Moveable electrification facilities completed at London Eurostar depot

Eurostar

Engineers Install Moveable Electrification Gear At Eurostar's Depot

"Eight Depot Roads Fitted With 1.5km Of Moveable Equipment"

Eurostar's Temple Mills facility in East London has now completed the installation of movable electrification equipment on all its roads.

Eurostar - Figure 1
Photo New Civil Engineer

Since 2007, Furrer+Frey, a specialist in overhead lines, has been a crucial partner for Eurostar in their ongoing efforts to update their depot facilities. This longstanding collaboration has been instrumental in achieving Eurostar’s goals.

Furrer+Frey has installed a type of electrical equipment known as the Moveable Conductor Bar. This equipment is designed to be conveniently moved aside by simply pressing a button. This feature allows train maintenance teams to work safely and perform necessary maintenance on trains.

When the train needs maintenance work, the overhead conductor that can be moved is pulled back to provide a safe path for crews to reach the train's roof and to load and unload hotelling equipment. Once the work is completed, the bar is put back into place, so the train can be powered up and move off electrically.

The most recent setup is a component of an initiative to enable trains to elevate to a height of 3 meters in order to access the bogies situated underneath.

Furrer+Frey hired it in October of 2023.

All eight of the depot's roads are now equipped with movable equipment, which covers a distance of over 1.5 kilometers.

Simon Tyler, the leader of UK's Eurostar facility emphasized that their top priority is to ensure safety, reliability, and durability in all of their operations.

He stated that finishing the project is a demonstration of their dedication to creating a railway system that is more eco-friendly and provides optimal benefits for their staff who work at Temple Mills Depot and for the passengers who use their services.

Noel Dolphin, who is the head of UK projects at Furrer+Frey, expressed his delight over the 15-year partnership with Eurostar. He said that they have successfully equipped the depot to ensure the trains' reliability and effectiveness. The depot operates much like an F1 pitstop, where trains are quickly and safely serviced and sent on their way.

The days of a dirty diesel depot are over. Nowadays, depots are tidy and productive, and this machinery is behind that transformation.

At some point in the year, Furrer+Frey came up with a new way to electrify railways that caught the attention of the Global Centre of Rail Excellence (GCRE). Out of all the projects that were submitted for the Innovation in Rail Construction competition, their idea was selected as one of the 24 that will receive funding. The GCRE believes that these projects have the ability to improve the railway system in the UK by making it more robust, eco-friendly, and cost-effective.

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Categorized as: Electrification Eurostar furrer+frey The article is classified under the tags Electrification, Eurostar, and Furrer+ Frey.

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