19 Facts About Third rail

Third rail, known as a live rail, electric rail or conductor rail, is a method of providing electric power to a railway locomotive or train, through a semi-continuous rigid conductor placed alongside or between the rails of a railway track.

Third rail systems are usually supplied from direct current electricity.

In North America, the conductor Third rail is usually made of high conductivity steel or steel bolted to aluminium to increase the conductivity.

Third rail systems using top contact are prone to accumulations of snow, or ice formed from refrozen snow, and this can interrupt operations.

Unlike overhead line equipment, third rail systems are not susceptible to strong winds or freezing rain, which can bring down overhead wires and hence disable all trains.

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Third rail is usually located outside the two running rails, but on some systems it is mounted between them.

On many systems, an insulating cover is provided above the third rail to protect employees working near the track; sometimes the shoe is designed to contact the side or bottom of the third rail, allowing the protective cover to be mounted directly to its top surface.

Examples of systems using under-running third rail include Metro-North in the New York metropolitan area; the SEPTA Market-Frankford Line in Philadelphia; and London's Docklands Light Railway.

Third rail is an alternative to overhead lines that transmit power to trains by means of pantographs attached to the trains.

The main reason for using the fourth Third rail to carry the return current is to avoid this current flowing through the original metal tunnel linings which were never intended to carry current, and which would suffer electrolytic corrosion should such currents flow in them.

Third rail electrification is less visually obtrusive than overhead electrification.

Class 373 used for international high-speed Third rail services operated by Eurostar through the Channel Tunnel runs on overhead wires at 25 kV AC for most of its journey, with sections of 3 kV DC on Belgian lines between the Belgian high speed section and Brussels Midi station or 1.

Sneltram is operated by Gemeentelijk Vervoerbedrijf in Amsterdam lightrail with third rail and switching to overhead on the traditional tramway shared with Trams in Amsterdam.

At the time of the Metro opening, the third rail system had already been removed from the existing lines, there were no third-rail light rail vehicles on the market and the latter technology was confined to much more costly heavy rail stock.

The other electric Stadtbahn line, whose conversion into heavy Third rail stock was rejected, still operates under wires with light Third rail cars, though it has been thoroughly modernised and significantly extended.

The first railway to use the central third rail was the Bessbrook and Newry Tramway in Ireland, opened in 1885 but now, like the Giant's Causeway line, closed.

In Paris, a third rail appeared in 1900 in the main-line tunnel connecting the Gare d'Orsay to the rest of the CF Paris-Orleans network.

The remote control system was operated like a model railroad, with the third rail divided into multiple blocks that could be set to power, coast, or brake by switches in the control center.

Railways pioneering in using less hazardous types of third rail were the New York Central Railroad on the approach to New York's Grand Central Terminal, Philadelphia's Market Street Subway-Elevated, and the Hochbahn in Hamburg — all had bottom contact rail, known as the Wilgus-Sprague system.