PTC Midland Railway – delegates, supervisors and suppliers
Let’s talk about plain line! S&C is challenging, as I said in April, but plain line also comes with
its challenges in terms of keeping it safe in hot weather, well maintained to prevent defects and running to good levels of track quality. We have talked about the embankments and their problems, but plain line does interface with
structures and stations, which brings another set of issues. I like to take pictures when I am out and about, and below are two pictures of stations, each with different issues.
The picture shows some happy faces; note the dirty high-viz from those who got stuck in digging the drains. We will continue as we have great support from our corporate members – particular thanks to Jim from Volker Fitzpatrick.
Pompei Station, Italy
Pompei Station has quite serious vegetation problems, which should never be ignored. We teach plain line design on the Track Engineering Diploma and get delegates to design a transition
from a straight to a curve, and this normally involves a cant gradient.
Derby Station
Note here at Derby we have a transition in a station platform, and this was a recent design to get 40 mph running. This is technically tricky to maintain and can lead to some platform–train interface problems, such as wide gaps and height variations.
Inspection & conditions assessment
We asked the Mobile Maintenance Train (MMT) team to deep clean each beam, and remove all contamination from the beam surface, around each baseplate and the supporting troughs so that a full, detailed inspection and survey of the beam could be undertaken – complete with an accurate NDT!
Once cleaned, it became evident that the condition had declined rapidly since its last detailed inspection in 2022, and this was further reinforced by the results obtained from the microdrill.
The risk of further deterioration was deemed high and created an enhanced inspection regime to ensure that any emerging risk was both identified and mitigated.
The need to assess the structure under load was pivotal, as it gave insight into how it would behave under traffic. The biggest concern highlighted was gauge spread – there was evidence of baseplate indentation, and although there were no immediate signs of shuffle, the running band suggested it was evident. Dynamic loading was provided by the MMT, and we used the amberg trolley inside the working compartment of the train to assess the gauge and twist values throughout the structure.
The works
The beam was measured, ordered and processed as an emergency order – with all ordered materials arriving within three weeks of enquiry.
The old beam was cut into sections and carefully disassembled from the trough
in which it had been situated for over 40 years. When installed, it was fixed into position using bitumen – which did prove problematic to remove, but once an inroad was made between the steel trough and timber, it began to come away with ease. The MMT was used to both transport the new beam and all required materials to the site and to remove the old beam and all subsequent scrap/waste materials.
Conclusion
It always delights me to approve the PWI diplomas for deserving individuals. We have just awarded 28 Electrification Engineering Diplomas and 52 Track Engineering Diplomas. As well as our valued individual delegates, we have 40 Network Rail graduates and 18 in the first Hong Kong Mass Transit Railway cohort. I hope all these confirm individual membership and include the qualification on their CVs and LinkedIn profiles. Our new course in 3rd and 4th Rail Electrification Engineering is well developed and ready to go with the first cohort of Network Rail and TfL staff from 6-9th November in London.