Anderton Concrete provided the Crossrail line in Maidenhead with a pioneering railway cable theft deterrent aiming to offer protection and security. As the area was deemed to be at high risk from cable theft, the company several products to minimise this risk, including Ander-fin, Anderlite Troughing and Ander-Loc.
Ander-fin has proved to significantly reduce the frequency of rail cable theft where installed. The product responds to a very distinct market need: in the current Network Rail control period, the rail industry has lost more than 200,000 minutes to cable theft costings millions of pounds. An incident like this costs the industry up to £300,000.
“We installed Ander-fin on Crossrail at Maidenhead because it is quick and easy to install and offers a unique, cost effective method of cable theft prevention. Given the high cost of cable theft and the risk to life I would like to see this product installed on all major schemes going forward. It has gone down as a great success with our client Network Rail and I believe they will insist on using this product in the future,” said Steve Snell, Project Engineer for Balfour Beatty, the company that oversees the Network Rail project.
Manufactured from glass filled nylon, Ander-fin has a failure load in excess of 2kN, it is easy to install and it enables cables to be secured to troughs every metre in high risk areas.
“Ander-fin is a revolutionary cable anchoring system which is designed to tension and secure the cable to the trough, preventing its removal. For this high-risk stretch of line on Crossrail it offers a cost-effective solution which should reduce the amount of time lost through cable theft,” commented Sharon Rice, Rail Manager at Anderton Concrete.
Anderton Concrete is a UK market leader in the supply of cable protection products to the rail industry. The company has been manufacturing precast concrete products for more than 50 years and its extensive rage includes drainage catchpits, signal bases, point rod rollers, ballast boards, posts and postmix.
