Tunnel Communications (Standedge Tunnel), by Eric Walton & Jack McEwan
// Filed in: Review
Eric and Jack commenced their presentation by going through a little personal history, the Standedge Tunnels History and then the background to the tunnel communications exercise.
Standedge tunnel runs NW / SW and directly seperates Greater Manchester from the connabation of Leeds and Yorkshire, it presents a nearly impenetrable barrier for tunnel communication.
The tunnel is 5 kilometres long, running under rugged hills and valleys, and can only be approached via windy village/rural roads. Standedge tunnels isn't just one tunnel, its comprises of four, the first was built in 1795 – 1810 for the Huddersfield canal, which has recently been refurbished and is navigable. The other three are rail tunnels, one currently in use for high speed trains, freight trains etc, the other two are no longer in use.
Due to its location an emergency exercise involves emergency services from two areas. Basically Network Rail thought they should plan for a train derailment in the Standedge Tunnel, currently they have no communications from one end to the other. They called in Bolton Raynet to assist. The scenario was to simulate a derailment in one of the unused tunnels, which are dead straight, with the requirement of comms portal to portal, and comms between admistrative headquarters on one side of the tunnel to the other.
On the day Greater Manchester Fire Brigade brought out their comms vehicle, but this did not benefit them greatly, their system can't talk to York over the hill, so they had thought they could use airwave (still in its infancy) – but it failed to work on the day. In the end Fire Brigade mobiles were dead and they ended up borrowing Jon Mossmans' (Gtr Manchester Raynet) mobile! By the end of the day the Fire Brigade used Raynet for at least an hour for their comms. At a debrief it was said “Raynet saved the day” what better PR could they have?
British Transport had also planned to use airwave, but on the day they could only reach Picaddilly
With much expirimentation with different bands and various locations, and by the use of talk through they sucessfully overcame the tunnels and provided comms over and through as required. They also did further testing with CREG (cave radio & electronics group).
In fact although not wishing to reprise the enter presentation they had to overcome a number of issues, some of the locations tested could only be accessed in good weather, determining the best band took a lot of expirimentation and they found they that FM was the best to use as SSB was subject to noise from the rail signals.
It was a really good presentation with a great deal of information both of general interest and technical interest. It was clear the audience loved it – I did certainly. Thanks very much Jack and Eric.
For more information please go to http://www.gmraynet.net or www.bcra.org.uk/creg or www.qsl.net/g6gvi
Lisa Mossop M0LSA
Standedge tunnel runs NW / SW and directly seperates Greater Manchester from the connabation of Leeds and Yorkshire, it presents a nearly impenetrable barrier for tunnel communication.
The tunnel is 5 kilometres long, running under rugged hills and valleys, and can only be approached via windy village/rural roads. Standedge tunnels isn't just one tunnel, its comprises of four, the first was built in 1795 – 1810 for the Huddersfield canal, which has recently been refurbished and is navigable. The other three are rail tunnels, one currently in use for high speed trains, freight trains etc, the other two are no longer in use.
Due to its location an emergency exercise involves emergency services from two areas. Basically Network Rail thought they should plan for a train derailment in the Standedge Tunnel, currently they have no communications from one end to the other. They called in Bolton Raynet to assist. The scenario was to simulate a derailment in one of the unused tunnels, which are dead straight, with the requirement of comms portal to portal, and comms between admistrative headquarters on one side of the tunnel to the other.
On the day Greater Manchester Fire Brigade brought out their comms vehicle, but this did not benefit them greatly, their system can't talk to York over the hill, so they had thought they could use airwave (still in its infancy) – but it failed to work on the day. In the end Fire Brigade mobiles were dead and they ended up borrowing Jon Mossmans' (Gtr Manchester Raynet) mobile! By the end of the day the Fire Brigade used Raynet for at least an hour for their comms. At a debrief it was said “Raynet saved the day” what better PR could they have?
British Transport had also planned to use airwave, but on the day they could only reach Picaddilly
With much expirimentation with different bands and various locations, and by the use of talk through they sucessfully overcame the tunnels and provided comms over and through as required. They also did further testing with CREG (cave radio & electronics group).
In fact although not wishing to reprise the enter presentation they had to overcome a number of issues, some of the locations tested could only be accessed in good weather, determining the best band took a lot of expirimentation and they found they that FM was the best to use as SSB was subject to noise from the rail signals.
It was a really good presentation with a great deal of information both of general interest and technical interest. It was clear the audience loved it – I did certainly. Thanks very much Jack and Eric.
For more information please go to http://www.gmraynet.net or www.bcra.org.uk/creg or www.qsl.net/g6gvi
Lisa Mossop M0LSA