Catenary wire height with electrification in North America and other places?

[Schroinx]

This is my first post here.

I know many freight routes in North America are upgraded to handle double-stack trains. With increased electrification of some metropolitan systems such as Caltrain, Toronto and Amtrak's northeastern corridor, they either have to go with a single stack or choose a height of the catenary wire that allows for operation of double stack. Here in EU it is only single stack. I know the Chinese has done some corridors with double stack, but I can't figure out if they are using some specialized reduced height containers or what. The Wikipedia article on Caltrain says they do it with 7m of clearance, but also say 4.9-7 meters, so it is not quite clear was is meant. Toronto will also be electrifying its GO-trains, that share some tracks with CP freight trains and they are typically also double stack, so I wonder what they do?
I can see here that it says single stack catenary is 5,6m / 18,4ft, US are typical 7,1m / 23,3ft and China is using 6,6m / 21,7ft. The Betuweroute is prepared for it, but the wire is in standard height.
Can a mixed system exist, where the tracks a commuter train shares with freight are for double-stack and those where it doesn't are standard height?

https://indianexpress.com/article/news-archive/rlys-reaches-higher-sets-world-record/

 

[cirdan]

Welcome to the forum.

India has installed some corridors with extra high catenary allowing double stack trains that are higher than those in the US as the lower container sits on the flat back of the car and not in a well as on the US double stackers.

From my understanding the electric locomotives used have both an extended and a normal height pantograph. They can this also be used on conventional lines.

But I'm sure JLS, who is an expert on all things Indian, can confirm this.

I see no fundamental reason why passenger trains shouldn't also be able to use such extra high catenary. It would probably require a second pantograph but this is not a huge obstacle.

 

[Ryan]

@jis will be along shortly to provide video of trains with really long pantographs running under really high wires and double stacks underneath.

No reason that passenger trains can't run on those very tracks.

 

[jis]

Instead of posting individual articles, let me point folks to a thread we had in the recent past on High Catenary in India. It is even higher than anything in the US.

https://www.amtraktrains.com/threads/high-catenary-for-double-stack-trains-in-india.81119/
And yes, there is no problem with single and multi level trains sharing the same high catenary. Usually vehicles are equipped with separate pantos for high and low catenary when they run on both, but the high catenary pantos can run fine on low catenary. It is just that they are not terribly good at high speed.