Engineer
Milton Keynes, United Kingdom
The wheel-rail interface is the first principle of a railway; as a business, a fascination, and a career. The ability to move large objects, quickly, through low amounts of wear and power gives the railway its purpose. As a Wheel Rail Interface Engineer, I was able to study, understand, and optimise parts of the railway that improved the maintenance, life cycle and cost of the system. I completed a large number of customer based projects understanding and predicting the rail damage through… Show more The wheel-rail interface is the first principle of a railway; as a business, a fascination, and a career. The ability to move large objects, quickly, through low amounts of wear and power gives the railway its purpose. As a Wheel Rail Interface Engineer, I was able to study, understand, and optimise parts of the railway that improved the maintenance, life cycle and cost of the system. I completed a large number of customer based projects understanding and predicting the rail damage through a programme called Track-Ex. Projects have included: understanding the optimum material for projects for customers on London North Eastern Route; saving 60% in whole life costs, completing modelling for the whole of the HS1 route to focus their maintenance and understand the impact of the arrival of new vehicles; Siemens Velaro, and saving £100k on recanting costs for a linespeed improvement study near Shrewsbury. I have also worked with design teams to improve designs and informed maintenance practices including the Wessex Capacity Programme.Over the last four years, I have also developed Track-Ex in VB language, improving the user interface, embedding new vehicles into the programme, and adding functionality, working on a curve register.I helped organise and deliver over 40 training courses for Track-Ex and Wheel-Rail Interface theory, which has had very positive feedback over the years. The course allows you to work through Track-Ex, but also instils some of the basic understanding of the outputs, which are directly related to the interface theory, and good modelling habits.I have also led 3 derailment investigation; by collecting evidence, analysing the geometry and writing reports to understand the root cause of the accident. This includes wheel and rail profile measurements, track geometry, and investigating and interrogating other data sources. Show less