Meet the Lecturers

Richard Dwight

Course Coordinator

Richard Dwight

Richard coordinates the engineering asset management and rolling stock engineering programs at the University of Wollongong. He also teaches mechanical design.

He is the education manager for the energy pipelines CRC.

Richard has research interests in engineering asset management and railway engineering and leads a major research program focused on railway noise funded by the CRC Rail Innovations.

Richard has 19 years experience in industry including roles as investigation engineer and engineering manager for what is now BlueScope Steel

Henry Mooser

Henry Mooser's career in the rail industry commenced during his last year at University. He studied Mechanical Engineering at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) in Zurich, Switzerland from 1972 to 1976. During the last two years, the Deputy Chief Mechanical Engineer of the Swiss Federal Railways SBB presented courses in mechanical and electrical aspects of traction technology.

From 1977 to late 1984 he worked with the Swiss Locomotive and Machine Works SLM in Switzerland, where he was involved in a number of projects for electric and diesel powered vehicles. One specialty of this company was the design and construction of vehicles with rack and pinion drive for mountain railways and one of these projects was the Skitube in the Snowy Mountains in Australia.

On completion of the Skitube project he worked with Clyde Engineering (now Downer EDI Rail), A. Goninan & Co (now United Group Rail) and Vulcanite, a manufacturer of rubber components. He worked on a number of interesting projects for locomotives and passenger vehicles in Australia and for export projects.

From 1990 to 1993 he completed an MBA, part time at Macquarie University in Sydney. Since 2004 he has been in the consulting industry (WorleyParsons Rail) as Principal Consultant Rolling Stock.

Henry teaches Railway and Rolling Stock Environment, Rail Vehicle Design and Rolling Stock Construction Maintenance and Design at UOW.

Bruce Sismey

B Sc(Eng), MIEAust

Bruce Sismey 2

Bruce has a degree in Mechanical Engineering and has worked in the rail industry for 41 years specialising in bogie and brake engineering, and train performance. He has extensive experience with train simulation packages such as M-Train and Sydac, and has been involved in the development of rolling stock specification and management of technical aspects in supporting their delivery into service.

Bruce has had considerable experience in the setting of rail industry standards and the investigation into rail incidents and derailments.

Bruce teaches Rolling Stock Safety and Braking System at UOW.

Bryan Turnbull

Bryan Turnbull graduated with a Diploma in Technology (Mechanical Engineering) from NSW Institute of Technology in April 1974. Prior to this he completed his Mechanical Engineering Certificate in 1967 at the NSW Department of Education, as well as his Fitting and Machining Trade at the NSW Government Railways Institute in 1963.

He is a Fellow of the Institution of Engineers Australia and a member of the Association of Professional Engineers, Scientists and Managers, Australia.

Bryan has over 48 years experience working within the NSW Rail Industry. He has worked as an apprentice fitter and machinist, a design draftsman, a professional engineer and as an Engineering Manager at RailCorp, where he was responsible for monitoring the integrity of all rolling stock operating on RailCorp’s network. During those years he was involved in rolling stock design, maintenance, research and development and participated in the design aspects of a number of major rolling stock projects.

He retired from RailCorp to commence his own consulting Company, BTRail Consulting Pty Ltd in August 2008, where he provides rolling stock technical advice to the Rail Industry in general.

Bryan teaches Rail Vehicle Dynamics at UOW.

Graham Cowan

Graham

Graham Cowan is a qualified Mechanical Engineer with a Bachelor of Engineering from Wollongong University and a Masters degree in Engineering Management. He has extensive experience in rolling stock engineering and maintenance management, safety and risk management. Graham is the principal engineer safety and environment at WorleyParsons above rail group. He has extensive experience with train safety systems and performance and an extensive rolling stock engineering background with locomotives and passenger vehicles. His thirty two years of experience includes the development of safety systems and rail safety auditing. His experience also includes rolling stock design, maintenance planning and management, and the preparation and implementation of rolling stock safety standards.

Graham has been Safety and Environment Manager, for the Access Division, for NSW’s Rail Infrastructure Corporation and prior to that with Rail Access Corporation. He has worked as a rolling stock safety manager in the NSW railway safety regulator.

He has ten years experience as the locomotive and rail car maintenance manager for State Rail Authority and FreightRail and introduced asset management approaches to maintenance of the fleet. He also led the railway design team for the acquisition of XPT trains and locomotives.

lonel Popescu

Ionel’s career in rail reaches back to the 1980's in high school where he attended the Industrial High School of Railway Transport in Romania. Starting his university engineering studies in 1986, he then went on to specialise in Rolling Stock Engineering at the Politehnica University of Timisoara, one of the largest and well known technical universities in Central and Eastern Europe.

After working for 8 years as a Rolling Stock Engineer in service and maintenance of locomotives and passenger trains for SNCFR (Romanian State Railways), from 1994 Ionel worked across Europe and New Zealand as a Project and Service Engineer in rolling stock maintenance and various short term projects. In 2001 he migrated to Australia to work with UGL as an Applications Engineer and Train Design Manager in various passenger railcars projects, including the Prospector, Hunter and Oscar trains.

In 2007 Ionel accepted a position with Downer EDI Rail as an Engineering Design Manager and then Test and Commissioning Manager for the Waratah train project. He has recently been promoted to the role of Chief Engineer Rail - Downer EDI Rail.

Ionel’s specialisations are in the areas of rolling stock engineering, rail infrastructure systems interface to rolling stock, rolling stock computerised design - manufacturing - testing integration, leadership and professional engineering team building, and he has a keen interest in mentoring graduate engineers.

Ionel teaches the subjects Rail Vehicles Design and Rolling Stock Design, Construction and Maintenance.