A team of students from the University of Sheffield has been awarded the Grand Champion prize in the Railway Challenge 2024, becoming only the second ever team from a UK university to win the title. The team set a new competition record and scored their highest ever points total in the competition, which is designed to help students develop skills for a career in railway engineering.
Led by the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, the competition sees teams of young engineers from across the world design and build their own 10¼-inch-gauge locomotive and compete in a series of trials both on and off the track, to test their business knowledge, design ability and practical engineering skills. The idea behind the initiative is to help young engineers to develop skills beyond their degree programmes to help prepare them for a career in engineering, and to encourage more young people to pursue a career in the rail industry.
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This year, most teams were made up of recent graduates working in industry or final year Masters students; the team from Sheffield was one of the few to be extra-curricular – formed of students from all levels who built their train alongside their studies.
Each team was required to design and manufacture a miniature train in accordance with a set of strict rules and a detailed technical specification. The locomotives were then tested live at a competition weekend at Stapleford Miniature Railway in Leicestershire, where several categories of winners and an overall Railway Challenge champion was crowned based on who could master skills across a wide range of engineering disciplines.
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The University of Sheffield students were awarded the Grand Champion prize, scoring their highest ever points total. They also came first in a series of individual categories both on and off the track, including the category for innovation for proposing a new system for tackling leaves on the line – a problem that causes delays, cancellations and misery for rail passengers every autumn. Four new challenges were introduced this year and Sheffield was the only team to successfully implement design solutions for, and compete in, all four of them.
Sheffield’s students also set a new competition record in the Auto-Stop Challenge, in which each team must bring their locomotive to an automatic, controlled stop in exactly 25 metres. Sheffield’s score was accurate to more than 99 per cent.
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‘A particular highlight for me was our record-breaking performance in the Auto-Stop Challenge,’ said Charlotte Currie, a mechanical engineering student and 2024 team principal of the Railway Challenge Sheffield team. ‘After tentatively watching the locomotive coast towards the stop mark, it was thrilling to see it stop right on the mark and spark cheers from the crowd. This performance was a testament to the dedication and ambition of our members this year, and having led the team I felt a great sense of pride watching our locomotive run so successfully.
‘This year has seen the second iteration of the current design philosophy of our locomotive,’ she continued. ‘The team members, myself included, are very ambitious, and I have been impressed by the quality of the engineering solutions developed by the team to optimise the design for this year’s competition.’
‘Designing and building the locomotive this year has been challenging and sometimes frustrating, but always enjoyable,’ said Maximilian Deil, a mechanical engineering student and 2024 structures & dynamics sub-team leader. ‘As a diverse team we come from many different backgrounds and university courses, but bringing us all together is our love for engineering and trains. Most of us invest many hours every week into the project on top of our university coursework. We don’t receive any extra degree credit or certifications for competing in the railway challenge, but holding the big trophy over our heads was more rewarding than anything else could be.’
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While competing in the challenge this year, the Sheffield students placed a special sticker on their locomotive to show support and appreciation for the Richard Pover Endowment Fund – a fundraising initiative that was set up in memory of a mechanical engineering student who passed away from testicular cancer.
Richard’s family has worked tirelessly to create a lasting memorial, leading to the establishment of the fund, which awards scholarships and other prizes to mechanical engineering students at Sheffield – with more than £50,000 already raised. Several members of Sheffield’s Railway Engineering Challenge team – both past and present – have been supported by the fund.