The annual fucking of Wellington commuter trains by icy overhead lines has begun. If only there was some kind of power source nearby that could be tapped into and used to deice the lines...

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 months ago (7 children)

Other options are a deicing spray, like what is used on aircraft, both at airports and in flight, or some type of heater that has a heating element directly on the wire.

Turning an old unit into a deicing train wouldn't be massively difficult, I would think.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 months ago (5 children)

I'm wondering about the heating thing. The cables already carry current. Normally for electric heating you'd have electricity going through a wire with high resistance to make the heat. So you'd think you'd run such a wire along the length of the cable. Putting fan heaters everywhere isn't going to be efficient, you need it on the wire in the place it's needed.

But if it's on a live wire, can that work? Or would it just become part of the larger wire and not heat up as the electricity flows through the path of lower resistance? Plus the risk of the pantograph damaging the heating wire.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 months ago

It's been done with power lines overseas, where they somehow increase the current in the lines to heat them up to shed ice.

No idea how it actually works though, I'll have to look into it.

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