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They discuss their achievements to date, challenges encountered and the lessons they have learnt in their quest to design and build a miniature (10¼” gauge) railway locomotive in accordance with a set of strict rules and a detailed technical specification.
Q: Could you briefly tell us about your team – any interesting facts or background information?
University of Birmingham (UB): We are a multi-disciplinary group comprising of PhD, Masters and Undergraduate students at the Birmingham Centre for Railway Research and Education (BCRRE), University of Birmingham. Our researchers and students work in a variety of areas ranging from railway condition monitoring, computational modelling, control engineering to mechanical design. We are all passionate about railway engineering and as a part of the new Digital Systems Excellence Centre, we will be working towards modernising future railways.
Q: Could you tell us about the design and innovation aspect of your locomotive?
UB: Our vehicle incorporates state of the art digital solutions, which we will unveil with our new train design. We have also come up with an innovative mechanism to meet the maintainability challenge requirement. This is in line with the objectives of the Digital Systems Excellence Centre, which the University of Birmingham leads as a lead partner of the UK Rail Research and Innovation Network (UKRRIN).
Q: What are the key skills you learnt from this project and what is your team dynamic?
UB: As independent researchers and students, this has been an excellent opportunity for us to work as a part of a team and appreciate a diverse range of skills. It has also helped some of our researchers with the practical application of their research. Hands on technical skills, problem solving, project planning and management are a few other skills that our team members have benefitted from.
The University of Birmingham team in the past, developed the miniature Hydrogen Hero for the Railway Challenge, the experience from which was used to develop the UK’s first full-sized standard gauge hydrogen train, Hydroflex. We are looking forward to benefitting from the essential skills that our previous members gained by participating in this year’s event.
Q: What are the main challenges your team faced working on this project?
UB: Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, we have been unable to access the university’s technical facilities which has slowed down the pace of progress. But on the other hand, we have been able to concentrate on our design, robust requirement specification for the locomotive and validation of our innovation concept. We are looking forward to getting more hands on as soon we as have the opportunity to do so!
To recognise teamwork done to date, the Railway Challenge organising committee has agreed to host an online awards ceremony taking place at 12:30pm BST on 26 June 2020 to present teams with the following awards for:
- Design
- Innovation
- Business Proposition
- Technical Poster
Registration for the event is now open!