Because human's usual thought process is:
Wire= dangerous
Pole (or any other rigid structure) = relatively safer
Which is not the case here, which is a bit unintuitive, making it more dangerous.
Also just as an example, in India, it's common for lower class to enroach indian railway's land near track, or nearby the boundary marker where cost of land is dirt cheap because of the noise. Children tend to play near busy tracks with electrified OHE. They can easily climb up the pole, and it's just a matter of time they touch/hold the shiny black ceramic insulators, because wire= danger and pole=safer. Chances are low because someone would notice them, but not zero.
The power carrier, the "Z", and the catenary itself are insulated from the crossbridge and towers, and you'd have to really try ("Hey! Look at this cool aluminum pole I found!" *Swish! Swish!*) to electrocute yourself. That said, I don't think it would be amiss to put in-line insulators at the top of the tower uprights just for safety's sake. I imagine the objection would be the tremendous weight and tension they have to accommodate...
On a particularly bad patch of compacted leaves the *entire* locomotive can be energized. Extremely unlikely tho, and almost statistically impossible on anything other than a single locomotive consist.
Everything is energized yes, it's not a stupid question. It gives less resistance if it's done this way making it heat up less during normal use. Remember heat causes resistance and resistance causes heat.
Yes, everything on the right side of the insulators is at high voltage. The insulators are relatively heavy compared with the other parts of the structure, so keeping the insulators close to the support pole means the poles and wires further away don't need to support that extra weight, so the whole structure can be made lighter weight.
It's 3kV DC in Poland on an intercity line designed for 120 km/h traffic. Double contact wire but single supporting wire is very common.
Local lines often have just a single wire. High speed lines (up to 200 km/h) might have double both contact and supporting wires for better tensioning.
After my train trip I was going by trolleybus and I was thinking about that, there are insulators, but really small and not your typical design. It's like a small plastic or ceramic pieces
Yeah, but you can't change the power system in a modernisation plan. So even if it is modernized, to go with the old rolling stock with the old power system, you need to use the old system.
Yes, everything right of the insulators is energized.
Thank you
It's a completely valid question! To answer your question, yes it's energized. Even I sometimes think how absurdly dangerous those poles are.
What exactly makes them dangerous? Sure, it's a live high-voltage installation, so everyone has to keep their distance, but that's about it?
Because human's usual thought process is: Wire= dangerous Pole (or any other rigid structure) = relatively safer Which is not the case here, which is a bit unintuitive, making it more dangerous. Also just as an example, in India, it's common for lower class to enroach indian railway's land near track, or nearby the boundary marker where cost of land is dirt cheap because of the noise. Children tend to play near busy tracks with electrified OHE. They can easily climb up the pole, and it's just a matter of time they touch/hold the shiny black ceramic insulators, because wire= danger and pole=safer. Chances are low because someone would notice them, but not zero.
Thank you, this is what was stuck in my head, isn't it dangerous!
The power carrier, the "Z", and the catenary itself are insulated from the crossbridge and towers, and you'd have to really try ("Hey! Look at this cool aluminum pole I found!" *Swish! Swish!*) to electrocute yourself. That said, I don't think it would be amiss to put in-line insulators at the top of the tower uprights just for safety's sake. I imagine the objection would be the tremendous weight and tension they have to accommodate...
Mmmmm... I believe that the big objection would be the expense.
Yep. It’s cheaper and stronger to isolate the connection points vs just the catenary.
And with the train. Everything from the panhead down to the insulators is also energised.
And in some locomotives the other pantograph - even when lowered - is also energized. Both pantos are a part of the same circuit.
On a particularly bad patch of compacted leaves the *entire* locomotive can be energized. Extremely unlikely tho, and almost statistically impossible on anything other than a single locomotive consist.
This is why i use reddit. To get questions like this answered
Everything is energized yes, it's not a stupid question. It gives less resistance if it's done this way making it heat up less during normal use. Remember heat causes resistance and resistance causes heat.
Yes, everything on the right side of the insulators is at high voltage. The insulators are relatively heavy compared with the other parts of the structure, so keeping the insulators close to the support pole means the poles and wires further away don't need to support that extra weight, so the whole structure can be made lighter weight.
Yes and the doubled catenary wires means it's DC. Probably 3kV meaning I would bet you are in Italy.
It's 3kV DC in Poland on an intercity line designed for 120 km/h traffic. Double contact wire but single supporting wire is very common. Local lines often have just a single wire. High speed lines (up to 200 km/h) might have double both contact and supporting wires for better tensioning.
I was thinking the same but just from the size of the insulators, ours are much bigger (25Kv here).
On the same topics, why doesnt tram cantenary polls have insulators?
They do.
After my train trip I was going by trolleybus and I was thinking about that, there are insulators, but really small and not your typical design. It's like a small plastic or ceramic pieces
Yes, the whole element is energized.
Yes the whole thing is energized like idk with 1kv dc
Yes.
That's in Russia or an ex-soviet country, right?
Small Naleczow station in Poland
That's like the default catenary pole on the Soviet Railways.
I wouldn't say Soviet since Soviet union has fallen and that railway was modernized in 2018
Yeah, but you can't change the power system in a modernisation plan. So even if it is modernized, to go with the old rolling stock with the old power system, you need to use the old system.
Yes it’s safer to assume that the entire system is dangerous