Ergonomic assessment of the driving cabs of railway vehicles

The GB Rail Safety and Standards Board (RSSB) is currently revising the rail-specific human factors recommendations for an update to Railway Group Standard GM/RT2161, 1995, "Requirements for Driving Cabs of Railway Vehicles". With this objective, the human modelling system SAMMIE (System for Aiding Man Machine Interaction Evaluation) has been used to test a number of train cab designs. An anthropometric review of the train driving population was undertaken to provide data for this analysis. This was done to allow a comparison between the train driving population and the national population, with the aim of creating multivariate human models that could be used in SAMMIE. 109 train drivers were measured giving ten dimensions per driver that were then used to create human models in the software. These train drivers were measured at 4 locations in England and Scotland. In parallel with this activity the (former) GNER (Great North Eastern Railway) Class 43 train cabs (original and revised) were measured and modelled in the SAMMIE software. Each train cab was then assessed using a range of human model sizes in order to determine if they meet existing standards regarding track visibility, seat design, control and displays design, and distance of the eye point from the windscreen. The assessment highlighted a number of recommendations regarding seat design and control location. It is anticipated that the successful analysis of the Class 43 train cab will result in an expansion of the use of human modelling software in the rail industry.