Network Rail Limited, the owner and infrastructure manager of most of the railway network in the United Kingdom, launched their ‘Future Technologies’ trial with the goal to find the most sustainable way to remove autumn leaves railway lines and minimise passenger delays.
Advanced Strategies for a Recurring Challenge
LPS partnered with Network Rail to test our latest LaserTrain prototype, designed to remove leaf residue and restore traction at speeds up to 60 mph—a breakthrough speed in railway cleaning technology. The pilot program took place on parts of the East Lancashire Railway’s heritage railway line in August 2022. The LaserTrain Container model was selected to ensure loading gauge compliance.
Over a three-week testing period, real and simulated contaminations were tested on the railhead, with Coefficient of Friction (CoF) being measured with a Tribometer at each stage of the process: before and after contamination, and again after one LaserTrain clean. This process was repeated multiple times at varying speeds up to the 60 mph maximum.
The LaserTrain achieved cleaning speeds from 2 km/h to 100 km/h in testing. Network Rail plans to conduct follow up trials in coming years. See results from the 100 km/h Metro-North trial, where in-service deployment boosted network productivity to a 97% OTP rate.
It’s exciting to be putting some of the newest technology out there to the test with the hope that one day it could help Network Rail keep passengers and freight moving safely at this operationally challenging time of year.
Suhayb Manzoor, Project Engineer at Network Rail.
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