The Customer

The New South Wales railway was the first government-owned railway in the British Commonwealth. Since opening in 1855, it has grown from a modest 22 kilometres (13 miles) line from Sydney to Parramatta, to a State network of more than 8,000 kilometres (4970 miles). Its passenger service operates throughout Sydney and the regional centres of New South Wales via the CityRail and CountryLink business groups.

The Challenge

The train communications system Tait supplied to Siemens for use by StateRail is a good example of the lengths Tait goes to in tailoring a solution for an individual customer. Siemens provided the communications specifi cations for the system, while Tait supplied the equipment to meet them. Tait supplied a multi-site, multi-channel, full duplex conventional communications system with mobile radios customised to accommodate Siemens proprietary train radio software.

The Solution

The track-side system involved the supply of 200 two, three and four channel UHF base stations, each fitted with combining equipment and a monitoring shelf. In addition, 850 Tait full duplex UHF mobile radios were fi tted in the locomotive cabs.

The base stations used were based on standard Tait modules from a highly successful Tait base station series. They provide outstanding reliability and technical performance.

Each station has one data channel and a number of voice channels combined via low loss combiners. The locomotive mounted mobile radio is a full duplex radio with a large amount of customisation to accommodate the operation required within the system.

Modifications include the inclusion of an internal duplexer, which reduces the size of the actual radio without compromising the high performance of the mobile, and features 100 per cent transmit duty cycle. Custom control circuitry is included within the radio. This comprises a specially designed embedded personal computer allowing the rapid development of application software for the Siemens proprietary train radio software.

The radio itself has been designed to meet stringent environmental standards, including IP54 sealing, IEC571, AS1099 and British Rail specifications for shock, vibration and thermal rating.

For more information

Tait base stations

Reliable analogue and digital base stations form a crucial part of any transport solution.