Rob Morland's team has been making signficant progress installing the Trust element of the ETCS wiring and the tender is now almost complete.  Everything is working according to the design objectives when using the new Shore Power Supply as input.  The new ETCS I/O Panel and Battery Box system, including the two 100Ah batteries and chargers, is all operating correctly.  It will charge the batteries and supply a load (simulated using the Load Bank) of up to 34A (54% greater than the 22A expected ETCS load).  It would supply more if it wasn’t for the 32A protection MCB.  Elements still to test include the feed from the turbogens and new ADA, and the fallback feeds from the existing ES and AS power supplies on the engine.

This means that we are ready to support Thales when they have completed the tender ETCS installation and want to energise the system.  Once all the data gathered from testing has been analysed we will produce a Power Supply Enabling Works Test Report.  This will describe the system output specification and summarise the test results.  It will be added to DEU’s installation test report and allow Thales to prepare their Energisation Release Certificate (ERC).  Once this has been signed-off by all parties, the tender system can be powered-up for the first time.  We don’t have the engine systems to connect to yet, so we won’t be able to fully exercise all the functions.  However, Thales expect they will be able to load and run the main EVC software and check out all the peripherals that are mounted on the tender.  These include the EVC itself, GSM-R data radios, Balise antenna system and possibly also the Doppler radar, Cold Movement Detector (CMD) and speed sensor (although only in stationary mode).  We will also be able to power-up the refitted GSM-R voice radio.