Young Engineers and Apprentices Railway Seminar 2024: Connecting Regions by Rail

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 end of November 2024 when Storm Bert had caused extensive disruption. Despite this, delegates from all over the UK converged on Cardiff for the two-day event.

As well as the seminar title, the challenges of net zero were much in evidence, an issue that these young railway engineers will have to deal with. Delegates heard from High Speed 2, MerseyTravel, Transport for Wales, Transport for London, and the GWR Fast Charge battery train trial, all topics that have featured in Rail Engineer comparatively recently, but the presentations included updates and an emphasis on connections and multi-modality. 

Engineering and community engagement

Mark Howard, chief engineer at HS2 gave an update on the development, progress, and innovation of HS2. Mark also spoke about the challenges HS2 and its neighbours have faced during construction. No one likes a construction site at the bottom of their garden and Mark referred back to the construction of HS1 which attracted similar criticism although it is now accepted as part of the landscape.

Nevertheless, the issue is real, especially as HS2 is passing through many communities that it will not serve, making it doubly important to engage with people and groups that will be affected. In simple terms, he said, engagement should be early, factual and face-to-face.

Choices made in scheme design directly impact individuals, businesses, communities and the environment. Designers therefore need to consider the impact of their design on the local community alongside compliance with standards and they should be prepared to explain and defend their designs when challenged by those affected. HS2 encouraged designers to attend community engagement events to support the community engagement team as it provides feedback on designs and their impact.

HS2 has many stakeholders including: the HS2 Minister, DfT, over 200 Parish Councils, 58 Local Authorities, 29 MPs, residents, landowners, technical groups (e.g., the Wildlife Trust), and the emergency services at hundreds of events per year.

Connectivity in Wales

In Rail Engineer 197 (July/August 2022) David Shirres wrote about Transport for Wales’ (TfW) plans for new and upgraded rolling stock and services. Many of these have, or shortly will, come to fruition, as Andrew Gainsbury, rolling stock strategy manager at TfW explained. First, he illustrated the network (partly running through England) which importantly highlights line names and connections with bus and coach services to destinations not connected directly by rail (Aberystwyth to Swansea, for example).

His focus for this event was on the transformation of what are known as the Core Valley Lines in and out of Cardiff. These are the UK’s first to be provided with discontinuous electrification. Some sections will have conventional 25kV catenary, others with challenging clearances will have permanently earthed catenary, known as Permanently Earthed Sections (PES) and complex sections or those with really challenging clearances and complex junctions will have no catenary, known as Catenary Free Sections (CFS). The 25kV, supplied from Upper Boat near Trefforest, has been laid in trunking alongside the track in PES and CFS. It is also linked to the Rhymney line.

Trains will be powered by batteries on PES and CFS areas. New trains – three and four-car Class 756 Stadler electric/battery/diesel sets and three-car Class 398 Stadler electric/battery tram-trains – together with higher frequencies will transform the capacity of these lines. The Class 756 had only been in service for a few days when the group travelled from Cardiff Central to Taff’s Well later in the day, travelling almost silently along a CFS. The Class 398 is due to enter service in around a year.

Liverpool City Region

Since Rail Engineer last reported on Liverpool’s new trains in Rail Engineer 200 (Jan/Feb 2023) all the old Class 507 trains have been replaced by the new Class 777 units from Stadler and battery-electric propulsion was chosen for and introduced onto the short extension to Headbolt Lane.

David Powell, programme director – rolling stock at Liverpool City Region Combined Authority, said that attention is now turning to exploiting the potential for battery power to extend services over other unelectrified lines around Liverpool, and properly integrating bus and rail modes, something that has hitherto been impossible since bus operations were deregulated in the 1980s. He added that the ambition is for battery/electric hybrid trains to reach Wrexham!

David said that around 1,000 buses operate in and around Liverpool. Merseytravel is exploring bus franchising with the objective of growing patronage and possibly direct ownership of fleets. This would be accompanied by bus prioritisation schemes, upgrades to bus depots (not least, battery charging infrastructure), and interchange hubs.

GWR battery train trial

Jonathan Prince of Great Western Railway (GWR), a young engineer himself, explained the work carried out to understand and optimise power consumption and charging rates for the Class 230 battery train on the West Ealing-Greenford branch, and how this work is being used to develop schemes to decarbonise regional branch lines – see also Rail Engineer 208 (May-Jun 2024).

While still an undergraduate, Jonathan had developed a simulation model to understand how a battery propelled train might perform in various situations. Testing of the trial train has been used both to confirm the model’s predictions and to refine the model. An interesting finding was that driving style has a significant impact on range.

Jonathan introduced an empirical formula for estimating recharging time based on a number of factors which provides a straightforward way of estimating the scale of charging facilities required, although he emphasised that this is merely a starting point. Modelling had to take account of the aforementioned driving styles and many other factors involving routine and exceptional conditions.

He illustrated that modelled factors, including battery state of charge, can and are subject to considerable variation in the real world. All this work will be useful as GWR considers how it replaces its oldest DMUs.

Northern Ireland

William McCullagh, head of major programmes at Translink presented “Northern Ireland in focus, An Integrated Net Zero Approach”. Translink is Northern Ireland’s integrated transport authority serving its population of just under 2 million people. Some 68% of the population is within 30 minutes travel time of a major urban centre by public transport.

With 4,000 staff, it is one of the largest employers in the country; it operates about 13,000 services every day carrying roundly 300,000 passengers. It maintains 1,400 buses and trains operating 44 million miles per year. Translink maintains over 80 bus and rail stations and halts with 8,000 park and ride spaces. The railway asset, valued at about £3 billion includes more than 300 miles of track and 1,600 civil structures.

Rail services are provided by DMUs which were built and are maintained by CAF. Translink also operates a service between Belfast and Dublin jointly with Iarnród Éireann, an operation that has to be authorised under Northern Ireland’s and the European Union’s safety regulations. This cross-border service is operated by four, seven-car (plus loco and generator car) push pull sets.

A sign of Translink’s ambition is the recent opening of Belfast Grand Central station, and the organisation has a strategy for decarbonisation: 50% reduction in emissions by 2030 and net zero by 2040. This strategy includes replacing the diesel-only cross border trains by 2028-2029, and replacing the existing DMUs over the period 2034-2042. Even more ambitious is the All Island Strategic Rail Review, which included diagrams showing how rail routes and service frequency could be expanded.

Transport for London: Piccadilly line

Sarita Coultate, programme delivery manger at Transport for London, and Sabrina Marnham, lead project manager at Siemens Mobility, introduced the new trains for the Piccadilly Line in London and the infrastructure changes necessary to enable operation of the 94-train fleet, the first of which was delivered to Ruislip depot on 16 October 2024. Rail Engineer covered the new trains in Issue 205 (Nov-Dec 2023) and here outlines the changes to the infrastructure required to accommodate the new trains in what is a very tightly coupled overall system. All this is in addition to the usual tasks including on-site testing and staff training as well as delivering more capacity on the line.

Even without the planned, but currently unfunded, moving block signalling and ATO (which would deliver up to 33 trains per hour) the trains and other upgrades will deliver more than a 20% increase in capacity. This is based on a 10% increase in capacity of the new train and an initial increase in frequency from 24 to 27 trains per hour. The changes include:

Depots & stabling

• Enable existing depot roads and facilities to maintain and berth the new rolling stock as trains arrive in London.
• Provide train driver simulators and an underfloor wheel lathe at Cockfosters.
• Carry out extensive reconstruction to provide maintenance facilities and fleet accommodation at both depots (Northfields and Cockfosters to support the life of the train). This includes additional or reconstructed stabling sidings.
• Provide longer and additional sidings at South Harrow.
• Modify all train arrestors (buffer stops) to be compatible with new trains’ side buffers.

Stations

• Install digital One Person Operation (OPO) track to train CCTV System and upgrade of low voltage supplies across network to support this system.
• Fit WiFi links for off train communication.
• Adjust platform heights and gaps where non-compliant and move platform humps to correspond to wheelchair doorways.
• Install shore side correct side door enable transmitters.
• Fit new platform stop position markers.

Power

• Install 10 sub-station upgrades: new transformer rectifiers, HV. DC and LV panels, SCADA, over 100km HV and fibre optic cable installation.
• Construct two large scale substation extensions providing space for new HV equipment.
• Build four new Transformer Rooms across Pic Line including integration in existing power network.
• Install new LV main cable network and substation equipment upgrade between Sudbury Hills and Ealing to enable signalling immunisation.
• Upgrade trackside DC power infrastructure to support the trains’ regenerative braking and increased peak power draw.

Infrastructure

• Replacement of 21km steel conductor rail with the low-loss aluminium/stainless steel composite type.
• Gauge clearance works for Platform Train Interface (PTI) improvements.
• RVAR, new platform humps, track raising, and provision of mobile ramps to meet accessibility requirements.
• Upgrade of low voltage station supplies across network to support OPO CCTV functionality.

Signal and control systems

• Immunising the legacy signalling track circuits between South Harrow and North Ealing.
• Legacy signalling design alterations at King’s Cross to remove an existing headway constraint which will support the increased service frequency to 27tph.
• Installing and commissioning co-acting signals to enable suitable signal sighting from the new trains.

Site visits and group activity

The Young Engineers and Apprentices Railway Seminar is an unusual conference as it includes site visits and group workshops.

The site visits were to Taff’s Well depot which will house the Class 398 fleet, and to Pullman Rail’s facility located in part of Cardiff Canton depot site. The value of the site visits became clear when several delegates said that these were their debut visits.

The group travelled by train to Taff’s Well on a Class 756 unit that had only been in service for a few days. It was an experience to glide silently into the station and then look up and see no OLE! Class 756 trains are a huge improvement in passenger accommodation compared with the Class 150 the group used later in the day. Taff’s Well is a new depot built on a relatively compact site specifically to stable and maintain Class 398 tram-trains for the Core Valley Lines and, eventually, on-street running in central Cardiff.

The depot is on a relatively constrained site but was developed specifically for the Class 398 fleet which is capable of using much smaller radius curves than is normal for main line depots, so many 25-metre radius curves have been provided from the main line to the shed and stabling roads.

Most of the features that would be seen in a modern electric train depot were present with some additional features specific to this fleet including the underfloor wheel lathe. Some of the specific features included:

• No OLE in the sheds except for a single length of retractable overhead conductor bar on one road to enable testing following work on a unit’s 25kV system. Movements in and out of the shed and around the depot are by battery power.
• Three phase 415V shore supplies for inside the depot building for powering train systems whilst being maintained.
• Wheeled accommodation supports for the inner end of cab cars which have a bogie at the cab end only.
• 20 kV OLE in the yard for battery charging only.
• Mobile sand dispensers to refill the units’ sanders.

The Class 398 tram-trains are three-car/four-bogie sets with the outer, single bogie cars supported at their inner ends by the two-bogie centre cars. They have a top speed of 100km/h, have 126 seats, and a total capacity of 252 passengers (based on 4 standees/m2). There are three double sliding plug doors per side with extendable steps which fill the gap between train and platform. The floor height is 915mm. The units are fitted with magnetic track brakes which are for future street running but are currently disabled for main line running. The 740mm wheels have P8 profiles meaning that, for future street running, the embedded rails will have to have unusually wide grooves.

Pullman Rail is a wholly-owned subsidiary of TfW providing vehicle repair, bogie overhaul, and wheelset maintenance. It is one of the few small-medium size enterprises offering these services. As well as carrying out work for TfW Rail, Pullman Rail has numerous customers across the rail industry including TOCs, leasing companies, and freight operators. Delegates saw the competence and attention to detail required when maintaining bogies and wheelsets which are critical to train safety.

The group workshop session this year was to develop presentations for sustainable public transport options to connect communities. To help delegates come up with clear, concise, impactful presentations, Anna Kennedy, speechwriter and coach, led an interactive session on communication skills in engineering to equip delegates with effective tools and techniques for effective communication and pitching of ideas. Your writer was delegated to be a judge and, whilst a winning team was identified, in practice all teams presented well and had clearly learned from Anna Kennedy’s session.

Conclusion

This was a stimulating event where every part was informative. It presented opportunities to network and hear about engineering issues that the young engineers might not encounter in their day job.

They say that every day is a learning day and at the advanced old age of 73, your writer learned a great deal and would encourage mentors and graduate & apprentice managers to encourage and support young engineers to attend next year’s event which is due to take place in York on 27 and 28 November 2025.

Image credit: TfL