Railroad track laying system with multiple railroad tie handling

Abstract

A multiple railroad tie handling method includes simultaneously clamping a layer of closed packed, parallel concrete railroad ties, lifting and moving the clamped group toward a track bed, spreading the clamped ties to the required tie interval spacing, laterally aligning the clamped group with previously laid ties and spacing the group to continue the existing tie spacing, lowering the clamped group to the track bed, and simultaneously releasing the ties on the track bed. A multiple railroad tie handling apparatus includes a rectangular frame with tie clamp guides positioned along sides of the frame, a plurality of tie clamp support beams slidably engaging the guide tracks, a pair of padded tie clamp fingers pivotally mounted on the opposite ends of each beam, a clamp cylinder engaged between each clamp finger and the beam supporting it, a split lazy tong linkage arrangement connecting the beams to maintain them parallel, and a pair of tie spreading cylinder connected between linkage halves of the linkage arrangement.