The Adif’s Twitter account that informs about the infrastructure problems The railway company shared a message at 8:21 a.m. that did not portend anything too serious: “Incidence in railway operation. We are working to solve it as soon as possible”. happened in the R3 and has traffic between Manlleu and Ripoll interrupted, a section that Renfe has had to cover by road. The images shared on Tik Tok by a traveler, however, show a truly gruesome scene, with a overload that has resulted in an electrical fire that has left the incandescent pantograph.
@offfff2929493 nice #fire #manlleu #train #rodalies #fyp #for you ♬ original sound – louis.wl
In the images, two travelers leave the train terrified as electrical sparks fly. It is surprising, says an expert consulted by this newspaper, that the overload has not done jump the leads of the electrical substation, as this is what should happen when an extreme voltage is detected, as has been the case. Result: electrical fire that it is only finished when one of the catenary cables has come loose and the power line has lost power. The expert consulted by El Periódico explains that happened is known as ‘hooking‘, and it occurs when the pantograph (the arm of the train that rises to contact the catenary and obtain power) gets tangled up with the cables due to poor maintenance of the cables themselves or of the pantograph.
Rodalies Barcelona, line R3: Interruption between Manlleu and Ripoll due to an incident in railway operation.
We are working to fix it as soon as possible.– INFOAdif (@InfoAdif) May 9, 2023
This expert points out that this is by no means a common situation in Rodalies, and recalls the case of two trains (one from Ferrocarrils and one from Rodalies) that in the 1980s ended up burned after a similar incident in Sabadell.
Related news
The wires that fly out carry an electrical charge of 3,000 volts, but the moment they are break the catenarythe voltage seems to drop to 0. “If it hasn’t stopped, it will I could have set the whole train on fire”points out this voice that insists on its surprise that the cables were still charged with electricity after the ‘hook’.
At the time of the incident, as can be seen in the video, it was raining at the Manlleu station. At 11:45 p.m., the fault had not yet been resolved and traffic was still closed on this section of the R3.