This document summarizes the key activities and projects the author worked on during a placement year with Network Rail. It includes: - Working with the Route Asset Management Structures team on the London North Western route, which consists of 4,500 miles of track. - Gaining experience at a conservation architecture firm working on the Northern Hub project to connect key stations in the North. - Visiting a steel manufacturer producing works for major projects. - Completing an audit and proposing mitigation measures for bridges at risk of vehicle strikes on the network. - Standardizing tunnel examination processes and making historical tunnel information more accessible digitally.

1. 4,500
Track
4,341
Retaining
Walls
52
Sea
Defences
4,398
Culverts
233
Tunnels
13,953
Bridges
Introduction
This last academic year I have been working for Network Rail based in their Manchester Office. I decided I wanted to do a Placement when I was in my first year of University, not only because I
saw is as an invaluable experience for my career development, but I also wanted to see what Civil Engineering was all about in real life situation, I wanted to put what I was leaning in the classroom in
to practice.
Network Rail is a state owned company limited by guarantee, which means that they do not have shareholders, the money they earn goes back in to the company. In 2011 the rail network was
simplified and split in to ten routes, with each route having specific policies, processes and plans detailing the expected future demand of the route, their projected spending and their maintenance
and investment needs.
I was working with the London North Western (LNW) route placed within the Route Asset Management (RAM) Structures team, see figure 1 for organogram of the teams structure. The route
runs from Euston to the Scottish borders, which incorporates Watford Junction, Milton Keynes, Birmingham, Manchester and Liverpool. It consists of 4,500 miles of track and is the busiest mixed‐
use (freight & passenger) railway in Europe. The route is the largest route in the UK and forms 24% of the overall business.
Activities
Network Rail is a great company to progress both in your career and also personally. During my time at Network Rail, I was fortunate to be involved in a wide range of activities, both office and
site based, such as major development projects, new departments and national campaigns. Throughout the year, the mini‐projects that I have worked on have evolved into standards and
practices that have been rolled out within the LNW RAM team in Manchester and Birmingham. Below is a summary of a few of my highlights whilst at Network Rail this year:
Photo 1: My workspace Photo 4: Tapping away at High Level Neck Photo 5: What happens when it goes wrong, Falkirk Photo 2: Visiting Severfield Offices in Lostock Photo 3: Tamping machine at Holme Chapel Viaduct
Route Asset Management (Structures)
7th September 2015—16th September 2016 Square One, Manchester
Figure 1: Network Rail Organisation Chart showing the Route Asset Management Civils & Buildings Department for
London North Western Route, with a particular focus on Structures.
Annabel Kate Downing MEng Architectural Engineering School of Civil Engineering
Renew. &
Enhance.
Tunnels
Assess‐
ments
South Central
Lancs &
Cumbria
Support
Route Asset Management
London North Western
Network Rail
Structures Buildings
Drainage
Off‐Track
Track Signalling E & P
The Chord
Through contacts within Network Rail, I was able to gain some experience at a conserva‐
tional architects firm, BB Architects, in Manchester. They are working collaborative‐
ly with Network Rail on the Northern Hub, a development that will create better connec‐
tions in the North by joining Manchester Piccadilly to Victoria for the first time in history.
I attended onsite meetings to understand the role of a Conservational Architect. This
was a fantastic opportunity for me as it allowed me to understand how Architects
and Engineers interact with one another.
I was also fortunate to visit Severfield (UK) Ltd who have been commissioned to manu‐
facture all of the steel works for the project. Severfield (UK) Ltd are considered as ex‐
perts in high volume structural steel production with specialist design engineer‐
ing expertise.
It’s a (bridge) strike
Bridge Strikes are of growing concern for the railway industry, it is where a vehicle comes
into contact with a bridge that carries the railway. In 2015/16 there were 423 bridge
strikes, down from 448 in 2014/15 and up from 438 in 2013/14.
LNW Bridge Strike Campion, Mark Wheel, set a task for the Placement students to as‐
sess the top 108 bridges and to think of mitigating measures that could be easily car‐
ried out for each asset. I looked at all of the highlighted bridges in the North of England
(49). The task involved going to sites and carrying out an audit of the location, con‐
tacting local authority's for their support and presenting the findings to a panel to
determine if the mitigation measures are worth while.
During my time at the company, we managed to implement mitigation to a number of
sites to reduce the risks of it being repeatedly struck.
Tunnels Team
I moved to the Tunnels department after Christmas as I wanted to experience a different team and broaden my knowledge of the
railway in general. My new Line Manager, Ian Crossland, set me various tasks to standardise the way they examine Tunnels
as well as increase efficiency in reviewing the history and condition of the Tunnel database.
You must be STE 6 Competent to examine the condition of Tunnels, this means you must have adequate knowledge and
experience working with Tunnels. All this information was provided by Head Office based in Milton Keynes, however it was
presented in various documents repeating information with the specific competency process not being properly defined.
My first challenge was to extract the relevant information from the various documents and create a set of handbooks with
information about the becoming a Tunnel Examiner.
In the early 2000’s, LNW commissioned Donaldson's to produce a report containing background information for each of
their Tunnels. The findings were presented in various folders stowed at the Manchester office which was not user‐friendly. I
digitalised the documents and stored them on a cloud based system making the documents easily accessible for reference.
Scottish
Borders
London
Euston
Placement Submission.dpp
Plans & permits Right equipment Competency Drugs & alcohol Mobile devices Speed limit Test earths Test equipment Safety harness Exclusion zones