Catenary Design for Overhead Contact Systems

This paper is intended to outline methods which have been found useful in the design of overhead contact systems where catenary construction is employed, with especial reference to the single catenary construction installed in 1925 on the Danbury Branch of the New York, New Haven, and Hartford Railroad as an extension of its 11,000-volt, single-phase, a-c. electrified zone; and on the New York, Westchester, and Boston Railway on its extension from Larchmont to Harrison, N. Y. Part I deals with construction over straight or ``tangent´´ track, and is a review of methods and formulas which, while not new, are necessary as an introduction to Part II, which not only includes tangent-chord construction, but deals at length with the design of the so-called inclined catenary and its adaptation to curved track.