Keywords: soft catenary system, operational modal analysis, short time Fourier analysis, catenary-pantograph interaction, dynamic monitoring, wireless sensor system.

During the last couple of decades, the railways have experienced a steady increase in the development of higher speed rail. Higher speed also increases demands on existing railway infrastructure that is designed for older and different scenarios. This is also true for the power supply of the electric railways where a two level catenary system is commonly used. The current soft catenary systems are characterized by their design for an optimal quasi-static behaviour. This paper investigates the dynamic behaviour of existing catenaries using a newly developed wireless monitoring system. The sensor can be mounted arbitrarily to satisfy a beneficial description of the motion. In this investigation up to ten sensors are used to measure the response within one span. The structural behaviour is examined by collecting a significant amount of passage data, which is analysed by power spectra and peak histograms rendering significantly clear results. The individual sensor is examined equally and to look into the individual passage are also spectrograms analysed. To see system similarities and differences two catenary sections are included, one older and one new, both situated in Norway.

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