Student success at IMechE Railway Challenge
A team of 12 final-year undergraduate Mechanical Engineer students took third place at the recent fourth annual IMechE (Institution of Mechanical Engineers) Railway Challenge, at Stapleford Miniature Railway in Melton Mowbray, Leicestershire. This was the first year that a Southampton team had entered the competition.
Notes for editors
Competing against teams of students, apprentices and graduates from other UK universities and industry, the students had to design and build a miniature (10¼” gauge) railway locomotive to compete in a number of track-based challenges including:
- Energy Efficiency
- Energy Storage
- Traction
- Ride Comfort
- Noise
- Maintainability
Thanks to the University’s Education Enhancement Fund and their industrial partner Siemens, the team was able to manufacture a genuinely competitive locomotive, called Hartley, finishing as the highest placed university team and setting a new record for the Energy Efficiency challenge.
Their locomotive, designed for their final Group Design Project (GDP), featured a number of unique aspects, such as complete Wi-Fi remote control; a brake energy recovery and storage system; and a Hybrid drive system consisting of both a small petrol generator and a supercapacitor providing driving power when required.
Mitchell Clark, Project Lead for the team, said: “The weekend was a real success. We arrived, and left, as the only rookie team to have competed, the top scoring university team and, uniquely, the only university team to comprise solely of undergraduates. A particular achievement was that our distance travelled in the energy recovery challenge, using energy solely recovered from the braking process, was almost twice that of the second best team.
“We are very grateful to everyone who has helped us along our way and we hope that Southampton will remain as a force to be reckoned with at the Railway Challenge in future years.”
Dr Mohamed Torbati, lecturer in the electromechanical research group and the student team supervisor, said: “The purpose of a GDP in Engineering is to allow students the chance to work as a team to apply the engineering principles taught throughout the course to a practical design project, to replicate that of industry activities. Both the hybrid drive system and the energy recovery that featured on the student’s locomotive are technologies currently being explored and rolled out in full-size locomotives as environmental considerations become more of a priority for transport infrastructure.”
Watch a video of the overall project including testing at Eastleigh Lakeside Steam Railway, drone footage and the competition weekend here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DZILJRFxUkw