Press releases
A team of 19 apprentices and graduates from Transport for London (TfL) are gearing up to defend their title at the Institution of Mechanical Engineers’ Railway Challenge, taking place in June at the Stapleford Miniature Railway near Melton Mowbray, Leicestershire.
TfL stormed to victory last year at their first appearance in the competition and will this year be pitting themselves against seven other teams to design and manufacture the best, most efficient and quietest small-scale locomotive.
As a previous winner TfL was also eligible to apply for a £2,000 grant from the Institution. The team won the funding which will now be used to help the team prepare their 2015 project.
The competition will see teams aiming to design and manufacture the best, most efficient and quietest small-scale locomotive. The teams competing against TfL this year are: Birmingham University, Huddersfield University (who won the competition in 2013), Interfleet (based in Derby, who won in 2012), Sheffield University, Southampton University, Swindon’s TE Connectivity, and Warwick Manufacturing Group (part of the University of Warwick).
The competition comprises of two presentation challenges, one of which is the submission of a design report and the other being a business case presentation, and six track based challenges which will be decided over the weekend. These include: energy storage, traction, ride comfort, noise and new for the 2015 competition maintainability and energy efficiency.
Philippa Oldham, Head of Transport and Manufacturing at the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, said:
“The Railway Challenge gives competitors a fantastic chance to test their engineering skills and get the hands-on experience of what’s needed to make a locomotive from start to finish.
“The competition is run along the lines of a real-life tendering process, and teams have to prepare a business case, finance, design, and build a locomotive from scratch.
“I’m looking forward to seeing the new innovations in this year’s locomotives, particularly the solutions that are being proposed for both the energy storage and energy efficiency challenges. These are two big issues currently being faced by manufacturers and the solutions these young engineers have developed as part of this competition could one day revolutionise modern railways.
“This year looks set to be a tight contest, with more teams than ever and three previous winners taking part.”
Bejal Mandalia, from TfL team, said:
“The Railway Challenge has been really beneficial to understand the way we work at London Underground, putting theory into practice’”
While Jamie Conlon, another TfL team member, said:
“The Railway Challenge has enabled me to be hands-on in a major task, as working on a real project, you tend to only see a small aspect of the overall project.”
The locomotives that will be competing are designed to work on 10¼” gauge railway line and must be powerful enough to transport a 600kg load – including one of the Railway Challenge judges.
The trophy will be presented to the winning team by Professor Richard Folkson, President of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, on Sunday 28 June 2015.
The Railway Challenge will be taking place at Stapleford Miniature Railway near Melton Mowbray in Leicestershire on 26 to 28 June 2015. There are filming and photo opportunities and journalists are invited to attend on Sunday 28 June when the practical challenges will take place.
Steam hauled spectator trains will also be running on the railway.