A good contact between the pantograph and catenary is critically important for the working reliability of electric trains, while the basic understanding on the electrical contact evolution during the pantograph–catenary system working is still ambiguous so far. In this paper, the evolution of electric contact was studied in respects of the contact resistance, temperature rise, and microstructure variation,based on a home-made pantograph–catenary simulation system. Pure carbon strips and copper alloy contact wires were used, and the experimental electrical current, sliding speed, and normal force were set as 80 A, 30 km/h, and 80 N,respectively. The contact resistance presented a fluctuation without obvious regularity, concentrating in the region of 25 and 50 mΩ. Temperature rise of the contact point experienced a fast increase at the first several minutes and finally reached a steady state. The surface damage of carbon trips in microstructure analysis revealed a complicated interaction of the sliding friction, joule heating, and arc erosion. A good contact between the pantograph and catenary is critically important for the working reliability of electric trains, while the basic understanding on the electrical contact evolution during the pantograph-catenary system working is still ambiguous so far. In this paper, the evolution of electric contact was studied in respects of the contact resistance, temperature rise, and microstructure variation, based on a home-made pantograph-catenary simulation system. Pure carbon strips and copper alloy contact wires were used, and the experimental electrical current, sliding speed, and normal Force were set as 80 A, 30 km / h, and 80 N, respectively. The contact resistance presented a fluctuation without obvious regularity, concentrating in the region of 25 and 50 mΩ. Temperature rise of the contact point experienced a fast increase at the first surface several minutes and finally reached a steady state. The surface damage of carbon trips in microstructure analysis revealed a complicated intera ction of the sliding friction, joule heating, and arc erosion.