fibreglass steps and ladders

[FredFlintstone]

rails are on the ground (earth) overheads are in the air, (no earth)

Aye, but they'd have to be pretty damn tall to earth the power lines.

 

[FredFlintstone]

How do people get killed falling onto overhead rail power cables then? Is it that they connect two together (through their body) thus meaning a current passes through them?

i am guessing its because if they land where there is a support for the cable they will tend to touch both the cable and the support (which is grounded) thus bridging the insulating thing in-between. also to fall onto something that high they must of been on something even higher so thats quite a fall!

Good point. As for the fall, well yes, that could kill too but the lines would break the fall a bit.

There was a story in the paper a few years back where I used to live about a guy who was attacked by a gang of idiots. They beat him badly but he got away and ran for it. He scaled an 8ft wall to find himself falling onto a railway! He hit the cables and was electrocuted before falling onto the track, alive but unconscious. He was rescued from the track after a man in a signal station thingy saw him and alerted the authorities. Had he not have been rescued he would have surely been hit by a train!

The guy's still alive!

 

[bernardgreen]

That is why birds can perch on 11,000 volt over head wires.

How do people get killed falling onto overhead rail power cables then? Is it that they connect two together (through their body) thus meaning a current passes through them?

Just interested that's all.

You can fall onto the 25Kv traction cables and survive as long as it is a clean fall onto the wire and/or its catenary wire and you are not bridging any insulator or touching anything else at any time. The danger comes when getting down from the wire. If you friend reaches up to help you down then two people will be zapped. If you go hand over hand to an insulator to reach a post or other support then you will get zapped.

Should you find yourself in that position just drop and hope the injuries from the fall do not prevent you getting off the track before a train arrives.

 

[IJWS15]

If you don't drop you will be the earth path for 25kV milliseconds before the next train hits you!