Waste not want not

October 28th 2009

You can always spot an engineer; they're the ones peering longingly into building skips, agonising over the waste and imagining how they could effectively recycle the discarded content. For an engineer, one of the more satisfying experiences is the ability to recycle used materials to good effect, at a new location. If you fit into this category - and you must do so if you are reading this article - then sit back, relax and enjoy the following tale.

Passengers on the Boston to Skegness line are about to benefit from substantial investment. That's good news. But what is equally pleasing is that the overall project will see 36 miles of track replaced using recycled materials, thus making the railways even greener. The work is split into three phases, replacing 12 miles of track in each phase. The first - now complete - cost £9.1 million and got underway on Friday 2nd October, finishing on 2nd November. The second phase is planned for the financial year 2010/11 and the third phase for 2011/12.

Franchise commitment

Boston to Skegness forms part of a route that shelters beneath the umbrella of the Association of Community Rail Partnerships (ACoRP). The association is a rail promotion group designed to breathe new life into local lines. In the past, local MP Mark Symonds has raised questions in the Commons about funding provision for the route. Coupled with this, Network Rail made a franchise commitment with East Midland Trains to improve capacity from two-car DMUs to HSTs and Class 222s, the latter being much heavier and far more demanding on the track. That franchise commitment has already been honoured but the concern is that this has been achieved without any improvements being made to the track.

The majority of the route consists of jointed bullhead rail with timber sleepers on ash ballast. The line opened in 1873. Most of the materials date back to the 1940s and there is some track - albeit very short lengths - dating back as far as the 19th century. Very little investment has been made since the 1960s. Beeching seriously considered axing the route and, with the additional pounding from those heavier trains, the track is suffering whilst maintenance costs spiral. Something had to be done.

For some time, Network Rail has been preparing for such a challenge. Wherever possible, instead of discarding used rail, crushing old concrete sleepers and tipping spent ballast, it has decided to find and redirect track material that would still have a serviceable life on a less demanding route.

Recycling brings cost benefits

Scheme project manager Roland Kettle explained in detail what they have planned and what they are doing. In a depot compound at Sibsey, five miles north-east of Boston, more than 37,000 F27 concrete sleepers and 40,000 metres of CWR has been stockpiled - all serviceable from the Western Route via Thingley Depot, the West Coast Route Modernisation programme and other locations.

In addition to this is 20,000 tonnes of top ballast - obviously, this is new but also being put to good use is an adequate supply of bottom ballast that has been sourced from Network Rail's Whitemoor Tip. Here they are now filtering spent ballast, ensuring that a proportion is recycled as bottom ballast on projects such as this. This is admirable - not only are materials being recycled but costs for renewals are being reduced by around 50%. The knock-on effect for routes such as Boston-Skegness is that they become more viable as maintenance costs start to come down. More resources have been earmarked for the next phases and, over the coming months, they will arrive on a piecemeal basis to be stockpiled. The design for the route, valued at approximately £130,000, has been carried out by Babcock Rail and this work is expected to be completed before Christmas.

Repeating work cycles

In conjunction with main contractor Jarvis, the team has planned the first phase so that it is carried out in ten cycles, each lasting 48 hours. This enables the same manpower, the same train pattern and the same resources and plant support to be used for each cycle. The first two phases went according to plan but train delays and movements into the possession did cause some problems with the third phase. These were soon resolved with subsequent phases running smoothly and lost time being recovered. The intention is to adopt this cycle method for the next two phases and also to share lessons learnt with other track renewals organisations within Network Rail.

Within each cycle there are nine ballast trains to process. Two trains consist of the new Osprey wagons for delivering and removing track components. These have replaced the old flatbed Salmon wagons. The benefit of the new Ospreys is that their loads do not need to be strapped down. This removes a significant risk to workers who, when working on Salmon wagons, ran the risk of slipping and falling whilst climbing onto them to strap and secure the load. In addition, four trains of Falcon wagons are being used to deliver the recycled bottom ballast and remove the ash ballast spoil from site.

Jarvis has provided its Slinger Sleeper Delivery train, operated by Fastline, and there are two trains consisting of Auto Hoppers for the new ballast. The total workforce required for each cycle is approximately 230 including drivers, operators, track staff, supervisors and managers. About 40% are provided by Jarvis, based at depots in Doncaster, Peterborough and Leeds. The remaining 60% are either drivers, crew or subcontract labour provided primarily by SES, Leda and Vital Rail.

Leaky Feeder system

With so many staff working to the same tight schedule, effective communication is critical. Roland explained that the normal practice of back-to-back radios is all right for a conventional relaying site which might be two miles long but it is totally inadequate for one of 16 miles. As a consequence, a new Leaky Feeder system was used, provided by SES of Doncaster. This involved laying a coaxial cable along the length of the site to ‘leak' a signal throughout its length. This created an effective means of communication between drivers, PICOPs, Engineering Supervisors, Machine Controllers and Machine Operators - an essential requirement for a smooth and reliable operation.

The system has worked so well that they are considering using a Machine Controller (MC) to supervise more than one machine because the system allows one controller to effectively communicate with different operators. As we all know, MCs often have to work in places where they become more exposed to risks; reducing their number will reduce this exposure level - clearly, that is good news.

The whole communication system is operated from a control centre based on site at Sibsey. The centre is able to track plant, identifying its location and movement. The system also has a recording function so the team can review what has happened and consider ways of making improvements or investigating a mishap.

Bridges and level crossings

A semaphore signalling system is used on the route and there are no plans to change this. It is simple, still effective and fit for purpose. The natural drainage is very good and no significant additional drainage work is being carried out.

The first phase included two waybeam bridges - one of these, called Grand Sluice Bridge, is located outside Boston Station. At the start of the blockade, May Gurney completed £500,000 worth of work to improve track/bridge connections and renew the waybeams ready to receive flat-bottomed jointed track. The other bridge only requires baseplate replacement ready for new rail. Five more bridges will receive attention in later phases.

It's a flat part of the country so there are a number of road crossings to take into consideration. Ten of these are significant, including the busy A16 road together with a number of minor ones. An effective dialogue with local authorities has been essential. Network Rail is taking advantage of the blockade to upgrade decking and other equipment using in-house labour. So far, this is proving to be very successful which bodes well for the future.

Groundbreaking project

It's a fascinating project. There are political overtones, innovative ideas and opportunities to benefit from a standard approach to track renewal. Advantages are on offer both to the paying passenger with a potential linespeed increase from 60mph to 75mph and to the railway through a reduction in ongoing maintenance costs. But probably the most satisfying aspect of the project is the recycling of perfectly good railway materials. It's good for the environment and good for the sustainability of similar routes into the future. Roland Kettle and all the team must, quite rightly, be very proud of what they are achieving.

Route director Richard Lungmuss sums it up very well. "This is a groundbreaking project that will deliver huge benefits to the thousands of people who use this route. We are using recycled materials on an unprecedented scale that will result in massive amounts of track replaced in an incredibly short timescale at a very affordable price."

So, at least the railway skips are being emptied at last and put to good use!

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