NETWORK Rail has ordered 26 specialised ‘tilting’ wagons in a bid to speed up the time it takes to renew sets of points.

The £10 million order is part of a pioneering project to reduce line closures for track engineering upgrades.

The switches and crossings panels, or points, have a sleeper length of up to 3.7 metres, which is too long to fit within the network’s gauge profile.

But the new wagons’ decks can tilt their loads up to an angle of approximately 60 degrees so that the panels can fit within the width.

This means that switch and crossings panels built off site – and normally too wide to fit within the confines of the railway – can be safely transported directly to site.
When the wagons arrive, the decks are moved back to a horizontal position for the panels to be unloaded and slotted into place.

The order with Kirow, a German plant manufacturer, forms part of Network Rail’s modular switches and crossings programme. This is aimed at helping p-way engineers to renew a set of points in overnight eight-hour possessions, reducing disruption caused to passengers.

Currently, it takes around 54 hours to carry out this work, often requiring weekend line closures. Doing as much preparatory and construction work away from the railway and keeping line closure times to a minimum lies at the heart of the programme.

Points will be fully constructed and tested in factories before being taken to site in modular panels which can be installed quickly.

Network Rail’s chief engineer, Andrew McNaughton, said: “The modular programme is set to deliver big benefits in the way we upgrade the railway, enabling us to do it quicker and more efficiently while improving quality and reliability.

“Being able to deliver fully-constructed switch-panels directly to site will be a significant step forward towards the seven-day railway.”

The first wagons should be ready for use by autumn 2009, with the full fleet of 26 vehicles in operation in 2010.