IRSE

Through the pages of IRSE NEWS you will I hope be aware of our Innovation Award and our Top Inventions Competition. We need your nominations and votes for these NOW. More details are given below – please read on!

Francis How
IRSE President, 2012-13

IRSE INNOVATION AWARD

The IRSE is seeking entries for the first IRSE Innovation Award in our Centenary Year to recognise significant innovations in the field of railway traffic management, train control, telecommunications and related disciplines.

The IRSE Innovation Award will be made for an innovative system, product or service that is relevant to the scope of interest of the Institution. Innovations on all types of railways are eligible. It can be awarded for infrastructure – based and train-borne systems and products; support tools, technologies and services; processes etc. The IRSE seeks to attract applications from all parts of the world.

Ideally the innovation will have been recently brought into use or service somewhere in the world, but cases where something is still at the “proving” stage will be considered provided that there is sufficient evidence that the projected benefits will be delivered.

Subject to sufficient entries being submitted, it is expected there will be two classes of the award:

To an individual
To a company

The primary criteria against which an innovation will be judged are the degree of novelty associated with the innovation, and the benefits it delivers or is anticipated to deliver. Benefits can include a broad range of factors – cost reduction, customer satisfaction, reliability, maintainability, safety, environmental, the scope for wider application, etc.

Award winners will benefit from extensive coverage of their innovation in IRSE NEWS, on‑line and via other communications channels, thus reaching an audience of railway companies and individuals world-wide. In the case of individuals, a prize to the value of £500 will be awarded. The winner of the individual prize does not have to be a member of the IRSE nor, in the case of a company, does it need to have any affiliation to or links with the IRSE.

Nominations for the Award are now sought for both the "individual" and "Company" classes of award, with a closing date of the 18th January 2013. Submissions must be sent to innovation@irse.org. We welcome nominations from individuals and companies around the world for both classes of award. The rules and entry form can be downloaded from the IRSE website via http://www.irse.org/about/public/innovationaward.aspx. Any queries on the award should also be sent to innovation@irse.org.

The assessment of the applications will be made by an independent judging panel that will include consideration of both technical and business capabilities. The panel membership is international, and we hope that the nominations for award will also come from many parts of the world. The winners of the Award will be announced at a London meeting of the IRSE, on 26 March 2013.

IRSE TOP INVENTIONS

We hope that you are aware from articles in IRSE NEWS that the Institution is running a “Top Inventions” Competition in this our Centenary Year, for which we need your votes in order to answer the question:

Which three S&T inventions from the Top 10 (listed below) do you think have been the most important over the years?(In case you are wondering, the list was compiled from nominations received by members earlier this year).

HOW TO VOTE: simply send an email to topinventions@irse.orgstating the relevant shortlist number for each of your three nominations in the email subject header in the format #, #, # to help us allocate the votes (so for instance if your personal top three are numbers 2, 6 and 10 then simply put 2,6,10 in the email header). The order of your choices is not important (each one will have equal weight), and there is no need to put any words in the email message other than your name/ autosignature (if not obvious from your email ID).

The Top Three nominations generated by your votes will then go forward to a live debate to be held on 26 March 2013 in London, to agree the overall winner. We have some emerging favourites from the voting so far, but we need your vote, if you haven’t voted already, so please emailtopinventions@irse.org NOW.

The Top 10 from which you need to select your three are:

1 Axle counters

The axle counter revolutionised train detection by overcoming the weaknesses of track circuits, with key advantages, including no limit on the maximum length of a train detection section; the elimination of the need for insulated rail joints and impedance bonds; no safety problems with contamination on the railhead; little or no susceptibility to interference caused by other currents running through the rails, and no dependence upon ballast impedance.

2 Blockfeld

The 'Blockfeld' is an electromechanical locking device invented in 1871. This invention is important because its safety principle has influenced all later generations of German signalling technology. The basic safety idea is that by operating such a device, the signaller will produce a non-reversible locking in his own signalbox that can only be released by either operating a corresponding device in another signalbox or by action of the passing train. Besides positive locking of signals in the German absolute block system, these devices are also used for electric route locking and to provide electric interlocking between signalboxes.

3 Driverless trains using ATO

In recent years driverless automatic train operation (ATO) has been chosen by many metro operators both to reduce staffing costs and to provide more efficient and consistent operation. Whilst it may rely on many sub-systems and components (including other nominations listed here), for train operators it is the overall system functionality that is so appealing, regardless of the detailed technology.

4 Electric/electronic interlockings

The development of electrical relay interlockings removed many of the restrictions inherent in mechanical systems. Distance constraints on the operation of equipment were lessened, enabling the signaller to monitor and manage larger areas. It allowed more complex signalling logic and controls to be incorporated, with reduced scope for human error. It also removed the heavy physical work required to operate some equipment, opening the role of signaller to a wider workforce. In more recent times computers have replaced relays, offering yet further advantages, both technical and operational.

5 “Fail-safe” as a concept

In the design of signalling equipment “wrong side failures” are avoided as far as possible. In the early days of signalling the concept was applied to mechanical signals (where a broken wire would lead to a “stop” indication). The concept was progressively incorporated into the design of other items of signalling equipment, including relay interlocking. Although computer-based signalling systems offer alternative ways of ensuring safety, the underlying idea of “fail-safe design” continues to be a common theme within modern signalling systems.

6 Multi-Aspect Colour Light Signalling

In former years the IRSE debated and eventually accepted proposals for the use and meaning (to drivers) of signal aspects in the UK; this must surely form one of the major milestones in railway signalling. The multi-aspect concept is simple and has proven effective both technically and operationally for almost a century, with only minor additions as new operational requirements have arisen.

7 Remote Control Systems

Whilst the introduction of the relay interlocking was a major step forward from its mechanical predecessors, its range of control was still constrained by the distance over which energy could be transmitted via cables to trackside equipment. Multiplex systems (both time division and frequency division) allowed remote relay interlockings to be controlled from signalling centres over much greater distances, offering major improvements in the size of the area that an individual signaller could control, and also better traffic management by enabling control of larger areas from single centres. Modern computer interlocking systems such as SSI and others still make use of similar methods of communication, albeit incorporated into the system design.

8 Single line staff/tablet/token held by a driver

This nomination is for the initial basic idea of using a physical staff or token as authority for a driver to enter a section. The token system was the first form of block working, and preceded the introduction of Absolute Block on double lines by many years. Various electric staff/token systems evolved from the basic concept later when combined with the telegraph, whilst the original concept still remains in use on some lines in various parts of the world.

9 Track circuits

An elegantly simple device for the detection of the absence of rail vehicles on a section of track, this piece of technology has stood the test of time and remains a key feature of many signalling systems on main line and metro railways around the world. The ability to know where trains are is fundamental to the safety of rail operation. As they say, "if you can't measure it you can't control it" and the track circuit measures the availability of a section of vacant track.

10 Transmission-based Train Control

This nomination covers all types of system designed to transmit signalling information direct to the driver in the train cab. ERTMS Level 2 is one such system, but many other types exist as well, notably on metros. Line-side signals have since the beginning of railways been the principal means by which information is conveyed to drivers, but transmission-based signalling removes the need for much trackside equipment, improving safety and operational efficiency.

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