The IMechE 2025 Challenge

In 2025, the University of Sheffield again entered the Institution of Mechanical Engineers’ Railway Challenge for the 11th time. For 10 years the teams had developed their entries, gaining experience year on year, as well as having to adapt to rule changes, culminating in last year winning 6 (out of the 14) individual challenges and the overall competition. So no pressure for this year’s team!

This year, three members of the Trust were present on both the Saturday and the Sunday to not only publicise the Trust with our stand, but to support the team from Sheffield. Sheffield’s competition this year included teams from FH Aachen (winners in 2022 and third this year), Network Rail and Colas Rail (2025 grand champions), Poznan University (2023 winners), TN Nurnberg (second in 2025), Newcastle University, Transport for London and the University of Derby with Alstom. First time entrants were Anglia Ruskin University, University of Cambridge, ESTACA and the Monash University from Australia.

The overall RCAS team has up 42 students back on the campus but not all were present at the weekend. They arrived on the Thursday evening and camped out all weekend. The Sheffield locomotive was a brand new design. With the team’s decision to keep the 2024 winning locomotive intact, it could be displayed (and was to great effect at not only this year’s Open Day at CTL Seal but giving rides at the Greatest Gathering). The Trust was again one of their sponsors, with the loco proudly carrying a vinyl nameplate ‘Spirit of Sandringham’.

Arriving on Saturday, John Barnes and John Pearson set up our publicity stand in the marquee. Over the two days, we had many interesting chats with visitors, particularly those coming on the Sunday, which is a public day, answering their (sometimes) very technical questions about our project. We also saw their preparations for the main run over the 2-mile 10.25” gauge line on the Saturday, successfully completing the circuit with two coaches containing some of the judges.
Of interest this year was the new turntable, allowing all the teams to be located conveniently together, and in the future allowing a significant increase in the number of teams the site can accommodate.

We were very impressed with the dedication shown by team members as they solved gremlins with some of the new components, which included downloading new software to solve tuning issues with the new direct drive motors and working late into the night to get the loco ready. However, because every component was new, time beat them on a couple of challenges such as the autocoupler and the auto stop. In the end, they won three challenges – the Ride Comfort, Innovation and the Technical and Aesthetic Poster challenges. The team was superbly organised and led by Team Principal, Jacob Kunz.