We held our third Practical Electrification Challenge between the 7-9 October 2025 at the Network Rail Jane Austin Training Centre, Swindon, and once again we were blessed without rain, and a bit of autumn sun.

Attendance at this event is offered free to Corporate members who can send up to two attendees each to a maximum attendance of 28. The challenge is designed for staff who work within the rail industry but whom have little site experience, on this challenge they can gain some real appreciation of the conditions, equipment and processes that the teams face delivering Overhead Line (OLE) work on site.

We delivered the challenge with the support of key sponsors, supporters and volunteers who we thank for their continuing support…

AtkinsRéalis: Technical support and challenge lead Garry Keenor.

Aureos: Providing contact wire and supporting with Supervisors; Sean Ralphs and Carl Dawson.

Furrer + Frey: Providing the Design, materials and technical support on site with Noel Dolphin and Rob Daffern.

Network Rail: The use of the outstanding facilities at the Network Rail Jane Austin Training Centre, Swindon.

SPL Powerlines: Acting as Principal Contractor, providing materials and the principle point of contact Brian Gillespie who was supported by Supervisors Liam Allport and Andy Westwood.

DAY ONE

Day one started as the delegates gathered at the hotel in the evening with an introduction session, an evening meal, followed by a safety presentation given by Paula Hilliard, Engagement Manager from Network Rail. Paula took the attendees through a safety hour presentation covering working near OLE Electrified Areas on the theme of ASK, CHECK, CHALLENGE, and provided an excellent introduction into the challenging environment facing teams working within an electrified rail corridor.

DAY TWO

Day two began when we took the delegates to the Network Rail Jane Austin Training Centre. We started with a short session in the classroom with presentations on an overview of overhead line electrification, and a short crash course on how to read design drawings. The group were then passed to the Principal Contractor who provided a full briefing and an explanation in the taking of an isolation and the use of a form C. The attendees were then split into four groups of seven, with each group supported with a supervisor and a chaperone. Each group was tasked to build a cantilever at low level, and once that was complete the delegates ran in the catenary wire. This was great experience for gaining familiarisation with the tools, materials and processes needed to deliver OLE equipment in the safety of the Training Centre.

In the afternoon we had additional demonstrations that the attendees took an active part in, covering height and stagger measurement, a neutral section and section insulator briefing, switching and feeding track side, and rigging up to take tension out of a contact wire.

After completing on site we returned to the hotel for an evening meal followed by a presentation from Garry Keenor Vice President of the RailEI, on Electrification lessons learned and the financial case for future electrification. This was followed by a presentation from Professor Andy Doherty, Chief Technical Officer for the Global Centre for Rail Excellence (GCRE). Andy discussed how GCRE came into being, the challenges it faces, and what benefits a high speed test loop can offer a modern rail industry.

DAY THREE

Day three and we returned to the Network Rail Jane Austin Training Centre, to complete our wire run by running in the contact wire, installing droppers, and cutting in insulation. In the afternoon we were supported by manufacturers who allowed the delegates to gain experience working with their systems: Cembre Julian Singh and Reece Brenchley provided a demonstration on their earthing and bonding products with their demonstration vehicle, which is fitted out with the latest cutting, crimping and die tooling. Whilst on-site Reece demonstrated drilling a rail and fitting a track bond, the lightweight battery powered LD-16BRE rail drill used, showed how fast a strong and low resistive connection can be made to a remote rail. Julian also demonstrated crimping best practice using a matched-based system and the importance of preparing cables to the correct standard. Gripple provided a demonstration of their SwiftLine Rail Dropper, SwiftLine Jumper and their SwiftLine Forked Collar, with the opportunity for attendees to fit the dropper on a low-level OLE system proving very popular. Representing Gripple and demonstrating the equipment was Paul Whittle and Stephane Demoutiers. Mosdorfer Rail are a manufacturer and supplier of overhead line catenary solutions for high-speed, conventional and light rail systems. Supplying into global railway markets, their supply portfolio of a complete railway catenary system includes the patented Tensorex C+ spring tensioning device. For the event they demonstrated how their Tensorex C+ tensioning device is installed and operated, with a stand displaying an example of the product that the attendees could view close-up. In addition, the attendees were also shown a balance weight auto tensioning system so that they could understand the differences between the technologies and the advantages of the Tensorex C+ system. The event was supported by Rob Renshaw (Commercial Sales Manager), Sean Corcoran (Senior Product Manager) and Lee Ford (Engineer).

Penta Electrical Safety Products UKI Tim Harris demonstrated their range of products, such as live line tester and earth kits, the Connected Tensiometer Set (CTS) that allow measurement of the mechanical tension of contact cables and wires from the ground. The Contact Wire Measurement by Laser Profilometry equipment, that allows the contact wire profile to be measured from the ground, and of particular interest was the DEP Short reflective rail earth connector. This innovative product is in use within Transport for Wales (TfW) infrastructure and is waiting for product approval on Network Rail infrastructure. The product has a reflective band on the cable which makes it highly visible at night, a simple but effective modification. We finished the day with a recap of the challenge content in the classroom and offering our thanks to the volunteers, sponsors and supporters who made the event possible.

We wish to offer special thanks to our chaperone volunteers, Stuart Murphy, Stephen Barber, Jamie Barrett and James Hutt whose experience helped greatly throughout, and to our two key evening speakers Paula Hilliard, Engagement Manager from Network Rail and Professor Andy Doherty, Chief Technical Officer for the Global Centre for Rail Excellence (GCRE). Attendees came from the following companies: AtkinsRéalis, Aureos, Babcock Rail, Balfour Beatty, Furrer + Frey, Mott MacDonald, OCU Group, One Big Circle, ORR, RSSB, SPL Powerlines, Systra, Transport for Wales, Volker Rail. The Institution would like to thank the attendees for the positive and enthusiastic approach they had to the course!

FEEDBACK FROM ATTENDEES RECEIVED FROM THE DAY:

“The H&S talk was really eye opening. Enjoyed the GCRE talk! Good split of activities/split of groups. All engaging. Great culture.”

“The challenge allowed me to better understand the difficulty of OLE construction and some aspects are beneficial to take back into the design world.”

“Enjoyed doing work ourselves rather than watching someone else do it.”

“Being office based meant that this was an eye opening experience of the difficulties on site.”

“Very well thought out and informative, thank you all.”

“Supervisors gave real world knowledge and let us do lots.”