Making tracks for the network

摘要

Manufacturing track products is specialised work, which goes largely unseen. Who are the companies, what are their challenges, how have products changed and how stable is this supply chain? Peter Heubeck reviews the sector's work supplying Network Rail and offers some thoughts on the lessons that can be drawn from its 25-year evolution since the privatisation of the UK's national rail system. After the closure of rolling mills at Cargo Fleet on Teesside and Glengarnock in Ayrshire, the British Steel Corporation (BSC) plant at Workington was, by 1985, the UK's only rolling mill dedicated to volume rail production. Skilled staff produced high-quality products for the UK market and BSC also had strong export sales. However, problems loomed. Having ceased making its own steel in 1974, the Workington plant relied on the costly transport of steel blooms from Teesside. The constrained site limited rail rolling to 120 feet and prevented upgrading to make the longer rolled lengths that track engineers wanted (even high-quality factory welds form undesirable discontinuities in the rail). The plant's relative remoteness increased distribution costs.