Canron, Inc.

Other

Canron Railgroup

Helmuth Von Beckmann

John Kenneth Stewart

Charles A Shupe

Hubert Maisonneuve

Edwin H Reeves

Joseph C Sun

Apparatus for continuously surveying and aligning railroad track has a measuring system with a leading point and a trailing point, both points being on the track center line. Two tensioned wires extend between these points, respectively, and a common intermediate point also on the track center line. At the trailing point a shadow board is located and this is arranged to interrupt an infrared beam extending between a projector at the leading point and a receiver behind the trailing point. A device measures continuously the angle between the two wires and this value is averaged and then subjected to mathematical manipulation in a computing device to derive an ordinate value for the shadow board which is automatically extended accordingly. The receiver then commands a track correction ram located adjacent the shadow board to move the track radially inwardly or outwardly until alignment between projector, receiver and shadow board causes the receiver to stop the lining action.

Railroad correction apparatus

There is disclosed a tamping device for tamping railway track ballast adjacent and beneath the track tie ends. The device includes a track working machine, a retractable tamper frame mounted on the machine; the frame in operative position, extending, at least partially in the ballast, parallel to the center line of the track adjacent the outside the tie ends; a plurality of tamping plates mounted one behind the other longitudinally of the frame and extending inwardly thereof, in the direction of the track center, in stepped formation with a leading tamping plate extending farther from the frame inwardly towards the track center than a next adjacent trailing tamping plate. Each tamping plate has a leading edge and a trailing edge, one of the edges being flexibly connected to the frame and the other of the edges being connected to a tamping plate vibrator. A ballast plough is mounted at a leading end of said tamper frame. The plough has a rearwardly upwardly inclined ramp surface and a ballast share blade extends above the ramp surface and is inclined inwardly from a point adjacent the nose of the plough rearwardly towards the trailing end of the plough. Provision is made for swinging the plough or the share blade, or the tamper frame with the plough thereon, so as to alter the blade ploughing angle in the ballast. A ballast deflector flap may be provided at the leading end of the share blade to deflect superfluous ballast away from the tack center.

Device for tamping railroad track adjacent the tie ends thereof

A railway track working machine is provided with a vibratory ballast surface compactor. The compactor has a top ballast engaging plate and a second ballast engaging plate arranged to work in association with top ballast plate (hinged or otherwise) along an outer longitudinal edge of the top plate. The top plate has a leading edge and a trailing edge and a ballast compacting under-surface, the leading edge being wider in a direction tranversely of the track than the trailing edge and the compactor is mounted so as to present, in ballast compacting operation, the top plate leading edge at a higher level above the ballast surface than the trailing edge, the under-surface of the top plate sloping rearwardly in the direction of track working from the leading edge to the trailing edge. The trailing edge is adjusted, in operation, so as to be located at a selected level for ballast compaction.

Ballast shoulder consolidator

A railroad tamping machine for tamping adjacent pairs of ties in which a pair of workheads each including a pair of tamping units associated with each of the ties can be moved vertically as a unit or independently of each other and wherein a selected set of tamping units associated with a single tie can be held in an inoperative position while the remaining tamping units work on the associated tie. In one embodiment, provision is made for adjustment of the pair of workheads laterally and longitudinally relative to the track direction to accommodate irregular rail and tie spacing as well as rail curvature such as that encountered in switch areas.

Railroad tamping machine

An improved technique for correcting errors in track, for example errors in alignment and cross-level. A record of the actual geometric condition of a section of track is obtained by running a recording car operating at a predetermined speed and axle loading over the track. A record which may be on magnetic tape is thus obtained for one or more parameters such as alignment. In some cases this record may be used directly to derive electrical error signals which control a track moving device which moves the track in a direction to remove the error. Where the parameter of interest is alignment and the section of track is curved, a desired geometric condition has to be obtained for comparison with the actual geometric condition to derive the electrical error signals. One way of obtaining the desired geometric condition is to process the record to achieve a running average taken over ten or so consecutive sample points.

Dynamic loading correcting device

A railroad tamping machine for tamping adjacent pairs of ties in which the tamping units associated with each of the ties can be moved vertically as a unit or independently of each other and wherein a selected set of tamping units associated with a single tie can be held in an inoperative position while the remaining tamping units work on the associated tie.

A device for lifting and/or lining railroad track, which device extends longitudinally of the track and is mounted at one end on a truck carrying track engaging wheels, and the other end is adapted to be connected to a propelling vehicle. Reaction blocks are provided on the beam in the region of the other end, and a track position correcting frame is carried between the reaction blocks and the end mounted on the truck and close to the other beam end. The device provides a lifting and/or aligning attachment for, say a tamping machine, which attachment substantially absorbs all its own lifting and/or lining forces and transmits them to the track rather than to the tamping machine. The device also provides a track position reference means to provide information on the displacement of the lifted and/or aligned track.

Lift and line beam extension

A track aligning device for monitoring the curvature of a track and adjusting the track successively to correct the curvature incorporates two taut wires mounted on a car or cars running on the track, the wires each defining two chords each extending between a pair of spaced points located on the track center line. Preferably the cords overlap. Each chord operates as a reference line which cooperates with a respective measuring device. A first measuring device located nearer the rearward point of the first chord derives a voltage which is sampled at equal intervals, say 2 meters, as the aligning device passes along the track. The voltages are summed and averaged electrically and a voltage equivalent to the mean displacement of the track from the first chord is obtained. The second measuring device is located nearer the rearward point of the second chord and derives a voltage equivalent to the actual displacement at that position of the track with respect to the second chord. This voltage is compared electrically with the mean voltage and an error voltage is derived and used to operate a servo-assisted aligning mechanism to adjust the track to the left or right as necessary. In a preferred embodiment the device can also adjust the superelevation of the track to meet the necessary value as computed on the basis of track curvature and train speed.

Automatic integrating liner

The invention provides for a stop device positioned on a railroad track shifting machine such as a track lifting and/or tamping machine and a sensor for generating a control signal to terminate or control the shifting action of the machine when the shifting force on the rail exceeds a predetermined value.

Railroad track shifting machine with shift limiting device

The present invention relates to a method of an apparatus for tamping the ballast of a railroad track in which a vibration imparting tamping means is inserted into the ballast adjacent a tie to be tamped and the vibration of the tamping means is increased in frequency until it imparts a vibratory excitation to the ballast of between 55 and 75 Hz producing a resultant force directed at an angle towards the underside of the tie to be tamped, whereby to consolidate the ballast beneath and adjacent the tie during the excitation period and thereafter reducing the vibration to below 55 Hz. and withdrawing the tamping head from the ballast.

Method and apparatus for the vibratory tamping of railway tracks

A railroad track tamping machine for consolidating and compacting railroad track ballast includes ballast tampers, preferably rollers, adapted to roll over and between the ties, and guides for the rollers to guide them in a manner such that the rollers either roll over and between the ties or along the shoulders. The rollers are mounted in the guides and vibrator arrangements are provided for vibrating the rollers during operation thereof to consolidate and compact the ballast. In a preferred embodiment, the vibrator arrangement comprises a hydraulic system whereby the roller means are vibrated due to rapid fluctuations created in the system. Preferably the rollers are arranged in a set and are located one after the other so that each roller rolls over the same area of the ties and ballast as the other rollers of the set as the device moves once over a length of railroad track to be consolidated. When the hydraulic system is used to vibrate each of the rollers in the set, advantageous centipede-type action results.

Continuous tamping device

A screening device suitable for cleaning railroad ballast which has become fouled with use, and of the type in which ballast to be cleaned is fed into a screen member to separate the coarse or ballast stone from the fines, the stone being reused to ballast the track. A screen member of generally frusto-conical shape, open at each end, is rotatably mounted on a track running frame, with the axis of the screen extending substantially parallel to the track and either horizontal or slightly inclined to the horizontal. The screen member is rotated so that centrifugal action results in the fouled ballast, loaded into the narrower open end of the screen member, moving up the walls thereof to its larger open end. The fines pass through the screen member and the stone is collected at a stone receiving member located adjacent the wide end of the screen member. A generaly frusto-conical fines receiving member of larger diameter than the screen member partially surrounds the screen member and receives the fines which fall therethrough. Conveying members are provided to convey the fines from the fines receiving member to a point of disposal, while the stones received by the stone receiving member are delivered back for re-distribution on the track.

Ballast cleaner

Holes in railway ties are drilled and impregnated with creosote or other preservative using a hollow drill with consecutive drilling and creosote injection cycles, either at the time of rail mounting or in a prior processing stage so as to produce a tie with improved resistance to deterioration, for example due to ingress of water in the tie hole. The invention enables the preservation of pretreated ties, which are subsequently drilled to receive spikes for rail tie plates, by continuing the skin of creosote or other preservative from the outer surface of the tie to the walls of the drilled hole. A sealing collar assembly is mounted on the drill to prevent egress of preservative from the hole during the injection process.

Method of drilling and injecting perservative fluid into railway ties

An undercutting apparatus and a method for removing material from beneath railroad track. The apparatus comprises a rotary trench digging means and horizontal chain means to transport the material from beneath the railroad track to the trench digging means at an underground location. In operation the trench digging means digs a trench alongside of the track while at the same time transporting the material delivered by the horizontal chain means to a suitable location above the ground. Preferably the rotary trench digging means comprises a large hollow wheel and one end of the chain means is disposed inside of and near the bottom of the wheel during normal operation of the chain means. Means are provided to pivot the chain means about a vertical axis whereby the chain means can be pivoted from a first position wherein the chain means extends parallel to the track to a second position wherein the chain means extends perpendicular to the track. The chain means is disposed outside of the wheel in the first position and one end of the chain means is disposed inside of the wheel in the second position.

Undercutter with rotary trencher

A method and a system for correcting the misalignment of a railroad track is provided which corrects the track by the steps of applying a force laterally of the track to move it in the direction of its correct position, sensing the track position relative to a datum, automatically reducing the force in response to the sensing step, permitting the track to react to the reduction of the force and automatically rapidly repeating the force application, sensing, and reduction steps to set up a vibratory cycle of force application until the desired track condition has been achieved. The system provides a valve which has a rail position feeler in the hydraulic connection between pump and jack, which feeler upon sensing the rail operates to close the valve to terminate a jacking action. Pressure sensitive switch is provided in the hydraulic connections between the valve and the pump that operates to exhaust the jack when a pre-determined pressure has been built up in the connections between the pump and the valve. This permits the track to react to the jacking action and move away from the feeler to re-open the valve and re-institute a jacking action. A counting circuit is provided to monitor the number of operations of the valve so as to control the number of jacking actions which are performed in an aligning operation.

Growing community of inventors

Columbia, SC, United States of America

Helmuth Von Beckmann