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Catenary–pantograph contact force is generally used for assessment of the current collection quality. A good current collection quality not only increases catenary lifetime but also keeps a stable electric supply and helps to avoid accidents. Low contact forces lead to electric arcs that degrade the catenary, and high contact forces generate excessive wear on the sliding surfaces. Railway track operators require track tests to ensure that catenary–pantograph force remains between safe values. However, a direct measure of the contact force requires an instrumented pantograph which is generally costly and complicated. This paper presents a test bench that allows testing virtual catenaries over real pantographs. Therefore, the contact point force behavior can be tested before the track test to guarantee that the test is passed. Moreover, due to its flexibility, the system can be used for model identification and validation, catenary testing, or contact loss simulation. The test bench also explores using computer vision as an additional sensor for each application. Results show that the system has high precision and flexibility in the available tests.

Catenaries are large cable structures which transmit electric current to trains through sliding contact with a pantograph. The Finite Element Method (FEM)