Railways

Intercarriage Gangways

Originally purchased from Europe, these are the Flexible weatherproof walkways that connect railway carriages together. A damaged train gangway assembly, an extended lead time to import a replacement, coupled with an over the top costing prompted State Rail maintenance engineers to look to local expertise for a solution. The difficult-to-repair damaged gangway sets provide a level platform between carriages. Designed to stay level at a variety of speeds and conditions, they are complex mechanisms with many moving parts and sub-assemblies. A critical component of any train, gangways have their own special safety considerations.

With no working drawings available, Chess engineers borrowed a gangway from the railway maintenance facility and set about reverse engineering a new one. The result was a locally manufactured gangway assembly complete with working drawings and dedicated tooling such as assembly jigs.

The Gangways are exposed to all weathers and must be able to tolerate movements in several directions. Components are made from a variety of materials including mild and stainless steel plus aluminium and bronze. They have many parts including bearings, rod-hook connections, spring assemblies and rubber mouldings, all of which are required to be purpose made as well as meeting appropriate safety standards. Some original parts were modified to improve performance.

Commuter train doors

As well as the gangways, Chess is currently refurbishing train doors, The bright new safety yellow, not only makes them easy to find, but indicates they have undergone a major overhaul.