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cowudders14 · 01-03-2006, 12:20 PM

I'm a Permanent Way (i.e. railway track) design Engineer.
My job is to design track layouts and alignments. We are stupidly busy - loads to do. People see railways as just sleepers and a couple of rails, but the track is actually hugely complex. My job involves sitting on a computer using CAD most of the time, but I do get to go out and walk amongst the trains sometimes. (Standing on the side of a railway, 1.25m away from a train as it passes you at 90mph is great fun!)

I design where to put the track, what radii, what cant (how high is one rail above the other - used for better cornering - think cambers on roads round high speed corners), what speed the track can be set to, and, the thing that takes most of my time - how to put it all together, so you have the various track components all able to be supplied in their standard length or near as damnit, and so that the trains can be properly detected by the signalling system as they move around and that they can be properly given electricity (where appropriate).

FYI much of the track here in the UK is not electrified, much is electrified at 25000V AC overhead wire, and several hundred miles of the Southern Region and a few bits elsewhere is electrified with a third rail adjacent to the running rails, energised at 750V DC. You don't want to be trespassing on the railway around those lines, although many people do, and often pay the ultimate price for it...

Part of my job is also to detail in what order things get installed and when final tamping (smoothing out of the track) takes place, to ensure it can actually be built sensibly and in the time available during the railway closure, and that it can be re-opened at the appropriate speed at the end of the work.

Part of the work my office does, although I don't do it myself, is also to run, in a computer, every type of train that can go down that track along the proposed alignment, along with every other type of train on the adjacent track, to ensure that the trains don't hit each other or any structures such as platforms when the design is actually built.

I love my job - it's great fun. I have a passion for the railway and it's infrastructure. I have a lot less passion for the trains, but I find the actual track, signalling, electrification, control and communications systems totally fascinating. Definitely my career for life.

Oh, and I've been at this for nearly 3.5 years now. I'm 26.

And you all thought that it was just ballast, two rails and a few sleepers...

01-03-2006, 12:20 PM	#48 (permalink)
cowudders14 Bringer of good Moos... Location: Midlands, UK	I'm a Permanent Way (i.e. railway track) design Engineer. My job is to design track layouts and alignments. We are stupidly busy - loads to do. People see railways as just sleepers and a couple of rails, but the track is actually hugely complex. My job involves sitting on a computer using CAD most of the time, but I do get to go out and walk amongst the trains sometimes. (Standing on the side of a railway, 1.25m away from a train as it passes you at 90mph is great fun!) I design where to put the track, what radii, what cant (how high is one rail above the other - used for better cornering - think cambers on roads round high speed corners), what speed the track can be set to, and, the thing that takes most of my time - how to put it all together, so you have the various track components all able to be supplied in their standard length or near as damnit, and so that the trains can be properly detected by the signalling system as they move around and that they can be properly given electricity (where appropriate). FYI much of the track here in the UK is not electrified, much is electrified at 25000V AC overhead wire, and several hundred miles of the Southern Region and a few bits elsewhere is electrified with a third rail adjacent to the running rails, energised at 750V DC. You don't want to be trespassing on the railway around those lines, although many people do, and often pay the ultimate price for it... Part of my job is also to detail in what order things get installed and when final tamping (smoothing out of the track) takes place, to ensure it can actually be built sensibly and in the time available during the railway closure, and that it can be re-opened at the appropriate speed at the end of the work. Part of the work my office does, although I don't do it myself, is also to run, in a computer, every type of train that can go down that track along the proposed alignment, along with every other type of train on the adjacent track, to ensure that the trains don't hit each other or any structures such as platforms when the design is actually built. I love my job - it's great fun. I have a passion for the railway and it's infrastructure. I have a lot less passion for the trains, but I find the actual track, signalling, electrification, control and communications systems totally fascinating. Definitely my career for life. Oh, and I've been at this for nearly 3.5 years now. I'm 26. And you all thought that it was just ballast, two rails and a few sleepers... __________________ Moo! I'm mooey!