Engineering Focus

Rail Live is an outdoor show held every 2 years which brings together companies from the whole rail industry, the 2 day event allows companies to show and demonstrate the products which they have to offer. Over the course of the 2 days there were various live demonstrations of rail products from hand tools such as grinders to demonstrations of rail vehicles such as Railcare's RailVac system.  As well as demonstrations, a number of seminars and presentations were held by Network Rail, HS2 Ltd and a number of leading rail companies. HS2 HS2 was an obvious hot topic, with the construction phase getting ever closer. Alstom which hopes to secure Tier 1 contracts for signalling and systems, also is interested in bidding for the contract to supply rolling stock. Alex Burrows Marketing & Strategy Director at Alstom UK gave a presentation which showed what Alstom had to offer, from rolling stock and systems to rolling stock maintenance and logistics. Alstom is alre

It has been over a year since I started  following the project to construct a new dual carriageway to replace the existing A556 alignment which connects the M56 at Bowdon to the M6 at Knutsford. In that time it has been fascinating to watch the project develop, now in June 2016 some tangible signs of the new road are beginning to take shape.  Looking North from the A50 it is possible too see the first signs of the new road surface being constructed. On the day of my visit the site which sits on the A50 was a hive of activity, with articulated tipper trucks delivering thousands of tonnes of stone to create the base course. Looking south from the A50 the main bridge structure which will eventually carry the A50 over the new A556 alignment is complete. With the bridge deck complete work has now shifted to building up earth on either side of the bridge in order to create an approach for the new A50 alignment.    Looking between the bridge piers it is possible t