Hi Mandar - how about something along the lines of - Unreported Accidents, why people don't report & missed learning?

@Palmer and jarsmith83 - Thanks a lot for the suggestions...This is a great start...cheersss

What about looking at the working life of a millwright? There are so many hazards involved in the maintenance of machinery such as trains and rolling stock, including ergonomics, confined spaces, work at height, oils, rotating machinery, field work for breakdowns, manual and mechanical handling etc. You also have the question of environmental issues involved in the maintenance works - disposal of parts, exhaust fumes, oil spills, etc. I think this would be an inexhaustible subject that could expand or contract to fill the time available.

Errr .... hmmm What about oils recycling? There must be loads of different oils in use at a train depot, I wonder if anyone has ever tried to standardise on these to any extent and then introduce a cleaning system for the oil - a process of skimming and filtration perhaps - I wonder how much is in use and whether this could be a viable project? Obviously, if usage is low then it is not worth looking at, but for any substantial quantities it could be a money saving idea that falls within the idea of reduce, reuse, recycle.

When you finally decide your topic, plan your aims and objectives carefully, its very easy when writing a long report to go off the rails and veer off track

@NigelB - Thanks a lot for the suggestion. Yes I am interested in this topic, please forward me the Case study at mandar_rt@yahoo.co.in @SP900308 and @ descarte8 - Thanks a lot for the suggestions. Excellent...

1230 litres pcm is equal to 3250 gallons per annum of oil waste. This amount in itself is probably not worth the project, however, you are at one depot. There are 80 depots in the uk which now equates to over a quarter of a million gallons of oil per annum - suddenly it becomes a very viable project. The thing about working in a train depot is that you already have a ready means of transporting oil waste (subject to the rules and regulations of course) so you can approach this project from two angles - you can micro-manage it - produce a solution for each depot which can be trialed at yours and then "sold" to the other depots, or you can go for a larger solution which would be shared by the depots in the region. With hydraulic oil costing an average of £2 per litre, the 1,180,800 litres in use per annum by all the rail depots will cost in excess of £2,350,000 per annum. Therefore, I should say that if you can come up with a way of recycling 50% of this oil, even taking costs into account the savings would run into hundreds of thousands of pounds. This is all taken from your figure of 1230 litres and assuming this would average out over a 12 months period and that all depots are disposing of a similar amount - these are figures I do not have, but I think it is worth an investigation to find out.

Mandar; what ever you decide to choose make sure you are interested in the topic - if not then you will struggle to find the motivation to study and research effectively. Dont just pick a topic that you think will please the examiner etc - you need to have an interest and a passion for the topic. HTH Stuart

@ptaylor14 - Can you please elaborate? I did not get what you wanted to say. cheers...