CONDITION monitoring equipment has been installed on the approaches to Euston station as part of the current remodelling. The Euston Alliance of Railtrack, Balfour Beatty and Westinghouse Signals awarded a contract to CDS Rail in August 1999 to supply a turnkey package based on its Sentinel monitoring system.
Condition monitoring is intended to help reduce delays and cancellations caused by infrastructure failures. It will also enable a switch from time-based to condition-based maintenance, with intervention only when required. This should also eliminate failures introduced by routine equipment inspections. Eliminating unnecessary work out on the line should improve staff safety, and boost efficiency by allowing technicians to concentrate on remedial action before failures occur.
Initially covering 102 point ends, point heaters and signalling power supplies, the system is designed to be expanded to cover all infrastructure equipment in the area. The central MSS database uses industry-standard open architecture software, allowing easy interfaces with other Railtrack computer systems.
Data comparison and alarm checking is carried out locally, to minimise the bandwidth needed for data communication. A Windows-based interface allows users to monitor the condition and performance of all assets as required. All significant changes in asset condition are flagged up clearly in real time. The user can then easily call up all the data needed to analyse a specific problem.
CDS Rail
Reader Enquiry Number 121
