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CONSTRUCTION SERVICES AND EQUIPMENT


Methods of track laying have been developed significantly since the birth of the railways, thanks to specialist machinery. Ian Henley explains…


L


aying the track of the first railways was an arduous and often an ex-


tremely dangerous task – with some noto- rious projects in the world’s more tropical climates claiming thousands of lives.


Luckily engineers now have a number of systems to help them in this key railway task.


Ian Henley, route track renewals manager at Network Rail, explained: “We have been operating our current high-output ma- chine in the Western Route area for the last seven years. The systems are known as TRS2 (Track Relaying System) and BCS2 (Ballast Cleaning System).


“The Amey-Colas Joint Venture operates the kit in partnership with Network Rail. They employ a plant team which have spe- cialist operators who work with the train – they are dedicated rail engineers who are highly skilled at operating the whole train and its many functions.”


The original railways engineers had to rely, to a large extent, on their own elbow grease to get the job done, sometimes with the help of unskilled manual labourers.


But these new systems offer the engineers of today a much more agreeable solution to the issue of track laying.


Henley said: “High-output track relaying systems are highly mechanised and are less labour intensive than conventional track relaying. Using these high-output machines we can do far more work than by conventional means and allow adjacent routes to remain open to passenger and freight traffic.


“The high-output systems carry all the ma- terials needed to renew the track, and we carry out the renewals as a factory proc- ess, like a production line. Managing the logistics – materials and plant – is key. Everything needs to be in the right place at the right time. It relies on high levels of reliability and performance to deliver re- newals efficiently, night after night.”


Efficiency and safety are both key drivers in today’s railway industry and this is re- flected in the performance of the new track laying systems.


Mechanising track renewals is a safer way to carry out this kind of work as it limits the numbers of people on the track at any one time. Each person operating the plant has a very specific and highly-skilled role, with each part of the process completely repeatable.


Henley told RTM: “By using high-out- put methods of automation, our systems can replace between 400-800 metres of track and ballast within eight hours, sig- nificantly reducing costs and disruption to passengers and freight users. The ma- chines have a high fixed cost and have an


intense maintenance regime so delivering large volumes to spread these fixed costs is imperative.


“The high-output plant is being challenged to meet the need of increasing outputs to in excess of 800 metres per shift.”


So how could these systems be developed in the future?


“We have recently introduced a new sys- tem, BCS4, with a further system coming on stream soon, TRS4, giving us five sys- tem machines in total. Developing high- output systems further, we are principally looking at ways of getting more output or volume delivered each night.


“With track access increasingly at a pre- mium, we need to continue to innovate and increase our out- put from our overnight possessions to help achieve the ‘seven day railway’.”


Ian Henley


FOR MORE INFORMATION Visit www.networkrail.co.uk


rail technology magazine Feb/Mar 11 | 93


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