Progress Rail Services Corporation

Michael D Adams

Mark T Plyler

Andy Loftis

Dennis Grantham

John Cook

Alston H Pike

Gary K Gibson, Ii

Automated storage is provide for a ballast wing mounted on a regulator frame of a ballast regulator machine. A machine controller may detect actuation of a wing activation switch and, in response, actuate a wing lift cylinder connected between the regulator frame and a wing arm to dispose the wing arm within a predetermined safe zone, actuate a wing pivot cylinder to rotate a wing frame to a wing frame stored position, actuate a wing extension cylinder to retract the wing arm extension to a retracted position within the wing arm, and actuate the wing lift cylinder to rotate the ballast wing to a stored position adjacent the regulator frame.

Auto stow wings

A machine for automatically orienting railroad tie plates includes a sensing region having at least one optical sensor adapted to sense a physical feature of a tie plate. An electronic controller is connected to the optical sensor and is disposed to receive a sensor signal indicative of the physical feature of the tie plate when the tie plate is in the sensing region. The electronic controller further determines an orientation of the tie plate based on the sensor signal, compares it to one or more predetermined or possible orientations, and provides a command to at least one actuator adapted to perform at least one tie plate orientation operation to change the orientation of the tie plate based on the comparison of the orientation of the plate with the predetermined orientation.

System and method for railroad track tie plate orientation

Growing community of inventors

Prattville, AL, United States of America

Michael D Adams