Industrial News

Listen to this article 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…

Listen to this article As has been reported in these pages before, the Institution of Mechanical Engineers (IMechE) often runs a topical event. Connecting Regions by Rail was the theme of a conference organised by the Railway Division’s Young Members’ Board. Your writer (far from a young member) was there. It took place at the…

Listen to this article This year, the railway community celebrates the 200th anniversary of what is said to be the birth of the modern railway. On 27 September 1825, George Stephenson’s ‘Locomotion No. 1’ set off on its inaugural journey from Shildon to Stockton to open the 26-mile Stockton and Darlington Railway (S&DR). This was…

Listen to this article As we reported in the last issue, the Innotrans rail trade fair in Berlin offers a great insight into railway operations outside the UK. At this fair, the only diesel-only freight locomotives on display were shunters as almost all freight trains are electrically hauled in Europe where it is recognised that…

Listen to this article In Rail Engineer 208 (May-June 2024), we reported that Dr Mark Burstow, Vehicle Track Dynamics Engineer at Network Rail, had identified hunting as one of the causes of poor ride on some fleets resulting from high equivalent conicity between wheels and rails – a system problem. Although not all poor ride…

Listen to this article The communities of Ashington and Blyth have been without a train service for 60 years. Following the Beeching report, their branch of the Blyth and Tyne Railway (B&TR) closed to passengers in 1964 but remained open to serve local collieries. Although these have since closed, the line has around five freight…

Listen to this article There are continued calls for more of Britain’s railways to be electrified in order to improve traction efficiency and meet carbon footprint reduction targets. We are well behind the rest of Europe in increasing the percentage of electrified lines. The reasons for this are many, but electrifying lines is expensive and…

Listen to this article In the closing days of 2024, Network Rail and the rail supply chain delivered a substantial and varied programme of works valued at £142.3 million. With reduced demand for rail travel and the network closed across three bank holidays, the festive season provides an excellent opportunity for extensive maintenance with minimal…

Listen to this article Reducing carbon emissions and helping to negate the impact of global warming is a subject we hear about day in and day out. The obvious polluters are well known – road transport petrol and diesel engines, jet aircraft, power generation using fossil fuels – but what other products and processes generate…