ACTOM Signalling, which has made a name for itself countrywide for its development of a simple and efficient semi-automated yard control system for use in shunting yards as a viable and less expensive alternative to a fully-fledged signalling system for that purpose, recently completed its 26th yard control system installation.
Signalling’s yard control system – the only system on offer that has Transnet approval – is also far superior to the traditional manually operated system that has been in use for many years.
The business unit was awarded its first contract for installation of the system at 11 railway yards countrywide in 2012 by Transnet Capital Projects on behalf of Transnet Freight Rail (TFR), followed by the award of a further contract in 2015 for installation of the system at another 13 yards countrywide. Then in 2018 TFR awarded Signalling a contract to install its system at Ermelo Yard in Mpumalanga to replace a semi-automated system that had been supplied and installed there by another signalling company several years earlier, but had proven to be unreliable.
This brings the total number of TFR yards that have had semi-automated yard control systems supplied and installed by Signalling to date to 25. All these systems replaced the unwieldy traditional manual system.
The latest award in mid-2021 came from Glencore’s Arthur Taylor Colliery (ATC) near Ogies in Mpumalanga, the yard control system in this case replacing a dated signalling system.
The electronic interlocking systems of standard signalling have a safety integrity level (SIL) rating of 4, whereas the interlocking system of ACTOM Signalling’s yard control system is based on SIL2 technology, which is considered suitable for the less demanding application to which it is put compared with the more complex and demanding application of monitoring and controlling main line traffic that a standard signalling system is required to perform.
The contract for ATC, which was completed in April this year, involved the supply and installation of a yard control system to serve ATC’s Impunzi mine’s loadout station located on a siding linking up to the main line to Ermelo.
”Among the many reasons for this system’s cost effectiveness is the use of a locally developed axle-counter system which is substantially cheaper than an imported mainline axle-counter,” stated Trevor Hann, the Project Manager for the contract.
