The purpose of an electric railway system contact wire is to supply electric energy to trains through a contacted pantograph. This energy is then converted into mechanical energy. Recent developments in overhead contact lines include the increase in the tension force up to 34 kN according to train speeds that reach up to 400 km/h with a verified safety. Rigid conductor catenary (R-Bar) for high speeds of up to 250 km/h have been developed in tunnels to save on construction costs. This is significant because minor defects in R-bars in aspects, such as height and stagger affect installation conditions. In this study, we propose the use of a detector that measures the static characteristics to reduce the R-bar installation errors. This detector has been developed to measure the height and stagger of the contact wire using video images.

Overhead contact systems (OCS) consist of contact and messenger wires, in which the contact wire supplies electric energy to the railway vehicle by contacting a pantograph. However, this mechanical contact is interrupted during frosts or temperatures below 0℃ in the winter. In these conditions, railway vehicle accidents can occur during operation because of the low energy efficiency that results from the increase in the arcing between the contact wire and pantograph. Therefore, the detection of frost or freezing temperatures is necessary to maintain the stable operation of these trains. In this study, we proposed the development of a frost or freezing condition monitoring system on the OCSs that utilizes wireless communication.

In the Airport Railroad, the Yeongjong Bridge has a length of 4,420 m and connects Yeongjong Island with the mainland of Incheon City. The bridge is a two-level structure, consisting of a six-lane road at the upper level and a combination of a road and railroad at the lower level. The environmental conditions for the electric railway come mainly from the salt injury area and a heavy industry zone, and the maintenance cycles are determined differently depending on these conditions. This study analyzed the deterioration characteristics of long rod insulators produced with a movable ceramic bracket and polymer materials in the Yeongjong Bridge section of the Airport Railway operating in the salt injury area according to the material characteristics. Comparison of the corona measurements when the insulators were cleaned at the same time showed that the polymer insulator had a higher insulation performance than the ceramic insulator.

Currently in Korea, the simple catenary type overhead contact line system is being applied to both conventional lines and high speed lines of electric railway, and circulation current flowing into the catenary system frequently bring undesirable consequences. Namely, the connector wire has many problems according to a flow of excessive circulation current and arc current on catenary when an electric train runs at high speed. This paper presents the development and application of a real-time data acquisition system designed to measure the electrical characteristics of an overhead catenary system in electric railways. The developed system is capable of storing data of a 25 kV power source in a live wire state through a telemetry environment. The field test results show that the proposed technique and the developed system can be practically applied to measure characteristics of current of an overhead catenary system.

Abstract: The measurement of contact wire wear in electric railways is one of the key test parameters to increase speed and maintain safety in electric railways. Wear caused by continuous interaction between pantographs and contact wires has a negative effect on current collection quality and severely damaged contact wires might cause hazardous accidents. This paper introduces a non-contact optical-based contact wire wear measuring system that will replace conventional wear detecting methods conducted by maintenance vehicles or workers. The system is implemented by high-speed cameras that can collect images of contact wires during vehicle operation, a laser used to create images profile of the contact wire surface, and a computer used to process the collected images. The proposed system is designed to assist maintenance of overhead contact lines by creating geometrically plotted images of contact wires to detect contact wire wear during operation on conventional lines or high-speed lines.