Capital Equipment News March 2016

RAIL

ACTOM SIGNALLING completes contract for Transnet Freight Rail

A CTOM Signalling recently completed a pilot electronic interlocking contract for Transnet Freight Rail (TFR) that en- compassed provision of a system for a sin- gle existing station. The validation process also required a simulated “validation station” containing the full scope of permutations for electronic signalling systems. ACTOM Signalling has developed and in- stalled an electronic system designed spe- cifically for Crescent station, situated near Potchefstroom station in North-West Province on the line to Klerksdorp, while the validation station simulation it has developed as part of the pilot contract serves as a master model for all other stations TFR may assign to the business unit to design and provide electronic interlocking systems for in future. The multi-million rand contract was awarded in mid-2014 and the system at Crescent was completed and commissioned in September 2015. “The Crescent system will be moni- tored by TFR prior to granting full and final approval of the interlocking system,” said Peter Colborne, ACTOM Signalling’s General Manager.

plus all other possible permutations cov- ered in TFR’s Required Operational Capabil- ity (ROC),” he added. The technology makes provision for both centralised and distributed interlocking systems. A distributed system was chosen for Crescent station for control of a total of six point sets and 26 signals, with the new system installed in the station’s relay room and communicating with the trackside equipment via optical fibre cable in place of the copper cable used formerly. The previous DC points machines have been replaced with AC points machines. The system also makes provision for commu- nicating with the legacy system still in oper- ation at the adjacent stations Potchefstroom and New Machavie. The Crescent installation contains most of the features required in an electronic interlocking system serving an av- erage small station. “These features can be expected to be included in practically all fu- ture systems, while the validation model also makes provision for any additional features likely to be required at stations where the sig- nalling functions are more complex and varied, such as passenger stations like Johannesburg and New Canada,” Colborne commented. b

The core of the electronic interlocking sys- tem is Alstom’s integrated Vital Processor Interlocking (iVPI), a product that was initially developed for the North American market but has been applied in more than 16 countries. ACTOM developed the hardware and soft- ware interfaces to all the trackside equipment and the CS90 remote control system. “Our engineering configuration program, called Engineering Configuration Tool (ECT), has the capability to automatically generate interlocking equations for individual stations according to their specific layout and signal- ling requirements,” Colborne explained. This custom-designed engineering config- uration tool, developed in-house by ACTOM Signalling, is an extra layer of software that utilises the programming tools developed by Alstom. It is programmed to apply TFR’s HR97 interlocking rules to the required sta- tion layout. “For the overall validation system we de- signed a dummy station model, including a track layout simulation, that incorporates all the features as provided for Crescent station,