Railway embankment modular stair

Scope

Installation of conventional railway embankment stairs is often not possible on the less accessible potential sites. Access is often severely restricted both physically and within a scheduled engineering work timetable. All material had to be hand carried to site for the difficult access locations which was expensive and time consuming. It often meant that a stair was not economically viable to install. Our customer was looking for a cost effective solution needed by Network Rail.

Design

A very simple concept was found from a design study that investigated High Strength Low Alloy (HSLA) steel components. The great advantage of this material is that it can have several times the yield strength of more conventional structural steels and therefore weigh significantly less for the same structural performance. Due to the weight reduction, all components could be easily hand carried to site and installed.

A modular stair and landing system was designed with several assembly and installation productivity features.  The main one being a link bar mechanism connecting all stair treads so that all could be set to the same angle once one in the whole stair was set.

Installation

This innovative product has been successfully installed on many sites throughout the rail network. The stair concept won two awards at the Highways UK show, NEC, Birmingham: Materials innovation award overall winner and safety category winner.