Herzog Contracting Corporation

Herzog Railroad Services, Inc.

Burlington Northern Railroad

Herzog Contracting Company

Ivan Eugene Bounds

Stanley M Herzog

Lawrence E Guerra

Nathan A Landes

Stephen Bedingfield

Steven R Walton

Tony Shirk

Randy L Poggemiller

Ronald A Schmitz

Timothy M Beers

Ron Schmitz

Daniel B Laughlin

Jacob D Herzog

John H Bosshart

George A Hinsley

Patrick R Harris

Dan Laughlin

Pat Harris

Wayne Lee Gladden

Steve Pete

Terrance Cunningham

Gary F Lux

Doyle S Russell

Joseph A Kneib

Randy Pogglemiller

Steve Peter

Stephen L Bedingfield

A clamp assembly for supporting multiple elongate rails in a rail tie-down car utilizes spring-loaded, hydraulically actuated clamp assemblies to clamp individual rails to the tie-down car. Each clamp assembly incorporates at least two clamp members which act opposite one another to prevent the rail secured in place by the clamps from sliding in either longitudinal direction.

Clamp assembly

A drill station for a rail loading and unloading machine. The drill station is provided between primary and secondary drive units to enable adjacent ends of a pair of sections of rail to be driven independently by a respective drive unit to position the ends on the drill station for drilling. The drill station is raised from a stowed position below a walkway to conduct a drilling operation and retracted to provide workspace for an operator to install joining plates on segments of rail.

Rail drilling station for a rail loading and unloading machine

A guide box for a rail loading and unloading machine. The guide box guides a rail from a ground location toward a drive unit and can be provided with actuators to enable steering of the rail. The guide box includes a base roller that underlies a rail path through the guide box. An arm extends upwardly along each side of the rail path and carries a guide roller. The arms are pivotable toward one another to abut the guide rollers over the rail path and thereby capture the rail between the guide rollers and the base roller or away from one another to enable insertion of a rail therebetween. The guide rollers are vertically pivotable to enable obstructions on the rail to pass through the guide box.

Rail guide apparatus for a rail loading and unloading machine

A rail loading and unloading machine includes a plurality of cars for pick-up, processing, and loading of ribbon rail segments on a rail transport train. A pick-up car provides a rail lifting and manipulating apparatus for pick-up of rail from alongside the machine. A guide box aids guiding of the rail toward a primary drive unit. A crossover car includes components to steer the rail to a right or left side of the machine for processing and loading. A processing car includes a cutting station, drill station, crane, and secondary drive unit. The drill station is retractably stowed below a walkway to provide workspace for an operator to install joining plates on segments of rail. The secondary drive unit is disposed opposite the cutting and drill stations from the primary drive unit such that separate sections of rail on opposite sides of a cut or joint can be driven independently.

Rail loading and unloading machine

A material transport and distribution consist including an offloading car, a generator car, and hopper cars. The offloading car includes a rotatable conveyor that can offload materials forward of and to the sides of the car. The generator car powers a plurality of hopper car conveyors. The hopper cars include a longitudinal conveyor that overlaps with conveyors of forward- and aft-located cars to enable transport of materials between cars and while the cars are negotiating a turn in the tracks. The hopper car hoppers are divided into chutes with respective guillotine-style gates. Each gate includes a resilient panel that flexes to enable closure of the gate without binding on materials exiting therefrom. A control system is provided to manage the gates and conveyors during offloading based on sensed characteristics of the operation thereof. An interlock system is also provided to initiate a cascading shutdown routine when a fault is detected.

Material transport and distribution consist with controlled gated hopper cars and conveyor systems

A method of surveying a section of a railway to determine amounts of ballast to be replaced keyed to position coordinates of track locations includes moving a survey vehicle along the railway, optically scanning the track at selected intervals to obtain optical data points with associated position coordinates, recording images at the intervals with position coordinates, recording position coordinates of no-spread zones, processing the optical data points to derive ballast unit weights associated with locations along the track, detecting anomalous unit weights, accessing images associated with the locations of the anomalous unit weights, accessing the anomalous unit weights to adjust as necessary, and loading the adjusted data into a computer of a ballast train to control the application of replacement ballast along the track according to the detected position of the ballast train.

Automated track surveying and ballast replacement

A rail guide for loading railroad rails onto a rail train. The rail guide includes a guide beam disposed to depend vertically downward over each shelf in a rack on a rack car. The guide beam extends substantially the length of the rack car and is coupled to a corresponding guide beam of an adjacent car via a bridge that is configured to accommodate relative movement between the cars. A shoe is provided that is coupled to a leading end of a rail to be loaded. The shoe includes a follower that engages the guide beam to guide a rail being loaded along a path defined by the guide beam. The guide beam can provide vertical and lateral support to the leading end of the rail during loading.

System for guiding rails on a rail train

A method of surveying a section of a railway to determine amounts of soil to be excavated or added at selected position coordinates of track locations includes moving a survey vehicle along the railway, optically scanning the track structure at selected intervals to obtain optical data points with position coordinates, recording images at the intervals with position coordinates, recording position coordinates of drainage points, processing the optical data points to derive ditch overlays formed by ditch profiles associated with locations along the track and ditch templates, detecting anomalous soil unit weights associated with track locations, reviewing images associated with the locations of the anomalous units, adjusting the ditch overlays as necessary, and loading the adjusted data into a computer of an excavator device for display to guide an excavator operator in reshaping the ditches along the track according to the detected position of the excavator device.

Automated track surveying and ditching

A system for guiding rails onto a rail train having rail cars with a plurality of vertically spaced rail support shelves includes upwardly opening guide channels extending from funnel members position at the end of the rail car to each shelf in alignment with the outermost rail receiving pockets of each shelf. A guide shoe with a horizontal roller recessed therein and projecting below the bottom of the shoe is mounted on the end of a rail threaded across the shelves and guide channels of the rail support car. An alternative guide shoe further includes vertically extending rollers projecting from the sides of the guide shoe.

A rail train for supporting multiple sticks of ribbon rail comprises a plurality of rail support cars having a single, centrally positioned rail support stand wherein adjacent rail support cars are supported on shared trucks. End cars include a tunnel for supporting the rails near their ends and one or more rail support arms pivotal at a first end about two axis and supporting a rail guide assembly at a second end for supporting a rail as it is pulled of the rail train. A rail tie-down car utilizes spring-loaded, hydraulically actuated clamp assemblies to clamp individual rails to the tie-down car. Each clamp assembly incorporates at least two clamp members which act opposite one another to prevent the rail secured in place by the clamps from sliding in either longitudinal direction.

Rail train

A rail threading mechanism for a rail handling vehicle includes a thread box mounted on the outer end of a manipulating arm. The thread box includes a platform and a pair of jaws pivotally connected to the platform and moveable between open and closed positions. The platform includes a support roller for rollingly engaging the flat bottom of a rail. Each jaw include a plurality of jaw rollers positioned for rollingly engaging a rail positioned on the support roller when the respective jaw is in the closed position. The jaw rollers on each jaw preferably include a pair of base rollers positioned for engaging an edge of the base of the rail, a pair of flange top rollers positioned for engaging a top surface of the top flange of the rail, and a flange side roller positioned for engaging an edge surface of the top flange of the rail.

Rail threading mechanism

A method and apparatus for spreading ballast along railways makes use of an inertial measurement system to determine where to apply ballast from a hopper car. A variety of techniques can be used to determine the location and speed of the ballast spreading train, including manual or automated visual techniques, laser technology, radar technology, radio frequency transponders, magnetic sensor, thermal imaging and aerial photogrammetry. The invention also contemplates 'on the fly' surveys and terrain profiling using lasers or radar.

Method and apparatus for applying railway ballast

A rail unloading vehicle is self-propelled and able to travel either over-the-road on conventional roadway tires or along railway tracks on railway wheels. Threading mechanisms for unloading the rails are arranged to retract so they provide a narrow profile for transport over the road. The threading mechanisms have thread boxes with jaws that open to accommodate easy reception of rails, and close to apply rollers to the rails for unloading operations. A special rail clamp has a pair of oppositely pivoting dogs to allow rail manipulation in opposite directions without slippage. A special saw allows safe on-site cutting of rails.

Growing community of inventors

St. Joseph, MO, United States of America

Ivan Eugene Bounds