Britomart Trains Auckland

BRITOMART TRAINS

The Fibreglass Developments team have been involved in the design and manufacture of fibreglass components for the new Britomart Trains in Auckland.


Nose Cone & Cow Catchers		Solid-works Design

With the opening of Auckland's Britomart passenger terminal in July, it was decided to treat the newer (ADL/ADC class) trains to an aesthetic makeover.

The exteriors were originally to be left untouched with the main focus on cleaning up the interior. But the designers were insistent the exteriors needed something else. And that something else became a nose cone.

Safety was an important issue - Fire retard resin was used in the fibreglass components, four steel posts and a plate steel bar, were put in place across the front, to act as driver protection in the event of an accident. New bright blue and yellow colours, along with ditch lights, were incorporated as another safety feature making the trains easily visible at crossings.

Finally, with an‘unfinished look’ to the bottom of the older style trains, a bright yellow cowcatcher was introduced.


Old Interior Work in Progress Finished Interior

FDL's role was to produce the following fibreglass components - nose cones (the front of the trains), cowcatchers (the two triangle shaped objects at the bottom of the nose cone), and all fibreglass carriage interiors including walls, ceilings, seat backs and bases.

FDL’s design and technology team found it necessary to adapt specifications, with good old kiwi ingenuity, working with designers, and contributing to the adaptations to meet some of the challenges faced by adjusting moulded units for tolerances to accommodate variations in the train’s original construction.

One particular challenge was to allow size tolerance into the carriage walls and ceilings. As not all of the carriages were identical sizes inside – there could have been several centimeter's difference between carriages. The fibreglass interiors had to be able to cope with that, while still achieving a clean finish.

Interior Panel Pattern

"FDL is a fibreglass manufacturing empire based in Feilding. They proved to be superb at onsite brainstorming and resolution of design detailing and fibreglass jointing issues. The new ADL/ADC nose cone in particular is a tribute to those sculptors who translated a 2D vision into a 3D reality." - New Zealand's Rail Transport Journal

Click here to read more articles about FDL's involvement with the Britomart Trains

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Fibreglass Developments Ltd

25-29 Mahinui Street, PO Box 391, Feilding,

New Zealand.

Telephone: +64 6 323 0960 Fax: +64 6 323 0973 Email: info@composites.co.nz