CPA Bulletin

rail plant association RAIL PLANT ASSOCIATION: 1 David Simmons RPA Chairman Welcome to the first update of 2019 and we start by sending our good wishes for a safe and successful year. Hopefully all went well for those who gave up their Christmas holiday to take part in the massive holiday engineering programme, which we understand was probably the most successful shutdown in recent years. Documents I want to start this year by reminding you of the very many documents that cross our desks and need our input. It may seem a pretty trivial task but without the considered response of those affected, works may not always run in the way we wish. The RSSB have recently put three documents out for consultation immediately prior to the holiday which could affect our members, although the closing dates have now passed. These are the five year review of RS504 Fatigue Management - A Good Practice Guide, Consultation on GMRT2141 Resistance of Railway Vehicles to Derailment and Roll-over and a consultation on GMGN2641 Rail Industry Guidance Note on Vehicle Static Testing and Associated Documents. Details were sent by the RPA office to all members but if you have any issues please let us know. With regard to the M&EE Codes of Practice, there is an ongoing review of COP0032 (issue 2) Code of Practice for Plant Any Line Open (ALO) Working. This relates to the potential for plant to foul a live line so input based on our collective experiences is essential to ensure safe working in the future. As a committee we are also looking at some of the RPA good practice guides and we have already asked for comments on RPA0002 Good Practice Guide for On-Track Plant Operations Scheme (POS) Site Documentation. Some members have already contributed to this review but further observations will be welcome. We are presently looking at some new Good Practice Guidance Documents; the first of which will be a guide on how to ‘Correctly Secure Plant and Equipment when Loading onto Low Loaders’ and another a code of practice for ‘Returning Plant Back into Service Following Lengthy Periods or Post Incident’. These are all in their early stages at present and we will be looking for our members to provide input soon. Well Being There are many documents that can be found online but it is useful to remember the excellent Network Rail website https:// safety.networkrail.co.uk/ . There is a section under Health and Well Being that is well worth looking through; it gives helpful advice on keeping healthy both physically and mentally. Sometimes we are so engrossed in our work that we have difficulty finding time to look at this website but the rewards could be substantial. RCI The Safety Central website includes a section called the Jargon Buster. It is a dictionary of numerous acronyms used in the industry but there is one omission of note. The RCI is the Rated Capacity Indicator that is fixed to the machine to ensure it maintains a safe load across the machines working range. This then prevents the machine from tipping by being overloaded. All quite common and basic now but in the early days of road rail excavators the operator could switch the control off and use his own judgement regarding overloading. This of course could not continue and systems improved to prevent the operator from turning the control off. Consequently it was disappointing to learn that a RRV overturned last year due to the RCI having been deliberately isolated. At the time of writing it is unclear where the responsibility lies but it is worth reminding ourselves why these systems were fitted. It is now established that they should be used at all times during lifting operations and that the deliberate disabling of the facility could well be a criminal act that would be dealt with through the courts. It is not worth the effort to cheat the system it could potentially be fatal or led to a criminal conviction for those involved. Ballast Dust At the beginning of the year our members received a letter relating to changes being made to the Infrastructure Plant Manual NR/L2/RMVP/0200 with particular regard to design and engineering controls to be applied to manage or eliminate exposure to occupational health hazards relating to ballast dust. The document has been considerably simplified and we recommend you carefully examine the relevant modules. At the time of writing the committee are discussing the various options relating to this latest change, which appears to mandate an improvement to cab filtration or other engineering control measures, although it is unclear how this will eliminate the airborne dust. We can confirm that this will only apply to new build machines or those that are due for an upgrade in the normal life cycle. We shall keep our members updated on the issue but unfortunately the rule book changes become effective in March 2019, leaving little time to effectively introduce long term effective solutions. www.cpa.uk.net CPA Bulletin > February 2019 63