page_title: Seebach-Wettingen railway electrification trial
section_title: Catenary
hierarchical_section_title: Seebach-Wettingen railway electrification trial / Catenary
caption_attribution_description: Deutsch: Rutenfahrleitung System MFO bei Seebach
context_page_description: The Seebach-Wettingen railway electrification trial was an important milestone in the development of electric railways. Maschinenfabrik Oerlikon demonstrated the suitability of single-phase alternating current at high voltage for long-distance railway operation with the Seebach-Wettingen single-phase alternating current test facility. For this purpose, MFO electrified the 19.45-kilometre-long Swiss Federal Railways route from Seebach to Wettingen at its own expense with single-phase alternating current at 15,000 volts.
context_section_description: Seebach to Regensdorf
  On the section from Seebach to Regensdorf, MFO tested an overhead line at the side of the track. The current collector mounted on the roof of the locomotive, the so-called tail, consisted of a slightly curved tube with a replaceable contact strip. The tube was pressed by spring force against the contact wire and could describe more than a half circle, so that contact with the contact wire from above, from the side or from below was possible. Normally, the wire was located at the side of the track. The system proved unreliable at speeds above 50 km/hour.
  Regensdorf to Wettingen
  On the section from Regensdorf to Wettingen, Siemens-Schuckert installed a standard Catenary and, on 1 December 1907, operation was started. At the exit from Regensdorf station, the overhead line ran approximately 400 metres parallel to the side-mounted line so that the current collector could be changed while driving. The contact wire was located six metres above the rail above the middle of the track. To test a low contact wire height in tunnels and underpasses, the contact wire between Otelfingen and Würenlos was laid only 4.8 meters above the rails over a distance of one kilometre. The pantograph (current collector) was usable for both directions of travel and could follow height differences of the overhead line even at high speeds. The lifting of the pantograph was done by  compressed air.
caption: Overhead line (MFO system) at Seebach
exif: {"Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image Tag 0x0301": "20000/9091", "Image Tag 0x0303": "0", "Image Tag 0x5110": "1", "Image Tag 0x5111": "0", "Image Tag 0x5112": "0"}