Other

Georgetown Rail Equipment Company

Kilo-wate, Inc.

Edwin deSteiguer Snead

Charles Wayne Aaron

William B Snead

A self-unloading aggregate train including a plurality of hopper cars and an individual conveyor belt located beneath each hopper car. The head pulley at one end of each individual conveyor belt may rotate the belt in a direction from a tail pulley towards the head pulley. The head pulley of one hopper car is positioned above and adjacent of a tail pulley of the adjacent hopper car. This arrangement of hopper cars with individual conveyor belts may be used to unload material from the train. The individual conveyor belts may be adapted so that the trajectory of material transfer to an adjacent belt is near the pivot point between the adjacent hopper cars. The individual conveyor belts may have a substantially constant slope. The hopper of the hopper cars may also be configured with a substantially constant slope that matches the slope of the individual conveyor belts.

Self-unloading aggregate train

A system for detecting stress in rails includes a railcar, having a rail temperature detector, and a rail imaging device oriented to produce images of rail joints and rail anchors. The imaging device and temperature detector are connected to a computer controller, which is programmed to provide an output signal indicative of estimated axial stress in the rail based upon rail temperature and the images of at least one of the rail joints and rail anchors.

Rail stress detection system and method

A method of using a cable to move a component underneath a bridge assembly. The bridge assembly includes an access area through which the connection between the component and the cable may be moved. The method includes connecting the component to the cable, using the cable to move the component below the bridge assembly, and alternating the connection points on the component when an obstruction of the access area through the bridge is encountered while moving the component. The method may also include installing a plurality of piles through the access area of the bridge assembly prior to moving the component below the bridge assembly.

Method of moving a component underneath a bridge assembly with a cable

A system and method for inserting pre-cast concrete pile caps under wooden railroad bridges without removing essential load bearing rails, cross-ties, and stringers is disclosed. The system and method minimizes the time that the track is closed to normal rail traffic. The system and method uses recycled oil well drill pipes that are cast into pile caps so that female-threaded ends are flushed with an upper surface of the pile caps. Lifting rods have male threaded ends that are used with a multi-point lifting device that allows the pile cap to be slipped under the existing bridge in a number of small incremental steps utilizing the spaces between wooden bridge stringers.

Method for positioning a pile cap underneath an existing elevated bridge assembly

System and method for positioning a pile cap underneath an existing elevated bridge assembly

A hydraulically operated side dump railroad car that operates by utilizing high pressure hydraulic fluid from delivered by a pneumatic to hydraulic converter pump located on the railroad car. On the railroad dump car, the hydraulic fluid is pumped from a hydraulic fluid reservoir to the hydraulic ram assembly of the car, without the use of an accumulator for storing pressurized hydraulic fluid. On the other hand, an existing railroad dump car having existing pneumatic equipment can easily retrofitted with the hydraulic system of the present invention with the use of standard train air brake piston and cylinders.

Hydraulically actuated railway car dumping system

A training idler assembly for a self-unloading train including a first hopper car, a second hopper car, a connector extending between the first hopper car and the second hopper car, a conveyor having a supply run and a return run underlying the first and second hopper cars, and a conveyor training assembly rotatably mounted to the connector. The connector allows relative angular movement of the first and second hopper cars. The conveyor training assembly supports the conveyor. The conveyor training assembly causes an angular adjustment of the conveyor relative to the angular movement of the first hopper car with respect to the second hopper car. The conveyor training assembly is an idler assembly which is rotatably mounted to the connector between the first and second hopper cars. The idler assembly includes a first training idler assembly which supports the supply run of the conveyor and a second training idler assembly supporting the return run of the conveyor. The first training idler assembly is connected by a first strut to one of the hopper cars. The second training idler assembly is connected by a second strut to another of the hopper cars. The first and second idler assemblies rotate independently of each other.

Training idler assembly for self-unloading trains

A self-unloading train for the transfer of bulk commodities having a plurality of hopper cars coupled together, a train conveyor having an endless belt supported on the hopper cars in a position so as to receive material discharged from the hopper cars, and a conveyor guide positioned adjacent the discharge end of the train conveyor. The conveyor guide exerts a downward force onto the upper surface of the train conveyor. The conveyor guide comprises a frame affixed generally adjacent the discharge end of the train conveyor and a rotatable wheel connected to the frame. The rotatable wheel is in surface-to-surface contact with the upper surface of the train conveyor. A strut is connected to the rotatable wheel so as to adjust the angle of travel of the wheel relative to the curvature of the track and the curvature of the conveyor at the discharge end. Each of the hopper cars is connected to an adjacent car by an articulated coupling and by overlapping side bearings. The discharge end of the train conveyor is movable so as to overlap an adjacent hopper car in another plurality of hopper cars.

Conveyor system for self-unloading train

A system for the laying of panel track that includes a plurality of panel tracks, a railroad car containing the panel tracks, and a panel track lifter positioned in the railroad car for lifting the panel tracks from the railroad car and for placing the panel tracks exterior of the railroad car. Each of the panel tracks includes a first rail, a second rail, a plurality of ties extending between and beneath each of the rails, and a plurality of gage rods affixed at various locations along the rails. A tension bar extends angularly between the first and second rails so as to create a curvature in the rails. The railroad car includes a material container having a generally flat floor extending between a pair of side walls. The material container has trucks suitable for rolling along a panel track. The material container is made up of a plurality of railroad cars having a flat floor extending throughout the plurality of railroad cars. Each of the railroad cars is in articulated connection to an adjacent railroad car. The unloader is a tractor/bucket that is movable along the flat floor of the material container. A suitable arrangement of chains with a centrally located hook, engaged by the bucket, accompanies the unloader so as to releasably attach to a panel track.

Panel track delivery system

A cover for a railroad gondola car comprising a central panel, a first end portion extending downwardly from one side of the central panel, a second end portion extending downwardly from the other side of said central panel, a handle connected to the top surface of said central panel, and a locking mechanism connected to said central panel so as to releasably fix the central panel onto the gondola car. The central panel has an inverted V-shaped configuration. The handle is a longitudinal member positioned in the middle of the central panel and extending laterally across the central panel. A plurality of stiffener members extend across the central panel. The central panel includes an extension section that extends outwardly from the central panel at one end beyond the position of the stiffener members. The locking mechanism includes a tie-down strap positioned adjacent the end portion of each panel and another positioned adjacent the opposite end portion of the last panel.

Covered gondola car

A unit train consisting of a plurality of hopper cars and a multi-purpose trailer car. The hoppers cars have one or more hoppers each having a bottom discharge opening and a controllable gate. An endless belt conveyor traverses the length of the train including a portion of the trailer car, and underlies the hopper discharge gates so that the hoppers may be emptied sequentially onto the train conveyor to unload the entire train. The trailer car includes a lift portion of the train conveyor to elevate the material for discharge onto a transfer conveyor carried on the trailer car. The elongated transfer conveyor is pivotally mounted at the receiving end to be swung laterally to discharge the material received from the train conveyor at some selected point relative to the trailer car. The trailer car may include the power systems and control systems for operating the conveyors and the hopper gates. The train is self-unloading by depositing the train load in a window alongside the track while the train is moving slowly. For unloading the train in a stationary position, the transfer conveyor may deposit the material onto a portable stacking conveyor which may then deposit the entire train load in one or more stock piles which may be 30 feet high and located some distance from the track.

Self-unloading train for bulk commodities

Various improvements are disclosed for enhancing accuracy in a system for weighing rolling railcars in order to remedy previous factors contributing to weighing inaccuracies. In a system operative by means of a plurality of longitudinally spaced sensors secured to a predetermined length of relatively unsupported track for measuring track stresses imposed by a passing railcar, accuracy of the weighing result is enhanced by several structural improvements. Included among the improvements is a substructure underlying the live rail that eliminates yield at the fulcrum location from the supported to the unsupported rail. Also included are tandem scales operative sequentially in the path of motion for obtaining readings at selectedly different locations about the circumference of the wheel and from which an averaged signal is obtained for determination of car weight. Signal compensation is also provided for both changes in track temperature and drift in instrument calibration.

Apparatus for weighing rolling railcars

A weigh section of a railway track consists of two unsupported spans of conventional rail, produced by removing two adjacent supporting ties for example. The span of the unsupported rails is approximately 64 inches, less than the minimum distance between adjacent axles of a railcar. Four strain gauges are mounted on the under surface of the unsupported rail span of each rail, the four gauges consisting of two pairs of outboard and inboard gauges located in respective halves of the unsupported span. The outputs of the four strain gauges for an unsupported span are summed by adding the outputs of the inboard gauges and subtracting the outputs of the outboard gauges. This sum produces a constant value representative of the load supported on the rail as the axle load moves between the two inboard gauges. A limit switch tripped by a wheel of each axle activates a computer. The computer accumulates a plurality of sum samples while an axle moves between the two inboard gauges, averages the sum samples to produce average load value for each axle of a car, and converts the accumulation of average values to the total car weight.

Apparatus and method for weighing rolling railcars

A loader includes a lift arm assembly, raised by hydraulic lift cylinders and carrying a load bucket. Alignment members mounted respectively on the loader frame and lift arm assembly, and visible to the loader operator, identify the weigh position of the lift arm assembly. A pressure to voltage transducer is mounted on one lift cylinder, and is connected in a bridge circuit producing a DC voltage output. The bridge circuit output signal, proportional to the bucket load, is fed to an amplifier, whose output is passed to an analog-to-frequency converter producing pulses at a frequency proportional to the bucket load. An electronic clock allows the converter output pulses to pass through an AND gate to a bucket counter which displays the bucket load, and is automatically reset to zero. The converter pulses are passed to an accumulator counter through a second AND gate. The accumulator counter accumulates the weight of several bucket loads which are loaded onto a transport vehicle; and is reset manually after the vehicle is loaded.

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Georgetown, TX, United States of America

Edwin deSteiguer Snead