Paul Baker

Said the following about The Rail Milling Team:

“This team is a self-contained and motivated group of six staff who operate one of the largest, and definitely the most advanced, road-rail machines that has worked on the UK rail network. The team represents three companies, STRABAG Rail, Germany, who own and operate the machine, TES 2000 who supply operational management staff, and Total Rail Solutions (TRS) who give plant support and the Plant Operators Scheme accreditation.

This team represents a European community group that has been brought together and have had to learn, understand and respect different cultures as well as overcome some technical language barriers. Through the willingness of all of them they have had to learn and understand key words and phrases supported by their English speaking team members and in return the English speaking staff learning German words and phrases too.

The rail head milling service was introduced in 2016 following a few years of the approvals and trials process. It is new and currently unique to the Network Rail system and leads the introduction of similar larger machines on Crossrail and Network Rail. The biggest hurdle they have had to overcome is educating and developing the understanding of this specialised treatment throughout the Route engineering teams of Network Rail. In delivering the product the milling team have had to build up detailed knowledge and understanding of the Route requirements whilst tackling the very varying conditions of access points which can be complicated with a vehicle of this size.

The milling team are very self-sufficient, a point that has not gone un-noticed, and the skill sets within the crew are not only to operate but to maintain and, if necessary, repair faults too. With the vehicles base many hundreds of miles away in Berlin, they have to be! They have a support lorry that acts as a mobile workshop equipped with tools and spares that address 99.9% of requirements, they have maintained the vehicle to a high reliability and dealt with any issues swiftly and promptly resulting in minimal machine down time. This has led to the team being very respected in the work that they do and the way they do it. Customers, without fail, have complemented the delivered product and the reporting that goes with it, usually a full and detailed document arriving before the first cup of morning tea! Network Rail are looking to extend the product application in the next Control Period but this work to date has been very useful in understanding how rail milling is applied to best benefit.

The team found themselves being Good Samaritans when one morning, transiting back from a work area to the off-tracking point, one of the eagle eyed operatives noticed a person lying in the embankment undergrowth. They stopped to attend and found a man lying unconscious and in need of urgent medical attention. Quickly summoning the emergency services, the road rail miller became an emergency response vehicle and working with the worksite Engineering Supervisor shuttled between the access point collecting the first responders, back to the to the location of the man, then finally transporting the patient and emergency services back to the access point where the man was put into an ambulance and transferred to hospital. Without any doubt, their actions as a team saved this person’s life and showed that through respect and support for each other you can make a team work!

What the team have done is successfully introduced and proven the rail milling technology to the UK. They have met the challenge of working as a self-sufficient team, able to self-manage and meet many and varied challenges. A clear leadership structure has ensured that the introduction to working on the UK rail infrastructure has been without issue, understanding the many and complex requirements that are well beyond those normally encountered in mainland Europe whilst their attitude has been to learn and understand what is required.

It is very unusual to have such a small operation delivering in the way they are and demonstrating how a team from three different Companies can work together successfully.

The result is the delivery of a product that many say “it does what it says on the tin” and the benefits of recovering rail to extend life rather than premature replacement are soon to be extensively recognised across the system to meet the challenge of a railway system under ever increasing demand.“