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MISC | 3rd Rail Powered Railways

47K views 150 replies 38 participants last post by  rheintram 
#1 ·
I'm wondering how many Commuter Rail systems in the world operate using the 3rd Rail. Ikno the Long Island Railroad and Metro North do use 3rd Rail to power there trains here in the US. I know some British systems do , but any other systems use the 3rd Rail?
 
#46 ·
he means the wires hanging above the railways and the trains use pantographs to reach the wires.

anyways its very interesting and unique how some railway systems in the world uses third rail (usually its caterney, diesel, or steam) like NYC's MTA Long island railroad and Metro North on some lines.

also southern england alot of the trains there uses third rail but it looks different then the ones in the Long Island Railroad and Metro North??

BART in san francisico uses third rail but that is considered more of a metro or is it?
 
#48 · (Edited)
#52 ·
Imagine have to rewire that...

(Clapham Junction, London)
Actually it's not that difficult to wire this junction. It's only looks difficult because there are many tracks, but the tracks are already untangled without many connections between them. It doesn't look as complicated as many European stations, like Zürich for example. There you see many more connections between the different tracks with several "switch streets" in 2 directions. And it's all wired.

As a matter of fact, it's much easier to wire a complex junction then to use 3rd rail. On your picture you can clearly see many small sections of third rail that all have to be connected with each other underneath the tracks. With overhead wires there's only a need to connect the wires when they crosses, but that is not that difficult to do. And a train only needs one contact point with the wires to have a continuous energy supply. With the 3rd rail you need more contacts and that means more wear on both the trains and the infrastructure.

The only reason why the South East isn't wired is because of the costs.
 
#51 ·
Nothing impossible. In Ukraine we have wired some really big stations in last decades. Of course, they were diesel, not 3rd rail.
 
#56 ·
I agree. Both the outdoor tube and SkyTrain suffered enormously from one or two cm of snow plus -5ºC temperature.

Maybe forummers here have been muddling up the intricate electronics inside recent models of trains suffering from 'meddlesome' snow and ice (TGVs and, before them, Montreal's outdoor EMUs) :dunno:
 
#58 ·
In the Philadelphia suburbs, there's the Norristown High Speed Line with is quite possibly the weirdest operation anywhere in the country. Too heavy for light rail, too light for heavy rail, too suburban for a metro, too short (carlength-wise) for a commuter operation...the only description that does it some justice is "interurban", but that's because we've all forgotten what an interurban actually looks like. :lol:

Here's a picture of it:

Source

Those things go quite quick too.
 
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