ohgoditsjames
Member
I'm quite an observational person and when stood in a station such as Leeds or York that see a mixture of Electric and Diesel units, I've noticed the overhead lines are covered in a black tar like substance that clearly accumulates from the diesel fumes and this is apparent as it's not present at stations such as Shipley that are served for 99% of the time by electric trains.
It got me wondering, am I right in assuming it is from the diesel fumes and secondly does is it disturb the pantograph drawing current from the wire or does the pantograph simply scrape it off? The wires are clearly never cleaned as some sections are caked in this black gunk and it's most noticeable on the isolators!
It got me wondering, am I right in assuming it is from the diesel fumes and secondly does is it disturb the pantograph drawing current from the wire or does the pantograph simply scrape it off? The wires are clearly never cleaned as some sections are caked in this black gunk and it's most noticeable on the isolators!