TECHNOLOGICAL INSTITUTE OF THE PHILIPPINES – MANILA

COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING AND ARCHITECTURE

CIVIL ENGINEERING DEPARTMENT

RAILWAY OPERATORS
RWE 003

PLATE # 3
RAILWAY SYSTEM MAINTENANCE AND OPERATIONS

RATING

SUBMITTED BY:
1911874 BRYAN D. AVILES

CE41S1B

SUBMITTED TO:
ENGR. JOEVANNIE EMMANUEL C. LUMAGAS

DECEMBER 3, 2022
1. How are the rail routes and infrastructure maintained and what are the effects of the infrastructure quality on
operations?

Railways are made up of complex mechanical and electrical systems and there are hundreds of thousands of moving
parts. If a railway service is to be reliable and safe, the equipment must be kept in good working order and regular maintenance
is the essential ingredient to achieve this. A railway will not survive for long as a viable operation if it is allowed to deteriorate
and become unsafe because of lack of maintenance. Although maintenance is expensive, it will become more expensive to
replace the failing equipment early in its life because maintenance has been neglected.
Rolling stock is the most maintenance intensive part of the railway system and is the most vulnerable if maintenance
is neglected. A stalled train will block a railway immediately and will reduce a timetable on an intensively used system to an
unmanageable shambles for the remainder of the day. Reliability is the key to successful railway operation and maintenance
should be the number one priority to ensure safety and reliability is on-going.
A useful maintenance cost profile is shown in Figure 1, demonstrating that in a life cycle of a high speed train
maintenance represents 30% of the life costs. This is broadly close to other types of trains. A paper "Lean Rolling Stock
Maintenance How to improve efficiency of rolling stock maintenance operations” (2009, Accessed on the Internet, 25th
February 2017.) by Oliver Wyman offers some useful pointers on rolling stock maintenance management.

Maintenance Facilities
Trains require special facilities for storage and maintenance. The basic design of these facilities as changed little in
the last 100 or more years and, in many cases, the original sites and buildings are still in daily use. Sometimes, these old
layouts have made adapting to modern maintenance systems very difficult. The layout of a maintenance facility or depot will
consist of a storage yard, a car cleaning area, an inspection and light maintenance shed, a heavy maintenance shop and,
possibly, a separate locomotive shop or at least an area for locomotives if EMUs are the main service providers. A typical
facility with space for EMUs, works trains and locomotives might look like figure

Access
An essential feature of any depot is good access, for both road and rail. Good rail access means that trains can get
in and out of the depot without delaying trains on the main line and without upsetting operations within the depot. It is no good
if a train coming in has to stop at the depot entrance while the driver gets instructions from the shunter or depot control office
and the rear of the train is still standing on the main line. This can remove two or three paths from a timetable. Usually a long
access track into (and out of) a depot is required, if space is available. If the railway is equipped with ATP (Automatic Train
Protection), the changeover between ATP and manual operation will probably have to take place on this track. This must be
carefully incorporated into the depot track design.
Road access is equally important. Large items of equipment may be needed to be delivered to the depot
(transformers, pre-assembled traction units) and space to allow heavy trucks to get into the depot and turn, unload and exit
must be provided. In some cases, it is necessary to provide vehicle delivery access by road. Hard standing areas and
unloading facilities like cranes or gantries must be considered when designing such a depot. The hard standing needs to be
designed for the necessary loads and be located over or near a suitable track so that cars being delivered can be craned off
the road vehicle and mounted onto their bogies, which have been delivered in advance and are already on the track. The
craneage can be hired in if the permanent installation of such equipment is not considered justifiable.

Cleaning and Stabling

Trains are stabled in depots or sidings when not in use and they need to be cleaned and serviced. Cleaning means
a regular exterior water wash and interior sweeping and dusting or vacuuming. At longer intervals, seating upholstery and
carpets must be shampooed. Exterior washing is usually means a drive through washing machine which will wash the sides
and, perhaps, the roof. Suitable facilities must be provided in the stabling areas where trains are stored. Water, power and
toilet cleaning systems need to be provided in such areas, adjacent to each train to be serviced. Access to trains must be
designed so that cleaning staff can reach them safely whilst carrying their equipment. This usually means floor height
walkways alongside trains, or at least up to the first car of a set if through inter-car connections are available.
The layout of a stabling area is important. Ideally, each road should have an exit route at each end, so that, if one
end gets blocked for any reason, trains can still get out the other end. There is no reason why two trains should not be stabled
on each road if the length is right, again provided an exit is available at each end so that, if one train fails and is not sent out
on time, the other is not blocked in. Of course, site availability is always an issue and compromises are inevitable. It may
even be necessary to stable two trains on a single ended track. Even this is viable if management of the fleet is flexible and
allows trains due for entry into service to be swapped at short notice. This is one of the essential skills of a good depot
supervisor.
Train stabling areas are traditionally outdoors largely because of the expense of constructing large sheds. However,
covering the stabling areas with some sort of weatherproof structure is always preferable. It protects the trains and the staff
working on or around them and reduces contamination by pollutants, frost, snow and wind damage. A covered area will also
provide some benefit in hot conditions and could help to reduce the air conditioning costs.

Train Washing Machines

Train washer plant works on the same principle as a car wash, except that, usually, the train is driven through the
wash and the washer itself stays in one place. Some designs of train washer work like a very long car wash, where the train
stands still, and the washer moves during the cleaning cycle but these are rare. Normally, water is used for a daily wash,
while a chemical wash is used at less frequent intervals - usually several weeks. Many daily washes have a detergent added
to assist the process.
Washing machines require that the track on either side is straight for at least one car's length. This is to ensure that
the car goes into the wash straight. There will also be a need for proper drainage facilities, complete with wastewater
management and, for the chemical wash, waste retrieval using a clarifier or separator. It is usual to use recirculating systems
nowadays, reusing the water from the final rinse at least, if not the ‘ready mixed’ water.
Wheel Lathe
Many modern depots are equipped with a wheel profiling facility known as a wheel lathe. These are normally
designed so that the wheels can be reprofiled while still on the train. Removing the wheels requires the train to be lifted and
this is an expensive business and very time-consuming. To avoid this, the underfloor wheel lathe or "ground" wheel lathe
was developed like the one shown in figure below:

An example of an underfloor wheel lathe in the workshop at Aylesbury, UK. The vehicle requiring attention will be pushed
onto the lathe and the wheels to be turned are aligned with the drive mechanism. The machine must be set up to ensure the
correct profile and depth required is achieved during the cut. A system of waste disposal and protection for the operator this
provided.

Inspection Sheds
Special facilities are required to carry out rolling stock inspections. A properly constructed building, capable of
accommodating a whole train, should be provided. Access to the underneath of the train is essential and this must be
designed to allow reasonable working conditions and safety. There are various ways of doing this. The most common used
to be a pit provided between the rails of the maintenance tracks and, sometimes, pits on either side of the track as well, to
allow access to the sides of the underframe equipment. A more common approach today is the "swimming pool" design,
where the floor of the shed is sunk, and the tracks are mounted on posts. This gives better access and improves the light
levels under the cars.

Shore Supplies
Inside train sheds and shops, it is necessary to provide shore supplies for trains and power for tools and maintenance
equipment. Where overhead electric traction is used, the overhead wires are usually installed inside inspection sheds but
not in shops where vehicles are lifted. If it is necessary to get access to the roofs of trains, the overhead current must be
switched off and the switch secured by a lock. Any person working on the roof will have a personal access key for the lock
to ensure the current remains off until the work is complete, and it is safe for it to be restored. The access stairs to the roof
level walkway will also have a locked gate which can only be unlocked if current is off.
Maintenance Workshops
It is still common to see workshops for railways provided with tooling and equipment to allow a full range of
engineering tasks to be undertaken. This will include milling, boring, grinding, planing and cutting machines as well as part
cleaning facilities (including bogie washing and car underframe cleaning or "blow-out" as it is sometimes called), plus
electronic and pneumatic testing shops. Good storage and materials management facilities are also needed. Computerized
management systems are now widely available.
Not only does the rolling stock require maintenance but also trackwork, traction power equipment, signaling,
communications equipment, fare collection systems, electronics of all types and buildings maintenance. The main depot of
a railway has to be equipped to handle all these. Works trains will be needed to ferry equipment and staff to work sites along
the line and these will be serviced at the depot. Refueling facilities will be needed for diesel locomotives and DMUs. Storage
for hazardous materials and fuel must be in a secure place with proper fire protection facilities. Waste disposal must also be
properly managed, and waste recovered if possible.

Maintenance Programs
Rolling stock maintenance can be programmed in one of three ways, by mileage, by time or by conditioning
monitoring. Of these three methods, condition monitoring is the most recent. Traditionally, maintenance was carried out on
a time basis, usually related to safety items like braking and wheel condition. Many administrations later adopted a mileage-
based maintenance system, although this is more difficult to operate as you have to keep records of all vehicle mileages and
this is time consuming unless you have a modern train control and data gathering system. There is also the fact that a train
will deteriorate just as quickly if it is stored unused somewhere as it would if it was being run in service every day. Only the
items which deteriorate will vary.

Performance Measures
Rolling stock performance in respect of failures can be measured by MTBF (Mean Time Between Failures) or MDBF
(Mean Distance Between Failures). It is sometimes measured by numbers of failures per year, month or week but this may
not represent an accurate rate consistent with mileage. On the other hand, rolling stock does deteriorate rapidly in storage
and this, in itself, produces failures, although these may not be the same failures seen under normal service
conditions. Failure rates are sometimes quantified in service performance by availability. The performance is expressed as,
for example, 95% availability. In other cases it is quantified as, say, 92% on-time. This is more unreliable as a statistic if the
on-time regime is cushioned by huge amounts of "recovery time", as is often the case today.
Performance monitoring also depends on the real definition of a delay. At one time, the Inter City services in the UK
were using 10 minutes as the definition of a delay. This was much derided in Europe, where on-time performance meant just
that. If you were not on time, you were late. Perhaps a more equitable way to define a delay is by the loss of a train path. Most
main lines will give a three minute headway or 20 trains per hour, assuming equal speeds and performance. A three minute
delay will therefore lose a path and, in the commercial structure of a modern railway, deprive the track owner of the sale of a
path to another train operating company. In a metro or suburban operation, the path will be two minutes or slightly less, so a
two minute delay would be an appropriate measure of performance.
One other point about performance is that time out of service is as important as the frequency or duration of
failures. Another measure applied to equipment is the MTTR (Mean Time To Repair). A short delay which requires a train
to be taken out of service for repair become more critical is the train takes a week to get back into service. It's not good
design if the train owner has to lift the car off its bogies in order to replace a fuse. Short MTTR is another important part of
good rolling stock performance.
2. How are the maintenance activities planned and organized and how is the quality level measured?

Maintenance planning can be defined as an end-to-end process that identifies and addresses any possible issues ahead of
time. This involves identifying the parts and tools necessary for jobs and making sure they're available and laid out in the
appropriate areas, having a planner write out instructions on how to complete a job, and even determining and gathering the
necessary parts and/or tools before a job is assigned. Maintenance planning also includes tasks related to parts like:
• Handling reserve parts
• Ordering nonstock parts
• Staging parts
• Illustrating parts

Maintenance scheduling refers to the timing of planned work, when the work should be done and who should perform it. It
offers details of "when" and "who." Scheduling is meant to:
• Schedule the maximum amount of work with the available resources
• Schedule according to the highest priority work orders
• Schedule the maximum number of preventive maintenance jobs when necessary
• Minimize the use of contract and outside resources by effectively using internal labor

Maintenance Planning Principles

1. Protect the planner: Planners are removed from the maintenance crews and put into separate groups to facilitate
specialized planning techniques and focus on future work. By removing planners from the maintenance crew for
which they plan and having them report to a different supervisor, the planning function is protected. As difficult as it
may be at times, planners should never be used as field technicians to help complete work, so they can focus solely
on planning for future work.
2. Focus on future work: This principle states that the planning group should only focus on future work – work that
hasn't been started yet – so it can give the maintenance department at least one week of backlogged work that is
already planned and ready to go. Having this backlog allows for the creation of a weekly schedule. With the exception
of emergencies, job supervisors or the technicians themselves – not the planner – should resolve any problems that
come up during the job.
Once a job is completed, the supervisor or lead technician should provide feedback to the planning group.
Feedback should include things like problems encountered and changes in the work plan. In other words, if the crew
encounters a problem, they should work it out themselves and finish the job. Once the job is completed, they can
discuss issues with the planning group to offer helpful information about what went wrong to aid in planning for future
work.
3. Component-level files: The planning group should maintain a simple, secure file system based on equipment tag
numbers. In other words, planners should not file on a system level but rather on an individual component level. This
helps planners use the equipment data obtained from previous jobs to prepare and improve future work plans. This
especially holds true with repetitive tasks, since most maintenance tasks are repetitive over an extended period of
time.
When a component-level file or "mini-file" is made for each piece of equipment after the first-time work is
completed, data can be gathered and compared over time. Once a new piece of machinery is made available or is
 first worked on, planners make it a mini file, labeling it with the same component tag number attached to the
equipment in the field. Planners can use the information gathered over time to improve future processes.
4. Recognize the skill of the techs: Planners need to be aware of and recognize the skills of their craft technicians
when determining job plans. Planners should determine the scope of the work request and plan the general strategy
of the work, including a preliminary procedure if there isn't one, around skill level. The technicians then complete the
task and work together with the planner on repetitive jobs to improve procedures and checklists. A common issue
with this principle is making a choice between producing highly detailed job plans for technicians with minimal skills
or creating minimally detailed job plans for technicians with highly skilled technicians.
5. Measure performance with work sampling: This principle states that wrench time is the primary measure of
workforce efficiency and of planning and scheduling effectiveness. Wrench time is defined as the time in which
technicians are available to work and are not being kept from working on a job site by delays such as waiting for an
assignment or parts and tools, obtaining clearance, travel time, etc. Planned work decreases unnecessary delays
during jobs, while scheduling work reduces delays in between jobs.

References:
Graphic Products Staff. (n.d.). Planned Maintenance. Graphic Products. Retrieved from
[Link]

The Railway Technical Website. (2019). Train Maintenance. PRC Rail Consulting Ltd. Retrieved from [Link]
[Link]/trains/train-maintenance/

Honor Pledge:

“I affirm that I have not given or received any unauthorized help on this assignment,
and that this work is my own.”