Kettering Train Hand Washing Facility Completion

This week, Cairn Cross completed work at the Kettering rail depot, Northampton, installing hand washing facilities for their new electric and existing rolling stock fleet.

To allow the depot operatives to access the four, eight and twelve carriage trains, over one mile of GRP TrackPan walkways were installed along the sidings track allowing safe and easy access to the rolling stock and washing facilities.

TrackPan offers an innovative solution to capture excess water and retain pollution above a bright yellow GRP walkway offering a high level of safety to the workers and surrounding environment. The introduction of TrackPan at the Kettering depot means that water is no longer drained through the ballast and can be captured, recycled, and drained into the existing drainage system.

Introducing TrackPan surrounding the train also provides a safe platform for nose end cleaning. Ease of access to water taps on each footpath provides local bucket-filling points for the wash team. All of the materials used were glass-reinforced plastic, and non-metallic meant no requirement to bond these materials to traction earth, saving our client time and expenditure.

The track pan system does not require any alteration of the permanent way works so all works could be carried out during the day and the road could be handed back after each shift for train stabling, thus providing minimum disruption to the depot operations. Our client required other work to be carried out as part of the works package, including GRP walkways, office refurbishment, and a covered area for IBC containers. These were all completed within the original programme time scales allocated for these works.

Cairn Cross’s Delivery Manager, Adam Horton, says, ‘We are proud to deliver our work to EMR to allow train workers easier and safe access to maintain their growing train fleet’ upon completion.

Managing director Phil Williamson of Cairn Cross shared on the opening day, “It’s great to see continued investment in the UK’s rail infrastructure. Adding these additional maintenance facilities here at Kettering will drive employment and provide Network Rail with a more resilient maintenance rail infrastructure.

Cairn Cross specialises in rail depot infrastructure and bespoke projects. The works at Kettering Depot demonstrate our ability and expertise to deliver projects to the UK’s rail network.