Talk:Railway electrification system

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To-do
list

Pending tasks for Railway electrification system:

 (purge cache –  edit this list)
  • Three-phase AC missing
  • History needed
  • More example systems; reduce over-emphasis on one country or another
  • Links to articles that deal with specialised aspects
See also Wikipedia:WikiProject Trains/Todo

Contents

[edit] Ireland not electrified?

Whomever compiled the map of Europe showing which countries were and were not electrified has been out of date since at least 1984. Ireland's DART (Dublin Suburban) system has been electrified with 1500V DC since its inception. Dublin also operates the Luas, an electrified light-rail system running on 750V DC.

70.105.210.214 (talk) 06:01, 28 January 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Czech Republic details

In Czech Republic both systems 3000V DC and 25kV AC are used, north part of Czech republic use 3kV DC, south part use 25kV AC. it was let say rule: red machine - 25kV AC, Green machine 3kV DS, Blue machine for both (switchable)

[edit] A good article, but....

I do not see any lists of external references. This may be a problem for people like myself, who are trying to research this topic and need some solid source material. Piercetp 03:30, 22 May 2006 (UTC)

(sighing) You need something done around here you have to do it yourself! I found a decent link to add. Piercetp 05:07, 31 May 2006 (UTC)

This article is about railway electrification. The sections on multisystem locomotives and battery electric rail vehicles are all very interesting, but not relevant to this page. I propose that they be deleted from this article and placed on another page (or placed on new pages of their own). --ALECTRIC451 23:51, 15 January 2007 (UTC)

IMHO this article should be about the technical stuff / diffrent systems. In places it appears to duplciate the work of other article such as List of current systems for electric rail traction, Railway electrification in Great Britain, Railroad electrification in the United States, Third rail and Overhead lines Pickle 16:09, 16 January 2007 (UTC)
ALECTRIC451 has moved those sections to Railway electric traction Pickle 14:29, 17 January 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Photo used in article

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:US-NortheastCatenary.jpg This photo really is not that visable. Can someone find a better one to use? Thanks... Piercetp 01:44, 25 May 2006 (UTC)

OK then I see someone replaced it. Thanks. Piercetp 20:31, 25 May 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Merge from Railway electric traction

It seems to me that everything in railway electric traction duplicates either this article on electric locomotive. Mangoe 20:09, 20 March 2007 (UTC)

Railway electric traction is about the traction units that operate on a railway electrification system. A railway electrification system is the infrastructure that allow electric traction to operate. IMHO, they are quite different, and both merit separate articles. Any cross-over of content between the two should be avoided. ALECTRIC451 21:46, 20 March 2007 (UTC)
A further point, an electric locomotive is a subset of railway electric traction, another being electric multiple units. The article railway electric traction is meant to pull together all the different forms of railway traction that uses electricity as the power source for propulsion. ALECTRIC451 21:50, 20 March 2007 (UTC)
If any merging is needed then it should be between this article and Traction power network ALECTRIC451 23:55, 20 March 2007 (UTC)
Yes, all the above should be here. Whence the electricity comes into the third rail (or catenary) and whither it goes, all belong in the various national sections of this article, or in two new worldwide technical sections. Jim.henderson 02:50, 26 March 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Emissions

In countries where electricity comes primarily from non-fossil sources, such as Austria and France, electric trains also produce fewer carbon emissions than diesel trains.

Wouldn't there be fewer emissions anyway (ignoring the cost of installing the lines) because even fossil fuel power stations would be more efficient then the diesel-electric engine on the diesel train (even considering the transmission losses)? (obviously the difference won't be as much) Nil Einne 14:53, 11 April 2007 (UTC)

If locomotives were constrained by emissions controls, probably not; there's no reason why a clean-running D-E or gas-turbine locomotive couldn't be more efficient than the combination of a remotely-located fossil fuel plant and the transmission losses. But locomotives aren't currently constrained by emissions controls, at least in the United States, so your argument (currently) holds up.
Atlant 15:18, 11 April 2007 (UTC)
Atlant, not sure what you mean about locomotives not being constrained by emissions controls in the US - there are a ton of emissions controls which have caused huge changes in the industry recently (Tier I and Tier II emissions standards). See Emission standard and Tier_(emission_standard). I agree with Nil Einne's point that electric trains are still better for the environment even when the central power plant burns fossil fuels, but this isn't a design goal and it isn't really that important to this article. Jpp42 12:33, 27 May 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Multi-current locomotives

We should probably talk about the issue of multi-current locomotives. For instance, parts of the French train network are in 1500V DC, but more recent parts, including the high speed special-purpose TGV lines, are in 25 kV AC. This means all TGV trains, but also some regional trains (RER B, RER D for instance) are dual current. Trains going across borders may also need multi-current locomotives: for instance, TGV going to Germany or Switzerland have tri-current locomotives (1500V DC, 25 kV AC 50 Hz and the weird 16.6 Hz current used in Germany and neighbouring countries). SNCF TGV Thalys PBKA are 4-current. David.Monniaux 11:46, 30 April 2007 (UTC)

This sounds like the perfect opportunity for you to be bold and improve the article!
Atlant 12:11, 30 April 2007 (UTC)
No, because I don't know authoritatives sources about this. Presumably, some people have better knowledge, and access to better sources than I do. David.Monniaux 20:49, 30 April 2007 (UTC)

[edit] DC Overhead

The article should really have a section on the DC overhead systems, such as that pioneered by the LBSC in London, and also used on the Woodhead Line, as well as in Europe. I can add a little about this, but it will only be a start, and would still need expansion. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Mjroots (talk • contribs) 13:19, 12 January 2008 (UTC)

I've now seen that it does mention the systems, but it is not completely clear that overhead is being talked about. Looks to me that it is assemed all electric systems are overhead unless otherwise noted! I'll clear that up myself. Mjroots (talk) 15:16, 13 January 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Conductor rail electrification

That seems to be a separate article, quite pointlessly.--SilasW (talk) 11:16, 19 April 2008 (UTC)