Rail Flood Defender
This project was one of the winners in the First Of A Kind 2022 competition run by Innovate UK.
In this document, this is said about the project.
Project No: 10038342
Project title: Rail Flood Defender
Lead organisation: University of Sheffield
Project grant: £249,770
Public description: Rail Flood Defender will deliver a more reliable railway network that is safer for all stakeholders,
and empower Network Rail (NR) and the UK to become global leaders in intelligent holistic rail
drainage management. It will future-proof rail transport against the effects of climate change where
more intense and regular rainstorm events are expected.
The project will explore principles of autonomous active flow control to reduce manual operations
associated with protecting rail infrastructure from the effects of flooding. It achieves this by taking
the latest advances in edge computing and applying it to real-time automation of mechanical and
electrical equipment to control the flows in rail drainage systems, thus protecting the track drainage
from being overloaded and flooded during rainstorm events.
The importance of managing rail drainage infrastructure cannot be overstated. It is designed to
carry stormwater safely water away from the track via a system of pipes and channels. When
drainage infrastructure is compromised or inadequate, flooding can occur. Flooding causes delays
to passengers and costs to asset owners, but crucially can also affect other assets such as
structures and signalling, which endangers human life (e.g. Watford Tunnel
Derailment https://www.gov.uk/raib-reports/derailment-and-subsequent-collision-at-watford). This
project aims to collaboratively investigate the application of AI-powered automated real-time control
(RTC) for protecting the railway system and mitigating any impact on adjacent land.
The feasibility project will identify how the following benefits and sustainability opportunities can be
delivered:
- Reduce risk of rail services being disrupted during rainstorm events.
- Make the drainage design process more efficient.
- Avoid capitally and spatially expensive flood solutions (e.g. stormwater retention tanks).
- Provide a means for automated flushing to clear blockages (reduce manual intervention).
- Reduce surcharging on adjacent rural or urban areas.
- Explore additional opportunities such as rainwater harvesting for agriculture.
My Thoughts And Conclusions
Fifty years ago, I wrote and provided the software, that the Water Resources Board used to plan the water flows and new reservoirs in a large part of England. As over the intervening years, there have been few water shortages due to lack of reservoirs, I am led to believe that the WRB must have done a good job.
Now fifty years later our computing capabilities are much more advanced and I feel that the aims of this project are readily achievable.
Roaming Around East Anglia – North Sea Floods Of 1953 Memorial Garden At Felixstowe
This picture shows the memorial garden to the forty-one who died in the North Sea Flood Of 1953 at Felixstowe.
My memories of the floods are minimal, as I was only five. But I can remember my father pointing out to me, the story of Reis Leming at a later date.
Roaming Around East Anglia – The Ordnance Hotel, Felixstowe
The Ordnance Hotel in Felixstowe is long gone and has now been replaced by a Premier Inn.
The Ordnance Hotel played a large part in my life, in that according to my father, I was conceived there.
It was rather strange to walk out of the front of the hotel and imagine in my mind, the view from perhaps in 1958, when we stayed as a family in the hotel.
In those days, you could still see the tide mark on the walls of the nearby houses, which was caused by the North Sea Flood of 1953.
Large Hydropower Dams ‘Not Sustainable’ In The Developing World
The title of this post is the same as that of this article on the BBC.
This is the first four paragraphs.
A new study says that many large scale hydropower projects in Europe and the US have been disastrous for the environment.
Dozens of these dams are being removed every year, with many considered dangerous and uneconomic.
But the authors fear that the unsustainable nature of these projects has not been recognised in the developing world.
Thousands of new dams are now being planned for rivers in Africa and Asia.
I think the report has a sound basis and we should think much deeper before we build a large dam.
Storing energy and preventing of floods are probably good reasons, whereas others are not, considering, that solar and wind power are becoming more affordable.
If Your Train Is Late Should You Blame Henry The Eighth?
I have just read this fascinating article in the Rail Engineer, entitled Fulwell’s Blue Lagoons.
This is the first paragraph.
What do we have to thank – or blame – King Henry the Eighth for? The Church of England? Some very ruined abbeys? The fashion for padded shoulders? Flooding and subsequent train delays on the Shepperton branch?
Yes, they’re all down to him.
Henry’s need for water at Hampton Court Palace, meant that a whole series of problems were left for Victorian railway engineers, when they built the Shepperton Branch, that have persisted to the present day.
Read the article to find out how Network Rail have hopefully solved the problems.
This Google Map Shows the area around Fulwell and Strawberry Hill stations.
Between Fulwell and Strawberry Hill Stations
The tunnel talked about in the article is to the West of Fulwell station.
Will Merseyrail Rescue Croston?
Like everybody, I have been watching the news and in particular the floods in the North.
There have been several reports from the village of Croston, which has suffered particularly badly!
I don’t know the village, but I looked it up on Wikipedia and found that there is a Croston station serving the village.
This Google Map shows the village and the station.
Croston Station
Croston station lies on the Ormskirk Branch Line, which connects Ormskirk on the Mersetrail network around Liverpool, to Preston and the the West Coast Main Line. The Ormskirk Line one of those terrible and neglected pieces of infrastructure, left behind after the cuts of the 1960s and 1970s,
Merseyrail have ambitions to connect Liverpool to both Preston via Ormskirk and Manchester via Kirkby with new electric trains. I wrote on this in Is Liverpool Planning To Invade Manchester By Train? I said this.
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In the October 2015 edition of Modern Railways, there is an article about Merseytravel looking for a new fleet of trains for their 750V DC network, which is entitled New Trains For Liverpool. This is said.
Merseytravel has indicated that it will be seeking ‘innovative proposals’ from manufacturers, with considerable emphasis being placed on the overall cost of operating the fleet rather than just the basic cost of the trains themselves. Options such as regenerative braking and onboard systems to store energy under braking to be used for acceleration will attract particular interest. The independently-powered EMU (IPEMU or battery train) concept evaluated earlier this year on a modified Class 379 in East Anglia ,might see an application here.
It does appear on a quick look, that a version of the new Aventra train, which comes with an IPEMU capability as standard might be suitable for Merseyrail, as it could connect Preston to Ormskirk and Manchester to Kirkby, without any more electrification.
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Some of my thoughts in the Invading Manchester post, is based on this document, which is entitled Liverpool City Region Long Term Rail Strategy, so it is not idle speculation.
A half-hourly four-car service through Croston and other stations in the area linking to Liverpool and Preston using IPEMU trains, would not help directly with the floods, but would get people into and out of the area without needing to use a vehicle on flooded roads.
I’m sure that the engineers from Bombardier and Network Rail will ensure that an IPEMU can operate some kind of service in conditions as we’ve experienced over the last few days.
Intriguingly, I have just been reading this article in Rail Technology Magazine, which is entitled Bombardier enters key analysis phase of IPEMU. In a section entitled Market Applications, this is said.
Bombardier has started assessing potential customers for battery-powered trains, looking first at branch line applications. Batteries could be a solution allowing non-continuous electrified infrastructure, and emergency rescue and last-mile opportunities.
Although emergency rescue is probably more about power loss than floods, Bombardier obviously feel that an IPEMU has some genes inserted from a cross-country vehicle.
Knowing the way Liverpudlians think, I suspect that what was said about IPEMUs for Merseyrail in the October 2015 edition of Modern Railways will happen.
Is This Sense For Somerset?
It would appear that the report commissioned by the government is going to recommend a barrage of the River Parrett downstream from Bridgwater, according to reports like this one on the BBC.
Over forty years ago, my modelling software Speed was used by the now-superseded Water Resources Board to model water flows in river basins. I’m sure that these days, scientists and engineers could do much better, but then a scientifically correct solution often ignores powerful interests like farmers, the RSPB and politicians, who know a cause to get themselves re-elected.
The only thing I will predict with certainly, is that there will be a large argument over what is to be done.
They should do what Network Rail seem to doing at Dawlish. And that appears to be getting the job done as quick as possible using every possible method. The BBC is now stating that the line will open on April the 4th. So it would appear that the engineers are winning!
My one time neighbour in Suffolk, a past Colonel in an Engineering Regiment in the British Army, said that in case of war, you burn all Rule Books. He did say, that you keep the Instruction Manuals.
It’s certainly a war our there against the floods!
I’m All Right, Jack
When I bought the house that I live in, I checked all the maps and it looked as far as I could tell it was unlikely to flood.
But then C and myself lived in six places and we were never flooded once. Admittedly, three properties were flats on the third, fifth and eleventh floors of well-built blocks.
My father had always said buy a house on top of the hill, so you don’t get flooded! I think he may have had trouble once, as he lived in a house in River Avenue in Palmers Green.
To make this current house even safer, I live on the first floor above the garage and the downstairs bedrooms and bathroom.
The roof does leak slightly though, but I think I’m more likely to be killed by a falling aircraft in my bed than be drowned.
But some of the flooded houses I’ve seen on the news, were in such a position, that even Noah wouldn’t have looked at them!
If you want to read some sense on the floods read Charles Clover in The Sunday Times today.
He misses out one thing that would improve matters and that is build more flats! As you can’t predict weather like we’ve been having lately and it’ll probably get worse in the next twenty years, if the geography of a site could possibly lead to flooding, then build accordingly.
Leave It To The Marines
This is a good story from the floods in Cornwall. Especially, when the Marines’ involvement started on a suggestion of a ten year old boy.
I suspect though the locals were friendlier than some of the idiots the marines have dealt with lately.
The Anonymous Widower 