COP Planning for practice

New Ballast Wagons

A new wide track ballast wagon has been designed at Hillside to allow for more efficient ballast laying. The existing fleet has a very low capacity so each of the wagons is very small by comparison with the new ones, with about a quarter of the capacity.

As well as greater load carrying capacity the door mechanism and controls are such that they're variable controls – they can deliver exactly the right amount of ballast on to the track. The older models basically just dumped while this version is much more accurate.

Another aspect improving productivity is the technology applied to remote control. One person can essentially operate the whole train to deliver ballast out of multiple wagons by remote control. According to Kevin , this is a magnitude step up in terms of ability to undertake the work, due to the speed in which ballast can be replaced and track reinstated.

Freight

A lot of work is done on containers and freight handling, with the consequent information provided on freight handling such as tying down loads on to trucks and trains.

In the past work has been done engineering conversions to high rail equipment, where road vehicles are adapted to run on rail, although this is not being done at present.