Life Just Gets Hotter

Driving a rail vehicle, be it passenger train, freight locomotive, tram or metro vehicle is a stressful
job at the best of time. The driver is required to concentrate for long periods of time often working in
confined and uncomfortable conditions.

Extremes of weather; colder winters and hotter summers make for some very unpleasant working
conditions for driver, especially those drivers unfortunate enough to work on a route that travels north-
south so that much of the time the sun is shining directly into the cab.

Most modern rail vehicles have been developed with this in mind, providing the driver with a
comfortable working environment, but there is now a real need to improve the working conditions of
older rail vehicles to bring them in line with international standards and meet the raised expectations
of drivers, crew members and union representatives.

Retrofitting is Not Easy
Retrofitting air-conditioning units to older vehicles is not easy. Space constraints can require major
changes for to the structure of the body work to accommodate an air conditioning unit. If this is the
case the rail vehicle design will need to be recertified by governmental authorities, which can add
considerable delays to the project. The installation process of the unit itself can also result in the
vehicle being out of service for several days.

Traditional air conditioning units are notoriously energy hungry, requiring large amounts of power
from the vehicle’s supply, which may already be over burdened. For a retrofit to be possible a major
upgrade of the vehicle’s power supply may be needed.

On average cab air conditioning systems on a rail vehicle require 4000 Watts of power. This relatively
high energy consumption combined with the capital cost and a need for a regular overhaul mean that
retrofitting a traditional air-conditioning system to an older vehicle is often not cost effective.

Lastly all traditional air conditioning systems use refrigerant, typically Chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs), to
effect the heat transfer and cooling of the ambient air. The Montreal Protocol of 2003 is phasing out
the use of CFCs, due to their contribution to the ozone depletion.

What is Needed
What is need is a climate control system to ensure a comfortable environment for the driver, whilst
providing a commercially viable solution to the operator and also;

• Has Minimum Impact on the Vehicle – No Recertification
• Easy to Install
• Design Flexibility
• Energy Efficient
• Low Cost
• Minimal Maintenance Costs
• Compliance to the Montreal Protocol

Cool of with Cabcool

Unipart Rail has now introduced Cabcool® , a revolutionary new method of climate control that uses a
fraction of the energy of traditional air-conditioning systems and no CFCs or refrigerants.

The compact unit can easily be fitted into to most rail vehicles with little impact on the vehicle body,
and can be mounted in a small space envelope anywhere in the vehicle. It only requires minor
ducting to bring fresh air into the cab so there is usually no need to re-certify the vehicle design.

A conventional air conditioning system requires 4000 Watts of energy whereas Cabcool® only uses
800 Watts. Cabcool® achieves this by utilising the concept of spot cooling, cooling the driver directly
rather than the ambient cabin air – more than enough given the human body only dissipates about
100 Watts!

Cabcool® has no moving parts with the exception of two maintenance-free fans, which makes the
system extremely reliable. The only regular maintenance required is the replacement of the air filters
every 6 months.

At the heart of the Cabcool® system is Peltier technology, originally used to cool computer servers.
There are no refrigerants of any kind (and consequently almost no moving parts!).

Tailor-Made Installations
Unipart Rail knows how important it is to minimise the amount of time a rail vehicle is out of service.
To ensure that the Cabcool® unit achieves optimum performance it is important to consider the
installation requirements for each vehicle.

With this in mind we provide a bespoke design service to tailor the installation to your requirements.

The Cabcool® unit has been fitted in several vehicles where space has been at a premium, but in all
cases it has been possible to find sufficient space to accommodate it.

The most common place to install a Cabcool® unit is in the roof area either directly in the driver’s cab
(as in the Class 66 Locomotive) or in the passenger saloon adjoining the cab (as in C Stock London
Underground vehicles).

We can arrange an in-situ trial of Cabcool® . Setting up a prototype installation in your vehicle can
take as little as 20 minutes. The Cabcool® System has been successfully installed for the following
customers;

• London Underground
• Tubelines
• GB Railfreight
• First Capital Connect
• Croydon Tramlink