Passenger Trains > Electric Trains on Rusty Track

I've heard of streetcars going on to track so rusted that they didn't pass sufficient current and the car grinds to a halt.   With the car now ungrounded as long as ANY power equipment is energized the car will be at 600V potential until the pole is pulled down or a main switch opened.  Until it is, anyone exiting the car at this time had better jump and not make simultaneous contact with car and earth.

But what about with an electric train under high voltage catenary?  The high voltage will probably penetrate any rusted rails to the extent that a train won't become immobilized, perhaps just limited in maximum power output & speed.  Since voltage drop across a resistance is in proportion to the current and resistance I wonder how much voltage might the body of the train be at (with respect to ground) while at a station.   Could there be a danger to someone touching train and ground at the same time based on the voltage developed with current passing across the resistance of the rusty track?  What if someone is touching a handrail or the side of the car as the train starts to move and the massive traction current is passing through the resistance?

At the phone company all of the bucket trucks carry a 4 foot square rubber blanket.
You use it to exit the truck if the truck becomes energized.
Throw blanket out about 2 to 3 feet away from the truck, jump from the truck to the blanket, then shuffle away from the truck.
You do not want your feet to leave the ground after you land on the blanket.

PHall Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> At the phone company all of the bucket trucks
> carry a 4 foot square rubber blanket.
> You use it to exit the truck if the truck becomes
> energized.
> Throw blanket out about 2 to 3 feet away from the
> truck, jump from the truck to the blanket, then
> shuffle away from the truck.
> You do not want your feet to leave the ground
> after you land on the blanket.

How thick is the rubber blanket?

boejoe Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> PHall Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > At the phone company all of the bucket trucks
> > carry a 4 foot square rubber blanket.
> > You use it to exit the truck if the truck
> becomes
> > energized.
> > Throw blanket out about 2 to 3 feet away from
> the
> > truck, jump from the truck to the blanket, then
> > shuffle away from the truck.
> > You do not want your feet to leave the ground
> > after you land on the blanket.
>
> How thick is the rubber blanket?

About an eighth of an inch.

rusty rail only hinders track and signal circuitry ... 11,000 volts runs right through rusted metal to complete the circuit ... i've seen some ugly stuff involving catenary contact with equipment and also contact between the wire and human beings, animals, birds ...

i've seen people trapped and energized and the only way out was to jump and avoid metal ground contact ...

one such incident at Amtrak in the 70s involving a cherry picker crane hitting a cat feeder wire that was mistaken for a low voltage signal wire that could've resulted in a fatality when the gondola the crew was unloading became energized with a man inside it standing on wooden pallets ...

the incident was instrumental in instituting a whole new rule book AMT-3 involving catenary/rail return electrical current rules for all employees who work under catenary and around 3rd rail ...

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I am not sure that your assumption about the motive power voltage simply being grounded back to the chassis is valid?  Wouldn't that have been avoided just for reasons you described?

Where else would it be connected?  Are you suggesting that the trucks could be isolated from the rest of the frame & body?