A new approach for level crossings

The report on the SigEx 2024 conference included in this issue highlights that the industry needs to innovate and collaborate better to reduce costs, undertake renewals faster, introduce off-site testing, and find new ways of doing things to maintain safety and improve reliability. A great example of this is a new initiative by Unipart, AtkinsRéalis, and Newgate, for the off-site construction and testing of a complete level crossing solution.

Unipart is marketing the initiative as LX PLUS and by using strong design and manufacturing techniques, supply chain management, and storage capabilities, LX PLUS is providing a step forward in renewing level crossing systems.

Level crossing safety

Britain’s mainline railway is amongst the safest in Europe and level crossing incidents in Great Britain are below the European average. However, this could change with just one major incident, and every incident has the potential for significant human and economic loss. So, level crossings remain one of the greatest risks to public and passenger safety on the rail network. They must be designed, installed, and tested to deliver a safe crossing of the railway for all users, and one that is very reliable.

Trains are generally now more frequent, quieter, and travel at higher speeds than ever. Society has also changed, with more people and increased home and business deliveries. There is therefore more road traffic using level crossings. People live at a faster pace of life and a level crossing which fails regularly may encourage users to misuse the crossing when it does fail. Additionally, barrier down time on public road crossings can have a significant influence on rail and road  traffic flow.

There are over 430 full barrier level crossings in use on the mainline rail network in Great Britain, together with over 100 gated level crossings which will all need replacing at some point with a full barrier crossing. There are also over 500 half barrier level crossings, which will need upgrading to full barrier or renewing with a half barrier if assessed safe to do so. So, the need for safe, cost effective, and reliable solutions is clear. 

LX PLUS

Developed in collaboration with Unipart, AtkinsRéalis, and Newgate, LX PLUS provides a complete level crossing solution that can be designed, manufactured, installed, tested, and commissioned far quicker (and at cheaper cost) to deliver better reliability than other methods of installation. The barrier solution provides all that is required to be operated directly by a signaller/crossing operator, via CCTV, or an obstacle detector system.

The level crossing barrier product is initially fully installed off-site and subject to an exhaustive testing programme to fully function validate the system before it is deployed on a live railway. This enhances safety, efficiency, and confidence in the system performance by ironing out any equipment and installation problems well before the equipment is despatched to site. The system also uses proven equipment with excellent reliability. The Road Traffic Lights (RTL) ‘Wig Wag’ and Barrier Boom Lights (BBL) for example are manufactured by Unipart Dorman, a leading manufacturer of LED rail safety and signalling products, with stringent quality control processes in place.

The LX PLUS components are connected by plug-coupled cables, again manufactured by Unipart and subject to its robust workshop quality control processes. The level crossing controller is the ElectroLogIXS vital object controller supplied by Knorr Bremse Signalling and developed to interface with the barrier machines using the Advanced Signalling Methodology (ASM) by AtkinsRéalis. This delivers a robust and efficient rail signalling solution and all the equipment is designed to be installed in trackside location cases, with no need for expensive equipment buildings.

Newgate

The 110V barrier machines used in LX PLUS are supplied by Newgate (Newark) Ltd. The company has more than 40 years’ experience, including continuous R&D investment in the barrier market across several industry sectors, therefore bringing this valuable experience to rail. It has worked closely with AtkinsRéalis for several years to develop its railway level crossing barrier solution, with the objective of improved reliability to reduce down time and reduce whole lifecycle cost. The NGR18000 barrier solution was designed in accordance with Network Rail’s ‘Design for Reliability’ remit and has been subject to an exhaustive several million operations to date in controlled testing environments.

On site reliability has also proved to be good and the barrier machine has acquired an excellent reputation for dependability. It is also designed to fit the current ‘legacy’ barrier machine footprint without the need for expensive ground works, as the fixing stud centres and foundation requirements are the same as the existing BR843 machines. The drive to the barriers uses a bevel helical brushless motor gear box arrangement, and the boom position is controlled by reliable proximity switches to aid smooth running and accurate positioning.

Maintenance access via the removable panels is also excellent. The machine is fitted with two doors one either side. The door fitted to the back of the machine provides access to the operation pump, allowing the machine to be operated manually when needed. The technician’s door fitted to the front of the machine provides easy access to the MCB’s, motor gearbox drive, electrical panel, and position cams. Both doors are fabricated from 3mm steel sheet. They are secured with keys and fitted with safety interlocks to prevent the machine from operating when the doors are opened.

The barrier machine also has the capability for extensive remote monitoring to help with fault finding and to aid preventative maintenance. Values such as voltage, current, torque, direction, alarms, and others are available. The interface is a single port ethernet adapter which supports Modbus TCP communication.

To compliment the barrier machine a protection cage has also been designed to eliminate hazards due to moving sidearms and balance weights. This can also be easily retrofitted to existing BR843 machines if required. Once the equipment has been thoroughly tested in a safe off-site location (with 100% of the equipment functionality confirmed as meeting the specification) it can be stored off-site, and only taken to site when everything is ready and waiting. It can then be easily plugged together and on site tested far quicker than other level crossing systems before entering service.

This approach reduces the safety risk to anyone on site and reduces disruption to the public and passengers. Unipart Rail says with LX PLUS there is at least a 20% reduction in time on site, with reduced rail possession times and reduced road closure times.

Several level crossings can be renewed as part of large resignalling schemes, so shorter and easier testing of the level crossings frees up more valuable assurance (testing and commissioning) resource for the other vital safety and performance elements of the scheme.  

Future developments

An interface location is being developed which will allow the product to be used to replace legacy barrier installations and existing control systems. Other signalling applications, which would benefit from off-site construction, testing, and assurance (before being shipped to site) are also being considered.

Unipart and AtkinsRéalis are to be congratulated on producing the LX PLUS innovation. It is a direct result of years of collaborative working between the two companies and is formally recognised by ISO44001 certification.

Some organisations and engineers say they are innovating when in fact they are inventing, but the two should not be confused. Innovation is the practical implementation of ideas that result in the introduction or improvement of products and services. Invention is the creation of something never seen before, most often involving new technology, materials or process, which also carries risk. An invention may have the potential to be useful, but until it is employed in a way that adds value in the real world, it is not yet an innovation.

LX PLUS is therefore most definitely a welcome innovation and not a risky invention. Off-site fabrication and testing has been used in the telecoms industry for decades for example. LX PLUS uses proven technology and can be manufactured, tested, stored, and adapted to suit the specific location, with minimum time and cost implications. It can then be installed and commissioned in a significantly reduced timescale, and is just the sort of initiative which rail needs more of.

Image credit: Unipart