Network Rail to phase out trackside signalling & Tornado again?

[centenary]

Britain’s steam trains are facing an uncertain future as Network Rail pushes ahead with plans to abolish traditional railway signals.

One-hundred-year-old steam trains will need to be piloted by laptop if they are to continue operating on the mainline under cost-cutting plans to abolish traditional “traffic light” signals.

Trials are underway to determine whether digital screens and software can be fitted into the cabs of steam engines and historical diesels as part of the push to eliminate lineside lights.

Should the so-called European Train Control System (ETCS) prove to be incompatible with steam, iconic locomotives including the Flying Scotsman and Royal Scot face being confined to minor lines and preserved railways.

In order to assess the challenge, ETCS equipment has been installed in Tornado, a steam train that was completed by enthusiasts in 2008 based on a design from the late 1940s.

If what is essentially a new-build locomotive is unable to accommodate the technology, time may be up for more venerable engines such as the Flying Scotsman, which was built in 1923 and is the oldest steam engine still active on Britain’s main lines.
the Flying Scotsman
The Flying Scotsman is the oldest steam engine still active on Britain’s main lines Credit: Charlotte Graham/Andy Jones/CAG Photography Ltd

While ETCS already features on a handful of routes, Network Rail aims to extend it across the entire railway, arguing that it will cut the maintenance bill and maximise hourly capacity compared with relying on red, green and amber signals.

Network Rail said it aimed to ensure that steam and heritage diesel trains, which contribute £600m annually to the economy, can still ran. However, a source at the firm said the trials were exploratory and provided no guarantee of them being able to do so.

The source said: “If we prove the concept with Tornado and it works properly, then we are in a better place to understand costs and feasibility for future deployment.

“But who will pay for that when there is a totally non-standard fleet of steam engines owned by a variety of different people is absolutely not certain.”

The national rollout of the new signalling technology will start on the southern end of the East Coast Main Line from King’s Cross station to Edinburgh and is likely to next be extended to the West Coast route between Euston and Glasgow and the Great Western line from Paddington.

Under ETCS, rather than look out of the cab for signals, drivers will monitor a screen displaying a target speed and a distance until they have to slow down or speed up.

The system will utilise an in-house mobile phone system that allows drivers to talk to signallers, with the trains themselves automatically braking if driven too fast or going through a virtual red light, delivering an improvement in safety.

Boxes between the tracks will inform a train of its location by sending a signal when it passes over them.

Development of the technology will also help to add more trains per hour, Network Rail said. Trains will be evenly spaced out in the most efficient pattern, much like aircraft coming into land.

Tornado took part in night-time trials this week on the ETCS-fitted line between Shrewsbury and Newtown in mid Wales, seeking to overcome challenges around electrical supply, braking, the configuration of the engine and the difficulty of operating a screen in a noisy, dusty and often wet open cab.
steam train
‘Hogwarts Express’ operator West Coast Railways has faced its own challenges in recent years Credit: Delpixart/iStockphoto

Test trains were run by West Coast Railways – the biggest steam operator on the main line and the firm behind Scotland’s popular “Hogwarts Express” – which has itself faced a battle for survival after the rail regulator outlawed the 1950s-era carriages its customers prefer.

Rob Morland, electrical engineer at the A1 Steam Locomotive Trust, which owns Tornado, said the engine had to be fitted with a second steam turbo-generator, a new alternator and a third battery bank in order to power the ETCS system.

Network Rail said it was too early to comment on the outcome of the trials.

A Deltic loco – regarded as Britain’s most iconic diesel – will undergo the same tests on the line later this year.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/20 ... -face-axe/

[Mountain]

Is all very odd when they can find vast amounts of funds to do un-neccessary upgrades when they suddenly have no funds to invest in more desparate transportation needs.

[Bigmet]

Nothing odd about investing in technology to make the existing railway more operationally efficient, and thus of increased capacity and greater safety. These are more steps in the continuous improvement process that railway development has exhibited since its invention, and I suggest should be welcomed.

[Phred]

Bigmet wrote:
Nothing odd about investing in technology to make the existing railway more operationally efficient, and thus of increased capacity and greater safety.

Is that the case or is it a case of 'If it ain't broke don't fix it'? I wouldn't know, maybe it is better. Or maybe it's just cheaper (more money for the slush fund). Or someone wanting to make their mark by 'revolutionising' the railway. The Luddite in me has been formed by decades of 'efficiency experts' making my life a misery.

[centenary]

Bigmet wrote:
Nothing odd about investing in technology to make the existing railway more operationally efficient, and thus of increased capacity and greater safety.

Is that the case or is it a case of 'If it ain't broke don't fix it'? I wouldn't know, maybe it is better. Or maybe it's just cheaper (more money for the slush fund). Or someone wanting to make their mark by 'revolutionising' the railway. The Luddite in me has been formed by decades of 'efficiency experts' making my life a misery.

As far as Im aware, BR \ NR have wanted 'signalling in the cab' for years. This is partly to do with safety but also the need \ ability to run faster trains. The human eyesight being what it is, finds it increasingly difficult to recognise the status of trackside signalling as speeds get over 150mph. Having the signalling in the cab eradicates that.

Even if most UK trains dont hit over 125mph, the safety aspect warrants it. Rail unions opposed it for years much the same as HGV drivers called the tachograph the spy in the cab.

[Bigmet]

...Is that the case or is it a case of 'If it ain't broke don't fix it'? I wouldn't know, maybe it is better. Or maybe it's just cheaper (more money for the slush fund). Or someone wanting to make their mark by 'revolutionising' the railway. The Luddite in me has been formed by decades of 'efficiency experts' making my life a misery....

This is where you have to trust that the technical crew overseeing this have got it right: since they are using a proven tchnology well established in service on mainland European railways, and I expect already working in the UK on the St Pancras to Chunnel section, it should be OK.

The man to read if you want to understand how it should be done, try Dr W. Edwards Deming: 'Out of the Crisis' is an easy read; and then you will know where the 'efficiency expert' trouble lies.

My own career was in a large multinational with a unique technology as the key element of the business, and the number of opportunists that had an 'improvement' to offer you would have to see to believe. In the technical crew we had these distributed for assessment appropriate to our skill set, and every one that hit my in-tray was quickly resolved as belonging in the round filing cabinet. And a letter would go out: usually, thank you, but already known and fully assessed, and we can prove it apply to this address with this reference. In my time I know of just one that was accepted and purchased as it enabled a very neat cost reduction: the two man team that proposed it 'got the bounty', and were taken on, funded, and then contracted as dedicated sole suppliers. I got to meet them years later as a consequence of being in the application team for the first European Foundation for Quality Management award in 1992. (We won.)

[Phred]

Thank you, centenary and Bigmet. Clear and interesting information as usual.

Hard to imagine trains travelling at over 100 mph in regular service. Even 'fast' trains trains in Australia are, well, not very fast.

One of Deming's points stands out for me, having worked for several private 'Telcos' where my ongoing employment meant beating a production chart on a daily basis:

Eliminate management by numbers, numerical goals. Substitute leadership.

[Bigmet]

...One of Deming's points stands out for me...Eliminate management by numbers, numerical goals. Substitute leadership.

Yes, treat everyone in the operation as a team member and work consistently to improve the whole team's capability.

He was one of three very well qualified men that the US government sent to Japan to assist in rebuilding that nation's industrial capability at the end of WWII, the other two Dr's Feigenbaum and Juran. In the light of the current 'discontented' US Pres. and VP's statements, you might be interested to learn that at the 1962 American motor industry Convention, Dr Juran warned the room that the Japanese motor manufacturers were coming to eat their lunch, unless the US businesses changed their ways to become competitive. Greeted by gales of laughter...