Wheelsets: Less Cost, Less Risk - The Challenge

Andy Course: Chief Operating Officer, Eversholt Rail

Andy Course joined Eversholt Rail in June 2013 and is new to the railway industry. After joining the Royal Navy as an engineering apprentice, he served for over 20 years as an Engineering Officer, responsible for the development, procurement, upgrade, maintenance and operation of warships and their systems, and a further six years advising private and public sector clients as a Strategy Consultant and Director at PwC. Andy is a Chartered Engineer with a Master's in Systems Engineering and a second Master's in Strategic Studies.

Geoff Mather: Consultant, Independent Engineer

Geoff Mather has worked for 41 years in the rail industry. He started at the British Rail Research Department in the field of Track & Structure before moving onto the Department of Mechanical and Electrical Engineering (DM&EE) in the testing section. There he rose to the position of Head of Development Testing before being recruited by British Rail Engineering Limited (BREL) to set up a testing organisation of their own.

Following a year working in France on the Eurostar tender team, Geoff was appointed to the role of Chief Engineer - Bogies, at BREL, before retiring from Bombardier in 2008. Geoff still works part time, primarily in standards where he holds the positions of Chairman of CEN TC 256 Sub Committee 2 (Rolling Stock products) and its UK BSI shadow committee RAE/3.

Neil Drury: Lead Engineer, Business Development, FirstGroup

Neil Drury started his railway career as an engineering graduate on the ATOC scheme in 2004. He moved through various depot management roles in three depots covering all aspects of depot workings and also has looked after the HST, locos, LHCS and Cl180 units at FGW as Fleet Engineer.

Neil has headed up the fleet technical, performance and support functions at FCC as Head of Engineering Asset Management and is now the lead on engineering input for business development activities within FirstGroup.

Bridget Eickhoff: Professional Head of Infrastructure, RSSB

Bridget Eickhoff currently works as Professional Head for Infrastructure for RSSB, with responsibility for leading the work on GB railway group standards related to the interfaces between infrastructure (track, bridges, tunnels and stations) and trains. This also involves providing input into a range of European Standards and committees and support to research projects in related areas. 

Previously Bridget worked in Vehicle Track Interaction for BR Research and successor organisations prior to joining RSSB in 2008. Bridget has also worked on ride and passenger comfort, derailment risk and investigation, track forces and track deterioration, track geometry, vehicle testing and the details of the wheel-rail interface.

Stavros Avramidis: Senior Project Leader, TWI Technology Centre

Stavros Avramidis has worked in non-destructive testing for over four years. He has developed inspection techniques for railway axles, railway lines and other critical components of the rail industry for projects with AxleInspect, RailSaft and ReLASE. His main expertise lies in conventional and advanced ultrasound, ultrasonic simulations and acoustic emission.

Sam Lester: Technical Director, LASE Ltd

Sam Lester is a materials engineer with six years of experience working with high power industrial lasers. During this time Sam’s main role has been the development of the laser cladding process for repair and coating of critical components. He is the Technical Director of LASE Ltd, who are a laser cladding subcontractor in Neath, South Wales.

Stephanie Klecha: UK Engineering Manager, MRX UK

Stephanie Klecha is responsible for engineering personnel and activities at MRX UK, covering MRX’s range of rail and vehicle inspection technologies and products. Stephanie has had an extensive career within MRX, both in Europe and Australia, joining in 2008.

Prior to MRX she was on Rolls Royce’s Engineering Leadership Scheme and performed three leadership roles in the UK and Canada spanning design, repair and testing.

Dr Adam Bevan: Professor, The Institute of Railway Research, University of Huddersfield

Adam Bevan is Head of Enterprise at the Institute of Railway Research (IRR) at the University of Huddersfield. 

Following the completion of his PhD in 2004, Adam joined the Rail Technology Unit at Manchester Metropolitan University. During his time at the Rail Technology Unit, Adam built a wide range of expertise and knowledge in the field of wheel-rail interface engineering, vehicle dynamics simulation and vehicle-track interaction. In his current role Adam has led a number of industry-sponsored research and enterprise projects for various clients, such as the Rail Safety and Standards Board (RSSB,) UKTram and Network Rail.

Mark Johnson: Engineering Director, Southeastern

Mark Johnson first joined the railway industry in 1994 as a dual trained apprentice for Network Southeast. During his career Mark has held both technical and operational positions across the industry, managing existing fleets and supporting the introduction of new fleets onto the network. In 2014 Mark was appointed as Engineering Director for Southeastern and is responsible for leading and directing the undertakings on the Southeastern fleet, consisting of 360 trains running metro, mainline and high-speed services; a direct workforce of 528 people across three directly-controlled maintenance depots and one outsourced maintenance facility operated by Hitachi Rail..

Justin Southcombe: Commercial Director, Perpetuum

Justin Southcombe joined Perpetuum in March 2014 after 18 years with Alstom. After launching the TrainTracer remote condition monitoring service at Alstom he then moved to the systems division, developing infrastructure maintenance business in the Middle East, France and the UK. Since joining Perpetuum, projects have been launched in Australia, the continent and in the UK, including new services such as onboard track monitoring and motor monitoring. Justin holds a BEng (Hons) in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Surrey, an MBA from INSEAD and is a Chartered Engineer with the IMechE.

Dr Mark Burstow: Principal Vehicle Track Dynamics Engineer, Network Rail

Mark Burstow is currently Principal Vehicle Track Dynamics Engineer with Network Rail. He is responsible for a team of technical specialists supporting the work of the Vehicle/Track Systems Interface Committee (V/T SIC) and leading research and investigations into wheel/rail interface issues. He joined Network Rail in 2006 from AEA Technology Rail where he had been principally involved in research into rolling contact fatigue (RCF). Since then he has been involved in many projects on both sides of the wheel/rail interface, to improve the performance of the vehicle/track interface, including the introduction of hydrodynamic radial arm bushes to reduce RCF and the use of P12 wheel profiles to reduce wheelset ‘hunting’ and extend wheelset life.

Julian Betts: Senior Team Leader, Govia Thameslink Railway (GTR)

Julian Betts gained an engineering craft apprenticeship with the Ministry of Defence at the RSAF specialising in tool room and CNC Programming. He then went into the railway industry as lathe operator, preferring a heavier engineering environment. Following several restructures and promotions, he is now Senior Team Leader, with one department being all wheel lathe operations, including planning, records and control.

Roger Deuce: Senior Product Engineer, Europe - Bogies, Bombardier Transportation

Roger Deuce has held a number of positions within Bombardier, serving a wide spectrum of product applications from low-floor trams to heavy haul locomotives, operating within hot desert to artic environments. His wheelset activities within Bombardier span five continents.

Andy Vickerstaff: Senior Wheel-Rail Interface Engineer, London Underground

Andy Vickerstaff is the Senior Wheel-Rail Interface Engineer for London Underground. Andy leads a multi-disciplinary team that provides engineering leadership to both track and rolling stock asset groups in order to establish industry best practice within maintenance and projects. Andy has worked for London Underground since 2008, when he joined the Mechanical Engineering Graduate Scheme after graduating from the University of Bath. 

Julian Stow: Assistant Director, Institute of Railway Research, University of Huddersfield

Julian Stow is Assistant Director at the Institute of Railway Research at the University of Huddersfield. He has 17 years’ experience in the rail industry specialising in rail vehicle dynamics and wheel-rail interface engineering and he has led a wide range of projects for the GB rail industry in these areas. He is currently responsible for the delivery of a programme of research work under the strategic partnership between RSSB and the University of Huddersfield. Julian is a chartered engineer and a Fellow of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers.

Hamid Khan: Systems Engineer, Alstom

Hamid Khan studied Mechanical Engineering at The University of Sheffield and graduated in 2011. Hamid joined Alstom in January 2013 as a Graduate Engineer. Since then, Hamid has been on the graduate scheme and experienced many areas of the business such as project management, supply chain, engineering and maintenance. He has also been involved with projects with Eurostar and the Virgin Pendolino. Currently, Hamid is working as a Systems Engineer on projects related to Class 390 Pendolino at Manchester. He is currently working towards IMechE Chartered Engineer Status.