Teams of student, apprentice and graduate engineers from around the UK are preparing to compete in the Institution of Mechanical Engineers’
Railway Challenge 2016, which takes place over the weekend of 2-3 July at the Stapleford Miniature Railway near Melton Mowbray, Leicestershire.
The teams will compete against each other to design and manufacture the quietest, most innovative and most efficient small-scale locomotive.
The teams competing this year include the universities of Birmingham, Derby (working alongside Bombardier), Huddersfield, Sheffield and Southampton. Other teams come from the SNC Lavalin engineering and construction group, Transport for London and the Warwick Manufacturing Group.
The competition consists of a series of track-based and presentation challenges. The former cover energy storage, traction, ride comfort, noise, maintainability and energy efficiency; the latter include an Innovation Challenge, which involves producing a paper on the innovations in the team’s loco.
Locomotives must be powerful enough to transport a 600kg load, including one of the Railway Challenge judges. The trophy will be presented to the winning team by Jon Hilton, president of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers.