Well that was Interesting!

25th January 2017

Early December is the traditional time for the Rail Exec Club, the railway industry’s leading networking organisation for executives and professionals, to hold its Gala Dinner. Which is why representatives from 102 organisations from around the industry gathered at Derby’s iconic Roundhouse a few weeks before Christmas.

Everyone was there, directors and managers from four train manufacturers, three government departments, four institutions, several train operators, numerous infrastructure contractors, many component manufacturers and the rail regulator. All that were missing were the partridge and the pear tree, although they might have been seen near the bar at the drinks reception.

The entertainment started as soon as guests entered the building. Dancers dressed as fairies, or maybe elves, but anyway in keeping with the ‘Winter Wonderland’ theme for the evening, performed while diners gathered, met up with their parties and networked with industry colleagues. Reception hosts Ford & Stanley put on a great show that got the evening off to an excellent start.

After a glass or two of ‘orange juice’, the sell- out crowd slowly filtered past the seating plan to find their tables in the semi-darkened main hall. Many were members of the Rail Exec Club, regular attendees at luncheon events in London and the Midlands, while others were hopeful of taking home one of the Most Interesting Awards that would be presented later.

It wasn’t long before Jon Shaw, the evening’s host, welcomed everyone to the “fabulous building” that is George Stephenson’s roundhouse, first built in 1836 and the oldest surviving structure of its type in the world.

It’s a building that Jon knows well. Before he became chief engineer at Network Rail, he was vice president and head of engineering at Bombardier Transportation, a short walk away and another of the event’s sponsors.

But now the old engine shed was transformed into a truly spectacular setting for the evening. Beautifully decorated tables surrounded a central dance floor with a small stage behind. However, it was impossible to forget the heritage of the wonderful old building. Overhead cranes hung off brackets above diners’ heads and, in places, even the original rails were visible, still embedded in the floor.

After Jon had welcomed everyone and set the scene, dinner was brought on. A good meal in its own right, it was somewhat overshadowed by the spectacular aerial show that entertained diners. Acrobats and dancers dressed as birds and butterflies performed breath-taking manoeuvres using ropes and sashes, keeping diners spellbound. What a contrast to the slightly blue comedians more often rolled out for other industry events.

What is Most Interesting?

Seemingly all too soon, the last session of aerobatics was over, the coffee was drunk, and it was time for the awards.

The Most Interesting Awards, or MIs for short, are industry awards with a difference. While companies normally have to enter to be considered, taking up marketing department time and limiting entries to those companies with promotional budgets, no one can enter the MI Awards. Or, to put it another way, everyone has already entered!

For the editors of Rail Engineer, RailStaff and Global Rail News, the three Rail Media publications, draw up a long list of everything they find interesting as the year progresses. So anyone who has talked with one of them about any new product, project, service or news story has automatically entered.

The result is a list that includes the innovative, novel, clever, tricky and just plain bizarre. Everything that one of the three editors felt was, potentially, interesting.

In late September, as the annual qualifying period is October to September, the three get together to come up with a short list of six nominations in each of twelve categories. After a session of argument, abuse, pleading and horse- trading, the final list is published. Just to be featured on it is recognition that someone, or some team, or some organisation, has done something special.

This year, one category had seven nominations. Were the entries just too close to call? Or are the editors unable to count? Who knows…

The list of nominations then goes off to the independent judging panel. All are renowned and independent people who are fair in the extreme. Presidents of institutions, directors of trade associations, chairmen of panels, any one of them would be an asset to the Awards. But the MIs have twelve such people, the most high-powered judging panel in the industry. And they even volunteered!

Safety and Sustainability

The result of all that selection and judging was about to be revealed to the expectant audience. The first award, justifiably so considering the subject’s importance, was for the Most Interesting initiative in safety and sustainability.

Introducing Ian Prosser, chief inspector of railways at the Office of Rail and Road (ORR) and one of the judges, who would present the award, Jon Shaw commented: “The Rail Industry’s common purpose is to move people and freight safely and efficiently by rail, whilst being careful with the resources used to do it. This cannot be achieved without companies designing products that are sustainable and having policies and procedures in place to ensure that team members come home safe each and every day.”

The Award went to the Hesop reversible substation by Alstom. This new converter system, recently trialled by London Underground, can supply the train, providing voltage stability and regenerating the energy produced by braking trains and sending it back to the TFL electrical network to be used by other consumers or, potentially, sold back to the energy distributors. London Underground calculated that the energy saved over a week could power Holborn station for more than two days and save five per cent of its energy bill.

Highly commended by the judges was a bespoke fall protection system for workers at Reading station, which had been developed by Eurosafe and Latchways.

Original Design

The second award was for the most interesting design, be it architectural, graphical, industrial, product, rolling stock or urban design. “These are cutting edge designs,” said Jon, “and make a real difference to the way in which the industry works and perceived by the general public.”

Richard East, Railway Division chairman of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, was to present this award, and it went to the New Rail Connection to Arcow Quarry by Tarmac, Network Rail, Story Contracting, Babcock Rail, GB Rail Freight and SPX Rail Systems. This £6 million scheme to reconnect Tarmac’s Yorkshire Dales quarry with the rail network for the first time in 50 years will take 16,000 lorries a year off the roads in the National Park.

The judges also chose to highly commend Balfour Beatty Rail Engineering Technology Solutions for ‘Using RED (Railway Electrification Designer) to develop OLE designs’.

Support Equipment

What qualifies as support equipment? “Everything from systems, widgets and cabling through to plant and road-rail vehicles,” Jon Shaw explained. “No project in the UK
can be delivered without the use of support equipment and, as projects become larger and more complex, the use of innovative support equipment is imperative for the jobs to be finished on time and within budget.”

On this occasion, David Clarke, technical director of the Railway Industry Association (RIA), was to present the award he had helped judge. It went to Network Rail for using system design exchange format (SDEF) to survey trackside assets. This allows a high-definition video to be taken from a train and then positional information overlaid, pixel-by-pixel and frame-by-frame, describing positional railway infrastructure in great detail and facilitating the surveying of assets without going trackside.

Choosing the winner had been a difficult choice. Robokatta, designed by Cembre to cut rails using a Bluetooth connection and so keeping the operator out of harm’s way, was highly commended.

Training and Development

Neil Andrew, director and general manager of engineering and technology solutions at Balfour Beatty, another of the evening’s four sponsors, joined Jon on the stage for the award for the Most Interesting training and development programme.

The winner was the Military2Rail initiative. This introduces service people into a much needed area where there is a skills shortage and has enabled candidates to transfer their skills from the services to the rail industry. Siemens has worked with Help for Heroes and Wiltshire College while ISS Labour has separately been taking on ex-servicemen and women for new roles in a new industry.

A similar initiative by NTRS and Linbrooke Services, training miners for railway work, was highly commended.

Rolling Stock Development

Keeping the variety going, Jon switched from training to trains as he introduced the award for the Most Interesting rolling stock development and asked Graham Coombs from the Railway Industry Association to award the trophy.

The judges chose the project to fit improved transmissions to Class 158 trains, undertaken by Voith, Angel Trains and Arriva Trains Wales, to receive this award.

Now that fuel economy and CO2 emissions are so important to operators of DMUs, attention is turning to the hydraulic drives often fitted to these trains as they generally suffer higher losses than mechanical transmissions. Working closely with the fleet’s owner, Angel Trains, Voith has fitted two new transmissions to an Arriva Trains Wales in-service unit, which has now racked-up over 50,000 miles since June 2015. The result has been a reduction of maximum fuel consumption by up to 16 per cent.

The judges also highly commended steps taken by Bombardier, Angel Trains and Abellio Greater Anglia to reduce the cost of fleet upgrades by using current production technology.

Infrastructure Development

“This award is for a small-scale railway infrastructure project or development in the UK,” commented Jon Shaw on announcing the sixth award of the evening. “In the news, we hear constantly about the huge projects that are under construction, but the smaller scale projects can also have a huge impact on the industry. Many of these projects save time, money and ensure our network keeps running.”

Huw Edwards, Network Rail’s project director, IP signalling – South, has personal experience of many of these types of project. Coincidentally, it was a signalling project that had been chosen by the judges to win this one, the introduction of zone controller technology by Siemens Rail Automation.

This new technology is now controlling signalling operations at London Bridge, providing an input/output module (IOM) interface between Siemens Rail Automation’s Trackguard Westlock interlocking and the trackside infrastructure. Developed and delivered entirely within the UK, the creation, testing, proving, installation and commissioning of zone controllers was a good example of partnership-working with Network Rail, with the technology meeting many of the requirements of the digital railway concept and the move to IP-based solutions.

Another technology project, the train-mounted collection of asset information by Fugro Rail Data, was highly commended in this category.

Train Operations

Jon Hemsley, chairman of the Railway Technology/Professional Network (TPN) at the Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET), and incidentally another of the event’s judges, came up to present the award for the Most Interesting approach to train operations.

The winner was a project dear to the hearts of everyone in the audience – improving on-board internet access by RSSB. But it’s not just passengers who will benefit, train operator’s systems communicate using IP-protocols via the Internet. Companies such as Nomad and Icomera are working with train operators to make it happen.

The Digital Railway as a whole, or at least Network Rail’s take on it, was highly commended in this category.

Community Engagement

Sometimes thought of as “keeping the neighbours happy”, but actually a lot more than that, Jon invited Chris Fenton, chairman of the National Skills Academy for Rail (NSAR), to present this award. In fact, it went to a safety campaign developed by Stobart Rail for use both internally and externally – Think Safety, Act Safely.

Stobart Rail launched the campaign during a visit to Lochardil Primary School in Inverness, where the contractor is currently working with Network Rail Scotland to deliver the Far North CP5 Plain Line Workbank contract. The visit was an opportunity to talk to the children about how dangerous the railway can be when safety rules aren’t followed, and they were supplied with their own orange PPE, provided by ARCO.

The We Listen campaign by Samaritans, supported by Network Rail, was highly commended for its novel approach.

Major Infrastructure Project

“Now for the big one, in terms of size of project that is,” announced Jon Shaw. “What a year it has been. New build projects such as Crossrail, together with major enhancements to the network, including the rebuilding of London Bridge station, have challenged engineers all year. Add to that some major repair work needed due to severe weather – landslips and weakened bridges – and it has been a taxing twelve months for our infrastructure engineers.

“The impact that these projects will have on the network will last a lifetime. As the population continues to grow and we see an increasing push on to public transport, we need to ensure that these projects continue and we build a network for the future.”

This was also the big one in terms of nominations – seven were read out. This aberration was hardly noticed on the evening, though it had caught out the designer of the awards’ booklet on everyone’s table as he had to shoehorn details of seven projects into the space designed for six!

Carl Garrud, managing director of one of the evening’s sponsors, Rhomberg Sersa Rail Group (UK), joined Jon to present the award which, unsurprising for a major project, went to a collaborative team. The new station at Rochester was delivered by Spencer Group working with Atkins, Freyssinet and Balfour Beatty. Several hundred yards from the original station, the new construction included a subway which had been ‘pushed’ under the live railway.

Work undertaken by Construction Marine, AECOM and Geotechnical Engineering to repair the railway following a major landslip at Farley Haugh, Corbridge, was highly commended.

New Product

The Most Interesting new product, defined as “anything from a widget that saves millions of pounds each year to a new train that drives heightened efficiency,” was the next award, to be presented by the national chair of the Young Rail Professionals, Sabrina Ihaddaden.

You may not think that steel rails suffer from corrosion, but they do. In particularly aggressive environments, such as level crossings, in wet tunnels and alongside sea walls, they can last only a few months. So the development of the Zinoco® corrosion-resistant rail by British Steel was a worthy winner of this category.

Hitachi Rail Europe’s new train for ScotRail, the Class 385 that has just started testing, was highly commended.

Innovation

Differing from the New Product above, the Most Interesting Innovation award is, to quote Jon Shaw, “for an idea or best use of an idea, device, method or process that the editors have seen in the UK Rail Industry in 2016. Innovation is all about thinking outside of the box. Designing something new, innovative and above all useful!”

Retiring Rail Engineer editor, Grahame Taylor, who stands down after this issue and a run of eight years in the job, was the presenter for this one. He announced that the winner was a tram that had run for 41.6km without any wires. Developed by Bombardier and tested on the Rhein-Neckar-Verkehr network in Mannheim, Germany, the tram used Primove technology, along with a Mitrac propulsion system, to move one stage closer to solving the problems of building tram networks where it is difficult, or unsightly, to use conventional overhead catenary.

The judges highly commended an infrastructure development, the use of reinforced soil in bridge replacements, developed by BAM Nuttall, Tony Gee and partners and Maccaferri.

The Most Interesting Thing

Suddenly, it was time for the last award. Intended to give a ‘home’ to anything that didn’t fall easily into one of the other eleven categories, nominations for the Most Interesting Thing That We Saw included two heritage railways, Underground trains running in the Midlands and using helicopters to deliver telecommunications equipment to mountain tops.

David Shirres, who will take over as editor of Rail Engineer from next month, was called upon to present this final award, which went to a tea trolley!

The British worker doesn’t get very far without a cup of tea. So a tea trolley for track workers stranded far from an access point is essential. No longer do workers have to trudge to an access point miles away to fetch their flasks from the car. Instead, freshly brewed hot tea is available on site. The brainchild of the Track Safety Alliance and Amey, and built by catering trailer specialist AJC, the tea trolley will no doubt shortly be appearing at a work site near you.

In complete contrast, the project to revive the Glasgow Subway, in which SPT, Graham Construction, Sir Robert McAlpine, Clancy Docwra, Austin Smith Lord, AHR, Freyssinet, Malcolm Hughes Land Surveyors and Stadler are all involved, was highly commended.

The only thing left…

After such a wide-ranging set of awards, host Jon Shaw still had a couple of tasks to perform.

He congratulated all the winners and those highly commended. “Your continued drive and determination is really what makes this industry,” he enthused.

All four of the evening’s sponsors were thanked personally – Balfour Beatty, Bombardier, Ford & Stanley and Rhomberg Sersa.

So too were the twelve judges, for their time and encouragement and impartiality.

Rail Exec Club members were reminded that the next event will be a luncheon on Friday 10 March at Ironmongers’ Hall in London (details on the website).

Everyone was informed that Rail Media will be running the next RailSport Games, using the world-class facilities at Loughborough University, on 8-9 July 2017. So all footballers, chess players and badminton stars were encouraged to put company teams together.

And that was it. The end of the Most Interesting Awards for 2016 and the end of a Most Interesting year.

How interesting will 2017 be?

Christmas cheer

25th January 2017

Christmas is always a problematic time for railway users, operators and maintainers. Many people want to travel to see families and loved ones that they may only see once a year, and the logical way to cover long distances laden down with presents and other goodies is either by car or by train.

In addition, some families move about, spending two days here and two days there over the holiday period. So, there is quite a demand for rail transportation, often from people who aren’t frequent train users.

On the other hand, passenger numbers are still well down on those for a normal day during the rest of the year – often by as much as 50 per cent. So, if a line has to be shut, then the only passengers it inconveniences are those few Christmas travellers, although they understandably don’t like it.

Which is why major work gets done over Christmas, when it is actually possible to close sections of the railway without inconveniencing regular commuters.

Christmas chaos

Plans for closures are made well in advance, with announcements in local media and, in some cases, alternative routes arranged. After all, the whole railway network isn’t closed, except for Christmas Day, just some particular parts of it. This year, in fact, as much as 95 per cent of the network was unaffected.

So it’s all very orderly. However, this doesn’t stop the sensationalist headline writers in the national press:

“XMAS RAIL HELL: Brits face rail chaos over Christmas…” (The Sun)

“Christmas travel chaos could be worst ever as rail network shuts down…” (The Telegraph)

“Christmas of rail chaos to disrupt festive family time…” (Mirror)

“Christmas chaos for train passengers…” (Express)

Two things are particularly noticeable about these headlines. Firstly, they were all written in October when Network Rail announced its plans so that travellers could avoid the effects of them. So the “chaos” hadn’t yet happened.

Secondly, the Oxford English Dictionary defines chaos as: “A state resembling that of primitive chaos; utter confusion and disorder.” How announcing that a length of railway line will be closed in two months’ time, so that prospective travellers can make alternative arrangements well in advance, equates with “utter confusion and disorder” is a mystery. But that’s headline writers for you.

Perhaps the headline for this article should read: “Orange Army combats Christmas chaos” – let’s get all those clichés into one statement!

Of course, after months of planning, that didn’t happen at all. Billed as “the largest Christmas upgrade in Network Rail history”, the amount of work successfully completed was impressive, and there was no sign of chaos.

24,000 people were out working on the railway over the holiday period – that’s the equivalent of the entire population of a town the size of Ryde, or Rugeley, or Arbroath. They worked on 200 different projects at 3,000 worksites, racking up 600,000 hours of work and delivering over £100 million of railway enhancements as part of Network Rail’s Railway Upgrade Plan.

Of the 200 projects, 32 were classified as RED, in accordance with the DWWP process (Delivering Work Within Possessions). RED sites are judged to need greater management attention due to their complexity, profile or impact. The 32 included six major projects, 12 track renewals and five bridge replacements as well as signalling, overhead line, level crossing works and power supply upgrades.

In general, it all went well. Of the 1,000 possessions taken, 98.5 per cent were handed back without impacting passengers or freight. Of the remaining 15, only three resulted in significant delays to services. One was at Cardiff, where an overrun on one of the interim handbacks was caused by issues during signal testing. Late handback of bridge works on the West Coast main line at Oxford Canal and Nuneaton was partly due to high winds.

There were a few minor incidents – one worker fell off a platform edge and suffered a broken elbow, two were hit by a falling OLE cable and another had a cut finger whilst preparing pallets for unloading – but it was minor stuff and the lost time injury frequency rate (LTIFR) over Christmas was less than the annual moving average for the rest of the year.

Janice Crawford, regional director for major projects in the south, worked her first Christmas having joined Network Rail ten months ago. “I visited a site on Christmas Day where we removed the track, demolished a bridge, replaced it with a new bridge, and put new track in place,” she commented afterwards. “We did all that safely and had the railway back up and running in less than 48 hours. It was very impressive to watch.”

Central region

Overhead line work at Euston station formed part of the enabling works for HS2. Lines were removed on the west side of the station so that the DB Cargo shed building can be demolished and an 11kV diversionary route installed.

Three wire runs that affect the main lines, totalling 1km of contact and catenary wire, were dewired and several new OLE structures installed.

A single-span underbridge that carries the West Coast main line over the Oxford Canal between Rugby and Nuneaton was replaced. Each line is carried by an independent deck. The existing structure was in poor condition due to extensive deflection in the decks, heavy water seepage throughout, poor condition of the steelwork and a general breakdown of the protective paint system.

The new bridge decks are fabricated from weathering steel, so no more paint will be needed, and a combined cable route and walkway now provides a safe walking route across the structure. It was installed using 1,550 and 750 tonne capacity cranes during an 81- hour disruptive possession.

Due to excessive wind speed, both cranes were unable to lift for a 12-hour period. This resulted in a 6.5-hour delay in handing back the Down Slow, Down Fast and Up Fast lines. The Up Slow line remained blocked until 2 January and was restored to linespeed on the 4th.

Nearby, another single-span underbridge. this time with three decks carrying the four tracks, was replaced at Woodford Lane/Nuneaton Road. As well as general deterioration, the bridge has suffered a number of vehicle strikes which have affected its integrity.

A new steel-reinforced concrete deck with a design life of 120 years was installed using a Self Propelled Modular Transporter (SPMT) during a 79hr 45min disruptive possession. All lines, except for the Up Fast, were handed back at 08:00 on 28 December (two hours later than planned) – the Up Fast remained blocked until 1 January.

Redundant neutral sections in the overhead line were removed at Wolverton. These had previously been taken out of service but left in place – they were removed as they were no longer being maintained.

Great Western and Crossrail

Work on the overground sections of Crossrail, which were undertaken by Network Rail over the holiday period, have been covered in more detail by Peter Stanton elsewhere in this issue.

Crossrail Anglia successfully delivered an extensive programme of works throughout a 10-day blockade. This included the installation of 11 S&C units at Shenfield, stepping & gauging and DOO (driver only operation) works across stations in readiness for the new Class 345 trains, and key enabling works at Pudding Mill Lane.

At Paddington station, Platforms 11-14 are being rebuilt to allow Platforms 11 and 12 to accommodate 10-car IEP and 12-car EMU services and for Platform 14 to accommodate eight-car EMU services. In part, this is achieved by the permanent closure and amalgamation of the existing Platform 13 into the new, lengthened Platform 12. Over Christmas, Platform 13 was permanently closed and new track was laid alongside Platforms 11 and 12. Copers were relaid to extend the edge of Platform 12 to the new track alignment. Two redundant lift shafts were removed.

Work continued on the Old Oak Common Paddington Approaches (OOCPA) with the completion of all OLE work for the Crossrail depot lines. The existing Carriage line was removed and the new Crossrail Depot line 2 installed. Signalling works in support of the new Crossrail Depot lines and new S&C were completed and new drainage installed at Portobello Junction.

Completion of the last stage of work on Stockley Flyover over a 10-day possession saw it brought into use immediately after the holiday.

Platform 2 at Hayes & Harlington was extended and Platform 3 rebuilt. A new crossover from the Down Relief to the Up Relief will enable rolling stock to use the new bay line platform as a turn back. 270 metres of drainage work was also carried out.

Nine new S&C units were installed and 11 commissioned at Maidenhead. 1,500 metres of new plain line were laid and 300 metres realigned – in all, 6,025 tonnes of bottom ballast and 4,625 tonnes of top ballast were brought in on work trains. 35 new signals and indicators were commissioned.

The Oxford South scheme is introducing axle counters, which have reliability benefits over track circuits. 299 new axle counters were installed, along with 14 new ACEs (Axle Counter Evaluators) and 4 new REBs (Relocatable Equipment Buildings). At the same time, the Didcot workstation was moved over to the latest IECC software platform, giving consistency across the Thames Valley Control Centre.

Northern programmes

The Ordsall Chord, a new 300-metre section of railway which will link Manchester Piccadilly and Victoria Stations for the first time, is covered in more detail by Paul Darlington in his article. Water Street bridge was replaced. New signal heads and droppers were installed at Ordsall Lane Junction where plain track was also renewed, 12 new signals were commissioned and the Manchester Piccadilly, Trafford Park and Windsor Bridge Route Relay Interlocking re-controlled to Manchester Rail Operating Centre.

As part of the electrification of the Trans- Pennine route (Manchester Victoria to Leeds), which will require new electric rolling stock to be serviced at Ardwick Depot, a new crossover was installed on the Ashbury lines between Ancoats Viaduct and Ashburys West Junction.

Scotland and North East

Kingsknowe is the second highest risk level crossing in Scotland. The existing Automatic Half Barrier (AHB) crossing has been replaced with a Manually Controlled Barrier with Obstacle Detection (MCB-OD). A 29-hour possession at New Year was used to test and commission the signalling system. The final obstacle-detection elements were commissioned by Sunday 15 January.

The Doncaster Station Area Capacity Improvement project will deliver additional flexibility and release of capacity at the south of Platforms 1, 2, and 3, and a new platform to allow trains between Doncaster and the Thorne direction to operate more efficiently, separately to Long Distance High Speed (LDHS) services. Over Christmas, signalling interlocking changes took place to enable the commissioning of the Up East Slow as bi-directional and the commissioning of a new passenger loop.

Sykes Lane overbridge, on the outskirts of the village of Tollerton just north of the city of York, spans four straight, ballasted and electrified railway tracks on the East Coast main line. During a 56-hour possession, running between Christmas Eve and 27 December, the team successfully renewed the overbridge by disconnecting the overhead line, removing it and lifting off the existing deck span, modifying the existing abutments, then lifting in the new deck span and reattaching the OLE.

The East Coast main line Power Supply Upgrade (ECML PSU) project is upgrading the network to support increased capacity. Originally an Autotransformer (AT)-based system upgrade, including an increase of the fault level to 12kA, a revised scheme has now been developed which retains some elements of the existing system in a solution incorporating AT and classic rail return distribution schemes but with a fault level of 6kA. From Christmas Day until Tuesday 27 December, the team commissioned a new Track Sectioning Location compound at Langley. This involved the installation of new switchblades and the removal of redundant feeds and small part steel from the OLE on both the East Coast main line and Hertford line.

Southern

Broad Street bridge is a single span masonry arch structure supporting two non- electrified tracks of the BKE line in the middle of 900 acres of Ministry of Defence land. During a 57-hour possession over Christmas, the life-expired structure was replaced with a new single-span precast concrete portal deck, supported on the existing brick abutments. The concrete portal sections were erected on site, adjacent to the railway, stitched together and then driven into place as a single unit using an SPMT. Welding works, which were originally planned for the follow up possession in week 40, were accelerated and completed in week 39.

Old Lodge Lane bridge is located near Reedham station, Purley. It is a single span half- through structure – an original brick arch carries two ballasted central lines (Up Slow and Down Fast). The bridge has been widened to carry two additional ballasted lines (Down Slow and Up Fast), positioned on either side of the original brick arch. These additional metallic structures comprise four longitudinally spanning, riveted plate girders (two outer and two inner) resting on brickwork abutments. The plate girders in turn support a later spanning pressed-metal through deck.

The life-expired metallic bridge extensions either side of the brick arch have been replaced with precast concrete filler decks, fixed to precast cills resting on the existing brick abutments, using SPMTs. The Up Fast was replaced over Christmas while the Down Slow had already been exchanged early in December.

A new railway station, Cambridge North, is being constructed on the West Anglia main line in the northeast quadrant of Cambridge, on the Bishop’s Stortford to Ely North Junction route. The freight sidings within the nearby Chesterton Junction Yard are also being realigned to remove the need for trains to shunt via the Down Main when operating within the yard. An existing crossover was renewed on concrete bearers, clipped in the normal position and detected.

It will be brought into use in April. Stage 6B of the station signalling commissioning was completed, including interlocking changeover in Chesterton Relay Room, changeover in 10 LOCS, the relocation of two signals, panel changeovers and eight track circuits.

The GE OLE renewal project has been underway for some time, replacing the existing 25kV AC, ex- 1500V DC, fixed termination OLE with a modern equivalent form of automatically tensioned wiring. In total, 308 wire runs will be replaced between Liverpool Street, Shenfield and Chelmsford. A 10- day Christmas blockade enabled the renewal of 12 wire runs at Gidea Park station and on the electric lines between Gidea Park station, the Country End Sidings and Sidings Road 1. The total renewed wire now stands at 60km between Goodmayes and Brentwood.

As part of the Sussex Power Supply Upgrade, an 18-way under-track crossing (UTX) was installed across five tracks (Kent lines) adjacent to Victoria Substation. 26 Cable Management Sleepers were installed across a further four lines (Sussex lines) in a two-part 27/52 hour possession. The UTX trench was over two metres wide by two metres tall, with 500 metres of ducting.

The Windsor Outlying project is modifying switches and crossings at the country end of Queenstown Road station to enable the December 2017 timetable to operate into Waterloo International. Christmas was the only opportunity to install two point ends and 22 track panels using a Kirow crane and Network Rail’s tilting wagons.

The Wessex Capacity programme, which is reopening the old International Platforms and extending platforms 1-4 at Waterloo, undertook signalling, signalling power, third-rail and civil engineering preparatory works over the Christmas shutdown. This, the only prolonged all-line block access at Waterloo, enabled signalling interlocking works, updates to legacy control systems and negative bonding alongside civil engineering to open up voids in the platforms for future congestion relief stairs and demolition work on Waterloo concourse.

Work completed included modifications to the signalling control and electrical power systems that could only be undertaken when the entire station was closed, running of one mile of third-rail cable and recovering 800 metres, the commissioning of new signals and indicators, creating two platform openings to allow future staircases to be built and the hydro-demolition of part of the station concourse to allow the future construction of a bridge connecting the existing station to Waterloo International.

Thameslink

Clive Kessell looks at work at London Bridge and the part-commissioning of the Bermondsey Dive- under in his article in this issue. The Down Sussex Slow line was commissioned, with trains running throughBermondseyDive-underforthefirsttime. Two redundant signalling gantries were recovered.

Signalling programme

The major highlight was the completion of Phase 5 of the Cardiff Area Signalling Renewals (CASR) programme, which incorporated the biggest single signalling commissioning in Network Rail history as well as significant track and civils work. This work is described by David Bickell in his article elsewhere in this issue.

Work at Liverpool Lime Street begins a large campaign of work through 2017. Two under- track crossings were constructed within the station area, as was a new overhead line structuretosupportthefuturetracklayout. A redundant platform area was demolished to provide space for future expansion.

Track delivery

Chris Parker describes the renewal of eight switch and crossing units at New Cross, south of London Bridge, in his article in this issue. The project was to renew two three-line crossovers with switch diamonds. Challenging logistics at the site required all the new track panels to be road-delivered to a small access compound and craned to the railway before being lifted, carried and installed by rail-mounted Kirow Crane.

Another complicated project was the renewal of two track junctions on the West Coast main line in thesameChristmas2016possession.Wembley Central North Crossover is between the Up and Down Slow lines just north of Wembley Central station while Acton Branch Junction 2446B forms one end of the crossover between the Down Fast and Up Willesden Relief. The existing HW2000 point machines were replaced with Hy-Drives/SO back drives, including detection for NR60 switch types. Concrete bearers were used to replace the existing timber bearers, providing a much more reliable and maintainable layout. Some of the works were curtailed with half of the crossover at Wembley being deferred as a result of late possessions start and finding a concrete pipe during the dig.

A plain line track renewal on the Slow lines at Willesden, on the West Coast main line between Camden and Watford, was split over the Christmas and New Year weekends. 545 metres of track was replaced over the Christmas weekend, along with 220 metres on the Up Fast over the New Year weekend.

The complete renewal of two crossovers on the west ladder giving access/egress between Neville Hill TMD (Train Maintenance Depot) and Leeds was handed back on time.

Three S&C units were renewed at Bridge Junction, south of Doncaster on the East Coast main line, over three weekends (weeks 38, 40 (New Year weekend) and 41).

Eglinton Street is located on the four-track electrified section at the throat of Glasgow Central station. Track renewal works consisted of a formation dig, re-ballast, re-sleeper and re-railing over 670 metres at four different locations, in conjunction with 286 metres of new drainage installation.

Works delivery

Part of a five-year S&C refurbishment programme around Preston station to remove long standing Temporary Speed Restrictions (TSR) involved the like-for-like renewal of three complete S&C units at the north of the station. Ballast was dug out 200mm below sleeper bottom and a total of eight new S&C panels installed.

St. Nicholas Bridge (Carlisle) has had long- standing gauge issues which were being managed by tie bars holding the gauge. A temporary variation was due to expire in January, and this would have resulted in a temporary speed restriction being imposed. 100 metres of track was replaced over the Christmas period, along with the installation of adjustment switches and guard rails.

The existing electro-pneumatic points (EP) are being replaced by Clamplocks within Birmingham New Street station. Due to the complexity of the area and the number of interfaces involved, a phased approach has been adopted. During Phase 6 (Christmas 2016), two points 599B&C and 601A&B, located in the middle of Birmingham New Street station, were converted.

Reflections

Network Rail’s Christmas works cost £103 million. It also cost 24,000 railway workers the chance to spend Christmas Day with their families and loved ones. How did they feel about it?

Oyunga Carter is a programme management assistant for the Ordsall Chord project in Manchester. She commented afterwards: “Since 18 December I have been working towards a major milestone in the delivery of the Ordsall Chord project. The whole team worked through wind, rain and even the rare Manchester sunshine to deliver the project over Christmas and we really pulled together to get the project finished on time. Although being apart from family and friends is always difficult at this time of year, the scale of the work we have achieved is immense on this once in a lifetime project. I wouldn’t have wanted to be anywhere else.”

Francis Paonessa, Susan Cooklin (route services director) and Toufil Machnouk (senior programme manager) at Stockley.

Billy Russell, 25 and from Maidstone in Kent, has a 7 year-old stepson and two children aged three and two. He is also a scaffolder with Alltask, one of Network Rail’s contractors. He spent Christmas Day at a project site in Bramley, Hampshire where a 150-year old railway bridge was replaced.

“This was the first Christmas Day that I’ve worked since I had my two youngest children,” Billy reflected afterwards. “I missed their whole day as I left home at 4am and didn’t get back until after they’d gone to bed. It’s hard, knowing that I missed out on all their excitement.

However, I figure that it was a small sacrifice to make. The kids aren’t interested in me on Christmas Day, it’s all about their presents, whereas, on site, I’ve been a part of something that will improve rail journeys in this area and I’ve helped to ensure that it’s all been done safely. We did the work that needed to be done. That gave me a good feeling and made it easier when I was sitting down to cold turkey and potatoes on Christmas evening.”

Alexandra Bassett, a scheme project manager on the Crossrail project, worked her second Christmas on the railway this year. She’s worked for Network Rail for five years. “I’ve been doing nightshifts over Christmas in the control room at Romford while also going out and visiting some of the Crossrail sites,” she stated. “I don’t mind working over the holidays as there is always such a nice atmosphere among the staff who are all pulling together to get the job done, but remaining cheerful in the process. It makes me proud to be a part of such a vital project which will benefit millions of people once the line opens in 2018.”

Francis Paonessa, managing director of Network Rail Infrastructure Projects, visited several sites over the ‘holiday’ period. One was the bridge renewal at Old Lodge Lane on Boxing Day. He said that he was pleased to say that all of the projects he’d visited were going “extremely well”, and added: “I’d like to thank all of my colleagues at Network Rail who’ve worked so hard over the Christmas period, supported by all of our contractors too. They’ve given up their Christmas to help make Britain’s railway better every day.”

He wasn’t the only one out and about. Secretary of State for Transport Chris Grayling was at Paddington on Christmas Eve where he commented: “As the Government continues with the biggest investment in our rail services since the Victorian era, huge infrastructure projects have to be delivered when the travelling public will be least inconvenienced. I am grateful to the many workers who form the Orange Army for giving up Christmas with their friends and family to help ensure improvements on our railways.”

Network Rail chief executive Mark Carne went to several sites, including Maidenhead on 30 December. After the railway was back to normal after New Year, he thanked everyone involved. “Our people can now go home and enjoy their delayed Christmas and be proud of having delivered a huge programme of railway improvement work. And we don’t just do it at Christmas. We are working week in, week out as we invest to transform our railway.”

The last word goes to Becky Lumlock, Network Rail’s route managing director for Wessex, who said: “Christmas provides us with a great chance to deliver vital aspects of our Railway Upgrade Plan while causing the least amount of disruption to passengers. Our Orange Army have worked around the clock through Christmas Day, Boxing Day, and New Year’s Day, providing a better railway for the growing number of passengers using the railway.

“Our work will now continue behind the scenes…”

And so it will. And Rail Engineer will be there to cover it.

Written by Nigel Wordsworth

The Digital Railway – a reappraisal

20th January 2017

Much has been written on the Digital Railway project since it was initiated back in 2014. Not all of this has been complimentary, with critics believing the objectives to be overstated or even unattainable. However, the project is still very much ongoing and, with a new leader in place, a much greater degree of realism is being injected to ensure that the original goals can be maintained but re-assessed as to their priority and timeframe.

Rail Engineer spoke recently with Digital Railway’s managing director David Waboso, who has been in post since June 2016. David joined Network Rail from Transport for London where, as capital programmes director, he had been instrumental in getting much-needed new technology introduced to enable greater capacity to be achieved on the DLR, Victoria, Northern and Jubilee lines.

These projects were not easy to implement, with considerable disruption having to be endured, but much was learnt about how to deliver complex technology on busy operational lines. As such, David is a pragmatist and brings with him the experience of how to deploy new systems within a practical and logical plan.

Digital Railway objectives

It is perhaps timely to review the objectives for the digital railway. While the broader vision for the railway remains as originally defined, David has brought a much more pragmatic focus to the work of the Digital Railway programme. To drive capacity, performance and safety, focus is targeted on much-improved command and control technology covering ERTMS/ETCS, ATO (Automatic Train Operation), TMS (Traffic Management Systems), C-DAS (Connected Driver Advisory Systems) and, of course, telecoms.

This work links in with the broader industry goals of intelligent trains and infrastructure, leading to remote condition monitoring, smart meters on trains, energy supply resilience, and quicker and effective failure recovery situations. Improved passenger information and associated facilities are also in the mix, including ticketing, reservations, train running information accuracy and immediacy, train loading data, linkage to the internet and social media.

All these embrace the whole railway, not just Network Rail, and a fully integrated industry team is vital to eventual success. Key will be the participation of the Rail Delivery Group, the train operating companies including freight and, perhaps most important of all, the supply chain. With the latter, confidence has been low and the need for greater engagement is recognised.

Giving the Rail Supply Group and its many contractors greater accountability, with an enhanced relationship in the long-term projects, is part of the plan. Any scheme under the Digital Railway banner must contain, almost by definition, significant investment in software, and this has proved to be a troublesome element in the past. An important part of getting software right will be to properly specify the functional and operational requirements, “Don’t start writing code until you know what you want”, as David puts it.

So what are the main thrusts of the Digital Railway in terms of specific projects? There are no real surprises but there is now a much better recognition of what each element entails.

ETCS (European Train Control System)

To get more capacity and improved performance out of the existing railway is a cornerstone of the Digital Railway remit. This is not new but, given the increasing capacity crunch on key parts of the railway, the need is now urgent.

As a part of ERTMS, ETCS has proved to be a difficult concept at European level and dates back to the early 1990s. Conceived partly as political vision for Europe-wide interoperability, the technical and operational content has been a challenge to get common agreement amongst so many countries. At long last, a workable baseline specification has now been achieved.

Deployment plans in the UK, beyond the initial Cambrian line scheme from which valuable lessons have been learned, have included fitment to the GWML as part of Crossrail, and Thameslink. Dates predicted for when these are to become operational are now close and, when delivered, will form a strong basis to move forward.

The commitment to using ETCS on the Thameslink central core is already made, this being a route where capacity will need to match metro-type performance. Elsewhere, a long hard look at where and how ETCS and/or traffic management and CDAS/ATO can be introduced to get maximum benefit reveals eight potential routes: Great Eastern, Essex Thameside, East Coast, Great Western, South West main line, Southeast, East London line and TransPennine. The business cases for all these are still in development, but indications are that significant capacity and performance increases can be achieved without the need for major civil engineering expansion.

It must also be remembered that ETCS brings a safety benefit in that ATP (Automatic Train Protection) is part of the specification. Whilst TPWS has done a good job to mitigate against the SPAD risk, following the accidents at Southall and Ladbroke Grove in 1999 and the ensuing public enquiry, it was always recognised that this was not the long term solution.

The eight routes are an interesting mix of main line, long distance commuting and inner suburban railways. Some business cases will be worked up in partnership with the DfT and one – the East London line – will be progressed with TfL (Transport for London).

The capacity improvements to be gained will be different for each route as many other factors impact on what can be achieved; flat junctions, track layouts, level crossings, different station stops and mixed traffic patterns are typical of the constraints that differentiate a main line railway from a metro. The sometime-stated 40 per cent capacity improvement will very much depend on the layout and characteristics of each particular route and may very well be out of reach on many, but, nonetheless, any gain in double figures will be worth having.

Critically, any improvement will rely on a package of investment in both digital and conventional enhancements to maximise these benefits, which the programme believes will in some cases be cheaper than a purely conventional approach to increasing capacity.

Funding for all these deployments has yet to be agreed, so commissioning dates will not be published until this is known. The expectation is that the ETCS programme will form an important part of the solution to deliver increased capacity and reduce overcrowding as passenger numbers rise.

The idea of a pilot system in the Norwich – Yarmouth – Lowestoft area has been dropped. However, resignalling of this section is an urgent requirement and is to be achieved using modern signalling technology with ETCS future-proofing built in.

ETCS technology

Regular readers will be well aware that ETCS comes in three possible levels. Level 1 is a discontinuous train protection application not used in the UK. Level 2 is radio-based using GSM-R, retains traditional train detection equipment such as track circuits or axle counters, but can dispense with lineside signals.

Level 3 removes the need for separate train detection, relying solely on continuous radio messaging to report a train’s position while having the ability to introduce moving block whereby trains can ‘close up’ in congested areas. Part of Digital Railway’s original vision was to eventually move to Level 3, as this further improves the business case.

However, here in the UK as in Europe, a number of practical problems make adopting this on an existing railway very difficult and obtaining a safety case would be a lengthy process.

Thus it is a Level 2 application that will initially be progressed for the routes described. This is in line with what is happening in Europe and the suppliers are well acquainted with the technology. Even so, there are a number of options that need to be considered if a rapid deployment programme is to be achieved.

To remove lineside signals, every train, including on-track machines that operate over the line, must be equipped with ETCS equipment. This implies the need for captive stock, which is a limiting factor and will not be possible to guarantee on some sections without unnecessarily restricting the train service. The trade-off between large volumes of train fitment and retention of lineside signals will need careful consideration.

A mix and match solution will therefore be adopted that will allow much shorter block sections for ETCS-fitted trains working to a Movement Authority instruction and not necessarily obeying the traditional signals. Similar situations exist in Europe and, indeed, this is the Thameslink solution. It is envisaged that fitted trains will be dominant on any equipped route, thus obtaining the capacity benefit.

ATO as an overlay to ETCS is part of the Thameslink central core and is being pioneered here, with eyes from all over Europe watching how this progresses. Tests on the Hertford loop test track, and more recently in the Thameslink central core, are encouraging.

Level 3 is not to be entirely forgotten and a hybrid solution being developed in Europe to operate Level 3 characteristics over Level 2 infrastructure might be possible. This would retain existing train detection equipment and discrete block sections, but allow the creation of ‘micro blocks’ within these for Level 3-fitted trains. While this concept is still in the early stages, it is good that thought is being given to it.

Traffic Management Systems

When the ‘beauty parade’ of TMS systems and suppliers took place back in 2014, it was anticipated that this would be the start of a rapid roll out programme, giving much improved train regulation through pinch points and thus enhanced performance. Beyond the initial contracts let for Romford and Cardiff ROCs, and latterly at Three Bridges for the Thameslink central core, not much has happened, the reason being that it is a far more complicated application than originally thought. The capture of requirements, the staging and the integration with other systems, all has to be fully understood before any commissioning takes place. Otherwise the system will not perform and will be duly labelled as “another management waste of money” by the local staff.

All is not lost, however. Romford, Cardiff and Three Bridges are now making good progress and there is the possibility of one other being commissioned in the not too distant future. Once the usage and operational benefits can be established, the ‘domino effect’ rollout can begin.

TMS is part of the ROC deployment plan, but the planning/re-planning functionality is capable of being used in any modern day signalling centre, thus enabling its potential benefits to be put to good use in many areas of the railway in a more rapid timeframe.

Aligned with TMS is C-DAS, which will communicate relevant parts of the decision making process of TMS to the driver in the cab. Without the connectivity that C-DAS brings, the use of standalone DAS is limited as it can only give drivers advice on the train’s optimum speed for the particular journey based on the timetable – it takes no account of the effect of other trains at forthcoming stations and pinch points which may require trains to operate to a more updated train plan.

Telecommunications

David knows full well that a digital railway needs a reliable, modern and resilient digital telecoms network for it to succeed. Fortunately, Network Rail is in possession of one such network, namely the FTNx of NRT (Network Rail Telecoms), and this therefore becomes a big part of the Digital Railway group. Recent suggestions that NRT might be sold off in order to make a ‘quick buck’ have now been rejected as it is realised that telecoms is a vital part of the operational railway. To lose the in-house capability would be akin to committing industrial suicide. The sad lessons of the earlier BRT sell off must never be forgotten.

That said, the exploitation by NRT of its asset has to be encouraged as valuable income can be gained by providing bandwidth and services to other organisations, especially in rural areas.

Digital showcase

There is no doubt that the Digital Railway is alive and kicking. This article has not said much about the asset management and information services that are all part of the plan. Rest assured, these are progressing in parallel and are already underway. Not quite as newsworthy as the command and control elements, they are easier to achieve and rely on standard IT technology as used in many other industries.

Technology itself is a challenge, as the rapid advancement of digital systems can mean that applications even five years old may begin to look out of date. The solution to this is much greater industry involvement with a whole life contractual formula in place that will enable hardware and software updates to happen as technology obsolescence necessitates replacement.

The recent government announcement of an additional £450 million of funding is indicative as to how seriously it takes the digital railway programme and the need to obtain the benefits in the quickest possible timescale.

David’s parting words were: “Britain was at the forefront of railway development, it had the first metro in the world, it introduced the first automatic train operation, it needs to be the showcase for the digital railway revolution.”

Amen to all of that.

Written by Clive Kessell