PERMANENT WAY & INFRASTRUCTURE
“The aviation industry have learnt, over many years, what reliability looks like. In essence, they have electro-mechanical plant, I have electro- mechanical plant – there are very transferable lessons between the two industries.
“There are some very good and simple lessons we can learn from other industries.”
Live track renewal
A highlight of the event was the fi rst ever ‘live’ demonstration of a track renewal at a national plant show anywhere Europe, planned and successfully delivered by Babcock.
The company’s business improvement manager Bruce Wright said: “We aimed to
create a renewals environment where
innovative plant and construction techniques could be demonstrated and, following the theme of the event, deliver a conventional track renewal by plant rather than labour.
“Plant operation was at the fore, with a minimal labour contingent contained within a Formula 1 pit stop team only called upon to fi x a problem!”
Simon Higgens, senior programme manager with Babcock, added: “Given the tight possession
regimes and challenging work
environment we’ll see during CP5, I suspect that a lot of the technology and innovation used at Long Marston will become commonplace.”
A real team effort was required to meet the challenge of planning and delivering the demonstration showing how innovative plant could be deployed to overcome diffi cult site conditions.
These included interfacing with existing track work consisting of 75lb F/B rail directly bolted on to original mass produced concrete sleepers installed during the Second World War, 4.5m track centres representing a 10- 12ft track interval, no direct access to the adjacent line (service line) which terminated in a storage shed and provision of ‘new’
You can read more about what rail engineers have been learning from the aviation industry on page 34.
You can fi nd more coverage from the show at
www.railtechnologymagazine.com
www.nationalplantexhibition.com FOR MORE INFORMATION
materials and engineering trains during one of the busiest parts of the 2013/14 National Track Programme.
The slick delivery team consisted of Babcock staff from Preston and Hamilton depots together with regular plant supply partners McCullochs, Quattro and Torrent, labour supply partners Morson, and 3D Trimble supplier Korec. It provided compelling viewing for the roughly 3,700 visitors over the two-day event. The fi nishing touches to the renewal were provided by a Swietelsky Babcock Rail (SB Rail) tamper (73934).
SB Rail exhibited a range of its large on- track machines, which are usually deployed throughout the network undertaking track renewals and maintenance activities.
The SB Rail team was on hand to explain to visitors the process involved in applying track design geometry with the two tamping machines on display.
SB Rail also had its giant Automatic Finishing Machine on show – this equipment is used to ensure correct ballast profi les are applied to the rail infrastructure which in turn ensures the track remains to the correct geometry.
The company’s head of plant Phil Allanson said: “SB Rail was proud to showcase its equipment to industry colleagues at the plant exhibition.
“The fl eet attracted a constant stream of visitors over the two days; most of whom ‘cabbed’ all the machines! We very much look forward to contributing to future events of this nature.”
48 | rail technology magazine Aug/Sep 13
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92