For over 40 years, trains have been kept safe on the world’s railways thanks to a piece of software developed in Derby by British Rail called Vampire.

Owen Evans (Principal Engineer – Dynamics, Gauging & Testing Team) from AtkinsRéalis presented a lecture about Vampire. To view a video of this lecture please log into the Members area.

In 2020, AtkinsRéalis acquired the rights to develop and sell licenses for Vampire and has since then released 2 new versions of the software which is now used in over 20 countries around the world.

In the presentation, we explored the basics of vehicle dynamics and why they need to be considered to produce trains that are safe and comfortable. The lecture then looked at how evaluating a vehicle’s dynamic performance evolved from physical testing to computer simulation with Vampire. Owen then looked at some case studies of how Vampire is used in 2024 to support these global projects and finally discussed how AtkinsRéalis is developing Vampire to keep up with the changes in rail vehicle design and research.