Shunichi Kusumi

Development of long‐span‐type overhead rigid‐conductor line of a catenary system

An overhead rigid conductor line in a tunnel is free from the fear of disconnection because the contact wire is not tensioned, and it is superior in maintenance saving. In order to introduce this in open sections, we have developed “a long-span-type overhead rigid conductor line of catenary system.” This contact line structure consists of a contact wire of no tension attached to a supporter that has a small drag coefficient suspended from the messenger wire. We have now developed a “square supporter” to make the drag smaller and have put it to various tests with support point intervals of 50 and 10 m. As the testing results show, the contact loss is 1 to 2% at 130 km/h, and this overhead rigid conductor line can collect the current with a stability equal to that of the normal catenary system.