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Electrification System |
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Essential to the operation of an electric tramway is obviously the Overhead Line Electrification (OHLE) which powers the vehicles. Tramlink in line with most tramways is powered at a nominal 750 vdc. Peak Power Consumption is 1MW in any section. |
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| Substations | ||||||||
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Power is provided by 13 Substations, fed by either 6.6 kV or 11 kV AC supplies from local electricity companies with transformer rectifiers of either 600kW or 1000kW to provide the output.
The 13 substations are located at: -
Each Substation has a High Voltage (Regional Electricity Board) side and a traction power (Tramlink) side with access to each others equipment forbidden. |
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| Power Supply Control | ||||||||
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Intruder and Fire Alarm status as well as the status of equipment is monitored by the Tramlink Control Room using a Supervisory Control And Data Acquisition system. See the Control Room Page for information on the Tramlink Control Room.
Red means live with Green earthed. In the photo above, you can see the Wimbledon Cripple Siding is earthed. A few mouse clicks is all that is needed to isolate the power to a section. You can see several available circuit breakers that can be operated to switch out sections or Substations in case of failure or isolate trams with electrical problems. Controllers can select sections to give more detail and control over switching out substations. The system should be able to operate with a substation switched out.
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| Support Masts | ||||||||
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Wires are controversially supported by standard H-section masts in most places. These are painted Dark Grey in the Town Centre and on the New Addington line but unpainted elsewhere. 6 circular masts have been used in the Conservation area by the Almshouses at Crown Hill in central Croydon and in George Street West and Church Street, part or all of the support is via wires connected to buildings. This was not possible throughout the area as the newer buildings were not strong enough to support them. I am reliably informed that there are approximately 1060 masts on the system! Each has a reference plate on and this refers to the Sub Stations each side and the Distance from the Tramlink zero Point which is 25 m West of the Centre of East Croydon Stop.
This is at Beckenham Junction and shows the mast is part of the Love Lane and Blakeney Road Substations sections - although not actually between them. The mast is located 7 km, 764m from the Zero Point. See the Glossary Page for more information on these codes. |
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| Overhead Equipment | ||||||||
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A selection of equipment associated with the Electrification System that is visible around the system.
The contact wire consists of two 11.7mm diameter grooved section copper wires on the mainline with a single wire in the depot and sidings where current draw is less. The tensioning is maintained by weights on or inside the masts. Normal height is 5.8m above the ground and is designed to remain above a height of 5.2m in street sections even if a mast is removed for road users safety. |
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