Institution news
On 2023's Grand Champion, Railway Challenge Chief Judge Bill Reeve said: "PUTrain showed an impressive performance across the whole range of challenges."
Coming in at second were the University of Derby & Alstom team while FH Aachen & Reuschling landed third place overall.
Railway Challenge tasks teams of students, apprentices, and young professionals to follow a system engineering process to develop, build and test a miniature (10¼” gauge) railway locomotive that meets specific competition objectives. The Challenge, now in its twelfth successive year, tests their business knowledge, design ability and technical skills in a live test environment.
On this year’s event, Organising Committee Chair Prof. Simon Iwnicki notes: "The Railway Challenge provides a unique experience to all the teams as they tackle the various issues relating to the design and operation of a locomotive in a real-world environment. Not least are the challenges of managing a team making urgent and critical decisions and the Railway Challenge provides a fantastic learning experience which the participants will take with them into their careers."
Rose Garber, Member Relations Director at the Railway Industry Association (RIA) added: "The Challenge covers many of the opportunities and challenges that are important to RIA members, including embracing innovation to address railway technical challenges such as performance, reliability, energy efficiency and noise. The Challenge also replicates the realities of safe and efficient operation, but most of all, it’s a great showcase for careers in railway engineering."
Well done to all of the teams who took part in the 2023 Railway Challenge and thank you to our sponsors (SNC-Lavalin Atkins, Railway Industry Association, Angel Trains, Porterbrook, LNER / Hitachi Rail, RSSB, and the Pamela and David Rollin Foundation), our supporter (Network Rail) and our media partners (Railway Gazette, Railway PRO and Railway-News).
The full list of Railway Challenge 2023 competition category winners are listed as follows in addition to the scoreboard and final positions:
Overall result including track and non-track challenges
- Grand Champion: Poznań University of Technology
- Runner-up: University of Derby & Alstom
- Third place: FH Aachen & Reuschling
Track-based challenge results
- Auto-Stop: University of Derby & Alstom
- Ride Comfort: University of Derby & Alstom
- Energy Storage: University of Derby & Alstom
- Traction: University of Derby & Alstom
- Noise: FH Aachen & Reuschling
- Reliability: Network Rail, Poznań University of Technology, University of Derby & Alstom (joint winners)
- Maintainability: FH Aachen & Reuschling
- Refuelling: Poznań University of Technology
Non-track challenge results
- Business Case: FH Aachen & Reuschling
- Technical Poster: University of Sheffield
- Innovation: University of Sheffield, Transport for London, FH Aachen & Reuschling (joint winners)
- Design: Transport for London
Scoreboard and final positions
