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As a result of two serious
accidents in recent years, driver stress, and quick driver turnovers,
Rail companies throughout the UK have started an initiative to
improve driver training opportunities and thus reduce turnovers
and accidents. Currently, drivers are subjected to an extensive
training process to prepare for driving the trains. This training
consists of lecture based classrooms with instructors teaching
from blackboards at the head of the class. Under this new initiative,
one Rail company has stepped forward with a state of the art simulation
of a driving cab to supplement the existing training curriculum.
This new simulator will provide a hands-on training capability
never before used for driver training, providing the safest way
of allowing recruits to gain essential experience before going
into a live cab.
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The EWS Class 66 cab employs
the latest simulator technology and over 50 miles of modeled
British Rail.
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English, Welsh, and Scottish (EWS) Rail has
created a full Class 66 cab simulator, complete with a replica
control desk. This simulator, commissioned as part of the EWS
line and assigned TOPS as 66499, is housed in Doncaster, England.
By assigning the simulator a TOPS number and considering it a
part of their fleet, EWS has assured that the simulator will be
updated along side the rest of the fleet when upgrades and maintenance
occurs.
Based on a Class 66 cab with exact replica controls, this simulator
is considered one of the most life-like installed to date in the
United Kingdom (UK). It employs the latest simulator technology
available in the world and consists of a forward visual display
of a 50-mile sample route of railway. Using a large screen placed
directly in front of the cab, rail drivers are presented with
a variety of situations found on the “real” railway.
Situations such as entering and leaving stations, driving in bad
weather, and operating on tracks that are under maintenanced are
all taken into account with the EWS simulator. The cab is fitted
with everything including a locomotive event recorder, Q-Tron,
Train Protection and Warning System (TPWS) and a mock hot plate,
to provide a realistic training environment.
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The Instructor station allows
the instructor to monitor the driving performance and real-time
reponsiveness of the trainee during each run.
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The training run utilizes
over 40 miles of terrain with coloured lights and 10 miles
of semaphores.
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Both lighted and non-lighted tunnels are
part of the impressive 50 mile long database.
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This fully functional
trainer is driven by the locomotive driver with an instructor
controlling numerous scenarios from an adjacent classroom. Trainers
can watch a student driver’s performance via a video link
and can grade them based on performance while driving the Class
66. For added realism, this simulator can reproduce precisely
a Class 66 with varying loads and in-cab noise - along with driver
safety devices and AWS bells and buzzers to make the trainees
feel as if they are on a real locomotive. The system has been
built to allow the locomotive to simulate the characteristics
of hauling three typical EWS train formations: HAA hoppers, MBA
or FKA wagons in various formations and consists of between 100
to 3,000 trailing tonnes.
Multiple training scenarios, covering a fictional 50-mile
route with a series of dynamic items such as signals, semaphores
and colour lights, were necessary to create a true driver training
simulation. To satisfy this requirement, EWS utilized Quantum3D’s
expertise in real-time 3D content development to acquire the 50-miles
of “typical british terrain” and rail.
In creating this impressive database, Quantum3D
spent man-hours of research on the rail systems. Utilizing images
of the British countryside, example depot stations, British architecture,
rail signs, switches, and semaphores, Quantum3D personnel created
both geometry and hand-painted textures to represent a typical
driving experience. Providing a training environment with emphasis
on not passing signals at danger (Spads) and handling curves and
areas with difficult sighting such as overbridges was an involved
task that required the creation of hundreds of signs and lights.
The database created by Quantum3D was designed
to specific colors, track and land usages representative of the
countryside in the west of England. Requirements of the run included
a sloping terrain with gradient variations from flat to 1/39 grade,
a large town located at the end and beginning of the 50 mile stretch,
multiple stations and platforms spaced throughout the run,and
bridges for railroad, highway and pedestrians. For specific training
opportunities the database also includes illuminated and non-illuminated
tunnels, junction control points and switch boxes, a variety of
wooden and concrete ties, many cross-overs, 40 miles of coloured
lights and 10 miles of semaphores. Also, an element of surprise
can be added by the instructor utilizing the modeled railroad
workers and passengers waiting at the station, temporary block
working scenarios, and leaves on the lines.
This impressive database adds to the realistic
training experience that EWS drivers can gain before they ever
drive a real train.
EWS anticipates recruiting over 140 new rail
drivers this year. Each new entrant in the driver training program
now has to complete ten training runs on the simulator during
initial training. Every run on the simulator is recorded on computer
and played pack to the student so that problems with train handling
and performance can be worked out with the instructor. The Class
66 Simulator will be an integral part of training the new recruits
as well as a valuable tool in the future of re-evaluating existing
drivers.
EWS (English Welsh & Scottish Railway) is Britain’s largest
rail freight operator providing a key service for British Industry.
Daily train services link all parts of Britain with Europe. EWS
has depots all over Britain from as far north as Inverness to
St Blazey in the south west.
Learn more about how Quantum3D can optimize
your synthetic environment for training and simulation applications.
Visit our website at www.quantum3d.com; email us at salesinfo@quantum3d.com,
or call us at U.S. toll free 1-800-827-1980, or internationally
408-361-9999.
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