Henry Williams, while a multi-disciplined engineering business operating in numerous markets, has a long association with the UK’s railways infrastructure, having supplied control and signalling equipment since 1883.
Henry Williams is currently celebrating a hat-trick of orders on high-profile railway enhancement projects.
*Manufacture and supply of 43 Functional Supply Points (FSPs) for First Capital Connect’s £6bn programme of improvements to Thameslink – the core route through central London.
*Prefabrication and fit-out of a Signalling Relocatable Equipment Building (REB) for Chiltern Railways’ Evergreen 3 project that will see the introduction of a new train service between Oxford and London Marylebone to reduce traffic on the already congested M40.
*Design and manufacture of two signalling panels for Network Rail’s £67m project to reinstate double track on much of the Cotswold Line between Oxford and Worcester.
The recent contract wins follows on from the successful delivery of 89 FSPs as part of a £40m signalling refurbishment of the London Overground (formerly the North London Line), a key rail route for the 2012 Olympics.
Paul Davies, project engineer, said: “The FSPs, which are robust steel cabinets fitted out with power distribution equipment, are key elements of a complex electrical system that ensures a continuous power supply trackside and, ultimately, the safe passage of trains. The FSPs have been designed with a four-way switch which gives the line operator the ability, in the future, to upgrade the system to four outgoing ways.”
Evergreen 3 is part of a wider, multi-discipline linespeed enhancement project being undertaken by Chiltern Railways to reduce journey times between Birmingham and London Marylebone. The REB, which Henry Williams has prefabricated and fitted out at its manufacturing in Darlington, will form part of a signalling system based on SSI Interlocking technology controlled by Marylebone Integrated Electrical Control Centre.
The signalling panels Henry Williams is making for the Cotswold Line will form part of the new signalling system when Network Rail-First Great Western complete a major upgrade of the passenger service between Worcester and Oxford by restoring 20 miles of double track lost during the route rationalization programme of the late 1960s.
Electrical Projects Director, Mr Puddick added: “An effective signalling system is the lifeline of safe railway operation. Henry Williams has been supplying signalling panels for more than five decades. We still help to maintain panels we installed in the 1970s, including Clapham Junction, one of the biggest ever built in Europe, and this new contract demonstrates that as well as a long tradition, we also remain an industry leader in this particular area of expertise.”
