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Sectors we serve > Rail and Metro > Our Services > Expert advice > Design and engineering  

Design and engineering

We apply our extensive rail domain knowledge to deliver vehicle designs that offer innovative, realistic and cost-effective solutions.

Good design stands out when proven to be effective in both function and form.

Through working with Lloyd’s Register’s design teams you will benefit from our award-winning problem solving abilities, our creative ideas and our experience of railway engineering projects to deliver tools, designs and techniques that offer innovative, realistic and cost-effective solutions. 

We use state-of-the-art facilities and work in small dedicated teams to ensure effective management of the many interfaces that arise during vehicle design.

Scope of services

We offer a full design service for all types of railway vehicles including:

  • Passenger vehicle design - developing full bodyshells, modifications, additions and interior refurbishment - using state-of-the-art CAD and FEA facilities.

  • Freight vehicle design from the development of novel concepts to fully engineered production drawings, all meeting the full suite of standards required.

  • Feasibility studies for new and modified freight or passenger vehicles.

  • Structural engineering for the assessment of body-shells, interior attachments and under–frame equipment.

  • Bogie design from full locomotive bogies to modifications.

  • Investigation and analysis of structural failures including those resulting from fatigue, corrosion or accident.

  • Creative thinking for interior design of modern passenger vehicles, includes refurbishment of existing fleet and installation of systems such as CCTV, PIS, WiFi, etc.

  • Detailed gauging and dynamics analysis including kinematic envelopes, swept envelope comparisons, clearance assessments and vehicle size/load optimisations.

Example projects

Biomass freight wagon design
An award winning design for our client looking to retro-fit an exisitng fleet of freight hopper wagons with automated lids so that they could be utilised to carry Biomass freight on the UK network. For full story click here.

EMU Bodyshell
Lloyd's Register completed the complex structural design of an EMU aluminium bodyshell, involving four doors per side and a combination of a welded and bolted assembly.

Switch and crossing wagon
Following our detailed feasibility study we completed the design of a wagon to carry switch and crossing panels in the UK. A tilting table allows the panels to be loaded horizontally and then  tipped to occupy the available loading gauge for transport to site, reducing the possession time required on the operational railway.

Locomotive Bogie
A metre gauge, fabricated Co-Co bogie was fully designed with:

  • Locomotive Interfaces

  • All equipment installation (motors, brakes, etc)

  • Structural analysis to both the clients internal and internationally recognised codes for proof and fatigue analysis

  • Full dynamic analysis using measured track data and required standards

  • Weight minimisation

  • Reliability and Maintenance optimisation

  • Full production drawings

  • Test specifications

TBTC Installation Design
Our client required a Transmission Based Train Control system to be integrated alongside the existing safety systems on various types of vehicles. This required a full assessment of the fleet followed by design and engineering to install electronic equipment, various antennas, axle end odometry and man/machine interfaces.

Slinger Train
To support the renewal of the sub-surface lines of the London Underground network a specialist train was required to transport 216m rail strings and sleepers. We developed a series of modules for use on container flat wagons including the following functionality:

  • High redundancy in power supplies – four onboard generators

  • Each vehicle carries its own hydraulic power pack

  • Two hydraulically deployable gantry cranes per vehicle (26 in total) having rotational freedom (hydraulic), to remain vertical on 6 degrees of installed cant and able to operate in pairs or tandem (all 26) from a hand held remote.

  • Capable of carrying 10x216m rails strings (fully clamped) and sufficient sleepers for 1km of track

  • Fully conformant to the Machineries Directive, Working at Height Regulations, LU Standards, Railway Group Standards and Crane Standards.

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