Challenge

As the main station serving the Scottish capital, the challenge was to prepare and repaint all the iron work without inconveniencing passengers and disrupting the day to day running of Edinburgh Waverley railway station.

Covering an area of more than 101,000 m² (25 acres) in the center of the city, it is the second-largest main line railway station in Britain in terms of area, and is both a terminal station and a through station, in contrast to most of the major London stations.

One of 19 stations managed by Network Rail, it is the northern limit of the East Coast Main Line, although through-services operate to Glasgow, Dundee, Aberdeen, Perth and Inverness. Waverley is the second busiest railway station in Scotland after Glasgow Central and the 20th busiest in the United Kingdom.

The major challenge was that not all areas could be abrasive blast-cleaned, so the contractor, XERVON Palmers, working on behalf of Balfour Beatty/Network Rail, required a protective system that was suitable for blast-cleaned and mechanically prepared iron work. Also, it was not possible to spray apply the paint to all areas, so a system that could be applied by brush and spray was required.

Sherwin-Williams Protective & Marine Coatings was called on to provide a coating solution for the cast and wrought iron substrate, with some new steel sections. Anti-corrosion protection was required for a minimum period of 25 years.

Solution

In total, approximately 50,000 m² was coated. Most of the existing steelwork was repainted with Network Rail Protective System M24/049, which was comprised of Epigrip C402V2 (aluminium), stripe coat of Epigrip C402V2, Epigrip C402V2 (off white) and Resistex C137V2 (various colours).

One of the footbridges (Calton Road) was coated using Network Rail Protective System M34/002, which was comprised of Epigrip M922M, stripe coat of M922M and Resistex C137V2.

New or replacement steel was coated with Network Rail Protective System N13/008, which was comprised of Metagard L674, stripe coat of Epigrip C402V2, Epigrip C402V2 and Resistex C137V2. Most of the steelwork was blast-cleaned to Sa2½ surface standard. Some areas were mechanically prepared to St3 surface standard.]

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By The Sherwin-Williams Co., Cleveland, OH