29.06.15
TfL wins IMechE’s Railway Challenge for second year in a row
A team of budding engineers from Transport for London (TfL) have won the Institution of Mechanical Engineers’ (IMechE) Railway Challenge for the second year in a row.
The team of 11 engineers won the national competition to design and manufacture the most efficient and quietest small-scale locomotive – designed to work on 10¼” gauge line whilst hauling a 600kg load, which included one of the Railway Challenge judges.
During the two-day event at Stapleford Miniature Railway near Melton Mowbray, Leicestershire, TfL competed against teams from Derby’s Interfleet Technology Ltd (2nd), the University of Southampton (3rd) as well as the University of Birmingham, University of Huddersfield, University of Sheffield, and Swindon’s TE Connectivity.
Bejal Mandalia, from the TfL team, said: “This is a fantastic achievement and the whole team is delighted that all our hard work this year has paid off.
“Taking part in the Railway Challenge has given the whole team very useful experience of the whole process of developing a locomotive. This hands-on experience is going to be hugely valuable to our future careers maintaining and developing London’s rail and Underground network.”
The competition comprises 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. These were: energy storage; traction; ride comfort; noise; and – new for the 2015 competition – maintainability and energy efficiency.
Prof Richard Folkson, president of the IMechE, who presented TfL with their award, said: “TfL did fantastically well ― they showed ingenuity, ambition and fantastic team-work. Their success is particularly impressive given the pressure to follow last year’s triumphant TfL team.”
(Images by: David Shirres)
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