How do railways get electricity from overhead wires?

This is a very broad question and it is not possible to give detailed information about the power supply arrangement for traction. I will try to capture the gist of it. read more

Railways have Traction sub station located alongside the tracks which takes the feed from the overhead wires and step them down to 25 kv.Now this voltage is supplied to the locos for their utilisation purpose. read more

Most electrification systems use overhead wires, but third rail is an option up to 1,500 V, as is the case with Shenzhen Metro Line 3. Third rail systems exclusively use DC distribution. read more

A lot of current railway practices are accidents of history in that modern technology makes them unnecessary but aren't worth the cost of changing. This includes the use of lower voltage DC on overhead wires, and the use of oddball AC frequencies like 16.7 Hz in central Europe and 25 Hz in part of Amtrak's Northeast Corridor in the US. read more