nVent ERICO – Railway Electrical Protection

Lightning strikes can cause catastrophic damage to critical rail infrastructure and equipment. Unexpected transient events or momentary bursts of extremely high voltages can occur even during normal operations. That’s why railway electrical protection is a vital part of safe, reliable operations. nVent ERICO offers a comprehensive portfolio of products that together provide a complete suite of electrical protection solutions for railway properties and assets, such as classification yards, buildings and structures, bungalows, movable bridges and other areas containing critical equipment.

Train freight transportation during a storm
Train freight transportation during a storm

Key Features of nVent ERICO

Protection from direct lightning strike

From the comprehensive nVent ERICO portfolio we provide two systems for capturing lightning energy.

The System 2000 brings air terminal technology to meet traditional lightning protection needs.

nVent System 3000
System 3000

A more advanced approach to lightning protection is the nVent ERICO System 3000, which relies on the collection volume principle to determine the most effective placement of lightning protection equipment to ensure safe conveyance and dissipation of the lightning energy into the ground. The nVent ERICO System 3000 currently protects 15,000 facilities, including the tallest and most vulnerable buildings in the world. System 3000 also protects many rail properties, with references that include classification yards, microwave installations, and wayside signal locations.

Grounding and bonding

As the railway electrical protection experts, nVent ERICO offers a wide-range of grounding and bonding products to protect railway properties. Grounding is required for wayside structures and facilities, and essential to employee and public safety. Grounding and bonding is also essential to the nVent ERICO Six Point Plan of Protection, which provides a system of capturing, conveying and dissipating energy into the ground. To effectively dissipate energy into the ground, nVent ERICO provides ground rods and mats that bury into the earth, ground enhancement materials, as well as bonding solutions such as P.E.C. (Potential Earth Clamps) that protect the system.

Railway surge protection for track signals, equipment power and telecoms data and systems

nVent ERICO specialises in both primary and secondary surge protection products for sophisticated railway signalling infrastructure, with solutions that protect track signals, equipment power as well as telecommunication systems data and equipment. Click here to view a video of our rail transient barrier next generation (RTBN) that is part of our ERICO suite.

nVent ERICO Six Point Plan of Protection

nVent ERICO Six Point Plan of Protection
nVent ERICO Six Point Plan of Protection

The ‘nVent ERICO Six Point Plan of Protection’ provides comprehensive electrical protection, grounding and bonding as well as surge protection. Each solution comprises a custom combination of nVent ERICO products, arranged to meet the unique electrical protection requirements of the site in question.

Together, these solutions bring a co-ordinated approach, preventing many types of electrical damage, including from lightning strikes and transient over-voltages. They also provide general best-practice electrical protection during normal operations.

The Six Point Plan of Protection works as follows:

  1. captures the lightning strike
  2. conveys the resulting energy to ground
  3. dissipates the energy into the grounding system
  4. bonds all ground points together
  5. protects incoming AC power feeders
  6. protects low-voltage wayside signalling equipment and data/telecommunications circuits

For more information, download the nVent ERICO Railway Electrical Protection brochure here.

Contact nVent

Use the form opposite to get in touch with nVent directly to discuss any requirements you might have.








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