Pantograph monitoring for main line locations
System aims to provide early identification of defects in Scotland.
ENGINEERING company Ricardo has completed the installation of a system to monitor the condition of pantographs on electric trains at several locations of the rail network in Scotland, including the East and West Coast Main Lines, along with the North Clyde, Stranraer and Edinburgh to Glasgow routes.
PanMon is said to operate with an average accuracy of over 99.5%. Its cameras can perform 50,000 scans of pantographs each month. Ricardo says that, collectively, this means images of every single pantograph on the routes where the system is in operation will be taken at least once a day.
The high-definition cameras capture 3000 frames per second, allowing them to cope with trains travelling at maximum speeds, while lasers are used to measure the symmetry, pitch and yaw of pantographs, as well as wear and tear of carbon contact strips.
Defective pantographs are one of the main causes of dewirements, the impact of which has an estimated cost of £1 million, or considerably more on the busiest sections of line.