TRACK TECHNOLOGY
Ladbroke Grove points repair
Karl Gilmore of AmeyColas explains more about a seemingly intractable points maintenance problem and how it was eventually solved – requiring some new thinking.
A
troublesome set of points in west London whose height needed reducing – but for
which access using traditional methods was virtually impossible – were finally tackled using a new solution.
Karl Gilmore, the project manager at AmeyColas responsible for dealing with the problem, said that various traditional approaches were explored but rejected in seeking to reduce the height of points 8057 at Ladbroke Grove by 125mm.
Access with road/rail vehicles was not an option, and the lengthy possession times that would be needed to complete the task using traditional methods on one of the country’s busiest main lines meant the set of points and its crossover were inoperable for about 18 months.
This necessitated re-writing of train paths, to the annoyance of the train operating companies. Gilmore had heard about a new way of excavating track ballast, and watched the videos of the RailVac product, before speaking to Railcare’s Steve Mugglestone to arrange a live demonstration at the Kirton Lane level crossing site in Doncaster earlier this year.
Gilmore said: “The weather was simply appalling. There was a foot of snow, freezing temperatures, in fact everything that would normally mean cancellation.
“Simply getting there proved a challenge of Arctic proportions!
“However, despite all that the Bridgeway Railcare team and the RailVac were ready and waiting to go into action as scheduled.
“I was really surprised by the Railcare team’s ‘can do’ and very positive attitude – it’s inspiring, it filled me with confidence and their enthusiasm is infectious.”
He praised the “extraordinarily high” reliability record of the equipment, and the fact that the team provides its own staff for jacking and packing, and since they were trained fitters with spares, they could deal there and then with issues like machine stoppages.
Gilmore said: “The only barrier I could envisage was the cost compared to traditional techniques, but its sheer speed makes the per hour cost significantly cheaper overall, by comparison to bringing a lot of other kinds of equipment by road but needing twice or three times the possession time, plus all the labour involved, etc.
36 | rail technology magazine Dec/Jan 13
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