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overhead contact line
Sign in to saveAlso known as transport overhead line, electric contact network, power overhead line, catenary line, OLE, OHLE, OHL, overhead line
single or rarely double wire used to transmit electrical energy to trains, trams, or trolleybuses, hanging above the route of the vehicle
~38 min read
Encyclopedic overview
Overhead lines An overhead line or overhead wire is an electrical cable that is used to transmit electrical energy to electric locomotives, electric multiple units, trolleybuses or trams. The generic term used by the International Union of Railways for the technology is overhead line. It is known variously as overhead catenary, overhead contact line (OCL), overhead contact system (OCS), overhead equipment (OHE), overhead line equipment (OLE or OHLE), overhead lines (OHL), overhead wiring (OHW), traction wire, and trolley wire.
An overhead line consists of one or more wires (or rails, particularly in tunnels) situated over rail tracks, raised to a high electrical potential by connection to feeder stations at regularly spaced intervals along the track. The feeder stations are usually fed from a high-voltage electrical grid.
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “overhead contact line” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.