scope:

This specification:

a) sets out the essential and preferred requirements for product acceptance of Point Operating Equipment, including for modifications to existing approved equipment;

b) states the requirements to be considered for the design, manufacture and testing of the point operating equipment.

It covers these requirements:

a) functional;

b) physical;

c) interface;

d) performance; and 

e) safety. 

The intended users of this specification are:

a) Network Rail Product Acceptance teams;

b) suppliers of Point Operating Equipment.

Point operating equipment consists of the track-mounted equipment providing the actuation, locking and detection over the length of the moving rail.

The scope of this specification covers point operating equipment that is suitable for plain leads. Approved variations may also be made available to operate single switch configurations, tandems, single/double slips, switch diamonds, swing nose crossings and wide-to-gauge traps (non-exhaustive list).

The requirements of this specification apply to: 

a) point operating equipment suitable for standard track gauge installed on Network Rail's Infrastructure for line speeds up to 140mph; 

b) trailable and non-trailable points; 

c) application to third rail electrification systems; 

d) powered POE. The following items are considered within the scope of this standard: 

1) the points actuating, locking and detection mechanism, including the requirement for supplementary drive arrangements; 

2) any bearers which form part of the points actuating mechanism; 

3) the connection method from the points actuating mechanism to the switch rails. (e.g. including stretcher bars where provided as part of POE); 

4) any mounting (connection) method to the running rails; 

5) any mounting method for existing sleepers/bearers. Including resilient baseplate and soleplates; 

6) the supplementary drive (where fitted) and its connections/mountings to the switch rails and to existing sleepers/bearers; 

7) the detection mechanism; 

8) the interface to the signalling system within the boundary of the POE enclosure; 

9) the interface to the power system within the boundary of the POE enclosure; 

10)any interface to condition monitoring systems within the boundary of the POE enclosure; 

11)any equipment and operating arrangements required to manually operate the POE; 

12)any installation, maintenance and decommissioning arrangements for the POE, including manual operation in degraded states; 

13)any specialist tools or equipment required to install, maintain, or decommission the POE; 

14)consumables, liquids, etc supplied as part of the POE and/or used for servicing; 

15)manual operation and degraded modes of operation. 

The following are out of the scope of this standard: 

• Application to rail weights other than CEN56 and CEN60. 

• Application to fourth rail electrification systems.

This specification is not intended to support the selection of approved point operating equipment, selection is set out in NR/L2/SIG/19809: Business Process for Selection of Point Operating Equipment. 

The following systems and operations are not covered by this specification as they are typically outside the control of the POE equipment supplier. 

NOTE: The compatibility of these systems and operations with the POE design, installation and maintenance is considered in this specification. 

a) the stock rails (including rail types), including degraded tracks within maintenance tolerances; 

b) the switch rails, including degraded tracks within maintenance tolerances; 

c) clip and scotch arrangements that are subject to separate product acceptance when supplied by the POE Manufacturer; 

d) the bearers or slab track mounting, except where these are provided as part of the POE; 

e) the ballast or other track substructure; 

f) slide, roller plates and chairs except where these are provided as part of the POE; 

g) point heaters to NR/GN/ELP/45002; 

h) rolling stock (including gauging requirements and permissible degraded conditions); 

i) the signalling interface beyond the boundary of the POE enclosure; 

j) track circuit systems, including those which use the running and switch rails to form part of the track circuit; 

k) other wayside signalling equipment etc.; 

l) the electrical supply beyond the boundary of the POE enclosure; 

m) any interface to condition monitoring systems beyond the boundary of the POE enclosure; 

n) the electrification system (including third and fourth rail); 

o) Network Rail Maintenance processes not specified by POE supplier; 

p) maintenance requirements (including commissioning and decommissioning) for the track, electrification, other wayside signalling assets etc.; 

q) the use of tamping equipment, stone blowing equipment, dynamic track stabilisers etc.; 

r) parameters for wagon delivery. 

Purpose 

This specification confirms that Point Operating Equipment approved for use on Network Rail infrastructure: 

a) provides an acceptable level of functional and personnel safety, through the specification of safety requirements and a definition of the operating environment; 

b) provides an adequate level of reliability, through the specification of reliability targets and a definition of the operating environment; 

c) is, as far as can be specified on a generic basis, compatible with the Network Rail track and signalling infrastructure. 

Due to variations in track and signalling infrastructure compliance to this standard does not demonstrate suitability for any specific application, such suitability should be confirmed by application of CSM-RA at the point of application as required by NR/L2/RSE/100/02. 

Compliance to this specification will support an application to the acceptance process defined in NR/L2/RSE/100/05.