Electric railway traction in Europe. A survey of the state-of-the-art

The paper describes the state of the art and the main evolutionary trends In the field of electric railway traction technology in Europe emphasizing inverter-fed three-phase drives. The important low-loss snubber circuits for GTO converters are discussed as well as the special circuits in use for multi-system locomotives and the appropriate cooling systems. The survey is completed by an overview of the field-oriented control strategies employed for traction machines.