Situated by the M6 motorway in Tebay, Cumbria, it's only a dark-green tower that gives away the location of Lyon Equipment's brand new rigging training facility.
Such is the amount of training now undertaken by Lyon that the company's previous training centre - 10 miles away at its HQ in the picturesque village of Dent - was not enough to satisfy demand. Although training at Dent will continue, building a new facility gave Lyon the chance to design a practical training facility literally from the ground up.
Taking time out from instructing a Greenpeace group doing IRATA Level 1, Lyon's Paul Witheridge showed me round. "We already owned this building and used it as extra warehouse space," he says. "But having outgrown the Dent facility, we realized that we could use this space as a blank canvas."
The point of the new facility is to make training as lifelike as possible. In order to achieve that, Lyon asked its customers what they wanted. As a result of the feedback, they designed and built a facility which is versatile enough to be used in many different ways, including the ability to be temporarily modified, depending on the training requirements.
"We need people to feel what it's really like to be in the real-world situations they'll face, so all the equipment is designed to simulate that," says Witheridge. "Everything is custom-designed and built. For example there's a cage round one of the ladders, which can be a challenge if someone needs to be rescued. We can also put in things like lengths of sprinkler to simulate real-life, working at height situations. Trainees have to remember not to accidentally bash the sprinkler heads!"
The training equipment comprises eight main areas. Taking up half of one end wall, a three-part lanyard frame has a vertical lattice structure on the left, with overhanging platform/tunnel structure in the middle and 'leaning' lattice structure on the right to simulate the metalwork of transmission masts. "That alone took several kilometres of steelwork," says Witheridge.
Next to it is a tower/platform structure with sections of concrete pipe mounted vertically beneath. On the platform, hatches of different sizes (contained within each other like a Russian Doll) give access to the concrete pipe sections, which are to simulate working in a restricted space. With safety uppermost in mind, there is a gap for access at the bottom of the pipe. This is for ease of access in case a trainee panics in the confined space, but also so the 'rescue dummy' doesn't have to be lowered in from the top each time. The underneath of the platform doubles as an under-deck area and there is space for a second vertical pipe to be installed, if required.The third element is a seven-metre pole for electricity linework, while next to that is a section of lighting truss which can be raised and lowered in the time-honoured manner. Extra steel beams have been incorporated in the roof here for additional load-bearing points.
A tremendous amount of thought and design went into what might seem like a fairly simple walkway structure. The floor is deliberately made of lattice steel, so trainees can see through it and experience the feeling of height. The main section of the walkway is wider than the standard width because it makes it easier for Lyon's instructors to work with groups of trainees. However, there is also a long section of narrower 'standard width' walkway at the far end.
A handrail is provided on only one side of the main section, as the entire structure is designed to double as an overhang, allowing trainees to replicate working underneath as well. To satisfy HSE load-bearing requirements, the structure had to anticipate two people accidentally falling off at the same time, so an 8mm thick box section stee
