Manufacturing

Manufacturing Workstream

Did you know that 33% of our members are involved in manufacturing here in the UK?  This provides a wealth of products and processes that can be used to support the national rail network and presents strong export opportunities.

We are delighted to be introducing a dedicated workstream to support manufacturing and shine a spotlight on to this important local capability and this page gives you details of what that activity looks like as well as introducing our Manufacturing Partner for 2024-2025, and our Manufacturing Steering Group.

Keep checking back for new activities as the year progresses.

How to get involved
  • June Campaign #MadeInBritain – 17/6/24 to 17/7/24! Download your toolkit below.
  • Capability Brochure – coming soon!
  • Network Portal – Are you using your free Rail Forum access to highlight your capability and USPs on the Network Portal?  If you do not have a log-in – please contact Elaine@railforum.uk

 

‘Made in Britain’ UK rail manufacturing campaign

There are a variety of pre-built templates set in either a square or landscape format. Preview the styles below and download the PowerPoint files to get started.  A helpful ‘How to Guide’ has been created which provides a step by step tutorial on customising the social media templates.

We look forward to seeing your posts and celebrating your contributions to UK rail manufacturing!

Square Template Styles

Landscape Template Styles

Introducing our Manufacturing Partner

About TDI

Transport Design International (TDI) are market leaders in the design and manufacture of lightweight, mass transit solutions for the transport industry. With 30 years’ experience in the rail industry, their Very Light Rail product platforms Revolution VLR, Lync VLR and Orbit run on lower-cost infrastructure and offer more affordable transport solutions. Their product portfolio offers platform and kerb height vehicle solutions and single or multi-car options for both urban and rural routes. All projects are aimed at achieving the company’s sustainable goals of zero-carbon functionality for a greener future.

https://transportdesigninternational.com/

Geoff Newman, Chief Operating Officer at TDI said: “Transport Design International are delighted to be supporting the Rail Forum as their Manufacturing Partner this year.  With a UK contract in place and growing UK and international interest in our VLR technologies, TDI will be opening a new build facility in the Midlands, this will become the manufacturing and technical centre for the business. This is an exciting time to be working with Rail Forum and we are looking forward to flying the flag for UK Manufacturing and creating more opportunities across our local and national supply chain.”

 

A formal press release can be found here.

 

Steering Group


 

David Lomas, BCM GRC

For over 40 years, BCM GRC Ltd have been recognised by our customers and competitors as manufacturing the very best quality Glassfibre Reinforced Concrete (GRC) products for the Rail, Water and Construction Industries. Our skilled workforce working from our facility in Whitchurch, Shropshire, are proud to be UK manufacturers supplying GRC across the Globe.

Lee Coleman, National Sales Manager Rail and Power, Cembre

Established in 1986 in Curdworth, Sutton Coldfield, CEMBRE Ltd manufacture over 6,000,000 connections and terminals a year. With a vast array of approvals for Network Rail, London Underground and Rollingstock Manufacturers CEMBRE seek to cooperate with the users of its products to search the best technical and economical solutions related to electrical connection applications.

Steve Barbour, Managing Director, Composite Braiding

Steve Barbour founded Composite Braiding Ltd focussing on higher-volume, lower-cost, more sustainable composite structures.  He has turned around 4 other composite businesses and prior to that was a senior manager at Rolls-Royce.

David Taylor, Managing Director, Datum

After founding Datum in 1997, David has spent the last 25+ years growing and developing the business. Datum now employ around 70 people and is the UKs leading supplier of Composite Parts and Sub-assembly`s into the UK Rail market. From Litter Bins to Train Fronts, Table-Tops to Toilets, Datum Deliver.

Joanne Farms, Business Development Manager, Hydram

Hydram Engineering is a leading supplier of precision sheet metal components, assemblies and sheet metal fabrications and proud to be your UK manufacturing partner.

Nigel Hewson, Business Development Manager, Infotec

Infotec is a world class designer and manufacturer of LED & TFT passenger information displays. Its products are built to withstand the challenging environments of rail stations, bus and tram networks and on-vehicle applications. Featuring ruggedised designs, environmental management, proven reliability and the capacity to handle a wide range of industry standard protocols over RS485, Ethernet, WiFi and mobile networks, our displays are built to meet your needs.

Tom Roberts – Sales Director – Signal House Group Ltd.

Signal House Group – Founded in 1970, We specialise in designing and manufacturing fabricated steelwork for Rail, Nuclear, Construction and Telecoms industry partners. We deliver work up to a UKCA EXC 4 standard and are Constructionline Gold approved.

Nicola Islef, Head of Marketing at Transport Design International

TDI is a design and manufacturing company that specialises in Very Light Rail (VLR) technologies for mass transit solutions.

We are market leaders in lightweighting and have delivered more than 135 projects across the globe.