TRACK EQUIPMENT
Improving the network for everyone As the nation works to increase its productivity following the recession, it is essential that rail services
operate at their full capacity. A way of adding to that capacity is by enabling trains to run more quickly, reports Richard Mackillican
T
he rail network is the sum of many interconnected systems and when one of those systems is improved, it can lead to improvements on other parts of the network.
The gains felt by passengers following track improvement works to the Lafarge Rail Terminal at Mountsorrel provide a good example of how this can work.
Mark Tarry, area general
manager for Network Rail in the East Midlands, says: “For a while the junction between the Lafarge Rail Terminal at Mountsorrel and the Midland mainline has only allowed for a slow speed turnout at 5mph – which is pretty much as slow as you can move a train.
“That has led to quite a constraint – both on the terminal and on the mainline – because when a train is moving either from the mainline to the terminal or from the terminal to the mainline, we can not move other trains around, which is quite restrictive.
“So we needed to fi nd a way to help both the freight operators and the travelling public on the mainline with a solution that provided a win for everyone. That solution ended up being a relatively low-cost scheme, in railway terms, which increased the line speed by 10mph, to a 15mph limit.
“Whilst we knew the benefi ts would be signifi cant, they have turned out to be even more signifi cant than we expected.”
Before the improvement works could be carried out, the team
“Whilst we knew the benefi ts would be signifi cant, they have turned out to be even more signifi cant than we expected.”
had to assess the current track layout and determine what aspect of that layout was causing the low line speed and what needed to be done to increase that.
Given that a 5mph increase would have been a signifi cant increase in rail terms, a 10mph increase was going to present the team with a challenge.
Mark said: “We had to assess the infrastructure and in simple terms this involved lifting the track along with increasing the ballast underneath the track.
“This improves the gradient profi le which in turn allows the train to run at a higher speed.”
Although the work carried out was fairly standard stuff, the team still had a number of constraints to work to.
He said: “Given all of the current fi nancial constraints, this job probably wouldn’t have been of the highest priority across the network and this meant we had to carry the scheme out as cost effectively as we could.”
Although the team had to work hard to keep costs down, there were some signifi cant wins along the way.
“Firstly, we were able to get our in-house maintenance team to take on the whole job, which meant labour costs were signifi cantly lower than had we gone to the outside market.
“We were also lucky because Lafarge donated all of the materials free of charge as their contribution towards the job. Cont. overleaf
rail technology magazine Dec/Jan 11 | 37
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