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The Railway Technical Website

by Owen Coughlin (2025-09-09)

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Figure 9: To cut back the arcing at a neutral part in the overhead catenary, some programs use track magnets to automatically switch off the facility on the prepare on the strategy to the impartial part. The French TGV (High Speed Train) formation has a energy automotive at each finish of the prepare however only runs with one pantograph raised underneath the high velocity 25 kV AC lines. More modern systems use a single arm pantograph - really just half of the unique form - a neater trying design (photograph above). As much as 3000 volts overhead is used by DC main line programs (e.g., parts of France, Belgium and Italy) however below 1500 volts, a third rail can be used. If a communications cable is laid alongside rails carrying the return present of the overhead line supply, it could have unequal voltages induced in it. The tendency of return currents to wander away from the operating rails into the bottom can arrange electrolysis with water pipes and comparable metallics. The return conductor is related to the operating rail at intervals to parallel the return cable and rails. This was nicely understood in the late 19th Century and was one of the explanation why London’s Underground railways adopted a completely insulated DC system with a separate unfavourable return rail in addition to a constructive rail - the four-rail system.



Wires - Background Free Stock Photo - Public Domain Pictures They're connected to the feeder station by a return conductor cable hung from the masts so that it is roughly the same distance from the track as the overhead line. It may be summarised merely as AC for lengthy distance and DC for short distance. After all, it needed a heavier transmission medium, a 3rd rail or a thick wire, to hold the power and it lost a good amount of voltage as the gap between supply connections elevated. Pantographs are straightforward in terms of isolation - you simply decrease the pan to lose the ability provide to the car. Originally, pantographs were simply that, a diamond-formed "pantograph" with the contact head at the highest. Current is collected from overhead lines by pantographs. Some prepare companies operate over strains utilizing a couple of sort of present. More than one pantograph on a train could cause an analogous drawback when the leading pantograph head sets up a wave in the wire and the rear head can’t keep involved. The subsections will be joined by particular excessive velocity part switches.



Each subsection is remoted from its neighbour by a piece insulator in the overhead contact as shown in this image under. Modern installations often use the simple catenary, barely sagged to offer a superb contact. Traditional rubber or polymer insulation would make the wire diameter thicker, what is electric cable this is one motive why outdated electric motors were bigger and heavier than modern motors of the same horsepower. That is certainly one of the most common causes of wires "being down". These have been used for current assortment on low velocity overhead methods and have been common on trams or streetcars but they at the moment are obsolete. The most common material for electrical wire is copper and aluminum, these are usually not the most effective conductors nonetheless they are plentiful and low value. Aluminum wrapped around a steel center wire is utilized in energy transmission as a result of the aluminum is cheaper than copper and doesn't corrode. The steel heart is used merely for strength, to hold the wire over lengthy spans. These are turned downwards to cut back the risk of the pantograph being hooked over the top of the contact wire because the practice strikes alongside.



The rear car is provided via a 25 kV cable running the size of the practice. A prepare moving at speed with its pantograph hooked over the wire can bring down several kilometres of line earlier than it is detected and the prepare stopped (Figure 12). Essentially the most sophisticated pantographs have horns which are designed to break off when struck hard, for instance, by a dropper or catenary help arm. If you are taking a small motor that you don't care about you may intentionally burn it out to see what occurs to the windings. Hands-on Exercise: Burn up a motor! Heat breaks down all forms of insulation finally, and in a motor winding when the insulation will get weak enough two wires aspect by aspect will quick, this causes and arc and the device burns out. Incorrect tension, combined with the fallacious speed of a practice, will trigger the pantograph head to start bouncing. The pantograph is related to a piston in a cylinder and air stress within the cylinder maintains the pantograph in the raised condition. These particular horns have a small air stress tube hooked up which, if the strain is lost, will cause the pan to decrease routinely and so cut back the potential wire injury.



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