. No barriers from legislative or standardisation point of view exist. The technology is incorporated in to the wider system. Manufacturers are established and ready to deliver.
RIRL 8: Roll Out
Supply meets demand in a timely manner, product / service deemed mature and deployable with ease.
Steady state production output is sustained with supply able to meet demand, with products and services at a mature and qualified state. The product / service is exportable. Customers start to implement the technology because of strong business case, customer or legislative compulsion.
MAINTENANCE
RIRL 9: Whole Life Management
Continued product / service improvement; business as usual; actual whole life cost measured.
Products and / or services are mature with the ability of being supplied off the shelf’ to meet expanding demand; with the opportunity to undertake a reasonable level of tailoring to meet new markets. The product / service is in world-wide usage.
The Valley of Death
Many projects run into trouble between RIRLs 4 and 7. During
the Research and Development stages – RIRL 1-3 – work is funded by academia or
by company R&D budgets.
However, once RIRL 4 is reached, and the need to develop a working
prototype in RIRL 5 and operational demonstrators in RIRL 6, the costs start to
ramp up. R&D budgets may no longer be
adequate so external funding is required, but this can be difficult to when the
development process is incomplete.
This struggle to continue funding development is often termed
the ‘Valley of Death’, or the innovation gap. Many projects founder at this
point, not because the technology or the idea is lacking, but due to the inability
of the project team to convince funders of its future potential.
Involving an industry or academic association can be useful,
government funding may be available, perhaps on a matched basis, but the Valley
of Death is a real problem for many projects.
Once out the other side, with working demonstrators and after
a successful trial, then ‘big business’ can get involved to take the idea
through to production.
Rail Engineer regularly publishes articles that show the
railway is really very high-tech these days. In-cab signalling systems, digital
traffic management, remote condition monitoring, track-inspection trains,
long-line public address, aerial surveys – it’s all very advanced and much of
it would have been just a pipe-dream only a few years ago.
The result is a railway that is becoming increasingly
efficient and much, much safer as people can be withdrawn from the live
railway, reducing the “boots on ballast” as technology does the risky work for
them.
That’s all very well, but there is one element that, as yet,
the boffins have been unable to counter using advanced technology – the
weather.
Someone once said that “other countries around the world
have a climate – Britain just has Weather!”
It’s easy to see what he meant. Snow and ice that falls so
infrequently that large areas of the country are unprepared for it and grind to
a halt if one centimetre of snow falls, more White Easters than White
Christmases, wet summers, dry winters, floods, droughts, gales and storms.
Some of it can be predicted and steps are being taken to
mitigate against the worst of the problems. The overhead wiring on the Great
Eastern, that would expand and start to sag in hot weather, is being replaced
using spring tensioners to keep it taut in all conditions. A number of areas of
track, particularly complex crossovers and junctions, are now painted white to
keep the rails cool and prevent buckling on sunny days – white paint can reduce
the temperature in steel rails by up to 10 degrees.
But there is one area that technology can’t do much about, at least in the short term – and that’s the very ground the railway is built on.
The Great Fall – Folkestone Warren, Kent, 1915.
Poor construction
When the railway construction boom took place, back in the
nineteenth century, not only was ground engineering fairly unsophisticated but
there were other factors that caused many earthworks to be less than ideal.
Railway companies were short of money, so they bought the
minimum amount of land they could get away with. So, cuttings faces were
steeper than may have been wise – the same for embankments.
In addition, the spoil from a cutting simply became the next
embankment. There was no selection of material, the earth from one site was
just transported and tipped at the next site. Drainage was rudimentary, if
there was any at all.
For the last 150 years, those earthworks, which got off to a
bad start in many cases, have been thoroughly wetted by rain and then dried out
in the sun. They have been subjected to attack by burrowing animals, had the
roots of plants and trees drill down into them and had various ‘remedial’ works
performed on them. Little wonder many are now feeling their age.
And there are a lot of them. A recent survey by Arup
reported: “Earthworks make up around 60 per cent of the British rail network,
the remainder being at grade, on structures or in tunnels. Nationally, the
balance between embankments and cuttings tends more towards 60/40,
respectively.”
Some of the materials used were, by chance, quite good.
Rocky ground in the North West causes fewer problems than the clays and
mudstones of the South East, but that isn’t to say there aren’t problems
everywhere. Even good ground can’t compensate completely for bad engineering.
The solution is very low tech. An army of men and women, armed with diggers, piling rigs, geotextiles and meshes, have to descend on the site, often in bad weather. They have to not just restore the ground to what it was, with its original inherent faults, but to restore it to how it should have been, with the benefit of twenty-first century hindsight.
Train derailed by the Great Fall of 1915.
Not a new problem
While its tempting to blame ‘global warming’ for the
problems today, that’s not the case, or at least – not only. Landslips have
affected the railway long before global warming became an issue.
One of the worst was the ‘Great Fall’ of 1915. This took place at Folkestone Warren in Kent. The South Eastern and Chatham railway line was moved 50 metres towards the coast as 1.5 million cubic metres of chalk fell into the sea, following weeks of heavy rain. The line was closed for almost four years, as repairs were delayed by the Great War.
Photographs of the incident show a badly affected train, but
it wasn’t as bad as it looks. Derek Butcher, the Network Rail route asset
manager for geotechnical engineering who found the historic images in a filing
cabinet while moving offices, explained: “We believe the train pictured was
alerted to the landslip by the signal box at Folkestone Junction and was slowed
down and found itself part on and part off the landslip. They were able to
evacuate passengers who walked through the tunnel to Folkestone Junction
station.
“There was a significant amount of movement following the
train stopping. That’s why it looks so horrific.”
The kink in the line remains visible today, underscoring the
severity of the incident. Landslips have been a major feature of the line since
it opened in 1844. In 1877, two people died when part of the Martello Tunnel
was destroyed. The line remained closed for three months afterwards.
The last major movement was recorded in 1939 but Derek said some ground movement had forced Network Rail to implement speed restrictions on the line in recent years. The need to take such precautions typically follows a very wet winter.
Landslip at Wadhurst, 2019. (Network Rail)
Wadhurst
Derek Butcher was involved in a much more recent landslip in
the South East.
At 12:45 on Wednesday 13 March, the Tonbridge signaller reported that a train on the Charing Cross to Hastings line had struck overhanging vegetation just south of Wadhurst station. Damage was slight and the train was able to continue on to Charing Cross, but a Network Rail team was despatched to investigate the problem.
At first, there was nothing much to report, just some small
trees overhanging the line. But, when the team started to clear the vegetation,
it was noticed that the reason the trees were so close to the track was that
the cutting face they were growing out of had slipped down towards the line and
was still moving.
The Up line was closed to traffic at 13:45, followed by a
full block of both tracks at 14:15.
Further investigation was impossible as the moving earth,
some of it in large clods measuring five metres by two metres, continued to
move, making it too risky for inspectors to get on site.
Things had calmed down by 07:00 the following morning, when
Derek could make an assessment. He noted that some 60 tonnes of material had
slipped, possibly due to a combination of heavy rain and high winds, and this
would need to be removed.
The line would probably be closed until after the weekend.
Negotiations took place with the farmer who owned the field
at the top of the cutting to allow access for a 130-tonne excavator, with a
30-metre-long reach, that could drag the loose material up the cutting face and
then pile it safely to one side.
The excavator did just that, removing unstable earth that,
while it hadn’t yet slipped onto the railway, could have done so at any time. A
smaller excavator worked at the bottom of the cutting, removing debris there.
By Sunday afternoon, work was progressing well. The top of
the cutting was now clear, and work was continuing well at track level.
However, reports then came through from the team conducting
aerial surveys of the cutting. A second slip had occurred, one kilometre
further south, over the southern portal for Wadhurst tunnel (above).
Material had obviously moved, but hadn’t fallen onto the
track. It couldn’t be left there as it could move again at any time. Another 60
tonnes had to be removed.
The heavy equipment at the first site was duly moved south
and began pulling material away from the tunnel portal. This continued
throughout the night and the railway was finally handed back at 04:45 on Monday
morning, before the first train and in time for the rush hour, with a 20mph
temporary speed restriction in place.
More work is needed, and this will take place overnight on weekdays, without interrupting traffic, until the speed restriction can be removed.
Trees on the line at Barnehurst, 2019. (Network Rail)
Barnehurst
The line at Wadhurst was thought to be only at medium risk
from a landslip, so it wasn’t monitored. 30 miles away, where the Bexleyheath
line between Lewisham and Dartford, Kent, passes through a cutting at
Barnehurst, there was thought to be a much greater chance of a slip. Opened in
1895, the cutting faces are steep, and Derek Butcher commented that the cutting
was monitored, using both CCTV and remote condition monitoring.
An intelligent monitoring system consisting of 250 triaxial
tilt sensors, communicating continuously with 10 solar-powered infra-red
cameras, had been supplied by Senceive to give early warning of any failure.
At 03:30 on Monday 11 February, just such a warning was
given. A tilt sensor had detected significant movement and alerted a rail
surveying and monitoring engineer at the contractor Costain, employed by Network
Rail, who was sent automatic text alerts and infra-red-illuminated camera
images.
The landslip had caused a tree to fall on the tracks, blocking the line. The line was therefore closed and trains cancelled. This was the fourth time this cutting face had slipped since 2010, hence all of the monitoring arrangements.
After examination by engineers, the decision was taken to
clear the site and then to make the cutting safe by using H piling – H-shaped
steel beams driven into the ground with concrete panels between them to build a
wall that will prevent slippage in the future.
300 tonnes of earth and trees were removed and then work
could start on the 30 metres of wall. Piling was finished by Friday 15 February
and the wall infill panels completed over the weekend.
Work was also undertaken to ensure the track was safe, replacing and replenishing contaminated ballast, and after test trains ran through on Sunday evening to check the repairs and test the signalling, the railway was ready to open on Monday 18 February, one week after the landslip had occurred.
Washout newar Blaenau Ffestiniog, Conwy Valley line, March 2019. (Network Rail)
Washout
Landslips aren’t the only problems that the weather can
cause. Floods can leave the railway under water, shorting out track circuits,
damaging signalling equipment and contaminating ballast so that, once
everything dries out, it needs to be replaced.
That’s if the water doesn’t wash the ballast away altogether, leaving tracks hanging in space and unsupported.
Which is just what happened recently on the Conwy Valley
line in Wales. Following damage caused by Storm Gareth in March, the line,
which runs between Llandudno Junction and Blaenau Ffestniog, will remain closed
for a number of months.
Detailed inspections revealed that at least nine sections of
track, as well as lineside equipment, embankments, bridges, level crossings and
stations, would require significant repairs.
It’s not the first time this line has been so affected. It
was closed for several months in 2003 after heavy rain washed away the track
near Betws y Coed. Then, heavy rain on Boxing Day 2015 resulted in floods
damaging the formation in over 100 places, costing £2 million to repair and
closing the line for 10 weeks.
Storms also damaged a structural pillar in the tunnel at Blaenau Ffestniog in 2017, once again closing the line, this time for three weeks.
Conwy Valley line, March 2019. (Network Rail)
Planning ahead
It’s difficult to see what can be done to prevent some of
these incidents. Sections of the railway can be made more robust, slopes
thought to be at risk can be monitored, as was the cutting at Barnehurst with
its Senceive system, but there is 20,000 miles of railway out there…
However, in one positive example, a £4 million project is
underway to move thousands of tonnes of soil to protect the railway in West
Cumbria from landslips. Last November, a small section of the Victorian-built
embankment collapsed after becoming saturated by water running off the
surrounding landscape. Passengers and freight suffered delays on the railway
between Carlisle and Whitehaven.
Now, fifty thousand tonnes of earth are being moved by a 30 strong workforce using specialist diggers on the steep coastal slope at Lowca.
Lowca landslip works, March 2019. (Murphy)
This project draws on a £153 million fund to keep 2,500
railway locations across the north safe and reliable. £8 million is being spent
on the Cumbrian Coast line, following a £3 million overhaul of three miles of
track between Millom and Bootle in February and with the line between
Whitehaven and Bootle to be renewed in the summer.
Network Rail route asset manager Tony Butler said: “The
removal of such vast amounts of soil is a huge task in a challenging location,
but is vital to help keep trains running on this economically important route.
“Once this old Victorian infrastructure in Lowca is brought
up to modern standards it will secure journeys on this stunning coastal line
for generations to come.”
If only it was that easy all around the network. As long as
the British weather has its way, landslips, floods and storm damage will
continue to be a constant challenge to engineers around the country. Some will be
small events causing local delays, such as Wrecclesham, Surrey, in 2016,
Lambhill, Scotland (2017) or Porth Treherbet, Wales (2018).
Others will be major catastrophes that catch the nation’s
attention and close the railway for months – Eden Brows, which closed the
Settle-Carlisle line for a year (2016), Hatfield and Stainforth, a landslide on
a colliery spoil tip that blocked the railway between Doncaster and Scunthorpe
for five months in 2013, and the approach to Harbury tunnel, between Banbury
and Leamington Spa, which resulted in a closure of only six weeks in 2015 after
Network Rail repaired the damage three weeks quicker than had originally been
estimated.
And, of course, we haven’t even looked at coastal events
where the sea plays its part and causes havoc such as the seawall breaches at
Dawlish (2014) and Shakespeare Cliff, Dover (2015).
The British weather will keep geotechnical engineers such as
Derek Butcher busy for a while yet.
A regular concern within the rail industry has long been the
conflict between the need for standards and the wish to be able to react
flexibly and responsively to actual needs. This is often presented as a fight
between central authority and local people and their customers.
Network Rail has often found itself at the centre of a lot
of this and has been struggling to find the right way to deal with the issue.
Devolution to the routes has been a part of the answer, but not the whole
solution.
The Wales route is a prime example of where the issue
matters. Much of the infrastructure of the route is different, significantly
so, from the idealised major, high speed and high tonnage railway that is felt
to be the subject of many company standards. In such cases, it is thought that
savings and efficiencies might be had by managing the infrastructure
differently, to different standards. This, it is believed, might be achievable
without additional risks to health, safety or performance.
The concept
In order to allow a managed introduction of such new ways of
doing things, Network Rail has worked with other stakeholders to develop a
central template for local engineers and managers to use. The aim was to allow
these teams to use the template to produce risk-based management regimes for
their assets. The stakeholders involved have included, among others, RSSB, ORR
and Network Rail’s professional heads, so the acceptance of the concept is
robust.
To fill out the template for a given asset type, it is
necessary to identify each and every potential failure mode of relevance and
then to agree and develop appropriate ways to manage it. Once this has been
done for every mode of failure, then a complete management regime has been
produced for that asset.
The advantage of this approach is that the management approaches to be adopted are developed by the local team, taking account of all the local circumstances using local knowledge and experience.
New track at Welshpool.
Application
One of the first actual applications of this concept has
taken place on the Wales route, at Hereford, where track maintenance engineer
Glyn Buckley and his colleagues have been applying it to track, and
specifically continuous welded rail (CWR) in the first instance. The route was
keen to adopt the concept, since it was felt that significant benefits would
accrue from risk-based management of track assets, as already suggested earlier.
CWR seemed a good starting point since it was already known to be an asset
which needs relatively little attention if properly installed and maintained.
At the start of CP5, failure modes for CWR track were
identified and put into a failure template. The track on the track maintenance
area was divided up into sections according to parameters such as track type
and age, traffic type, speed and tonnage, local geography and so on. The
objective here was to divide the track into sections of like characteristics.
Each of the failure modes was then examined by the local team in order to develop a risk-based management approach specific to a given track section. This resulted in a matrix of management approaches that, together, formed an overall management regime for that section of track. Repeated for each section, this resulted in a total management regime for the whole of the track concerned.
Douible track on the Aberdeen to Inverness route. (Peter Devlin)
Examples of risks managed
Many CWR track failure modes have, for a long time, been
susceptible to management, in whole or part, by using the track-monitoring
trains. Track geometry failures are a good example and, for this case and
others, it has been relatively straightforward to move away from manual track
inspections as the principal means of checking track condition.
Some modes of failure have been less easy to manage through
‘traditional’ track monitoring train systems, and such modes have inhibited the
introduction of alternatives to manual inspection. One example is the problem
of track buckling. Whilst this is a relatively rare phenomenon in CWR track, if
it does happen, the results have very serious potential consequences. Even if
the most serious effects are avoided – train derailment and, potentially,
collision with another train – the outcome will be bad. A track buckle can
involve major and time-consuming track repairs, meaning line closures and train
delays or cancellations. The costs of these, added to the repair costs, mean
serious financial penalties for Network Rail.
A major part of managing this risk is the management of
stress free (rail) temperature (SFT). This is a complex subject which we won’t
go into here, except to say that it is not addressed by manual track
inspection, and therefore not relevant to the current discussion.
The other key part of managing track buckle risks concerns
the physical track conditions that may lead to a buckle. These are faults that
mean that the rails are not adequately restrained by the sleepers and ballast,
and include missing or failed track fastenings, inadequate ballast profile and
ballast or formation failure (slurry spots and wet beds).
These kinds of faults were traditionally managed through manual track inspections. They are eminently suited to monitoring via the new train borne inspection systems such as plain line pattern recognition (PLPR) and video inspection, making them good examples of how these new systems allow the kind of new risk management being used by the Wales route.
Manual track inspection. (Network Rail)
Results
At the time of Rail Engineer’s interview with Glyn and his
colleagues, there were about 120 miles
of track under risk-based management of this sort on his ‘patch’ and 500
miles on the route as a whole. Glyn estimated that about 3,000 hours of staff
time have been saved by his team alone since the introduction of this approach
in early CP5, mostly from track inspections that are no longer required. Glyn
was an early adopter, but eight of the eleven section managers on the Wales
route are now using the risk-based approach.
The time saved has been used to carry out additional
maintenance works on the track, with a particular focus on the Level 2 defects
(L2s) identified by track geometry inspection trains. The result has been a
significant reduction in the numbers of L2s reported. This has meant that more
time and resources have been available to fix the less serious L1 defects.
What this means is that it is now possible to maintain the track in the way originally envisaged when track inspection trains were first introduced many years ago. The concept was that L1s would be fixed under preventive maintenance as soon as they were detected, so preventing L2s from ever arising except in the most exceptional circumstances.
Details
One of the most interesting details of this approach is the
maintenance techniques that are being used by the team. Measured shovel packing
has been found to be a highly efficient and effective way of correcting L1 and
L2 track geometry problems, on steel-sleeper track in particular. It has proven
to be more efficient and effective than tamping or other mechanised methods.
Stoneblowing is also a very useful technique, especially for
jointed track.
Inside the Ultrasonic Test Unit (UTU). (Network Rail)
Good fit
The approach is a good fit with modern technology. James Burke, senior asset engineer for the route asset manager (RAM), described how well the methodology fits with the L1 and L2 reports from the track geometry trains, as has already been discussed. It also makes good use of data from the PLPR system on the New Measurement Train and sidewear data from the ultrasonic test units (UTUs).
A significant benefit is the reduction in the need for
people to go onto the track, avoiding a major risk. People and process are more
focussed on doing the correct work at the correct time, with a greater emphasis
on the riskiest issues. People are confident in the process because it has been
approved at the highest level in the industry and because it has now been
proven in practice.
Given the success of the work undertaken to date, the intention is to roll the strategy out elsewhere in 2019. Switches and crossings are a likely next target for the treatment, and there is the potential, of course, to look at other infrastructure assets besides track.
Thanks to Glyn Buckley and James Burke as well as Steve Hood, project manager for the initiative, Fraser Todd, senior engineer, who has been running training workshops for the project, and Bryony Parry, media relations manager, for explaining the project in such detail.
Stadler’s new SMILE electric multiple unit, which Swiss
national operator SBB calls Giruno (Buzzard), has been issued an operating
licence by the Swiss Federal Office of Transport (FOT) to run at 200km/h
(125mph) in single-train formations on the Swiss network. This paves the way
for the Giruno to enter passenger service from early summer 2019, running
through the Gotthard Base Tunnel, and the Ceneri Base Tunnel when it opens at the
end of 2020, to connect Zurich with Milan and, later, Frankfurt.
Originally the EC250, the SMILE received its name as the result
of a competition held during an open day, an acronym of Schneller
Mehrsystemfähiger Innovativer Leichter Expresszug (speedy, multi-system,
innovative, lightweight express train). It is claimed by the manufacturer to be
the world’s first single-decker low-floor high-speed train. The low floor
provides step-free access from platforms with heights between 550mm, the
standard height in Switzerland, Austria and Italy, and 760mm (Germany).
Although based on Stadler’s successful FLIRT EMU design, the
SMILE differs from its elder sister in many ways. It has a maximum operating
speed of 250km/h (155mph), the train reached 275km/h (170mph) while testing
between Hannover and Göttingen in Germany in February 2018, and iIt is designed
to comply with the TSI (Technical Standards for Interoperability) High-speed
regulations as well as to meet the EN 15227 crashworthiness standards.
In addition, the carriages are air-tight and
air-conditioned, improving ride comfort for passengers. Provision is made for
passengers with reduced mobility, with wheelchair spaces and accessible toilets
in both first and standard-class carriages.
As ordered by SBB, each 11-car train is 202 metres long and seats 405 (117 in first class and 288 in standard). Two can be coupled together to form an 810-capacity, 404-metre-long train which can run at the full design speed of 250km/h.
Stadler EC250 “Giruno” SMILE on test between Erlen and Romanshorn. (Daniel Wipf)
The train has an articulated layout, with one bogie between
each carriage and one at each end – 12 in total. Four powered bogies (in
positions 2,3, 10 and 11) contain eight traction motors, and power is drawn through
four pantographs, a mix of 1450mm and 1950mm wide, allowing the train to run
using 15kV 16.7Hz AC, 25kV 50Hz AC and 3,000V DC supplies.
SBB ordered 29 trains in October 2014 at a value of CHF980
million (£632 million), with an option for an additional 92. The first train
was unveiled at InnoTrans in Berlin in September 2016, just 23 months later,
and the first unit was delivered to SBB in May 2017.
