Chloe Doyle

Said the following about CRSA Purple Team in Aston:

“Simon and his team in Aston have worked together for six years. Normally known as the Purple Team to their peers, they are renowned for delivering on time, accident and incident free and with determination, grit and professionalism.

They have worked on several track renewal projects since the CRSA transitioned to an operation company in August 2019 including Wembley Central, Kilsby Tunnel, Stechford works, Wellington Street, Primrose Hill, Linslade Tunnel and Upholland Tunnel just to name a few.

For the Kilsby Tunnel work they changed their normal formation and became the Kilsby Delivery Team. At the time the team were doing nightshift to allow the depot numbers to be reduced due to the COVID-19 crisis. When the work was handed over, team rescheduled all their private lives to allow their hours to change to dayshift so they could attend start up meetings.

The team then put together a number of plans to try and maximise the time they had in the blockade. These plans were put to the sponsor to allow them to decide what best fitted their ideal outcome for the works. By the fourth and final plan the team then mobilised all the other companies that would part of the delivery of the works. Over the course of the week and again changing rosters to suit the busy schedule the team attended numerous meeting and site walks to get the works in a good health position for delivery.

After the work had started, the team were working around the clock to deliver but the planning didn’t stop there. Due to the unknown element of the job being the removal of the existing drain overrunning by a couple of days, the team again regrouped to re plan the close out of the works. This re plan happened while the works were ongoing and allowed the total planned yardage to be completed.

Wembley is another complex project the team completed. It's in an area of London that has many issues to overcome due to location, busy footfall and access issues. The weekend works during week 30 last year consisted of 450yds of Cat 14 renewal literally running through Wembley Station.

This would have been a difficult renewal itself but with the added problem of a 10m wide way made the site a single-track, but the single-track methodology allowed the depot to put into use Balfour Beatty’s NTC, the ideal piece of plant for such a restriction.

The preparation for this site involved working very closely with Chiltern Railway to maximise the possession time to its full value and allow, if required, some DWWP time to be used as follow up. There was also the requirement to have the new GOTCHA rail wheel recording cameras to be disconnected. This work required a specialist team to be flown over from Germany to undertake this work as it was a skill not easily obtained in the UK.

The team started well with the uplift and loading of the old materials going to bar chart. As the site progressed there was a setback when a concrete plinth was discovered in the excavation area. The problem that the plinth caused was that as there was major track lowers through the excavation the sleepers would have sat around 30mm high to design if they had been placed on top. The only solution was to break out the concrete to allow the site to progress. The excavation carried on with one machine being freed up to chip the concrete away, all achieved and all still on track.

Sand, geotextile and new ballast were installed and compacted with no issues and the site was then ready to relay the track. The NTC relay went well with the finish at the end exactly what the team were looking for, minimum lifts and minimum slews. Top stone was dropped and the site was tamped, looking perfect for the 60mph booked speed.

Welding then took centre stage but not without the setback of a run through. This now meant that to rectify the issue additional welding would have to be undertaken pushing the site to a point where the stressing may have been cancelled. On the completion of the welding the decision was taken that the site would be stressed. Four hours later all work was complete, and the site was tidied and ready for hand back meaning that the team could hand back early.

This was a hugely complex job and it just shows the effort and dedication the team and region has in ensuring works are complete and there is no negative knock on effect to the customer and people using the service. Getting expert help in from abroad and working with other specialist teams in this way makes our team more knowledgeable and sets an example of the behaviours we should be expressing in the rail industry. The team also worked on Wembley Central over Christmas 2020 on a short possession in two weekends of 16hrs, which was fully delivered to specification and right time hand back both weeks.

One more project to mention which was completed over Christmas 2020 by the team was Stechford. During Week 38 our NW&C team was deployed to Stetchford Station to deliver 426 yards of Cat14 track renewals including welding and stressing. All works were completed as planned, no accidents or incidents occurred, and site was handed back nearly eight hours early at the published speed. Another excellent deployment with site running ahead of programme for the duration. Great team effort, planning and an organised, professionally ran site.

The team is dedicated, passionate and committed - receiving excellent feedback for their constant delivery and quality of work. They are also extremely collaborative and work closely with its supply change to predict any complex issues and formalise solutions to unforeseen problems.

They have delivered all their projects through Covid-19, made all their sites safe and never complain. They are a trusted team, go over and above and work together as a family. They deserve this award for their constant delivery of works which will continue to be extremely busy throughout 2021.“

Lewis Brown

Said the following about CRSA Purple Team in Aston:

“High standard of work and delivered in the time frame set.“