Nitty gritty
A total of 4km of new trackwork and
overhead wire was installed by VolkerRail,
which involved 25,000 tonnes of ballast
being brought to the site. All of the yard
points have point heaters and are power
operated using clamp locks controlled
from a central location within the office
complex. The signalling system was
installed by Bombardier, utilising a mix of
axle counters and track circuits.
Within the depot, there are four raised
maintenance roads that have overhead
line equipment (OLE), monorail hoists
and platform level access. The OLE lock
off systems for these were provided
by ZoneGreen. In addition, high level
platforms allow easy access to carriage
roof mounted equipment.
At present, the OLE within the depot
area is powered from the local ECML
supply. To improve OLE reliability, a
second, independent, power supply,
serving only the depot, is currently being
installed. Completion of the new supply is
scheduled for October 2019.
The non-wired fifth road of the
maintenance shed is equipped with
Mechan lifting jacks that are capable
of lifting an entire 10-car train
simultaneously. Not surprisingly, this track
is called the lifting road. Two Mechan
turntables allow bogies to be run out
and moved easily into the adjacent
workshop areas. There is also a three-road equipment drop, again supplied by
Mechan. At present, the intention is to
subcontract bogie maintenance off-site,
but the facilities exist for this work to be
done in-house.
Road 5 also has SchenckProcess
Multirail® WheelLoad equipment that can
simultaneously measure the individual
wheel loadings of a train’s carriages. It is
used to ensure equal weight distribution
within bogies. The workshop area is also
equipped with a Multirail® BogieLoad
press that provides vertical force on
bogies under test, whilst at the same time
measuring the individual wheel loadings.Into action
So much for the wherewithal, but how
does Hitachi Rail intend to make use of its
£80 million investment at Doncaster?
Hitachi has responsibility for all aspects
of maintenance for the IEP trains running
on the ECML. Train cleaning, which
includes the charging and emptying of
tanks, will be carried out by the train
operators or their contractors, but
everything else, even the rectification of
trivial faults, falls to Hitachi Rail.
On the ECML, maintenance of the
new Hitachi trains will be shared
between Bounds Green (North London),1818 FE ATURE