No. 1602

RETIRED RAILWAY OFFICERS’ SOCIETY

www: rros.org.uk

Minutes of Meeting

Held in the Gascoigne Room at the Union Jack Club, Sandell St, London SE1 on Monday 3rd June 2013.

Present:

President: Ken Burrage

Hon Secretary: Richard Malins Hon Treasurer: John Sellar

Roland Anderson / Jim Evans / David Maidment / Andy Savage
Chris Austin / Phil Evans / Andy McDougall / David Sawyer
Ken Beresford / John Francis / Jim McKie / Larry Shore
Ernst Birchler / Les Giles / John Meara / Dennis Simmonds
Chris Blackman / Mike Godwin / Chris Mew / Les Singleton
Anne Blakeney / Alan Goldfinch / Philip Millard / Bob Smalley
John Bolton / Hugh Gould / Roger Morgan / Mark Smith
Colin Boocock / Ken Green / Phil Morton / Cedric Spiller
Alf Boucher / Michael Green / Bob Moseley / Alan Sprod
George Bowden / Nigel Green / Bob Murton / Theo Steel
Grahame Boyes / Brian Hammond / Peter Northfield / Peter Sturt
Bob Breakwell / Mike Harvey / Richard Norton / Gerald Summerfield
Vivian Brown / Ken Haysom / Peter Owen-Jones / Alan Taylor
Chris Bull / Donald Heath / Michael Papps / Roger Temple
Neal Clarke / Alan Hobson / Don Pearse / Keith Turner
Ken Colpus / Maurice Holmes / Mike Pipes / Mike Tyrrell
Tony Cotgreave / Richard Horne / Bob Poynter / Charles Vicary
John Craik / John Jagger / Ron Puntis / Ray Walkington
David Crathorn / Tom Jay / David Rayner / Derek Webb
James Crowe / Mike Johns / Brian Redfern / Norman West
John Dodd / Clive Kessell / Sam Reed / Ian Wetherell
John Dunn / Graham King / Derek Richards / Jeremy White
John Ellis / Chris Leah / Mike Robinson / John Willmore
Alan Englert / Don Love / Mervyn Rogers / John Wilson
Stuart Ette / David Mackie / Vince Sains / Philip Wiltshire
Jerry Evans / Bruce MacDougall / Dave Sargent / Bob Wyatt

1.  Minutes of the Meeting held on Monday13th May 2013.

These minutes were approved without comment.

2.  News of Members.

The President recorded with regret the deaths of Members:

Gerry F. E. Mitchell formerly Finance Director at Freightliner on 6th April aged 88. The funeral was at All Saints Church, Milford-on-Sea on 19th April, attended by friends, Freightliner colleagues and family.

The death of Bob Cannon, former CCE P Way LMR aged 90 has been confirmed. Tony Hardy (non-member), formerly Training Officer SR at Waterloo, died on 21st May, funeral in Tonbridge on 4th June.

Members stood for a few moments in silent tribute to their memory and to their service in the industry.

Peter Thomas (member aged 84 who suffered a severe stroke some years ago and cannot attend meetings but can manage e-mails) writes: “I was sorry to read about Bob Mackmurdie. He once told me he could speak Russian, at least he knew Good Day and Goodbye. Please pass on my good wishes to all present.” Roy Bell is recovering well from a major heart operation but is reported to be umpiring cricket matches again. Tony Snelling, aged 90, was presented to the Princess Royal in Liverpool at the 70th Anniversary event commemorating the Atlantic convoys.

3.  Proposed New Members.

The detail of the following applicant’s career was shown in the Agenda and his election was approved:

Name: Address and telephone number: Sponsors:

Alan Bennett 59 Hall Lane, Werrington, Peterborough John Meara

PE4 6RA 01733 572803 Richard Malins

4. Talk by Ian Barnes of Network Rail on Operating Strategy.

The President introduced Ian who is a graduate in Physics and Computing from Keele. His initial career was with British Gas and he joined Railtrack in 1999. Moving stuff around a network was his experience and in the context of his current role he was conscious of the strategic work already done by many members. What he would now talk about was the result of 5-6 years’ work, and is part of Network Rail’s response to the challenges of growth, to modernise systems, improve performance, expand capacity and make the railway more affordable. The key to this new strategy is the decision to consolidate signalling, operational control and electrical supervision in unified Rail Operations Centres (ROCs), supported by new Traffic Management Systems (TMS). The aim is to automate repetitive tasks, resolve real time conflicts, allow just-in-time planning and manage disruption. These aims are not new, nor unique to Britain and solutions can already be found elsewhere in the world, where many countries share a similar vision. Reduction in the number of signalboxes is a key part of the strategy, and this has been a long term trend for a century. In 1960 there were 5,000 and 1,000 at privatisation. Then things stalled for a bit, such that there are now 830, made up of 500+ mechanical boxes and 200+ power boxes of various types and sizes. The plan is for these to be replaced over a 15 - 20 year time horizon by 12 ROCs. 6 of these already exist and are in partial use, with the rest under construction, and all to be in initial service by 2015. An ROC is largely agnostic to the signalling technology on the ground and can interface through the techniques of re-control with existing relay interlockings, SSI/ CBI or ERTMS, but not mechanical boxes. Areas of control are to be principally aligned to main radial routes, but there is some exception to this logic in Wales, cross-country will as ever have to cross several and London poses particular issues of overlap. For example there will be provision in the Thameslink scheme, which is largely to be controlled from the Three Bridges ROC, for a see-through interface with York on the East Coast. Given the degree of concentration envisaged, special attention will be paid to resilience, security and redundancy, with options to transfer control temporarily by reconfiguring into other workstations. However the challenge will be for the people and the processes to manage this new technology. We already know what works and does not work elsewhere and the main innovation is above the signalling level in the TMS which is underpinned by a single real time operational information system. This separates safety from performance and allows short term planning and re-planning to take place, together with better forecasting. Above this will be the national information systems, where the old ones like TOPS and TRUST were world leading at the time of their introduction but will eventually be superseded. The delivery of the TMS started with 63 potential suppliers and ended with the selection of three: Hitachi, SSL and Thales. Collaboration between them is required to ensure compatibility, also needed to meet European standards. Test modules are to be commissioned and tested over the next few months and first front-line deployment will be at Upminster (Romford), Derby and Cardiff. Resignalling itself presents a business case based on renewals and headcount, but the TMS is justified by reducing reactionary delay. With 50% of delays a reaction to the initial problem even a 20% reduction on that creates a worthwhile return. It is seen to be more powerful in dealing with the many minor perturbations, than in resolving the rarer major disruptions. It will also allow more capacity to be squeezed from the network at key points of constraint. Better customer information is a further benefit, both in feeding the systems that provide that and as an enabler for staff on the ground. ARS will become a standard feature, with manual control the exception, taking away much of the traditional signalman role, although the ability for staff to do manual will remain. Instead the ROC will concentrate on service delivery planning, incident management and the control of information. The aim will also be to co-locate whenever possible with TOC controls. Ian’s most interesting presentation was rewarded with many questions.

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No. 1603 Agenda for Meeting

To be held at 13.45 in the Gascoigne Room at the Union Jack Club, Sandell St, London SE1 on Monday 1st July 2013.

1.  Minutes of the Meeting held on Monday 3rd June 2013.

2.  News of Members.

3.  Welcome to Members Recently Elected.

4.  Proposed New Members.

Ian Osborne will propose and Ray Loft will second that DAVID WILKINSON be elected an ordinary member of the Society. David was born in Bolton on the first of February 1942 and joined BR Workshops as a graduate M&EE trainee in 1964. He was a technical assistant with the CM&EE Croydon 1966-69, becoming Traction Assistant at the DMO Reading and then holding various M&EE posts on the WR. He was AME Reading 1980-84 and Depot Engineer Old Oak Common until 1989. In 1990 he became a Project Director at BRB HQ until 1996 when he moved to Transmark as Principal Engineering Consultant 1997 – 2000, finally retiring from consultancy in 2009.

Chris Austin will propose and Bob Breakwell will second that JULIAN MICHAEL CROW M.B.E. be elected an ordinary member of the Society. Julian was born in St Albans on the twenty seventh of September 1951 and joined BR as a Railway Student in 1970. After the Traffic Management training scheme he worked in posts at Chester and Huntingdon (1978-9), Hitchin (1982) and York (1984). He then became a Terminals Manager with InterCity until 1988 and was at WAGN Network SouthEast until 1995. He then moved to Great Western, initially in commercial and business planning and development, becoming their Regional Manager for the West of England in 2006 and retiring in 2013.

5.  Pension and Travel Facilities Matters.

6. Any Other Business.

7. Talk by Professor Felix Schmid “Systems Engineering on the Shinkansen”.

Further Meeting dates in 2013: 3rd July Day Visit to the Severn Valley Railway, 5th August (Derby), 2nd September, 7th October, 4th November, 15th November (Lunch), 2nd December.

Richard Malins, Honorary Secretary: 7 Orient St, London SE11 SR E-mail: mob: 07773389123 Vale Press: 01386 858900