2005 Volume 46 Issue 2 Pages 97-102
Feeders are installed as standard equipment on DC electrified railways in Japan in order to complement the electric capacity of contact wires. The feeder messenger catenary system, in which the messenger serves the function of a feeder, is now being increasingly adopted in metropolitan areas. Thus we have developed a new feeder messenger catenary system with an auxiliary wire so that the contact wire is hard to break. During system developments, we investigated the best structure for this purpose first and simulated its electric performance. Then, we performed running tests using a pantograph installed on RTRI's current collection testing equipment to evaluate the performance of the new system. The test results proved that there were no problems in its current collection performance up to 150kmh.