Overhead contact systems (OCS) consist of contact and messenger wires, in which the contact wire supplies electric energy to the railway vehicle by contacting a pantograph. However, this mechanical contact is interrupted during frosts or temperatures below 0℃ in the winter. In these conditions, railway vehicle accidents can occur during operation because of the low energy efficiency that results from the increase in the arcing between the contact wire and pantograph. Therefore, the detection of frost or freezing temperatures is necessary to maintain the stable operation of these trains. In this study, we proposed the development of a frost or freezing condition monitoring system on the OCSs that utilizes wireless communication.

In the Airport Railroad, the Yeongjong Bridge has a length of 4,420 m and connects Yeongjong Island with the mainland of Incheon City. The bridge is a two-level structure, consisting of a six-lane road at the upper level and a combination of a road and railroad at the lower level. The environmental conditions for the electric railway come mainly from the salt injury area and a heavy industry zone, and the maintenance cycles are determined differently depending on these conditions. This study analyzed the deterioration characteristics of long rod insulators produced with a movable ceramic bracket and polymer materials in the Yeongjong Bridge section of the Airport Railway operating in the salt injury area according to the material characteristics. Comparison of the corona measurements when the insulators were cleaned at the same time showed that the polymer insulator had a higher insulation performance than the ceramic insulator.

The overhead contact line (OCL) is a key piece of equipment for transmitting electrical energy to the pantograph of rail cars. Recently, a 400 km/h OCL was applied to the Honam high-speed line, and its performance was examined by running HEMU-430X. For the study, we analyzed the current of catenary wire concurrently while running HEMU-430X in the Honam high-speed line. Specifically, this study recorded the currents for each speed during operation of the railway vehicle. The analysis of the frequency of line current showed generation of third-harmonics, 15th-harmonics, 17th-harmonics, and 19th-harmonics. The current of catenary wire is a basic technology assessment used to determine the electrical safety of electric railway systems, and it can be used as a technology for analyzing circulating currents generated in the current configuration, as well as for analyzing electric fatigue of the OCL components.

Currently in Korea, the simple catenary type overhead contact line system is being applied to both conventional lines and high speed lines of electric railway, and circulation current flowing into the catenary system frequently bring undesirable consequences. Namely, the connector wire has many problems according to a flow of excessive circulation current and arc current on catenary when an electric train runs at high speed. This paper presents the development and application of a real-time data acquisition system designed to measure the electrical characteristics of an overhead catenary system in electric railways. The developed system is capable of storing data of a 25 kV power source in a live wire state through a telemetry environment. The field test results show that the proposed technique and the developed system can be practically applied to measure characteristics of current of an overhead catenary system.