Masthead
2014; IEEE Power & Energy Society; Volume: 2; Issue: 3 Linguagem: Inglês
10.1109/mele.2014.2342771
ISSN2325-5897
Resumoome authors claim that a small tractor manufactured by the company siemens & halske in Berlin, Germany, in 1879 was the first railroad to operate with electric power.however, although most of the railways in the united states use diesel traction, the first railway electrification of importance took place in the first decade of the 20th century in the city of new York.the new York central railroad connected to the Grand central terminal station, located in manhattan, using a 3-km-long tunnel. in 1902, there was a serious train crash due to the smoke of the steam locomotives that prevented the driver of one of the trains from correctly seeing the signals.as a result of this accident, new York city prohibited railway operation with steam locomotives on the island of manhattan, forcing new York central to electrify its suburban lines.it was in europe, where electrified railways experienced a larger expansion.in europe, the ac single-phase system was developed (a three-phase ac system was also constructed but was finally discontinued) and, later, the two-phase system (known as the autotransformer system) became widely adopted.and it was in europe (in France and Germany) and Japan where the high-speed railways (probably one of the most important steps forward in the last decades) were developed.and, finally, it has been in europe and asia where the high-speed railways have been massively adopted.electrical traction has some advantages compared to diesel traction that make it very attractive: the possibility of building trains designed for higher speed and power, better electrical performance, and less environmental impact.however, it calls for larger investments in infrastructure (contact lines, substations, transmission, and distribution lines), which requires important economic studies. in some cases, such as in high-speed lines or in railways with dense traffic, the use of electrical traction is essential.When examining the advances in electrical railways in recent decades, it becomes very obvious that the development of the power electronics and control technologies have been key factors to achieve the performance railways can deliver today.
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