Institution news
We caught up with the Network Rail team to find out more about their achievements to date, lessons learnt, and challenges encountered.
Q: Could you briefly tell us about your team?
Network Rail (NR): The mechanical team for Network Rail is a group of apprentices and graduates from around the country specialising in a range of fields (signalling, track, vehicle dynamics, logistics and construction). Our work is centred around redesign and rebuilding of the existing locomotive.
To be efficient we divided our team in two subgroups:
- mechanical sub team is responsible for the design and procurement work
- electrical sub team is responsible for the design work for the main circuitry and auxiliary circuitry as well as testing.
Q: Could you tell us about the design and innovation aspect of your locomotive?
NR: The locomotive has been designed with a “built to last” philosophy including future proofing. This will help future teams to rebuild and re-design the bodyshell and internal gear around a set of robust new frames, incorporating the existing bogie design. Our innovation idea lies with improving and identifying flaws on current track infrastructure using monitoring techniques.
Q: What are the key skills you learned from this project and what is your team dynamic?
NR: Our team learnt a great deal of knowledge and skills during the project. The mechanical sub team developed strong team management and negotiation skills, as well as learnt elements of engineering such as load bearing formulas and theory. The electrical sub-team learnt about time management and leadership skills and how to divide and delegate tasks efficiently based on each person’s expertise and knowledge.
Members of the Network Rail team
Q: What are the main challenges your team faced working on this project?
NR: Our key challenge was to effectively build a new locomotive from scratch, and to develop a series of documents that would allow future teams to understand the work we undertook and take it forward. Thus, CAD design and skills in measuring and inspecting the old locomotive were key.
Team members are based all around the country, so delegating and working on tasks collectively was a challenge. With good communication skills and team collaboration we managed to complete our work to a high standard.
Members of the Network Rail team
Q: Anything else you wish to tell us about?
NR: We are extremely proud of the work completed to date. Our locomotive will be taken on a tour for Network Rail to showcase the talent of young graduates and apprentices. It will help to cement our commitment to encourage school children and adults into STEM subjects and encourage people from all backgrounds to follow a career in engineering.