Technology

Bombardier is a name now well established in the rail industry, but that was not always the case. Joseph Bombardier started the company in Canada to make snow mobiles during the 1930s, and this was the mainstream business for many years. The company entered the rail sector during the 1970s, with its first major contract [...]

Every two years, the world’s railway industry gathers on the outskirts of Berlin for InnoTrans. Billed as the “world’s leading trade fair for rail transport technology”, it attracts exhibitors and visitors from all over the world. The exhibition is vast, and the numbers are impressive. Last held in September 2010, a total of 2,243 exhibitors [...]

Ask most people if there is any similarity between rail and road signals and, beyond saying that they both use red, yellow and green lights, the answer will be “Not Much”. But is this true? And are there opportunities for technology convergence between the two philosophies? The IRSE explored such possibilities at a recent seminar [...]

More than 230 international railway system manufacturers and suppliers are preparing to display their wares at InnoTrans 2012. This year the Energy and Electro-engineering section will take up nine halls surrounding the Berlin radio tower - two more hall than...

Upgrading signalling on Britain's rail network will cut running costs by £250 million each year, Network Rail has said. The claim comes after Network Rail announced that it had awarded contracts to Hitachi Rail Europe, Signalling Solutions (SSL) - a...

Road-rail vehicles (RRVs) are now accepted parts of the railway engineer’s tool box, often preferred to rail-bound equipment. They can be brought to the nearest access point to the work-site by road, without the problems of special routing, making them especially valuable in emergency situations. However, the disadvantage of RRVs is that they need space [...]

One of the last pockets of semaphore signals and traditional absolute block working have been abolished in the West Midlands. Five signal boxes at Hartlebury, Kidderminster, Blakedown, Stourbridge and Kingswinford were swept away over the Bank Holiday weekend, in an...

Crossrail has launched a Building Information Modelling (BIM) academy to provide training to suppliers in the software which is leading the way in railway design technology. Collaborative 3D design has been a core contractual requirement for Crossrail since it began...

Much has been written, not least in these pages, about safety at level crossings. Any interface between people and moving trains is inherently risky, with both pedestrians and vehicle drivers sometimes prepared to take a chance, occasionally with disastrous results. Naturally, there have been many meetings devoted to the topic. Back in 2002, there were [...]

Developing young engineers is a key role of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers (IMechE). Since 1999, its Automobile Division has being doing so through the Formula Student Challenge in which teams design, construct and drive a racing car to specified criteria. Not to be outdone, this year the Institution’s Railway Division held its first Railway [...]