What is BS EN 14033-3 - Safety requirements for railbound construction and maintenance machines about ?
BS EN 14033-3 discusses safety requirements for railbound construction and maintenance machines. BS EN 14033-3 specifies the significant hazards, hazardous situations, and events common to rail bound machines and arising due to the adaptation for their use on railways. These machines are intended for construction, maintenance and inspection of track, structures, infrastructure, and fixed electric traction equipment, when they are used as intended or under conditions of misuse which are reasonably foreseeable by the manufacturer.
Additional safety measures can be required by exceptional circumstances, such as extreme ambient temperatures highly corrosive or contaminating the environment, e.g., due to the presence of chemicals, and potentially explosive atmospheres.
The common hazards specified include the general hazards presented by the machines, and also the hazards presented by the following specific machine functions, common to two or more machine types:
- Ballast excavation, ballast cleaning, ballast regulating, ballast consolidating
- Tamping
- Track renewal
- Craning
- Maintenance of the components of the infrastructure during commissioning, use, maintenance, and servicing
BS EN 14033-3 applies to railbound machines and other vehicles - referred to as machines - working exclusively on the railway (utilizing friction adhesion between the rail and rail wheels) but including machines that in working position are partly supported on the ballast or the formation and used for construction, maintenance and inspection of track, structures, infrastructure, and fixed electric traction equipment.
Note2: Specific measures for exceptional circumstances are not dealt with in BS EN 14033-3.
Note3: BS EN 14033-3 deals only with the additional hazards from the adaptation of a machine for its use on rail. Other standards specific to the particular machine as far as available will need to be used in addition to this European Standard to give the complete requirements.
Note4: BS EN 14033-3 does not deal comprehensively with specific machine functions other than the common functions listed in the previous paragraph, or with all possible hazards presented by complete machines or by the combination of functions.
Who is BS EN 14033-3 - Safety requirements for railbound construction and maintenance machines for ?
BS EN 14033-3 on the safety requirements for railbound construction and maintenance machines is useful for:
- Railway management authorities
- Infrastructure managers
- Site supervisors
- Inspection and testing department in railways 
- Train operator companies (TOCs)
Why should you use BS EN 14033-3 - Safety requirements for railbound construction and maintenance machines ?
Work on railbound construction and maintenance machines, if not executed with the proper package of measures related to safety, endanger the health and safety of personnel on work sites. It is therefore essential that personnel involved in the work on railbound construction to carry out the activity or activities listed in BS EN 14033-3.
The machinery concerned and the extent to which hazards, hazardous situations, and hazardous events are covered are indicated in BS EN 14033-3 to prevent injuries. BS EN 14033-3 specifies the common hazards, in normal circumstances, during running, assembly and installation, commissioning, use (including setting, programming, and process changeover), operation, cleaning, fault finding, maintenance, and de-commissioning of the machines.
As a buyer of BS EN 14033-3, you will not only be able to ensure the safety of personnel working on-site, but also improve operational efficiency and minimize disruptions in functioning railway networks.
What is changed since the last update?
BS EN 14033-3:2017 supersedes BS EN 14033-3:2009+A1:2011, which is withdrawn.
BS EN 14033-3:2017 includes some technical changes with respect to BS EN 14033-3:2009+A1:2011.
These include:
- All references updated to latest issue
- Different modes of machine defined
- New paragraph added as a reminder about risk assessment
- Minimum width of walkways increased to 800mm with additional consideration for fire escape routes
- Ventilation air requirements made per person; extra requirements deleted
- Additional requirements added for communication between workplaces
- Requirements for visibility of track amended to reflect differing requirements of working and travelling modes
- New section added for emergency stopping of power sources
- New section added for control systems and minimum performance level requirements
- Additional requirement added concerning single point failures
- Minimum noise level requirement added for travelling mode and additional requirements for working mode
- New section added on lasers
- Information for use updated to reflect changes in standard
