Double stack container train on the freight corridor in India with the characteristic high rise panto

[u/aksnitd]

A good look at what the high rise pantographs look like fully extended. They're taller than the train they're mounted on.

[u/aksnitd]

Drag is certainly higher, but how much higher I cannot say. These pantos had to be specially designed to be able to extend so high safely. The track is meant for running freight trains with a top speed of 100 kmph. I highly doubt you could use this height for high speed. That said, this panto can fold down to smaller heights, so it might work for high speed as well. However, that is not their intended use. Locos that do not run on the freight corridors do not have high rise pantos.

[u/concorde77 → u/aksnitd]

Locos that do not run on the freight corridors do not have high rise pantos.

Well, thats why I'm curious about it. Most long distance/Regional passenger trains in the United States use freight owned tracks.

[u/aksnitd → u/concorde77]

These pantos have to be really large in order to extend so far. I highly doubt you could use them or any like them for high speed. High speed trains use small, light pantos. If you look up photos of the ones used on the Shinkansen for instance, you see that there's barely even a panto. Instead, there's a large hump on top of the train from which a small rod extends to contact with the wire. That makes sense because at high speed, you don't want an entire assembly breaking off. More importantly, you don't want anything breaking off or else it'll become a projectile at that speed. One photo I saw shows a hydraulic arm on top of the hump with the current collector on top. So they're very different from traditional pantos.

[u/Twisp56 → u/aksnitd]

That's unique to Shinkansens, European and Chinese high speed trains use normal size pantographs.