Highlights Adelaide 2011 Workshop

The RISSB National Rail Turnouts Workshop held in Adelaide during June was attended by over 50 rail industry participants. Aimed at up-skilling newer entrants to the turnouts and track maintenance industry, the event was tailored to those looking for a beginners’ guide or refresher course on turnouts.

The turnout system is regarded as a complex and major component within the rail infrastructure and the workshop covered a range of topics, from the basic question, “What is a turnout and what does it do?” through to the life cycle of the turnout including, design, manufacture, installation and maintenance.

The opening presenter and well-known industry practitioner, Dr Stephen Marich dived straight into his topic with enthusiasm, playing devil’s advocate by challenging the very need for turnouts from an engineering perspective. After all, why would you want to place a potential defect into a perfectly good piece of straight track?

Axle loads, wheel and rail design were next in his firing line. Marich highlighted the key importance of the wheel/rail interface and the need for the ideal ‘contact band’ to see if the wheels are running where they should be.

Andrew Mathews and Alan Mansfield explained the basics of turnout design, the components and the positioning of turnouts.

Term such as points, toes, switches, heels, left hand, right hand, simular flexure, contra flexure, as well as secant, tangential, parabolic, guards, frogs and wings, welcomed delegates to the world of turnouts.

A comprehensive explanation followed including, what they are, how they come together and where the completed turnout should be located were all covered in this interesting session.

Questions as to how the whole turnout held together and supported were answered by Wayne Potter and Amandeep Gill from Austrak who explained in detail pre-stressed concrete turnout bearers, design, behaviour and the manufacturing process, looking at the quality and the testing required to ensure a consistent product for the customers.

The Public Transport Services of South Australia session was well presented by Keith Charlton and Stephen Townsend.

Adelaide’s metropolitan system has approximately 250 individual turnouts and while these alone would be a challenge to upgrade, the fact that there is a requirement that in the future there may be a move from broad gauge to standard gauge multiplies the complexity.

Momentum from day one carried over into the second day’s presentations with Craig Bishop (VEA Rail Systems) stepping up to the challenge and delivering a session on turnout manufacture and fabrication, including coverage of the head hardening process.

Massoud Majidi (Yarra Trams) and Ross Smale (JC Smale & Sons) talked about some of the exciting challenges and solutions to the refurbishment of turnouts used in a tramway system.

Interesting examples of crossover and turnout design, which were created to meet the limitations of space within the existing road networks, were highlighted and Ross emphasised the need to attain as much standardisation as possible to avoid additional inventory costs.

The key elements of the turnout maintenance process were examined by Michael Meehan and Toby Horstead from RailCorp covering the use of robotic welding for crossings and the safety issues that are required to be managed. Toby spoke about the need for turnout rationalisation and the need to assess the need and economic justification of existing turnout assets especially given the legacy issues of the rail systems and how upgrades could be a good time to rationalise.

The final session from Dudley Ingram of the Trackwork Services Alliance (TSA) focussed on the issues of installation and construction of turnouts. TSA is scheduled to install around 40 turnouts over the coming year and the logistics of this schedule is managed by the involvement of all parties and stakeholders in the planning process. The key to the success of the project is not only based on a firm relationship between the operator and the supplier with quality documentation, the stakeholder consultation process and training all important elements for a successful outcome.

The workshop concluded with a private site tour of Public Transport Services (PTS) System - formerly TransAdelaide. With a total length of 120km, the electrification and track upgrading of the Adelaide metropolitan rail and tram network is a massive program. The management of turnouts has been a particularly difficult issue given the requirement to provide for potential standardising of the broad gauge trackwork and the need to meet future service demands. PTS standard 60kg 1 in 8 turnouts and new 50kg 1 in 8 gauge convertible siding turnouts were viewed at the new Dry Creek Depot.

A second RISSB National Rail Turnout Workshops will be run on 21st and 22nd November at The Hilton in Brisbane and has been timed to allow delegates the opportunity to also attend AusRAIL PLUS 2011.

Building on knowledge base developed at the June event, the November workshop will draw on expertise within the industry to debate innovative solutions to the real challenges faced. Featuring dedicated problem solving sessions after each module, it will strive to develop and consolidate the relevant knowledge within the industry by working towards industry solutions.