Mechan delivers lifting jacks to UK’s largest railway franchise
27 September 2022Mechan, the rail depot equipment specialist, has supplied 20 of its flagship lifting jacks to the Govia Thameslink Railway (GTR) Selhurst depot in Croydon, London, enabling five-car trains to be overhauled.
The 15t mobile jacks are designed to operate as a set of eight, 12 or 20, providing the depot with flexibility when servicing different vehicle types. Mechan worked with the GTR fleet infrastructure team and depot to install a combination of floor and wall-mounted socket boxes along the depot’s allocated lifting road, enabling trains to be split either side of the existing wheel drop for maintenance.
The set of jacks is one of the first to be supplied with the latest version of Mechan’s control system, which has been developed to include input/output (I/O) technology, reducing the size of cables and 4G connectivity, allowing for remote diagnostics.
Lindsey Mills, Mechan’s sales director, said: “Selhurst has been using four of our jacks to lift single carriages for many years, so when this new heavy overhaul programme came along, the team knew our equipment would give them the ability to raise multiple cars safely and efficiently. Commissioning was undertaken successfully by our engineering team and feedback on the new control system has been extremely positive.”
Mechan has worked with GTR – the UK’s largest railway franchise, operating Southern, Thameslink, Great Northern and Gatwick Express – for almost 20 years, and will continue to visit the Selhurst depot to maintain the new jacks, alongside the wheel drop and bogie rotator it had supplied previously.
