Formed back in 2018 True North Rail was established by two entrepreneurial Rail Engineers – Ian Fury and James Furlong.
Ian Fury BEng (Hons) CEng MIRSE MIET
Ian has a strong track record of working within the rail industry. In 1989 he initially started working for British Rail as a Signal Apprentice and then quickly moved up the corporate ladder and worked across various signalling disciplines including maintenance, planning and design. He then worked for Jarvis Rail for over 12 years in Signalling Design, Construction, Project Engineer and CRE managing bids, tenders and Signalling Construction.
After leaving Jarvis Rail in 2009 Ian became a self-employed Engineering Consultant specialising in Design Integration and Engineering Management. Ian is also a Committee Member of the Institute of Railway Signal Engineers (IRSE), Midlands and North Western Section which involves him assisting with the development and publication of the annual programme of technical meetings and visits.
James Furlong
James initially started out working for Balfour Beatty in 2002 as a 3D Modeller & Design Draughtsman. Whilst working at Balfour he was primarily responsible for the production of accurate 3D/4D models, visualisations and animations of all aspects of the rail industry including PWAY, OLE, Signals and E&P.
In 2011 James then commenced work with Network Rail as an Engineering Data Specialist & Data Integration Manager. His role being to manage the interface between Network Rail and their engineering data suppliers. He’s also responsible for checking and managing all aspects of 3D & 4D modelling whilst also providing Microstation training.
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Developing Something New
Both Jay and Ian had been working closely together on the Liverpool Lime Street remodelling scheme however, both engineers felt dissatisfied with the solution for the visualisation of the scheme. They identified that the signal sighting systems available had problems and that they had a shared desire to improve the use of 3D rail asset and design data for signal sighting. The systems available were bespoke specialised systems and the majority of people on a project could not access the output data. There were also licensing issues and a requirement for specialist hardware. So, together, they decided to work together and develop something much better.
Research Revealed - The Unreal Engine
Following a period of research both engineers developed a new signal sighting tool based on Unreal Engine which they have named TrueSight™. Unreal Engine is provided by Epic Games who are an American video game and software developer and publisher. It is an open, state-of-the-art game engine, originally used to build video games. It has evolved from simply being a gaming engine to being used by a number of industries to deliver cost effective, immersive virtual worlds, to model designs before any construction takes place. It is also used extensively in the film and TV Industry.
Algorithms for Spontaneous Illustration
The Unreal Engine has highly efficient algorithms for spontaneous illustration, allowing larger and complex models to be visualised while maintaining extremely high fidelity. It is claimed to be the world’s most advanced, real-time communication tool and it has moved on from its initial purpose of simply being a computer gaming engine. The Unreal Engine end user license agreement is 100% royalty-free for creators, with Epic Games charging a percentage of any products (such as video games) sold. So, it can be used to create internal or free projects, or to develop linear content or custom projects for clients, but not for publishing off-the-shelf products. This made it ideal for signal sighting purposes.
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World Wide Development
Compared to bespoke signal sighting models, Unreal Engine also has huge worldwide development resources for coding, development, and modelling, due to the size of the computer gaming industry. It provides a fully programmable virtual world, with simulated ‘real world’ physics. Ian and Jay established that it was likely that any function required for signal sighting already existed in Unreal Engine. The product was a leading player in the ‘digital twin’ revolution and has increasing support to interface directly with Computer-Aided Design (CAD) and Geographic Information Systems (GIS).
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Along Came Our First Project
The first project to use TrueSight™ Sighting Tool was the Rugeley to Colwich resignalling project. The project required the model for the sighting committee within a six-week window commencing June 2020. The Rugeley Colwich resignalling project was a complex project. It is well known as one of the most challenging routes for signal sighting, with 59 signals (16 signal posts and 43 gantry signals) over 42 miles of route. The route has a 125mph maximum line speed along with 44 Bridges, 600 overhead line structures, one tunnel, one station and numerous curves, all creating numerous sighting obscurations.
There was a specific problem with a tree in a resident’s back garden which could have affected signal sighting. True North were able to model the tree quickly and accurately using lidar helicopter data. This enabled the committee to assess its impact on signal sighting. The project was also able to descope multiple banner repeaters on huge signal gantries which were thought to be necessary in the initial video sighting exercise. This saved the project millions of pounds.
Once the signal sighting was complete, Ian and Jay identified that the Unreal Engine animation output was so flexible and easily modified that it could be used for other project purposes, such as safety inductions, stakeholder management, and driver familiarisation and training. Previously, these applications would have required separate unique systems at additional cost.