Development of Catenary Stagger and Height Measurement System using Laser

Catenary and Pantograph are used to transmit electrical energy to electric railways. Catenary (Overhead Contact Lines) should be installed precisely and managed for stable train operations. But external factors such as weather, temperature, etc., or aging affect catenary geometry. Changed catenary stagger and height cause high voltage spark or instant electric contact loss. Big spark derived from contact loss can damage the pantograph carbon strip and overhead contact lines that might interrupt the train operations. Therefore, to prevent a big scale spark or electric contact loss, catenary maintenance are required catenary geometry measurement systems with catenary maintenance capability. In this paper, we describe the development of catenary height and stagger measurement system. The catenary height and stagger measurement system uses Acuity company's AR4000 Laser Range Finder for distance measurement and AccuRange Line Scanner for degree measurement. This system detects suspicious overhead line sections with excessive stagger and height stagger variance.