Railway ballast cleaning apparatus

Abstract

An apparatus for the cleaning of dirty railway ballast includes a dirty ballast remover and a ballast cleaner in the form of a hollow perforate drum rotatable about a central axis inclined upwardly from an inlet to an outlet end thereof. A spiral conveyor is mounted on the inner wall of the drum, and the inlet end thereof lies within a tank filled with a cleaning fluid, while the outlet end lies outwardly thereof. A spoils conveyor is disposed in the tank for the removal therefrom of spoils particles separated from the dirty ballast which is conveyed into the drum through its inlet end whereupon it is cleaned as it is tumbled by the spiral conveyor during drum rotation by separating the spoils particles from the dirty ballast which spoils particles move through the drum perforations. An unclogging device in the form of cylindrical rollers bear against the outer surface of the drum for unclogging any ballast particles from the perforations which may extend therethrough during drum rotation. And, a discharge hopper assembly is provided in the form of a pair of transversely spaced hoppers for discharging the clean ballast back onto the track. The hoppers are mounted for up-and-down movement about a central axis, and a deflector plate is coupled with one of the hoppers for movement away therefrom upon downward movement of the one hopper and for movement towards such hopper upon its upward movement, such movements depending on the relative load of clean ballast within the hoppers.