IMechE Railway Challenge

We were delighted to support the “Molly loves JIM” team from Aachen University of Applied Sciences in their participation in the IMechE Railway Challenge. The aim of the challenge is to develop and build a locomotive for the 10 ¼” gauge (approx. 260 mm) in order to compete against other teams in Stapleford (UK) and Bad Schussenried (Germany).

The performance of the vehicles is assessed in various disciplines on the track and on the basis of documents.

In addition to standards such as reliability and traction force, the route tests also include the energy efficiency of the vehicles and automatic target braking. The document-based checks include, for example, a business case and an assessment of the vehicle’s extensive documentation.

In this way, students can experience a complete project cycle with many elements of a project for the “big railroad” in a short time (about nine months between registration and challenge), gain experience and make inexpensive and relatively harmless mistakes.

After overall victories in 2019 and 2022, the team achieved an excellent third place in Stapleford. Particularly noteworthy here is the new record set in the Maintainability Challenge, where the team was able to demonstrate the changing of a driven wheel set in just 40 seconds.

For ongoing information, follow the team on Instagram(https://www.instagram.com/fh2rail) or visit their website(https://emmalovesjim.com).