Course Leaders

List of proposed contributors

Stuart Grassie

Dr Stuart Grassie undertook his doctoral research, on rail corrugation and the high frequency dynamic behaviour of vehicle and track in collaboration with British Rail Research, and became a Research Fellow at Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge in 1981. He has since worked as an academic, in industry and (since 1987) as an independent consultant with clients world-wide. He has worked for suppliers on both sides of the wheel/rail interface, for railway systems, and as an expert on vehicle/track interaction, rail grinding, measuring equipment, rail damage and railway maintenance practices for statutory authorities, the European Commission, in court cases and for international standardisation bodies. The work he most enjoys is "trouble-shooting" and the implementation of solutions to unusual problems in vehicle/track interaction.

Jay Jaiswal

Dr Jay Jaiswal has been with Corus / British Steel for 26 years after starting as a Research Investigator at Swinden Technology Centre, Rotherham in 1978. An encyclopaedic technical knowledge of metallurgy and railway systems has seen Jay progress through positions within the Technology Strategy Group of British Steel, to the post of Chief Metallurgist and Programme Manager R&D for Corus Rail, then Director, Engineering & Technology (CRIS) encompassing the activities of the Corus Rail Infrastructure Services group of businesses and into the current post of Director, Track Engineering & Technologies (Corus Rail Sector). As Director, Track Engineering & Technologies for Corus Rail Sector, Jay has developed many contacts within the railway industries of the world. Within the UK he regularly holds discussions with high-level UK Government bodies. He is a member of several industry committees in the UK and of European standardisation groups. Dr Jaiswal has earned a reputation as being one of the country's foremost experts in Rolling Contact Fatigue. It is this reputation, and his considerable knowledge of railway metallurgy and railway systems, that led to Jay being an expert witness for the inquiry following the tragic Hatfield derailment.

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Andrea Bracciali

Prof. Andrea Bracciali teaches Machine Design at the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Florence.

With a strong background on analytical and experimental noise & vibration problems, stress analysis, signalling and general railway problems, he published around 70 papers, most of them downloadable from www.dmti.unifi.it/bracciali.

He offers consultancy in both permanent way and rolling stock fields. He is involved in numerous vehicle-interaction projects for TOCs, railway components suppliers and infrastructure owners about flange lubrication, application of improved steels for solid and tyred wheels, multi-axial fatigue design, noise & vibration and corrugation problems, rail wear, failure analysis of wheels and structural components (bogies, carbodies), design and re-design of rail vehicles.

He is active in several CEN groups to develop European railway standards on rail roughness and track vibration decay rates. He revised the recently approved standards on interior and external noise measurements and drafted the flange lubrication standard.

Ray Lewis

Ray Lewis commenced his career with Post Office Research at Dollis Hill. After a time spent with the MOD, he worked on the design of Railway Infrastructure Measuring Systems with BR Research in Derby in the 80's and 90's. During this time, track geometry, ultrasonic testing and structure gauging trains were constructed and entered into service. In 2000/2001 he was involved in the updating of the track geometry cars to digital systems, and through Serco Rail Technologies he supplied the instrumentation and analysis software package for the new systems on these trains which are now operated by Network Rail.

He is currently a consultant involved with Serco and MRX of Perth WA in the development of both unattended and conventional systems for a number of clients, and also lectures to Track Engineers on Track Recording and Ultrasonic Testing. He is a Chartered Electrical Engineer and Fellow of the I.E.T.

Dr Sebastian Stichel

Dr Sebastian Stichel undertook his doctoral studies on the  use  of Multibody Simulation  to derive  load spectra for fatigue analysis of vehicle components at TU Berlin. After his degree he started to work at the Royal Institute of Technology (KTH) in Stockholm at the Department of Railway Vehicles. His main research field is freight wagon dynamics.

 He has worked at Bombardier Transportation Sweden since 2000 and since 2003 he  has been head of the Vehicle Dynamics department, Division Mainline & Metros with engineers in Västerås, Hennigsdorf and Derby.

He is involved in most  orders for the Division and several development projects. Even though he  now is fulll time at Bombardier he still works to some extent for KTH ,  teaching Rail Vehicle Dynamics and supervising PhD students.

Together with Klaus Knothe he published a German text book on Rail Vehicle Dynamics (Schienenfahrzeugdynamik)."

 

Dr. Kevin Oldknow

Dr. Kevin Oldknow is Manager, Friction Control Technology at Kelsan Technologies Corp. (North Vancouver, BC).  His current areas of focus include design, implementation and verification of friction control strategies for the railway industry, as well as research and development (including modelling) in the areas of wheel / rail contact mechanics, vehicle dynamics and friction management.  He is responsible for Kelsan’s field applications group, which conducts full scale experimental programs and technology implementation projects for freight and transit rail operations on several continents around the world.  He received his Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering from the University of British Columbia, with specializations in controls, dynamics and metal cutting.  He has published several papers in conference proceedings and international journals in the areas of friction management, controls and dynamics.

 

Steve Cox

 

Steve Cox has worked at Pandrol Rail Fastenings for more than 20 years, first in the Research and Development Department and more recently as Technical Development Director with responsibility for new products. During this time he has been involved in the mathematical modelling of various different aspects of track behaviour, the measurement and analysis of track component deflections, strains and vibrations, technical support of Pandrol products, and development of new products for heavy haul railways, high-speed railways, and metro systems. He has managed Pandrol’s contribution to a number of research projects, including the EU projects Silent Track on railway noise and CONVURT on railway vibration.

 

Gordon Bachinsky

 

Gordon Bachinsky is President of Advanced Rail Management (ARM) Corporation, a consulting/contract service company specializing in assessing rail and wheel, vehicle and track conditions, and designing and supervising rail grinding and wheel truing programs on freight, passenger and rail transit systems.

 

Mr. Bachinsky has 30 years of experience working in the railway, transit and railway supply industries. He began his railway career as an apprentice electrician for Canadian National Railway. While working in the Industrial Engineering Department at CN’s Montreal headquarters in the mid-1980s, he conducted an intensive study of North American rail grinding operations. The work on this study ultimately led Mr. Bachinsky to found ARM in 1990.

 

During his career, Mr. Bachinsky also has worked in the Equipment Engineering Department of the Toronto Transit Commission, where he was involved in the procurement of new-technology transit vehicles with linear-induction motors and total computer-control operation.  He also was a Senior Engineer in the Controls Division of Harris Corporation, where he worked on equipment used in remote locomotive control (Locotrol) applications.

 

Mr. Bachinsky holds a BS Degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Manitoba. He is a member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) and the American Railway Engineering and Maintenance of Way Association (AREMA), serving as a member on Committee 4 (Rail) and Committee 2 (Track Measuring Systems). He is a licensed professional engineer in the Province of Ontario.

 

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