What to see at Railtex 2013 #5

In the run up to Railtex, Rail.co and the rail engineer will be looking at the must-see innovations on display at this year’s event.

FP McCann

Stand A107

FP McCann, manufacturer of precast concrete cable troughs and other railway-related items, will be showing the parts it is currently supplying to the Peterborough station project.

Peterborough railway station is undergoing a £43 million re-development which will see new platforms built together with the extension of existing concourses to accommodate longer and more frequent trains. Additional to the platform works, is a new freight line loop to allow greater goods capacity from the docks at Felixstowe.

Main contractor Carillion is expected to complete the works in December 2013. As a nominated Link-up and Supply Line company, FP McCann is supplying the ‘C’ series precast concrete cable protection troughs onto this section of works.

FP McCann has to date delivered in excess of 1,000 precast concrete straight troughs and lids comprising mainly C/1/8 and C/1/43 sections. A smaller quantity of C/1/81 and C/1/23 ‘Tee’ pieces have been supplied to form the junctions.

FUCHS Lubricants (UK)

Stand G40 

FUCHS Lubricants (UK) plc, first time exhibitors at Railtex, manufactures a full range of high performance lubricants and greases for the rail industry. Through close work with OEM’s and industry bodies, FUCHS researches and develops tailor-made lubricants, including specialist noise reduction products.

With increasing legislation, railway companies have to fulfil much stricter requirements regarding noise preventing measurements than they had in the past. Based on more than 20 years of experience in the area of environmentally harmless lubricants for railway traffics, FUCHS has developed TRAM-SILENCE noise reduction paste – a highly-viscous silver paste with a biodegradable base oil which contains a special package of solid lubricants to provide excellent noise reduction. Tests, conducted with a velocity of 45 km/h and in a curve of 150m radius, showed noise reduction was found to be up to 10 dB(A) compared to the untreated rail surfaces.

TRAM-SILENCE has been developed to create a stable friction level which, together with its excellent adhesion properties, guarantees that even small quantities have a remarkable noise reducing effect without affecting the operational safety.

GAI-Tronics

Stand H37

The Kestrel Emergency Telephone System – KETS – has been developed to provide an alternative to the existing Public Emergency Telephone System (PETS).  It uses an entirely different method of operation to the existing system but it has been designed to offer similar control functions and indications in the Signal Box.

KETS is line powered, thus avoiding the need for local power and UPS facilities at the crossings. It has constant alarm monitoring facilities which provide effective real time status of the condition of all telephones and the circuit at all times.
It is designed to integrate in the Kestrel Hawk Concentrator system which itself is fully approved and extensively used in Network Rail and London Underground.

The system uses Kestrel’s enhanced version of the standard DTMF signalling system to provide a more secure technique of operation over noisy analogue lines. It also uses extensive frequency analysis to overcome misinterpretation of possible DTMF patterns which can occur in speech communication.

Garradale

Stand D15  

Garrandale Limited will exhibit its capabilities in engineering, rail and chemical technology. The stand will play host to a 2:1 scale, fully operational train wash module, interactive models of projects undertaken by the engineering division and examples of waterproofing and graffiti protection from the chemical division.

The aim is to show visitors the breadth of Garrandale’s capabilities and ability to solve problems. Garrandale Rail designs, develops, installs and maintains a wide range of carriage wash, fuelling, controlled-emission toilets, lubricating systems and depot protection for rolling stock across the UK and Ireland. It also designs and installs on-board train equipment from CET tanks to cab air conditioning, GSM antennas and carries out corrosion repairs.

Garrandale’s Trion and Graffstop products provide graffiti removal and protection for a wide range of surfaces, whilst its FlexiStop polymer coating offers an inexpensive means of preventing leaking on carriage roofs, bellows and buildings.

Garrandale’s innovative solutions have included large/small assembly fixtures used in the various stages of rail vehicle construction, cabin crew training simulators and superconducting coil machining/handling equipment.

GSP Sprachtechnologie

Stand H64   

GSP Sprachtechnologie GmbH (GSP) offers reliable and functional passenger information systems that are an essential part of modern local passenger trains. The core of the passenger information system (PIS) is the on-board computer, which features an Ethernet interface and optional modules such as GPS, GSM, WLAN and MVB. All components are intelligently controlled from this computer.

The various displays show visual information, including passenger destinations, the train’s destination, the train’s route, interior displays as well as TFT info displays. State-of-the-art public address systems with announcement units and amplifiers complete the total system.

In addition, the ongoing communication of real time information between the GSP train system and the control centre ensures that passengers are always continuously kept up to date with the latest information.