Innovation in Railway Traction

Rory Dickerson: Senior Engineer – Traction & Rolling Stock, Network Rail

Rory Dickerson is a Chartered Senior Engineer for Traction & Rolling Stock in the Systems Engineering discipline, part of the Chief Engineer function in the Technical Authority at Network Rail. In his current role, Rory mainly focuses on railway systems, current and future decarbonised traction systems, on-board storage, and European standards. Since joining Network Rail in 2011, Rory has worked in areas concerning ETCS, plant control systems, maintenance, and electrical design and safety for rolling stock. Prior to this, Rory was a visiting researcher at the Birmingham Centre for Railway Research and Education.

Rory graduated with a master’s degree in Electronic and Electrical Engineering from the University of Birmingham and went on to complete a Master of Research degree in Railway Systems Integration from the same institution. Rory is an affiliate member of the Institute of Mechanical Engineers, and a member of the Institution of Engineering and Technology.

Rich Fisher: Head of Strategic Planning, Great British Railways Transition Team

Rich Fisher is responsible for key aspects of the Long Term Strategy for Rail including rolling stock and decarbonisation. Rich has a background in performance, business planning and operations strategy having worked for both Network Rail and train operators. Prior to his current role he led the GWR/NR Alliance which achieved successful delivery of the modernisation and electrification of the GWR network in 2019.

Neil Ovenden: Head of Engineering, Rail Partners

Neil is a highly experienced engineer with 20 years railway and fleet engineering experience either working for train operators, or supporting them via their trade associations. Prior to his time in rail, Neil spent time working in both the white goods, commercial catering appliance and energy sectors in product development and in research roles.

Stuart Hillmansen: Professor of Railway Traction Systems, University of Birmingham

Stuart Hillmansen is a Professor in Railway Traction Systems and Head of the Traction Research Group within the School of Electronic, Electrical and Systems Engineering.

The group are part of the Birmingham Centre for Railway Research and Education.

Stuart has over 50 research publications in scientific journals, conferences, and publically available reports. He has a wide teaching portfolio, which includes leading the Traction Systems Design module, and is also responsible for organising the final year masters projects and the MSc research projects.

Kieran Lyons: Senior Explosive Atmospheres Engineer, Health and Safety Executive

Kieran is a Chartered Engineer with CompEx certification in the Explosives Atmospheres team at HSE Science Division. He is a member of the Institute of Measurement and Control with a first class bachelor's degree in Aerospace Engineering and a background in telecommunications. Kieran has 5 years’ experience in research and consultancy and undertakes high-hazard experimentation, such as in the PRESLHY and HYTUNNEL projects. Kieran is also engaged with the International Association for Hydrogen Safety as acting Chair of PR & Knowledge Dissemination.

Darren Fitzgerald: Principal Electrical & Systems Rolling Stock Engineer, RSSB

Darren Fitzgerald is the Principal Electrical & Systems Rolling Stock Engineer for RSSB. Starting in the rail industry as a rolling stock apprentice for an operator, Darren graduated from the University of Sussex in 2018 with a Masters Degree in Embedded Digital Systems and became a Fellow of the Institute of Engineering and Technology in 2022. Since joining RSSB in 2021, Darren has been the lead technical specialist for hydrogen fuelled rolling stock for the standards directorate and contributed to the paper “Hydrogen Policy and Standards Review” that is available on the RSSB website.

Neil Dinmore: Principal Electrical and Systems Rolling Stock Engineer, RSSB

Neil has over 30 years’ experience in rail vehicle mechanical engineering. Sponsored by Arup through university, he joined British Rail after graduation. Specialising initially in vehicle structures, Neil worked for successor organisations following BR’s privatisation (Atkins and Interfleet), including team leader and NoBo/DeBo signatory roles. 

He joined RSSB in 2018. Neil’s role includes standardisation in rail vehicle structures, fire and materials performance, as well as acting as technical lead on several of RSSB’s ongoing research projects. He is the convenor of the ISO working group on interior passive safety for rail vehicles, and chair of the UK mirror groups for vehicle structures and fire safety.

Charles Calvert: Chief Engineer, Vanguard Sustainable Transport Solutions

Charles has 10 years engineering experience, including 3 years in the Royal Navy and 7 years in the railway industry. Charles started his railway career by researching into the development of fuel cell powered trains during his time at the University of Birmingham as a PhD researcher and Research Fellow. As part of this research he has held leadership positions in several project teams including the University of Birmingham’s HydroFLEX project team. The research conducted at the University of Birmingham led to the formation of a spinout company, Vanguard Sustainable Transport Solutions, of which Charles is a founding director.

Dawei Wu: Associate Professor in Mechanical Engineering, University of Birmingham

Dr Dawei Wu, an Associate Professor in Mechanical Engineering and an EPSRC Fellow at the University of Birmingham, specialises in zero-carbon fuels (hydrogen, ammonia, and e-fuels) and emissions-free propulsion technologies for heavy transports. Leading the development of hydrogen technology roadmaps at the UK National Hydrogen Research Centre: HI-ACT (EP/X038823/1), he also serves as the research theme leader for 'Low-carbon Propulsion Systems' in the UK MaRes Hub (EP/Y024605/1) and a work package leader for 'Propulsion System Scalability Analysis' in the Green Ammonia Thermal Propulsion (EP/W016656/1). His other projects encompass e-fuels, fuel injector designs, combustion fundamentals, and industry-related propulsion system design and optimisation.

Richard Stainton: Engineering Expert - Electrification, Network Rail

Richard's role in Network Rail is to develop opportunities to reduce the cost of electrification. This involves working with universities, test houses and suppliers to create new solutions and integrate these into our company standards and designs.

Joshua Fanshaw: Principal Design Engineer, Siemens Mobility Ltd

Joshua is Principal Design Engineer for System Design in Electrification for Siemens Mobility. He started his career in the Network Rail engineering graduate scheme, and subsequently worked in the national specialist team in Milton Keynes.  Since 2016 he has been at Siemens Mobility, and is currently the Contractors Responsible Engineer for traction power system design on the East Coast Power Supply Upgrade (PSU2) and Transpennine Route Upgrade (TRU EoL) projects. Joshua also works on the future of traction technologies, recently leading a First-of-a-kind project into Solar Power on AC railways.

Eliot Clark: Principal Design Engineer (Contact Systems), Siemens

Eliot is passionate about developing, motivating, and inspiring the next generation of engineers to innovate and find solutions to challenging problems. His experience ranges across both the client and supplier sides of railway Overhead Line (OLE) projects & design, from Crossrail and Thameslink to Shotts and East Kilbride. Having started his career in London, he is now based out of Glasgow. He has implemented several new and novel OLE solutions in the UK, applying global best practice to the local constraints we face today. Electrification is key to take our railway into the future, and doing it efficiently is imperative if rail is to compete against other modes of transport.

Felix Schmid: Professor emeritus of Railway Systems Engineerin, University of Birmingham

Born in Zürich, Switzerland, Felix Schmid graduated from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology with a degree in electrical and electronic engineering.

Following a brief career in software analysis in his home country, he moved to Manchester, England, to work for GEC Traction as a loco­motive con­trol systems engineer.

In 1982 he became a research engineer at UMIST and later a re­search assis­tant at the University of Salford. He then joined Brunel University as a lecturer in com­puter integ­rated manufacturing. In 1993, he took up a post as a railway inspector with the Swiss Federal Office of Transport but realised quickly that he was not suited to a civil service role. After a year, he re­turned to Britain and a senior lectureship at the University of Sheffield, where he was employed to develop the MSc programme in Railway Systems Engineering. In 2005, Felix and the programme transferred to the University of Birmingham and the Birmingham Centre for Railway Re­search and Education. Between 2005 and 2019, he managed three railway related masters pro­grammes and he still supervises research in the areas of railway control, railway operations and systems engineering.

Felix became a Fellow of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers in 2003. He is on the Board and the Executive of the Railway Division and has led four Railway Technical Tours between 2016 and 2019. He is currently involved in the planning of the Railway Technical Tour 2020. Felix Schmid has pro­vided contributions to many IMechE railway conferences and seminars, including ten Young Members’ seminars. He is also a fellow of the Institution of Railway Signalling Engineers and of the Permanent Way Institution.