Rail

Trust Portastor to deliver dedicated trackside equipment housings safely, efficiently and on time

Portastor has been supplying high-quality, robust integrated equipment housings to the rail industry for more than 20 years. Our expertise covers the design and manufacture of bespoke traction power substations and signalling and communications equipment rooms. Whatever your requirements, we have the skills and resources to deliver the quality, security and aesthetic requirements of all types of rail-industry housing.

Traction power buildings

Portastor has considerable experience in delivering substations and switchgear equipment housings for the supply of traction power to railway lines. Whether it's AC power for overhead lines (OHLE) or DC power for the third rail on Southern zone networks, we can provide safe, secure housings for transformers, rectifiers and switchgear. All third-party equipment is fully integrated into the building by our experienced personnel at our dedicated manufacturing facility.

Signalling and communications buildings

Portastor provides reliable, individually designed housings for signalling and communications systems. We deliver tried and tested solutions for relocatable equipment buildings (REBs) and signalling and communications equipment rooms (SERs/CERs) to securely house safety-critical signalling equipment. You can rest assured that our building solutions will meet the sector's stringent requirements for health and safety, materials selection, fire resistance and electrical engineering standards.

Portastor provides a first level of fit out for the buildings, before liaising with equipment manufacturers and signalling equipment specialists to integrate your sophisticated signalling systems into the buildings, prior to delivery.

Our buildings are also used to house essential back-up power for signalling systems. These uninterruptible power supply (UPS) or power supply unit (PSU) rooms provide power to signals in the event of a mains power outage.

Save time and reduce risks

Choosing Portastor to provide your trackside equipment housings will save you time, reduce risks during installation and deliver high-performance buildings designed to your specific requirements. Because our buildings are manufactured away from your site in our factory, all construction work is removed from the hazardous trackside environment. Work to prepare the site can also be carried out in parallel with building manufacture, helping to reduce project times. Once the fully fitted building is completed it is simply delivered to site for rapid installation, keeping trackside operations to a minimum.

Factory manufacture of your trackside buildings can reduce project times by up to 50% compared with traditional construction methods while also providing a much safer solution.

Innovations for the rail sector

Portastor understands the specific requirements of the rail sector. Where trackside locations are difficult to access by road, we can create rail-gauge buildings to UIC W6-A standards, enabling them to be transported directly to site by rail.

When Network Rail needed to find an equipment housing that provided long-life performance to match the lifetime of the installed equipment, Portastor went back to the drawing board and came up with the LX Plus. Uniquely, all elements of these buildings are made from stainless steel, providing a low-corrosion structure designed to last for at least 60 years. As an additional benefit, the buildings have an easy-clean, anti-graffiti finish.

Exceptional safety standards

All Portastor personnel working on rail sector buildings are fully qualified to meet all safety standards. We have Link Up Core Module approval from Network Rail and all personnel working trackside have Personal Track Safety (PTS) cards. All relevant personnel have also been through rigorous training with London Underground Limited to obtain its Safety Passport to work on site.

Track record in the rail sector

Our distinguished track record in the rail sector means that customers trust Portastor to meet their highest quality standards. We have worked on many major UK rail infrastructure projects, including the Southern Zone power supply upgrade, West Coast Mainline upgrade and Docklands Light Railway extension.

Find out what our customers think…

Take a look at our case studies, to find out how we have fulfilled the diverse requirements of customers in all industry sectors, around the world. You can also visit our manufacturing facilities to see how off-site construction and more than 50 years’ experience can benefit your organisation. We will arrange everything.

Find out more

For more information about any of our products and services, contact us today.

Telephone: +44 (0)845 60 41 443