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The industry's no.1 technical publication

The Journal

Thought leadership

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The RailEI Journal brings the industry’s hottest topics to over 5000 readers every quarter. With an exciting range of technical articles in every issue, our Journal content is produced by experts, engineers and academics from the world of railway engineering. From electrification and high speed rail to sustainability and safety, the Journal brings together thought leadership that directly impacts the industry. What’s more, the Journal is designed with a technical focus that pays tribute to the Institutions longstanding tradition of being the home of technical research and knowledge sharing for railway engineering. With an overarching theme of Knowledge Leadership, you will find more technical content than ever before. Access pages of articles, interviews, reports and event write-ups from the RailEI Technical Team and our community of experts from our 60+ Corporate Member organisations.

Electronic articles

The latest technical articles can be found online in the Knowledge Hub.

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The Archives

Access a list of every article published in our Journal since 1884. Articles can be bought for £10 each.

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Doing some research?

Journal catalogue

The RailEI (formerly known as the PWI) keeps an archive of every published Journal dating back to our first ever issue! Below is a comprehensive list of every technical article published in each issue for the last few years, which you can use as a reference to help you search our Knowledge Hub to access the individual articles or Journals of interest. To access a list of older Journal issues and articles, please follow the instructions shown in the “Journal Archive” dropdown item below.

January Journal 2024

Effects of climate change on transport for Wales’ Core Valley Lines (CVL)

Railway electric points heating: From design to maintenance

Track geometry filters: linear-phase and versines.

Worldwide rail glimpses: part 1 of 3 – non-adhesion rail

The PWI practical electrification challenge

PWI: Young Achiever Award 2023 a big data methodology for tamping decisions using sensors from sky, railway track and substructure

April Journal 2024 

Digital twin case studies using wheel/rail interaction, wheel-rail contact mechanics, wear, rolling contact fatigue, and economic models in European context

Transpennine route upgrade project E234

Worldwide rail glimpses: part 2 of 3 – adhesion rail – light rail, heavy rail, metros and trams

Railway vehicle forces on curved track: a re-evaluation of published explanations

Adapting an ageing infrastructure for the challenges of the future – Severn estuary earthworks

July Journal 2024  

Adapting an ageing infrastructure to the challenges of the future- rock armour solution to ballast washout

Worldwide rail Glimpses-part 3 of 3-adhesion rail-standard gauge

Identify twist and repair by manual method

Reducing carbon emissions

October Journal 2024

Track Renewals and Line Speed Hand-back at 140mph

The Importance Of Accounting For Carbon In Rail Infrastructure Projects

What is Light Rail

Track Infrastructure Innovation & Development – Sicut Composite Railway Sleepers

The Wales and Western Climate Change Risk Assessment Tool

January Journal 2022

Earthing and bonding on a.c. electrified railways: Benefits of protection reliability and an alternative approach to ‘if in doubt, bond-it-out’

The use of expansive geopolymer injections to stabilise railway formation

An investigation into the technical track engineering aspects associated with the derailment of a freight train over RT60 S&C Eastleigh Station, Hampshire, UK on 28 January 2020

Cost effective minimum clearance electrification PWI technical conference

Larkfield to East Kilbride Electrification Project – Through alignment design

April Journal 2022

Back to basics – Equilibrium cant

Data driven overhead line equipment (OLE) construction assurance for electrification projects

Hit the North – PWI Technical Seminar report

Plant & Machinery – PWI Technical Seminar report

Rail alignments for new railways

Whole life carbon management in the rail industry

 

July Journal 2022

Practical Trackwork Challenge 2022 – Churnet Valley Railway

HS2 track alignment change process through collaboration

Sea defences – friend or foe?

Intelligent tamping – from research to automation

Expansion of the Sheffield tram-train network

Weather forecasting for the railways: Current & future – tools & analysis

Climate Emergency & Decarbonisation – PWI Technical Seminar report

Electrification – Delivering the business case – PWI Technical Seminar report

 

October Journal 2022

Advances in engineering survey grid transformations for rail infrastructure

Back to basics – Points Part 1 of 2

Electrification cost reduction – Digital design & challenging the rules

Felix S&C Laser Profile Measuring System 

Improving track worker safety with geo-fencing

Tomorrow’s rail – Safety today – PWI Technical Seminar report

October Journal 2021

Decarbonising the rail industry

Enabling data-driven predictive maintenance for S&C through Digital Twin models and condition monitoring systems

Greenfix Erosion Control & Geoweb® Geocell Specialists

Longitudinal bearer systems in Network Rail: The past, present and future in a nutshell

New Metro Express for Mauritius

Satellite Radar Interferometry (InSAR) for asset management of railway infrastructure

Voltage controlled clearances: Reducing 25kV electrical clearances

July Journal 2021

Advancements in the detection of embankment instability using measurable track geometry data

Automation of infrastructure inspection & maintenance in Network Rail

China’s high speed rail phenomenon: A trip around the world’s largest high speed railway network

Case study: Mechanical & metallurgical investigation of arc damage in overhead line contact wires

Network Rail Track Maintenance Engineering Conference March 2021

Review of the 2021 APTA Conference: Connecting America’s Cities

The High Speed 1 mid-life renewals programme

The PWI’s Climate Change & Decarbonisation Committee

April Journal 2021

An Engineering Partnership

An introduction to the overhead electric traction system

Impacts of Automatic Train Operation

Japanese knotweed: A deep-rooted problem

Making tracks for the network

Object detection at level crossings using deep learning techniques

On track for a safer railway

January Journal 2021

Understanding polymer railway sleepers

Traction power supplies: Not another PSU

Setting the standard for pantograph gauging: An engineering journey

Saving the planet: The Engineers challenge

Rail Link to Kashmir Valley

Network Rail track renewals

Intelligent pantographs

Cleaning up our act

Challenging electrification costs

Practical integration of automated operation in railways

October Journal 2019

Speed restrictions, maximum safe speed & automatic train protection (ATP) speed supervision

Targeted asset management approach to mitigating railway earthwork instability

Hudson Bay Railway

UK Conferences 2019

Designs, applications, & performances of asphalt trackbeds in the US

Collecting asset data

A new design method for geogrid-stabilised trackbed

July Journal 2019

Russia & its high speed railways

TrackWater: Optimising railway drainage maintenance using IoT sensors

The repoint project

Technical justification for 6mm T pieces

RADEAN: Use of data to analyse rail wear & identify trends

Understanding asset life: How can we improve?

Electrification & Pway developments

Deriving track geometry from survey data: A network-wide study

Central Manchester close out: Challenges, innovation & lessons learnt on Northern Hub

April Journal 2019

Bezgin-Kolukırık equation: Estimate dynamic impact forces on railway tracks due to wheel flats

California: From double track to triple track

Class 365: Introduction for ScotRail

Collaborative working & integrated data management in track renewal projects

Innovation & research in rail

Optimisation of railway switches

Practical Trackwork Challenge Great Central Railway

Innovative application of rail fastenings for HS2

The influence of sleeper material characteristics on track behaviour

Stobart Rail & Civils and Network Rail’s: Track improvement in the far north

January Journal 2019

Atmospheric railways: A look to the past to drive the future

Design & analysis of cast railway crossings: Experimentation & simulation

The role of energy absorbing materials: Minimising track degradation

Phased array rail weld inspection programme for London Underground

Network Rail Winter Track Engineering Conference 2019

The Kaikoura job: Rebuilding Kiwirail’s main north line

Urban railway: Infrastructure engineering

Understanding wheel / rail interaction: A unique opportunity

To browse Journals from 1884 – 2018 click here.  

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Whether you come from an academic or industry background, or a combination of both, if you are an expert in your field then we would love to hear from you. Do you have a particular topic you’d like to write about? Use the form below to share your idea with us for a new technical article and our Technical Content Managers will get in touch to start the process.

Technical articles will be subject to technical review. Authors must have express permission to publish the article and images from all parties concerned.

SUPPLYING AN ARTICLE

Authors must have express permission to publish the article and images from all relevant parties concerned. The article will be subject to a technical review and should not be written from a sales perspective. Technical articles should preferably be between 2,000 – 4,000 words, but this can be expanded if necessary.

SUPPLYING CONTENT

Please also provide a copy of all your images as separate files.

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Give your images a suitable title and make reference to their file name or title in your article.

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