Rail Engineer – July 2019

Staging the project
Work on the ground
commenced in April 2018.
The port runs no trains
between Saturday evening to
Monday morning, so it was
possible to schedule complete
possessions during this time
for most weekends through
to May 2019. During these
possessions, stone, sleepers,
rails and track panels were
run out for the loop, new
signals erected, new 650V DC
signalling supply cables run
out, SSI data links cut into the
new locations, and the steel
sections of the equestrian
bridge (pre-fabricated at
Doncaster), craned in over four
weekends using a 750T crane.
A blockade over the Christmas
2018 holiday period saw the
all new loop S&C installed into
the existing running line using
a Kirow crane. Point ends were
detected and cut into the track
circuit, such that a point failure
would show up as a track circuit
failure, a scenario covered by a

special signal box instruction.

The new 650V supply system

was fully commissioned.

A further possession during

the 2019 spring bank holiday

saw the signalling system

put through ‘out and back’

rehearsal testing. All the

external equipment and data

links were connected for

testing to the new Smartlock &

MCS. New signals, TPWS and

AWS were correspondence

tested and the existing

equipment through tested,

before being switched back to

the original system, giving a

few days for outstanding issues

to be resolved.

The final commissioning of

the new signalling workstation

took place overnight on 28/29

May. On this night, the systems

were changed over to final

Felixstowe work station.

FE ATURE 53