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The company I work for conducts maintenance and repair activities on trains. My latest challenge is managing a little bit of a tricky fall from height hazard.
The task involves inspecting the opening and closing mechanisms on train doors, part of which requires an engineer to stand next to an open door whilst cleaning and regreasing the door guide rails. There is a total of 20 doors per train that need this work carrying out and I have suitable fall protection systems in place for 18 of them. The other 2, due to the work environment in and around where the doors are positioned, there is a 10ft(ish) drop. In this particular area we cannot use the access tower, fall arrest system or fall protection system that we use in other areas. I have guard rails that can be fitted to many of the other open doors but these 2 are much narrower so they wont fit there.
The latest idea is to use a fall/work restraint lanyard and belt that conforms with EN 358:2000, but I do not have a proprietary anchor point that can be used in this area to attach them to. Bolting an anchor point to the train is not an option. Considering this is a restraint system that will prevent the engineer from ever getting into a position where they could fall, the anchor point will not need to withstand an impact, therefore I thought we may be able to use one of the hand rails inside the train. They are a solid fitting that you would not be able to pull out of the fixing point with brute force.
My question is would it be acceptable to attach the restraint lanyard and belt to the hand rail?
The requirements are very clear for fall arrest systems but I'm having difficulty finding the requirements for restraint system anchor points.
If this isnt permitted, do you have any other ideas?
Edited by user 16 November 2018 21:05:04(UTC)
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Rank: Forum user
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Hi Lee Just browsing some through BSI and found BS EN 16116-1:2013 Railway applications — Design requirements for steps, handrails and associated access for staff Part 1: Passenger vehicles, luggage vans
and locomotives I would need to firstly to establish if there are any difference between these items in this standard and handrails in the carrrige you are assessing, I would be tempted to say both the same. If so then you could risk assess with this information following the heirachy of control not with standing firstly. 4 General requirements for steps and handrails
Steps and handrails shall withstand the loads applied by staff.
For confidence in the safety of steps and handrails an appropriate stiffness should be provided. The
corresponding stiffness criteria (permissible elastic deformation under load) for steps and handrails are
optional and should be defined in the specification.
The following requirements shall be demonstrated by analyses or tests:
steps used as a safe working position for the shunter shall be able to withstand separately acting forces
of 2 kN vertically and 1,5 kN laterally or longitudinally, applied by staff at any point without causing
permanent deformation to it or its fixings,
other steps shall be capable of withstanding separately acting forces of 1,5 kN vertically and 1,5 kN
laterally or longitudinally, applied by staff at any point without causing permanent deformation to it or its
fixings,
So can these be used for work restraint ? well I would imagine (sorry havent had time to check my notes for fall arrest inparting strenghs) but I would be fairly sure that working under restraint with the distances you are refreing to the imparting more than 1.5kn of force would certainly be very diffficult to reach. You could also as a sanity check get the handrails tested by s stat inspection service provider. This is how I would approcah this however, angles and edges , overhags ect would need to assessed ect ect Hope this helps Paul
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 1 user thanked Joebaxil for this useful post.
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Rank: New forum user
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Joebaxil very helpful. Thank you for taking the time to put together a valuable response.
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