Application of Recent Power Electronics Technology to Railway Ground Systems
http://sciencelinks.jp/j-east/article/200612/000020061206A04...

Outline of New Design Standard for Railway Earth Structures
Abstract;The design standards for railway earth structures were recently revised under the leadership of a technical committee
http://sciencelinks.jp/j-east/article/200703/000020070306A10...

Railway earthing (1)
Earthing is an important issue also for railway systems. A very contentious question is whether such earthing systems should be meshed with that of the public supply, or only single-point connected where possible.
http://www.leonardo-energy.org/drupal/node/2390

Device for grounding a rail vehicle
least one carriage of the train has no electrically conductive connection between carriage body and wheel, and carriages within the train are connected electrically conductive to each other via at least one earthing cable. ..
Earthed circuit for an electric railway car ...
... is connected to an earthed part of the tractive unit by means of a coupling earthing line into which a protective resistor is inserted. ..
... comprises a device for temporary earthing. ..
... that a conductive connection between the wagon body and wheel and/or the railway earth (rail) can be installed temporarily. ..
Die Erfindung betrifft eine Vorrichtung zum Erden eines Eisenbahnfahrzeugs, wobei zwischen Wagenkasten und mindestens einem Rad eine elektrisch leitende Verbindung besteht. ...
http://www.freepatentsonline.com/EP1433650.html

... be switched between the zero rail and the minus rail by...
http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/iel4/6059/16203/00750529.pdf?arnu...

Anmerkung: Ich habe selbst 10 Jahre bei und für die Deutsche Bundesbahn gearbeite. Ein "Bahnminus" habe ich nie kennengelernt, dafür aber isolierte und nichtisolierte Schienen.

rail isolé:
rail dont les extrémités sont isolées électriquement des rails adjacents et qui est également isolé de l'autre rail de la même voie

insulated rail:
a rail insulated electrically at the ends of adjacent rails, also insulated from the other rail of the same track

de isolierte Schiene
http://www.iea.lth.se/internt/IEC_Dictionary/Base/821.pdf

"Minus kommt im gesamten vorstehend genannten Eisenbahnglossar nicht vor"


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Note added at 4 Stunden (2008-08-21 20:11:30 GMT) Post-grading
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For other subjects than railways you may use "rail" or "busbar" complemented by "grounded" "earthed" or "minus"

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Note added at 5 Stunden (2008-08-21 20:22:33 GMT) Post-grading
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Examples:

For phase-to-phase testing, one of the busbars was energized at the appropriate spacing from the second grounded busbar.
http://energy.tycoelectronics.com/rrg/raychem_rrg/edr5175.pd...

EARTHED BUSBAR
http://www.tycosafetyproducts-europe.com/english/pdf/datasht...

Rack mount rails and the rack mount mounting brackets on most pieces of equipment are plastic coated or painted. This would either partially or totally insulate the unit from the earthed rail.
http://www.blue-room.org.uk/lofiversion/index.php/t9656.html

In one aspect, the dual rail driver circuit comprises two rails, a plus rail and a minus rail.
http://www.patentstorm.us/patents/6426647/description.html