The clever engineering behind the pantograph on electric trains

Retro

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Turn your nerd up for this one, we're talking about trains!

I've been fascinated by the pantograph on trains ever since I was a kid and in particular, wondered how they went about mitigating wear and tear on the contact surface. This video explains it all, with clear animations.

Tube trains of course do it a different way by using a third rail to carry the voltage, about 750V DC so you really don't wanna touch them. I'll see if I can find another video on how this has been engineered.

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