17,000 volts AC at 16 hertz can cause a lot of damage if bridged by frozen water. I wouldn’t want to be nearby.
16 Hz?
Crazy stuff,my daughter takes this train everyday.
“Chief Sullivan says icicles formed as a result of the recent moisture and these icicles came in contact with high power lines from AMTRAk that run underneath the bridge.”
“17,000 volts AC at 16 hertz can cause a lot of damage if bridged by frozen water. I wouldn’t want to be nearby.”
Amtrak catenary on the New York to Washington segment is energized at 11,000 volts 25hz.
Going under an overhead bridge, there’s not a great distance between the bridge structure and the wire itself — the insulators are often short there to maximize clearances between the wire and the rails. What happens is that water which under warmer conditions might drip bridge-to-wire freezes and then extends downward until it may touch the wires, then — zap!