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Conductor rail at St Pancras Thameslink

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cyclebytrain

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I was at St. Pancras using the Thameslink today and saw that part of the conductor wire is now attached to a solid wire above the platform. Does anyone know anything about why the change now? I can't say for sure, but I think it was a conventional wire last week. Since I can't remember seeing anything here about this being changed, I thought I'd ask.

Phone camera pictures attached.
 

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Jordy

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I can't really work it out from the pictures but is it similar to what appears to be going on at Berlin Hbf (Tief) - what I can only describe as a 'third rail in the sky' - i.e. the pantograph picks up from what looks to be a 'rail' instead of a wire.
 

nlogax

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Isn't that the same conductor bar as in the Edinburgh tunnels? I thought that was usually installed for reasons of clearance..what's the clearance like down at St P Thameslink?
 

Trog

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Could it be some sort of limited clearance neutral section? Perhaps to do with the new junction planned for just off the platform end.
 

Bald Rick

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Installed over Easter. Known as conductor beam. The contact wire is fixed to the underside. Much more robust than regular OLE, and practically zero maintenance.

It has replaced a tricky tension length of OLE between approx half way along St Pancras LL platforms and the middle of the old KX Thameslink platforms. The curvature, cant and gradient change through this section made the OLE pretty difficult to keep in the right place and had high wear rates.

Likely the conductor beam will be extended north through to Dock Jn and through the new Canal tunnels, not confirmed yet.
 

cyclebytrain

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Thanks for the explanation Bald Rick. I guess I wasn't paying attention properly last week to not see it then! I thought it looked like quite a neat solution.
 

Bald Rick

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Just don't look too hard at the transition in the St P platforms, it's not quite right and the pantographs kick a bit. Should be fixed soon.
 

westcoaster

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Installed over Easter. Known as conductor beam. The contact wire is fixed to the underside. Much more robust than regular OLE, and practically zero maintenance.

It has replaced a tricky tension length of OLE between approx half way along St Pancras LL platforms and the middle of the old KX Thameslink platforms. The curvature, cant and gradient change through this section made the OLE pretty difficult to keep in the right place and had high wear rates.

Likely the conductor beam will be extended north through to Dock Jn and through the new Canal tunnels, not confirmed yet.



from what I've seen its called, rigid overhead conductor system. Not much info online about it apart its for use in tunnels with limited clearence which kings cross tunnel is.
 

steverailer

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Just don't look too hard at the transition in the St P platforms, it's not quite right and the pantographs kick a bit. Should be fixed soon.

Probably this weekend;);)

Heard on the grapevine that it will be extended over the xmas period this year.

The contact wire is acutally clamped in the lower section of the aluminium box. Looks a mess when being installed, but actually works very well apparently, looking forward to going back down to see what the finished job is like as I was only there for a couple of days of instalation
 

swt_passenger

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from what I've seen its called, rigid overhead conductor system. Not much info online about it apart its for use in tunnels with limited clearence which kings cross tunnel is.

Have you seen this: http://www.furrerfrey.ch/web/furrerfrey/en/produkte/sfl.html

If you go back through the news section of their website there's stories from 2007 about its use in Sunderland north tunnel (Metro), and Temple Mills depot. I think they used the same stuff in Edinburgh since then too.

I googled 'furrer and frey overhead conductor rail' - it also brings up various other pdfs etc that are difficult to link to...
 
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ChiefPlanner

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I think the Mound Tunnels (north) at Edinburgh was the first use in the UK - would not have been possible without the fixed bar "OLE" - and it gives 24 tph capabiltyinto Waverley from the West End. Never go past (which isn't often) without thinking of the debate we had about installing it in the meeting room at W/ly in 2006......
 

snowball

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Some sort of rigid overhead conductor - very possibly different in detail from those discussed in this thread - is used on the swing span and approaches at Trowse swing bridge, Norwich (electrified 1986).
 

Waddon

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Further to this, was just reading a news article on the Crossrail site about the contract being awarded for the tunnel fit-outs... and the article says that the contract includes " the installation of over 40km of track, overhead electric conductor rails to power the trains as well as ventilation and drainage systems"

So Crossrail will have overhead conductor rails too instead of wires?

Link to article
http://www.crossrail.co.uk/news/articles/crossrail-awards-major-tunnel-fit-out-contract#.UWw_baIsmSo
 

cyclebytrain

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If it's a good, reliable and cheap system for overhead electrification in tunnels, then why not? One thing that has stuck in my mind was that it looked like it would fail in a far more predictable manner than conventional overhead wiring.
 

edwin_m

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Further to this, was just reading a news article on the Crossrail site about the contract being awarded for the tunnel fit-outs... and the article says that the contract includes " the installation of over 40km of track, overhead electric conductor rails to power the trains as well as ventilation and drainage systems"

So Crossrail will have overhead conductor rails too instead of wires?

Link to article
http://www.crossrail.co.uk/news/articles/crossrail-awards-major-tunnel-fit-out-contract#.UWw_baIsmSo

They were certainly considering it a couple of years back and it looks like they have gone for it.
 

cyclebytrain

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Resurrecting my own thread... It looked like this had been installed at Farringdon too (but I only got a quick glimpse) -can anyone confirm? I'm sure it was still a wire at City Thameslink...
 
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