In this region, humid winter days are quite common. so this phenomenon occurs a handful of times every winter. This morning I remembered to film it.
The first part of the phenomenon is basic physics. Air can only contain a certain amount of water, and when temperature goes down, the relative humidity in the air will rise (but the amount of water will not change). When reaching 100% humidity, the air can't keep any additional water - tiny water drops will form and eventually land on any surface. If this surface is cold (below 0°C), the water will of course turn into ice. So the entire power cable will be covered in a thin ice layer.
On to the second part - when the train pickup tries to get contact with the cable (to power the train), the connection will be poor. This part is not really within my field, so I would rather not try to explain the physics going on. You can find some information here:
[ Ссылка ]
Information here might be updated later.
Video is recorded by me in February 2015 in southern Sweden. Clock was around 07:30, so it was quite bright outside, it would have looked a lot cooler an hour earlier :)
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