LED lighting for workshops and maintenance pits

Just imagine: a maximum five-minute wait for buses, trains or shuttles – throughout Hamburg, hundreds of additional newly installed stops, and quiet, eco-friendly traffic. And as a passenger, no more having to memorise timetables, as there will be a means of transport arriving or departing in the immediate vicinity every five minutes anyway. This is the vision that the Senate of the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg hopes to achieve by 2030 under the name “Hamburg-Takt” – and for which Hamburger Hochbahn has already initiated and realised numerous projects.

One of these is the new underground railway workshop, including a washing facility, in Hamburg-Billstedt, which began regular operation in November 2020. Located between the Billstedt and Legienstraße underground stations, it joins the existing workshops in Barmbek and Farmsen, which had reached their capacity limits. This means that the U2 and U4 lines now have their own line workshop, dispensing with the transfer trips to Farmsen; this not only frees up more capacity in the two workshops, but also on the track.

The new workshop in Billstedt is 135 metres long, 34 metres wide and has four tracks, each one 120 metres long. This means that work can be carried out on several trains in parallel, using state-of-the-art technology on three different levels at the same time, from oil changes in the work pit to roof work on air-conditioning systems and technical checks. The new wash hall is available for their daily cleaning. It is also 135 metres long, seven metres wide and has one track. When designing the entire facility, great importance was attached to the sustainable use of resources: for example, rainwater is collected in a catch basin for cleaning the vehicles and recycled after use, and the roof of the operating workshop has insect-friendly plants – especially for the benefit of wild bees and bumblebees.

Good visibility is essential for inspections and repairs on the underbodies of rail vehicles. From the work pits, for example, the wheels are tested for material defects using ultrasonic instruments and the brake linings are inspected. Having uniform, glare-free light in sufficient quantity is immensely important to ensure that even the smallest damage to the vehicles is detected immediately. In the operating workshop in Billstedt, this is ensured by ZUG LED luminaires. These particularly robust luminaires are preferentially used in work pits and in zones with special safety requirements due to their high protection ratings up to IP69K. Thanks to the medium beam light characteristic, the floor and walkway in the pit as well as the undercarriage of the train are uniformly illuminated.
In addition, ZUG LED luminaires also perform an important function for the workshop team at the tracks, in that their signal light indicates the operating state of the rail current in the respective work area: if the ZUG LED luminaires are red, the rail current is on. The colour green indicates that the track is de-energised, because the rail current is switched off.

By using NORKA products, the client and planners have not only opted for an efficient and robust lighting solution, but also one that is particularly long lasting – as demonstrated in numerous Hamburger Hochbahn AG projects. NORKA is a specialist for light under extreme environmental conditions, which means that the maintenance area, the work pits and the wash hall areas are no problem for the NORKA luminaires. Resistant to oil and alkalis, and particularly to impacts and to high and low temperatures, ERFURT LED and ZUG LED are designed for harsh environments, holding their own where standard products often fail. The sealing system made of non-ageing silicone/synthetic rubber and high protection ratings also prevent dust, liquids and insects getting into the luminaire housing and allow the luminaires to be cleaned by water jet. As such, the lighting used in the maintenance, repair and cleaning of the underground trains will provide good service for a long time without having to be maintained itself.