Winds halt train lines

Since spring, many parts of the country have experienced a wave of windy days. During the May Day holiday, strong winds even affected trains.
入春以来，我国多地都经历了一波大风天气。五一假期期间，强风甚至影响了铁路运行。

On May 1, strong gales in Baoding, Hebei province, caused a foreign object to be caught in high-speed rail overhead lines, leading to the delay of trains. Some passengers were even stuck on their trains mid-travel.
5月1日，受河北保定市大风天气影响，高铁接触网挂异物，导致部分列车晚点。一些乘客甚至半路被“堵”在了列车上。

High-speed trains are powered by electricity, and they receive power from overhead wires strung along the overhead lines, according to Worldwide Rails, a rail news website. As an important part of the power source for high-speed trains, why are rail overhead lines so fragile in face of wind?
据铁路新闻网站Worldwide Rails报道，高铁列车由电力驱动，由铁路上方的接触网供电。作为高铁的重要供电来源的接触网，为什么在面对强风时如此”脆弱“?

The overhead line equipment itself has strong stability, but there are too many light objects floating along the line. “These foreign objects are extremely dynamic and difficult to control. After all, except for some tunnel sections, the railway is an open-air environment,” He Changlin, deputy head of the Catenary Technology Section of the Beijing Power Supply Section, told Beijing Daily.
高铁接触网设备本身具备较强的稳定性，但线路上的轻飘物太多。“这些外来物动态性极强，特别不好控制。毕竟铁路除了部分隧道区段，都是露天开放式环境，”北京供电局接触网技术科副主任何成林在《北京日报》采访中表示。

Kite wires with a metal core are one of the troublemakers that haunt railway workers every year. If one end of the kite wire touches the power supply line and the other end touches the ground, it will cause a short circuit on the overhead lines, causing a loss of power.
含金属丝的风筝线是每年都会困扰铁路工作者的一大麻烦。如果风筝线的一端接触到供电线路，另一端接地，就会造成接触网短路跳闸，导致动车组失去动力。

Other conductive materials, such as tin foil and iron sheets, could also pose a threat. Although other foreign objects are non-conductive, once they are blown into an overhead line, they may disable trains’ pantographs from getting a current.
其他导电材料，如锡纸和铁皮，也可能构成威胁。尽管其他异物不导电，然而一旦它们被吹到接触网上，也可能导致列车受电弓故障，无法从接触网获得电流。

In many cases, train workers have to remove foreign objects from overhead lines manually. The bigger the foreign object, the harder it is to clean it up. Bird nests are one of the most difficult.
在大多情况下，铁路工作人员必须手动从接触网清除外来物。异物越大，清理起来就越困难，鸟巢是最难清理的外来物之一。

Due to their height and durability, overhead lines have become a popular site for birds to make a home. Birds carefully arrange their home with branches, iron wires, straw, etc. “They keep us busy. One day we deal with one bird’s nest and the next day they’ll build another,” a Xiamen train power supply worker told Xiamen TV. Their solution? To make fake nests and put them along the railway to trick birds into thinking the place is taken.
高铁接触网的高度和坚固，已经让它成为了鸟类安家的热门场所。鸟儿小心翼翼地用树枝、铁丝、稻草等布置鸟窝，“这可把我们忙坏了，常常是今天刚拆完一个鸟巢，明天它们又筑起另一个。”一位厦门铁路供电段工作人员在厦门电视台采访中称。那么他们有何解决方案呢?那就是做一些假鸟窝放在铁路沿线，让鸟儿误以为这个地方已经有主了。

以上文章内容选自《21世纪学生英文报高中版》，详情请见《21世纪学生英文报高中版》高二833期