Unit types

DC traction units
DC traction units use direct current drawn from either a conductor rail or an overhead line.

AC traction units
Apart from a few cases, almost all AC Traction units draw alternating current from an overhead line.

Multi-system units
Main article: multi-system (rail) multi-system locomotives that can operate under several different voltages and current types. In Europe, it is common to use four-system locomotives (1.5 kV DC, 3 kV DC, 15 kV 16 Hz AC, 25 kV, 50 Hz AC).[2] These locomotives do not have to stop when passing from one electrification system to another, the changeover occurring where the train coasts for a short time

History of Indian railway

India In India 1500 V DC and 25 kV AC, 50 Hz, is used for main line trains. The 1500 V DC overhead system (negative earth, positive catenary) is used around Mumbai. The Mumbai region is the last bastion of 1500 V DC electrified lines on Indian Railways. The Western Railway route from Mumbai Central is now completely changed to 25 kV AC. The 25 kV AC system with overhead lines is used throughout the rest of the country. The dual-voltage WCAM series locomotives haul intercity trains out of Mumbai DC suburban region. The new AC/DC EMU rakes used in Mumbai are also designed to operate with both DC and AC traction as the Mumbai area switches over to the 25 kV AC system which has provided access to the locomotives having AC Traction motors to serve in the suburbs. The Kolkata Metro uses 750 V DC traction with a third rail for delivering the electricity to the EMUs. The Kolkata trams use 550 V DC with overhead lines with underground conductors. The catenary is at a negative potential. The Delhi Metro uses 25 kV AC overhead lines on the ground-level and elevated routes, and uses a rather unusual "rigid catenary", or overhead power rail, in the underground tunnel sections.

Electric traction voltages

1.5 kV Dc and 3kv dc in early 60s 25 ac system nowadays in delhi metro(started)

Why DC motor were used?

1.they afforded (in those days) far superior speed and torque control compared to AC motors the latter require variation of input frequency and voltage for effective control, which was not an easy matter earlier. 2.It was possible to use AC motors (and some railways did, with varying success), but they did not have an ideal characteristic for traction purposes. This was because control of speed is difficult without varying the frequency and reliance on voltage to control speed gives a torque at any given speed that is not ideal. This is why DC series motors were the best choice for traction purposes, as they can be controlled by voltage, and have an almost ideal torque vs speed characteristic. 3.The main reason why electrification at this voltage had not been used before was the lack of reliability of mercuryarctype rectifiers that could fit on the train. This in turn related to the requirement to use DC series motors, which required the current to be converted from AC to DC and for that a rectifier is needed. Until the early 1950s, mercury-arc rectifiers were difficult to operate even in ideal conditions and were therefore unsuitable for use in the railway industry.

Why AC locos?
In 3-phase AC locos, the input (single-phase AC) from the OHE is rectified and then 3phase AC is generated from it, whose voltage, phase, and frequency can be manipulated widely, without regard to the voltage, phase, frequency of the input power from the OHE. AC traction motors can thus be driven with a great degree of control over a wide range of speed and torque.

DC link
This is essentially a bank of capacitors and inductors, or active filter circuitry, to further smooth the DC from the previous stage, and also to trap harmonics generated by the drive converter and traction motors.

Drive Converter
This is basically an inverter which consists of three thyristor-based components that switch on and off at precise times under the control of a microprocessor (pulse-width modulation). The three components produce 3 phases of AC (120 degrees out of phase with one another). Additional circuitry shapes the waveforms so that they are suitable for feeding to the traction motors.

History
In the 1990s, high-speed trains began to use lighter, lower-maintenance three-phase AC induction motors. The N700 Shinkansen uses a three-level converter to convert 25 kV single-phase AC to 1,520 V AC (via transformer) to 3,000 V DC (via phase-controlled rectifier with thyristor) to a maximum 2,300 V three-phase AC (via a variable voltage, variable frequency inverter using IGBTs with pulse-width modulation) to run the motors. The system works in reverse for regenerative braking.

Why 25 kV
The choice of 25 kV was related to the efficiency of power transmission as a function of voltage and cost, not based on a neat and tidy ratio of the supply voltage. For a given power level, a higher voltage allows for a lower current and usually better efficiency at the greater cost for high-voltage equipment. It was found that 25 kV was an optimal point, where a higher voltage would still improve efficiency but not by a significant amount in relation to the higher costs incurred by the need for greater clearance and larger insulators.

Why not.Disadvantages
A 25 kV AC system uses only one phase of the normal three-phase electric power supply. This results in an imbalance on the three-phase supply which may affect other customers. This can be overcome by installing static VAR compensators[3] or reducing the traction load when the imbalance becomes unacceptable. The system is not insulated from the distribution network, like other systems. Older locomotives and the recuperating electrodynamic brakes on newer locomotives create electrical noise. It is not necessarily practical to filter this noise from the electricity distribution network, and this has led some countries to prohibit the use of recuperating brakes.

The high voltage leads to a requirement for a slightly higher clearance in tunnels and under overbridges. To avoid short circuits, the high voltage must be protected from moisture. Weather events, such as "the wrong type of snow", have caused failures in the past. An example of atmospheric causes occurred in December 2009, when four Eurostar trains broke down inside the Channel Tunnel.

Distribution networks
Electric power from a generating station is transmitted to grid substations using a threephase distribution system. At the grid substation, a step-down transformer is connected across two of the three phases of the high-voltage supply. The transformer lowers the voltage to 25 kV which is supplied to a railway feeder station located beside the tracks. SVCs are used for load balancing and voltage control.[4] In some cases dedicated single-phase AC power lines were built to substations with single phase AC transformers. Such lines were built to supply the French TGV.[5]

2 x 25 kV autotransformer system
The 2 x 25 kV autotransformer system may be used on 25 kV lines to reduce energy losses. It should not be confused with the 50 kV system. In this system, the current is mainly carried between the overhead line and a feeder instead of the rail. The voltage between the overhead line (3) and the feeder line (5) is 50 kV but thevoltage between the overhead line (3) and the running rails (4) remains at 25 kV and thisis the voltage supplied to thetrain. This system is used by Indian Railways, Russian Railways, Frenchhigh-speed lines