Because of their simple structure and low-maintenance characteristics, railways have often adopted overhead rigid conductor lines for current collection system applicable to underground track sections or tunnels. With regard to the rigid conductor line, which composed of a metallic mount and a contact wire adopted on some commercial lines, undulating wears appeared at intervals of approximately 60 mm on contact wire sliding surfaces. Such wears would cause impaired train speedup and thus increase maintenance costs. We investigated the causes of the wears, and proposed measures to improve the quality of overhead rigid conductor lines.

Copyright (c) 2006 Railway Technical Research Institute