Water-trak Limited is a joint venture between John Cooke (owner and founder of CoCatalyst Limited) and Simon Barnard (owner and founder of SCB Associates Limited). John and Simon share a passion for problem solving and finding innovative,simple solutions that work. They have been collaborating on training and consulting projects for over 12 years across all industries and for the last 10 years in the rail industry. Use the timeline below to follow the exciting development of the Water-Trak system to solve the rail industry problem of low adhesion…..

The five Water-Trak equipped trains accumulated over 87,000 miles of passenger service during the leaf fall season from October to December. Water was dispensed 2,242 times, triggered by the WSP (Wheel Slide Prevention) activating during train braking. As with previous autumns, the results showed a significant uplift in braking performance when compared to the control trains operating on the same lines of route without Water-Trak.

Water-Trak Limited has been founded to exploit our simple, patented water addition technology. Our solution addresses the problem of low adhesion which costs the rail industry up to £350 million each year in the UK alone.

Low adhesion is most severe in Autumn when track-side leaf fall contributes to very slippery conditions on the railway.  The problem forces the industry to undertake complex and expensive countermeasures; special trains jet the rails with millions of litres of water, Autumn timetables frustrate and confuse rail users and line-side tree felling challenges the green credentials of the rail industry. If all else fails, the trains rely on the steam age technology of sand to stop and start safely. Even if a minor problem occurs on a small part of the network, it can easily escalate into significant operational chaos, disrupting passengers everyday lives.

Our vision is simply to eliminate low adhesion by deploying Water-Trak from passenger service trains.

SCB Associates were commissioned by RSSB to prepare a study into “technologies and solutions to the rail industry problem of low adhesion”

• Discovered British Rail Research into low adhesion showed that water plays a critical role in the problem of low adhesion. A dry rail gives excellent adhesion, a fully wetted rail gives good adhesion but a partially wetted (damp) rail gives very low adhesion, especially when combined with contaminants (iron oxides and/or leaf matter) - see our blog post for a more detailed description.

• A range of solutions were identified, including a concept where a controlled amount of water is added when low adhesion is detected

  The full report (S186) is available on the RSSB information website www.sparkrail.org

John Cooke (owner and founder of CoCatalyst Limited) and Simon Barnard (owner and founder of SCB Associates Limited) have been collaborating on training and consulting projects for over 12 years across all industries and for the last 10 years in the rail industry. In addition to tackling the low adhesion problem their other rail industry projects have included:

• New ticketing technologies and solutions - a horizon scanning investigation for RSSB into future technologies for train ticketing. The report highlights the importance of the “ticket” as being an information channel between the passenger and the rail company and the opportunity that new technologies offer to dramatically improve the bandwidth of this channel. Download a full copy of the report here.

• Step free access - This report for RSSB provides an overview of the process that was followed as the project progressed and a detailed listing of the technologies and conceptual solutions which were found. The report also highlights key insights into the step-free access challenge which emerged during the analysis (S243)

• Rail industry patent analysis and mapping - This report documents a study of rail industry patents conducted for Future Railway by CoCatalyst Ltd working closely with RSSB. It represents a first attempt to provide an overview of global rail industry patent activity over the last 30 years, to see whether clear trends or patterns can be identified and new insight obtained on the railway innovation landscape (S198)

• Technologies and solutions for future train suspension systems - a horizon scanning investigation for RSSB into future technologies for train suspension systems. Download a full copy of the report here.

• Feasibility study for a kneeling train - Conducted with Loughborough University, this study demonstrated the possibility of modifying or designing trains such that they have the ability to ‘kneel’ – in that the height of vehicle and lateral position can be adjusted to move closer to the station. The goal of this is to remove (or at least reduce) gaps and steps that occur between the platform and the vehicle body, resulting in faster, safer and more accessible train boarding and alighting (COF-PTI-03)