Newcomers Huddersfield University won the second IMechE Railway Challenge held on June 29-30Â at the Stapleford Miniature Railway near Melton Mowbray. David Shirres reports
The event was sponsored by the Enabling Innovation Team and gave university students, rail-industry-based graduates and apprentices the chance to design and manufacture a 10 1/4 inch gauge locomotive to a performance specification that allows freedom of design.
Entries from the University of Birmingham, Interfleet’s graduate team and Manchester Metropolitan University were modified locomotives from last year’s challenge, with the University of Huddersfield’s winning entry the only new locomotive.
The locomotive featured a four-axle vehicle with three phase AC traction package, controlled by a digital frequency inverter and programmable logic controller supplier by sponsor Rockwell Automatic
In designing and building their own locomotives, the young engineers faced many real world operational, design and project management problems.
Business skills were also tested, as each team was required to give a sales presentation for their locomotive to the judges.
On the Saturday, the teams had the opportunity to test their locomotives on Stapleford’s two-mile track layout. For some teams this revealed problems that had to be solved on the day to ensure their locomotive met the IMechE’s technical specification.
On the Sunday, about a 100 were present, including spectators, teams, and IMechE officials, to see how the teams’ locomotives met the competition’s three challenges of energy storage, traction and ride comfort.
Energy storage was assessed by measuring the distance travelled using the energy stored from stopping the train. Traction performance was the time, from a standing start, to cover a specified distance. Ride index was measured by an accelerometer.
The scoreboard showing the results of these tests showed there was no clear winner so all present had to wait for the chief judge, Bill Reeve, to announce the results. In doing so he explained that it had been a very close competition and that the locomotives submitted by all teams were a credit to them. He then announced the results in reverse order: Birmingham, Interfleet, Manchester and Huddersfield.
Network Rail’s Steve Yianni then presented to cup to the University of Huddersfield’s team captain, Siddiq Albusmait. In doing so, he echoed Bill Reeve’s comments and noted that all teams had faced problems with their locomotive but felt that this was a good thing as it presented a real learning opportunity.
