Using condition monitoring systems to improve the reliability of overhead electrified railway operations

Summary form only given as follows. Overhead electrified railways continue to be affected adversely by dewirement incidents. Damage to overhead line equipment (OHLE) particularly can cause severe disruption to railway operations. Significant costs are incurred as a result of each dewirement incident, in the form of penalties and costs incurred repairing damaged equipment. The causes of dewirements are not yet fully understood. Each seems to be caused by a unique and complex set of elemental conditions including OHLE and pantograph anomalies, local topographic and meteorological conditions, train speed and geographic features. Damage is believed to occur however, when these conditions combine to drive the dynamic interaction of pantograph and OHLE beyond their performance `envelope´. There appears to be no comprehensive solution to the problem of dewirements that is cost-effective. The best solution is to put in place a set of controls that allows the probability of dewirements to be managed and subsequently minimised. One significant thread of that management process is the use of condition monitoring systems. Such systems can be deployed to detect whether one or more of the common elemental causes of dewirements is occurring and to alert network managers when the probability of an incident is unacceptably high. Condition monitoring systems have been developed by AEA Technology Rail that detect overhead line discontinuities, pantograph condition, train overspeeding and weather conditions. The installation and correct use of such systems should increase the reliability of electric train operation