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APRIL 2019 VOL 137 PART 2

Permanent Way Institution The Institution for Rail Infrastructure Engineers

PWI Practical Trackwork Challenge GREAT CENTRAL RAILWAY LEICESTERSHIRE

Richard Spoors, Malcolm Pearce and Andy Packham TECHNICAL ARTICLE PAGE 12 CALIFORNIA: FROM DOUBLE AN EXPLORATIVE CASE STUDY INNOVATIVE APPLICATION OF RAIL TRACK TO TRIPLE TRACK COLLABORATIVE WORKING AND FASTENINGS FOR HS2 INTEGRATED DATA MANAGEMENT IN TRACK RENEWAL PROJECTS

AS PUBLISHED IN Page 16 Page 22 Page 42

PWI Journal APR 2019.indd 1 25/04/2019 14:41 The Journal April 2019 Volume 137 Part 2

If you would like to reproduce this article, please contact:

Kerrie Illsley JOURNAL PRODUCTION EDITOR Permanent Way Institution [email protected]

PLEASE NOTE THE OPINIONS EXPRESSED IN THIS JOURNAL ARE NOT NECESSARILY THOSE OF THE EDITOR OR OF THE INSTITUTION AS A BODY. TECHNICAL

AUTHOR:

Phil Kirkland What in Head of Maintenance Delivery Nexus the world…? PWI Vice President for (North)

An occasional look at some significant rail infrastructure developments overseas with the intention of ‘inspiring and exciting’ both today’s and tomorrow’s railway infrastructure engineers.

The main aim of the programme is to make Priority routes will include: and its passenger trains run quicker, whilst at the same time improving the quality, reliability and • St Petersburg– () service of those passenger trains. • – Smolensk – Krasnoe high speed • Moscow – The main tasks of the programme are as • Moscow – Kursk follows: • Moscow – Voronezh railways • Moscow – Kaluga – Bryansk –Suzemka • The manufacture of a new generation of • Moscow – The change of economic climate in Russia, the fast and high-speed • Rostov– Krasnodar growth of freight traffic and the change in the • Deciding upon routes for fast and high- • Rostov– Mineralnye Vody types and routes of freight that have occurred speed trains • Krasnodar – Mineralnye Vody in recent years, provided momentum for the • Ensuring fast and high-speed travel on • Novosibirsk – Omsk, Tomsk, Kemerovo, programme to develop Fast and High-Speed the key priority routes in Russia Barnaul, Novokuznetsk Rail travel on Russia’s Railways towards 2030. • Creating the technical equipment to • Ekaterinburg – Chelyabinsk On 17 June 2008, Prime Minister Vladimir operate fast and high-speed trains • Samara – Saransk, Penza, Saratov Putin signed the Strategy for Developing Rail • Training staff to work with fast and high- • Saratov – Transport towards 2030. One of the key tasks speed trains • Saratov – Michurinsk within this strategy was the development of fast (up to 160 km/hr) and high-speed (up 350 km/ Three sets of measures have been set out as 3. Building high-speed rail tracks where trains hr) passenger rail travel. part of the programme: can reach speeds of up to 350 km/hr:

Introducing new technologies and fast 1. Increasing the speed of long-distance • St Petersburg – Moscow passenger trains on will allow passenger trains on journeys of more than • Moscow – Adler for: 700km to 70-90km/hr. These routes will be served by passenger carriages with sleeping Fast passenger travel is regarded worldwide • Significant reduction in passenger journey areas. as the safest, most comfortable and most times ecologically friendly form of transport and • Improve journey conditions, increase 2. Creating fast rail services after the according to the 2030 strategy, over the next comfort, and thus boost passenger levels reconstruction of existing lines between major two decades, the amount of high-speed rail up to 30%, and on international routes, regional centres, where the journey time does track in Russia will multiply 17 times – from up to 37% not exceed 7 hours, using fast trains that travel the current 650km to 10,887km. Additionally, • Create jobs in manufacturing and between 160 km/hr and 200 km/hr. on a range of routes there are plans to build implementing new generation rail additional tracks to serve normal freight, technology at Russian factories passenger and suburban trains, leaving special • Raise technological processes in the lines that are dedicated to the high speed transport machine building sector to new train services. In order to ensure high speed levels of quality rail operation in Russia, special separate

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infrastructure will be created, and high speed systems, technical service systems and rolling JSC (Joint Stock Company) Russian Railways trains at up to 350km/hr will be introduced. By stock. This means that the development of has a near-monopoly on long-distance train 2030 the length of dedicated high-speed train fast and high-speed transport requires major travel in Russia, with a 90% market share. infrastructure should be up to 1,500km. technical and financial resources, renewal Russia’s railways are divided into seventeen and changes in rail infrastructure, creating regional railways, from the High-speed lines will link Moscow and St automatic control systems and broadening serving the St. Petersburg region to the Far Petersburg, Nizhny Novgorod, Smolensk and the centralised control rooms and associated Eastern Railway serving , to Krasnoe. Choosing options for the construction systems. the free-standing and of the high-speed lines between Moscow and Railways on either end. Nizhny Novgorod and Moscow-Smolensk- in Russia operates on one of the Krasnoe (Western border) will be determined biggest railway networks in the world. Russian The regional railways were closely coordinated on the dynamic of the prevailing socio- railways are the third longest by length and by the Ministry of the Means of Communication economic development of the country. third by volume of freight hauled, after the until 2003, and the Joint Stock Company Worldwide experience of high speed railways of the and . Rail Russian Railways since then – including the operations in countries such as , has been described as one pooling and redistribution of revenues. This China, Japan and shows that they of the economic wonders of the 19th, 20th, and has been crucial to two long-standing policies require the permanent way to be in exceptional 21st centuries. Russia’s railways remain a key of cross-subsidisation: to passenger operations condition, with high demands from energy strategic focus for the nation. from freight revenues, and to coal shipments from other freight.

The majority of Russia’s rail network uses the 1,520mm Russian gauge, which includes all metro systems and the majority of tram networks in the country. The Sakhalin Railway, on Sakhalin Island used 1,067mm Cape gauge, however tracks on island are now undergoing conversion to Russian gauge. A section from the –Russia border to Kaliningrad, uses the 1,435mm Standard gauge. Kaliningrad’s tram network also uses metre-gauge tracks at 1,000mm, as does ’s Pyatigorsk network.

Current high speed operations:

Moscow– is Russia’s highest speed railway with a top speed of 250 km/h (155 mph). Two experimental high-speed train sets which were built as long ago as 1974 and designed for 200 km/h (120 mph) operation A Velaro ‘’ Russian high speed train departs Moscow were initially introduced. But it wasn’t until Dec

Rail map main routes - Russia

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(RPM) / Plasser and Theurer Automatic S&C Tamping Machine PMA Photo courtesy: LJ

Plasser and Theurer Unimat 08-475/4S with ballast brush Photo courtesy: LJ

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Early ER-200 RVR High speed train Photo courtesy: Ilya Semyonoff

High speed, self-propelled universal track-measuring and flaw detection car Photo courtesy: LJ

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Tracklayer PB-3M with clamped lifting beam - designed for installation or dismantling of 25metre wood or concrete panels, here on the Sakhalin Island Railway, installing dual gauge 1,067mm and 1520mm concrete sleepers. Photo courtesy: SIR

Elsewhere a Tracklayer PB-3M team gets it badly wrong! (We’ve all similarly been there done that too!) Photo courtesy: RZD

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aims to improve cargo transportation between Beijing and Moscow. China has shown its interest in taking part in the project as part of the construction of the high-speed rail network between Moscow and Beijing. One of the main conditions from the Chinese side was to use their technology and equipment for construction. Due to underdeveloped local capability and lack of access to Western technologies, the Russian counterparts agreed to these conditions. Russian Railways plans to operate 300m-long bullet trains on the route. The trains will have an operating speed of 360km/h and a maximum speed of 440km/h.

Image courtesy: AGICO Rail, China Moscow–Rostov line: A new line with the capacity for high speed rail was approved due to the old line passing through 2009 that the Sapsan service on the Moscow increases of Afrosiyob in Uzbekistan, the line and was completed in 2018; but whether it will – St Petersburg railway came into service. The is technically not full HSR speed; the line has actually be used for high-speed trains, remains first upgraded 250 km/h service using Russian been undergoing upgrades in 2018.Russia also unknown. The bypass route was constructed high speed trains Sapsan went into service on has the following lines under consideration: given the political dissent between Russia December 26, 2009. and Ukraine, and now means Russian trains Moscow–Kazan High-Speed Rail Project: do not have to pass through Ukraine at all. Interestingly, the Russian Military built this Helsinki–St. Petersburg: 200 km/h (124 mph) The call to build this 770 kilometres, 2018 high-speed service using Class completed rail line that would connect Kazan railway in its entirety. Sm6 () trains started on December 12, and Moscow was first announced by President 2010, reducing travel time from 5.5 hours to 3.5 in the Economic Forum at St. Moscow–St Petersburg line: In February hours. The trains run at 200 km/h (124 mph) on Petersburg in 2013. Plans for the railway 2010, Russia announced that it would unveil most of the Russian part, and 220 km/h (137 estimate that it will be the first true high-speed proposals in March 2010, for a new “European mph) on a short stretch in Finland. line in Russia with trains operating at up to 400 standard” high-speed line between St kilometres per hour. A rail trip from Moscow to Petersburg and Moscow. The new line would be built to Russian gauge and would probably Moscow–Nizhny Novgorod: High-speed Kazan which today takes almost 13h would be traffic in Nizhny Novgorod began in July reduced to 3h 30m. This project was paused at be built parallel to the existing line. At an event 2010. Two Sapsan trains make shuttle trips the instruction of President Putin, but is now in on 1 April 2010, it was announced that the between Nizhny Novgorod and Moscow, design mode. new Moscow – St. Petersburg high-speed line and one between Nizhny Novgorod and St. would allow trains to run at speeds up to 400 Petersburg. The latter route takes 8 hours At more than 700km, the route is the first km/h (249 mph). The total journey time would and 30 minutes, compared to the previous 14 phase of the Russian section of a high-speed be cut from 3h 45m to 2h 30m. The new line hours. Nevertheless, like the gradual speed rail network between and Asia that would be expected to make extensive use of bridges, and viaducts.

Siemens Sapsan High Speed train heads for St. Petersburg from Moscow Photo courtesy: CCO

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Representatives from many other high-speed • Survey and design are carried out within of JSC Russian Railways since 2008. It is the lines were to be consulted, in an effort to avoid the HACS single coordinate space based largest scientific and research centre of 1520 construction delays and design flaws. Apart on the geodetic chains (GC) and GPS mm railway system in the field of research from faster travel times, the new line would systems. and design works that is capable to conduct a increase capacity, since the current line is • Design data for specific activities are whole spectrum of certification tests. congested and there is only room for a limited prepared with reference to the HACS with number of high speed trains. It would also generation of output digital track models VNIIZhT has the world’s first of its kind test improve safety, since trains pass some level • Automatic Ballast Cleaning and facility for permanent way designs with loads crossings at 250 km/h. rehabilitation systems, levelling and of 300-350 million tons per year, a facility for tamping machines are now equipped with the conduction of rolling stock tests at speeds Moscow–Riga (): Under consideration, satellite navigation systems and special of up to 220 km/h and testing of elements and but considered a low priority. software for on-board control devices units at loads of up to 500 tons. ensure automated control of design Two experimental high-speed trainsets were ballast cutting and track geometry. NBT has been conceived with a design life actually built in 1974 designed for 200 km/h • Automated track geometry and overhead of 100 years and is intended to meet the (120 mph) operation: the locomotive-hauled line measuring systems have also been requirements of operations ranging from RT-200 (“Russkaya Troika”) and the ER-200 introduced to ensure continuous asset heavy-haul freight with 25-tonne axle loads EMU. The RT-200 set made only experimental condition monitoring. to 360km/h high-speed operations. Other runs in 1975 and 1980 and was discontinued • Acceptance of the deliverables of key design parameters included the need to due to the unavailability of the ChS-200 high- maintenance and renewal activities and accommodate cant in curves, compatibility speed locomotive, which was only delivered handback of tracks is, (as here in the UK), with level crossings, a small footprint, rapid later. made based on objective measurements installation, low maintenance, and easy repair of track geometry and comparison with in the event of localised structural damage. The ER-200 EMU went into regular service design values, rather than the historical The system is designed to enable 4.8m long in 1984. In 1992, a second ER-200 trainset opinionated approach. slabs to be removed and replaced if required. was built in Riga, Latvia. Rīgas Vagonbūves • A full programme of preventative train- The system appears to use Pandrol Single Rūpnīca (RVR) is one of the largest machine- borne rail grinding is also in operation Fastclip fasteners, enabling adjustment building plants in Latvia, founded in 1895 and across the network. of ±20mm laterally and ±30mm vertically. was for many years the largest producer of Special fastenings are employed for switches electric and diesel trains and also tramcars in The experience of the practical application of and crossings, with Vossloh Cogifer’s 300W the former . the aforementioned practices on selected lines fastening apparently used as the reference of the Russian Railways network between 2012 design. Both ER-200 sets were retired in 2009. and 2015 led to the following projections: Where the NBT meets conventional ballasted One of the recent innovations actively • Cost/efficiency savings in survey and track, a 25m-long transition zone is to be developed by the Russian Railways with design activities installed with rail stiffeners and a graduated regard to track and other railway infrastructure • Cost/efficiency savings in reballasting change in the stiffness of the rail pads. Not construction and maintenance is the use of works – precision identification and unexpectedly, information about permanent coordinate-based technology, ie - Absolute removal of contaminated locations way standards, inspection and maintenance Track Geometry and Through Alignment • Cost/efficiency savings in track access is not particularly accessible; however by Design. These consist of the deployment requirements (elimination of OTM example some comparable rail data has been of a high-precision coordinate grid over the measuring runs etc) sourced below: railway network to facilitate precise and repeat • Cost/efficiency savings in track positioning of the tracks. maintenance and increased periods There are three standards for Russian steel between interventions rail: ГOCT 24182-80, ГOCT 18267-82 and The implementation of coordinate-based • Cost/efficiency in rolling stock wear and ГOCT P 51685-2000. They are designed for methods by the Russian Railways is currently tear through higher quality infrastructure different steel, ГOCT 24182-80 is the standard carried out by deploying High Accuracy for hot-rolled rails, and ГOCT 18267-82 is for Coordinate Systems (HACS) along railway In order to achieve these, Russian railways heat treated rails. GOST P 65kg is a typical lines by means of satellite technologies which and its supply chain have had to reconsider type Russian standard steel rail. (Info courtesy integrate the whole base of spatial data in the its approach to track inspection, maintenance of AGICO Rail, China). form of the Integrated Railway Infrastructure and high output systems. Whilst the processes Spatial Data System. of permanent way engineering are essentially Maybe you can find out more! the same, these differing approaches in This method was first used during the creation technique are worthy of an entirely separate Without doubt Russian Railways are one of the of the Moscow– Saint Petersburg high-speed consideration. hidden wonders of the world when it comes to line, where a high accuracy coordinate system permanent way and other activities. The era of was deployed to support the establishment Another step in the development of the next- high speed rail has finally arrived, technology of the Russian Railways’ common coordinate generation New Ballastless Track (NBT) slab and methodology has changed rapidly, but plan. The HACS includes GPS reference track system took place with the launch of the those underpinning skills and knowledge stations, a satellite data processing centre and first 1520mm-gauge trials at the VNIIZhT test always remain the same. a geodetic chain. centre at Shcherbinka near Moscow. Hopefully this short article will inspire your The system of engineering solutions that The Shcherbinka test centre mirrors the TTCI further research, reading and even travel to supports track reconstruction and repair (Transportation Technology Centre Inc.) at some far flung places. developed using coordinate-based methods is Pueblo In Colorado and is way in excess of our based on the following principles: former beloved Research Centre at Derby, or indeed the current RIDC facilities, excellent as they are. VNIIZHhT was founded in 1918 and has been an affiliated company

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