US3162145A - Railway tie hauling apparatus - Google Patents

Description

1964 R. E. FRANKLIN ETAL 3,162,145

RAILWAY TIE HAULING APPARATUS Original Filed April 17, 1957 4 Sheets-Sheet l III. [6 1 42 IN VENTORS.

Richard E. F ank/in Herbert G ox THE IR A TTOR/VEYS 1964 R. E. FRANKLIN ETAL 3,162,145

RAILWAY TIE HAULING APPARATUS Original Filed April 17, 1957 4 Sheets-Sheet 2 INVENTORS. 5 Richard E F rank/in Fig 3 Herberf 6! Fax Maw/dz THE IR A TTOR/VE Y5 1964 R. E. FRANKLIN ETAL 3,162,145

RAILWAY TIE HAULING APPARATUS Original Filed April 17, 1957 4 Sheets-Sheet 3 3 A. MM 4 5s 59 ea; 54 g 53 56 62 INVENTORS? Richard E. F an/rl/n Herberf C ox "1 Fig. 7 THE/R ATTORNEYS Dec. 22, 1964 R. E. FRANKLIN ETAL 3,162,145

RAILWAY TIE HAULING APPARATUS Original Filed April 17, 1957 4 Sheets-Sheet 4 Richard E Franklin BY Herberf C Fox THE/R A 7' TORNE Y5 N IO United States Patent Ofifice 3,162,145 Patented Dec. 22., 1964 3,162,145 RAILWAY TIE HAULING APPARATUS Richard E. Franklin, Chevy Chase, Md., and Herbert C. Fox, Atlanta, Ga., assignors to Railway Maintenance Corporation, Pittsburgh, Pin, a corporation of Pennsylvania Original application Apr. 17, 1957, Ser. No. 653,315. Divided and this application July 25, 1961, Ser. No. 132,517

Claims. (Cl. 105355) Our invention relates to a car for hauling railroad ties. The car can be loaded and unloaded rapidly and efiiciently with a minimum of man power and hand labor.

Normally, railroad ties are hauled in gondola cars and unloaded manually by throwing the ties over the sides of the car at locations along the track where the ties are r to be used. The cost of handling the ties in this manner is great because the ties are heavy and bulky, thus requiring a great many men to unload the car. Furthermore, since the ties are haphazardly thrown over the side of the car, they do not normally land in aconvenient location for subsequent use.

Our invention avoids these difliculties by providing a tie hauling car open at the top and with removable end bulkheads which permit the ties to be loaded quickly and efficiently into the car by use of a mechanical boom.

To unload .the car, the removable bulkheads are taken out and an unloading machine is operated inside the car to discharge the ties through openings in the side of the car.

The unloading machine used inside the tie hauling car,

chine and one man outside the car to give signals, thus reducing labor costs. Further, the ties are deposited along the track in a convenient location for subsequent use.

This application is a division of application Serial No. 653,315, filed April 17, 1957, now Patent No. 3,048,289.

In the drawings, we have illustrated a preferred embodiment of our invention in which:

FIGURE 1 is a side elevation of the tie car;

FIGURE 2 is a plan view of the tie car;

FIG. 3 is a cross section of the tie car taken on lines III-III of FIGURE 1;

FIGURE 4 is an end view of the car showing the unloading machine in operating position, with parts removed for clarity;

FIGURE 5 is a plan view of the movable rails for connecting two cars together;

FIGURE 6 is a side elevation of the movable rail shown in FIGURE 5;

FIGURE 7 is a cross section taken on lines VII-VII of FIGURE 5;

FIGURE 8 is a side view of two cars (with parts removed for clarity) showing the movable rail in position between the cars.

Briefly, the tie car of the present invention is a special car consisting of a flat floor with two side walls extending upwardly along the longitudinal edges of the floor. The ends of the car are open except for removable bulkheads which are clamped in place to maintain a load of ties rigidly in position in the car. The side walls of the car have openings extending along their lengths at floor level to permit removal of ties from the car and the openposes. Two pairs of rails extend longitudinally along the floor of the carone pair for maintaining the load of ties at an elevation above the floor and a second pair to guide an unloading machine which operates inside the cars to remove the ties. The rails in two adjacent cars may be joined by sections of movable rail spanning the space between the cars to permit the unloading machine to move from one car to the other.

A self-motivating tie unloader which operates within the tie car unloads the ties therefrom. The ties in the tie car are thrust through the elongated openings in the side walls of the car by means of a continuous rotating chain having fingers which engage the ties. The chain and fingers are mounted on and operable transversely of the front end of the tie unloader.

The frame of the tie car consists of elongated channel members 5 extending the length of the car with a floor member 6 rigidly afiixed thereto. Side plates 7 and 8 are welded to the downwardly extending legs of channel 5 and have cross channels 9 extending between the plates to support the floor and maintain a rigid structure. The side walls consist of upwardly extending channels 10 welded at each end of the car to plates 7 and 8. Longitudinally extending channels 11 and'12 are affixed at each of their ends to channels 10. A side wall member 13 encloses the space between the channels 10, 11, and 12 and is integral with and supported by intermediate vertical channels 14. Channels 14 are afiixed at their upper and lower ends to channels 12 and 11, respectively. Suitable diagonally extending reinforcing members such as channels 15 may be placed in any desirable location along the side walls to provide proper support therefor. Channel members 16 extend transversely at each end of the car and rigidly connect the upper ends of the side walls together.

The whole car is mounted on wheels 17 in any conventional manner to permit the car to be moved along a railroad track.

A ladder 18 is provided at each end of the car to enable an operator to conveniently operate a camming mechanism described hereinafter.

The upper ends of plates 7 and 8 have angle members 19 and 20 welded thereto to provide a fiat shelf and a plate 21 is welded to the angle 2t) in a diagonal position to provide an incline from the floor plate 6 to the angle 2 The angles 19 and 20 assist in maintaining the ties horizontal during discharge from the car as described hereinafter.

An angularly bent plate 22 is welded to the inside of side wall member 13 and directed inwardly in the manner shown in FIGURE 3. Plate 22 assists in maintaining the stack of ties inside the car in proper position and alignment.

The longitudinally extending channel members 11 are located above the angles 19 and 20 and the channel members and angles form an elongated open'ing23 along the whole lower edge of each side wall member to permit discharge of the ties contained on the car. As shown in FIGURE 4, the distance between channel members 11 swingably'mounted by hinges 25 to each channel member 11 such that, when the doors are in the lowered position, there is not sufficient space below/the doors to permit a tie to shake loose from the load inside the car and slide out the openings 23.

A door pin holder 26 is welded to the lower end of each door 24 and holes .27 are cut-in the phannels 11 to permit door pins 28 to be inserted through the holes 27 and into the door pin hloder 26, thus locking the door in a closed position. The pins 28 are connected to the car side wall by a chain Zi-and when the pin is not in use it is placed out of the way by inserting it into a wall ,pin holder 30. Thus the doors 24 may be locked in a closed position to permit the car to be used for other purposes which require, that the side wall be substantially enclosed. It is also necessary to lock the door in closed position while hauling railroad ties to avoid the possibility that one. of the ties may shake loose from the load and slide out the opening. The doors are maintained in open position by chains and hooks 31.

Two pairs of rails 32 and 33 are fixed to the floor of the car and extend in a longitudinal direction therealong. The pair of rails 32 have a greater elevation than the pair of rails 33 and are used to support the ties which have been loaded on the car in an elevated position above the floor member 6 withthe bottom tie in alignment with openings 23 in the manner shown in lFlGU-RE 4. One

of the purposes of this elevated position is to permit a portion of an unloading machine34, as shown in FIG- URE 4, to move under the tie to be unloaded. A second purpose .is to keep' the ties from contacting rails 33 since the ties are impregnated with creosote which would cause rails 33 to become ,slipepry resulting in difliculty in operating the unloading machine on rails 33.

The unloading machine 34 mounted on wheels 35 operates. along the pair of rails 33 in removing the ties from the car, as shown in FIGURE 4.

' It is within the scope of the present invention that the rails 32 and 33 be or" the same height if a different type of unloading machine is :used. It is also within the scope of this invention to use only pair of rails in the car for use both .as a track for the unloading machine. and as an elevation means for the ties.

At each end of the railroad car, a pair of angle members 36 are welded to the side plates 13 with their legs extending in a vertical direction, and an angle member 37 is welded horizontally to side members 13 between the angles 36 to provide a three-sided enclosure for a horizontally extendingremovable bulkhead 38 (see FIGURES l and 3). The bulkhead 38-is positioned transversely across the car with each of its ends positioned on an angle 37 between two legs of angles 36. A bolt 39 is inserted through holes drilled in the legs of the angle 36 and a nut is-thrle'aded on the bolt 39, thus maintaining the bulkhead 38 in a rigid position.

Between the cross channels '16 at each end of the car, angle members 40 are welded with downwardly extending legs having holes drilled therein. A shaft 41 having eccentric camming members 32 a shown in FIGURE 7 is rotatably mounted in the holes. 'The earns 42 are 'alfixed to the shafts 41 by means of set screws (not shown) thus preventing lateral movementf'of shafts 41. T ,The ends of the shafts 41 are squared; as shown at 43, to permit turning :of the shafts and the aifixed cams 42 by means ofa wrench or the like.

Shafts 41 and cams 42 are located a sufticientdistance back'of the center channels 16 to permit the insertion of elongated bulkheads 44 between the cams and channels 1 6. Thelower ends of the bulkheads 44 are inserted into holes 45 in the floor member 6. Below the hole 45, plates 46 are welded to the floor member 6 to .form

a pocket which will :allow the bulkhead 44- to move. only a limited. direction below the floor members 6 in the mannershown in FIGURE 3.

Preferably, the removable bulkheads 53 and 44 are 4'" x 6 wooden post s; however, it is withinthescope ot the present invention to fabricate the bulkheads from any desirable materiall"In lus'ing wooden'bulkheads; it

is preferable'to aflixsteel plates 47. to the upper end of r the vertically extending. bulkheads 44 to prevent distintegrati'onfthereof due'to the crushing action of the cam The rails 33 on two adjacent tie cars can be joined by inserting a removable rail to bridge the space between the cars such that the unloading machine may move from one car to the next. FIGURE 5 is a plan view of two adjacent tie cars, designated by dashed lines, with the movable rail in position between the cars. FIGURE 8 shows a side elevation view of the movable rail in position.

The stationary rails on the lefthand car are designated 33 and the similar rails on the right-hand car are designated 33 in FIGURE 5. Underlying and extending beyond the ends of each of the rails 33 and 33 is a shoe 48 consisting of a bottom plate 49 and side plates 50. Movable rails 51 extend longitudinally between the rails 33 and 33 and fit between the sides 5! of the shoe 4%. The rail 33, shown in the lower left-hand corner of FIG- URE 5, and rail 33 shown in the upper right-hand corner of FIGURE 5, have fingers 53 attached to each of them by nuts and bolts 54. The same rails 33 and 33 are cut out at 55 to permit the attachment of the finger 53. One end of each of the movable rails 51 is cut out at 56 to permit the insertion of the finger 53 overlapping a portion of the rail 51. The other ends of the movable rails are cut out at 57 to permit the attachment of fingers 53 by nuts and bolts '59. The fingers 5d overlap the rails 33 and 33 in a cut-out portion 64} of the rails. The movable rails 51 are not of a length sufiicient to bridge the Whole distance between the rails 33 and 33 and thus leave a portion 61 open. This open portion 61 is necessary to permit the movable rail to slide a distance suflicient to allow the lower fiange of the movable rail 51 to be inserted underneath the finger 53. it is also necessary that the movable rail have a degree of leeway to allow the two adjoining cars, between which the rail 51 is situated, the turn at angles relative to one another in navigating turns on curved track. This leeway is provided by cut-out portions 62 on the movble rail and cutout portions 63 on walls 56 of the shoes 48.

Operation The tie car is loaded with ties in any conventional manher, for example, by use of a mechanical boom. It is necessary that the ties maintain a substantially transverse position within the tie car to permit proper unloading by the tie unloader.

Prior to the loading of the tie car, the doors 24 are swung to the lowered position as shown in the left-hand portion of FIGURE 3 and looked there by pin 28 being inserted through holes 27 and into the door pin holders 26. It is also necessary that the bulkheads be positioned in each end of the car to maintain the load of ties in proper position. At each end of the car, the bulkheads 38 are inserted between the legs of the angles 36 and come to rest against the legs of the angles 37. The bulkhead 33 is in a transverse position as shown in FIG- U-RE 3. A bolt 3 is inserted through holes in the legs of the angles 36 .and a nut is tightened thereon to maintain the movable bulkhead 38 in rigid position. The movable bulkheads 4-4- are then inserted vertically between the cam surface 42 and the cross channels 16 with their lower ends in holes 45 in the plate 6 and abutting against the plate 46. At this time, the bulkheads 44 will have the position illustrated in FIGURES 3 and 8. The shaft 41 is then rotated to move the cam 42 from the position shown in the right-hand portion of FIGURE 8 to the position-shown in the left-hand portion of FIGURE 8, thus locking the bulkheads 44 rigidly in position.

The carload of ties is then conveyed to the general area where it is desired to unload some or all of the ties.

To unload the ties:

The earns 42 are rotated to release the bulkheads 44 at one end of the car and the bulkheads 44 are removed. Then, at the same end of the car, nuts and bolts 39 are removed and removable bulkhead 38 is disengaged from the angles 36 and 37 and removed from the car.

The pins 28 are pulled upwardly to release the doors 24 from the vertical position. The pins are inserted into wall pin holders 30 to place them out of the way. The doors 24 are swung to the horizontal position, as shown in the right-hand portion of FIGURE 3, and maintained there by chains and hooks 31. An unloading machine is then positioned on the rails 33 at the end of the car where the bulkheads have been removed and it proceeds to throw the ties 64 transversely out the opening 23 in the side of the car in the manner shown in FIGURE 4.

The tie unloader is moved forward on rails 33 by the operator sitting on seat 162 actuating a manual valve to deliver pressurized fluid from a pump to a hydraulic propulsion motor. The forward motion of the tie unloader is stopped when a stack of ties is engaged. The operator then secures the tie unloader in a rigid position on rails 33 by means of rail clamps.

After the tie unloader is secured to the rails the operator activates the kicker chain on the tie unloader until the kicker head plate on the kicker chain engages the bottom tie in the stack and moves it transversely of the machine and tie car through one of the elongated openings 23. The tie is maintained in a horizontal position during its discharge by the angles 19 and 20 on the tie car and the plate 139 on the tie unloader. When all but the last tie in the stack has been unloaded, the wheel 137 on the tie unloader engages with the upper surface of the last tie. Thus, the last tie during its transverse movement'through the opening 23 is prevented from tilting downward on the outside of the tie car after its center of gravity has passed outward beyond the angle 19 on the side wall of the tie car.

After the entire stack of ties has been discharged through the opening in the tie car, the rail clamp is released piston rod 152 inwardly into the cylinder 81, thus moving the rail and the tie unloader is moved forward into engagement with the next stack of ties and the procedure is repeated until the tie car is unloaded.

After all the ties have been removed from one car, it is necessary that the unloading machine be moved forward to the next loading tie car. To accomplish this, the bulkheads 38 and 44 are removed in the manner described above from the other end of the car which has just been unloaded to permit the unloading machine 34 to pass. The movable track 51 is then inserted to bridge the space between the two cars by sliding the lower flange of the movable rail under the finger 53 attached to rail 33 until the rail 51 moves downwardly into position between the sides 50 of the shoe 48. At this point, the finger 58 will overlap a portion of the rail 33 The same procedure is followed to insert the second movable rail to join the other rails 33 and 33 except that the lower flange of the movable rail 51 is inserted under the finger 53 attached to the rail 33 The bulkheads 38 and 44 in the forward loaded car are then removed from one end of the car in the same manner as described above by unlocking the cam 42 and removing the nuts and bolts 3?. After the bulkheads have been removed, the unloading machine 34 moves forward over the movable track between the cars and unloads the ties 64 from the forward car. This procedure is repeated until all the cars have been unloaded.

The tie car may be moving continuously during the unloading procedure with a second man outside the car to indicate to the operator of the unloading machine when a tie should be unloaded.

It may be seen from the above description that the present invention involves a novel tie car which requires a minimum of manual labor to unload. Each of the tie cars is of large capacity and normally holds about 400 ties. Each car can be unloaded in about 45 minutes.

The ties are loaded into the tie car in any known manner in maintaining the tie in a horizontal position until it is clear of the car. This, plus the fact that the ties are unloaded at floor level instead of over the side of a gondola car and, therefore, have a shorter distance to fall, makes it possible to control the placing of the ties more accurately.

While we have described a present preferred embodiment of our invention, it is to be understood that it may be otherwise embodied within the scope of the following claims.

We claim:

1. A car for hauling railroad ties to a point of use along a railroad track and adapted to carry the ties one above the other in a plurality of stacks with the ties arranged transversely of the car and the sticks arranged along the length of the car comprising a floor member mounted on wheels for operation along a railroad track, side wall members extending upwardly from the longitudinal edges of the floor member, each of said side Wall members having an elongated opening therethrough extending substantially throughout the length of the car and located adjacent the fioor member, the height of said openings being slightly greater than the height of an individual tie and substantially less than the height of a pair of stacked ties to permit only said individual tie to be discharged from the car and bulkheads removably supported at each end of the floor member and constituting the ends of the car to maintain ties with the car when in place and to permit ready access to the car by an unloading machine when removed.

2. A car for hauling ties as set forth in claim 1 wherein each of said sidewall members has a door mounted thereon to close the opening therethrough until ties are to be discharged from the car, and a locking means for each door to maintain the door in a closed or open position.

3. A car for hauling ties as set forth in claim 1 including longitudinaly extending rails positioned on the floor member along which a tie unloading machine is adapted to operate when said bulkhead has been removed to provide access to the car, and further longitudinally extending rails positioned on said floor member to maintain the ties above the floor member to permit a portion of a tie unloading machine to extend under a stack of ties and to permit an unloading machine to sequentially discharge the lowermost tie in each stack through said opening, said opening being located with respect to the rails maintaining the ties above the floor member so that the bottom tie of a stack is aligned with the opening.

4. A car for hauling ties as set forth in claim 3 wherein said rails for maintaining the ties above the floor member extend a greater distance above the floor member than the rails for carrying a tie unloading machine.

5. A tie hauling car as set forth in claim 3 including movable rails adapted to be positioned to bridge a space between two adjacent cars so as to permit an unloading machine to travel between adjacent cars, and means to clamp said movable rails to the longitudinally extending rails for carrying a tie unloading machine on the floor member.

6. A car for hauling railroad ties adapted to carry the ties one above the other in a plurality of stacks with the ties arranged transversely of the car and the stacks arranged along the length of-the car comprising a floor member mounted on wheels for operation along a railroad track, side wall members extending upwardly from the longitudinal edges of the floor member, each of said side wall members having an elongated opening extending over the major portion of the length thereof and positioned adjacent the floor member to receive the bottom tie of the stack, the vertical dimension of said openings being slightly greater than the height of the maximum size tie adapted to be discharged .therethrough a pair of spaced longitudinally extending rails positioned on said floor member to maintain the bottom tie in each of said stacks spaced above the floor member and in alignernent with said openings, whereby the portion of said side Wall members adjacent the upper edge of said openings is adapted to abut the next to the bottom tie in a stack when the bottom tie of the stack is unloaded through one of said openings and the angle of a tie passing out of the car through one of the openings is limited with respect to a horizontal plane by the height of the open ings as the tie engages the upper and lower edges of the opening through which it is unloaded.

7. A car for hauling railroad ties as set forth in claim 6 wherein first and second elongated right angle members are atfixed to each of the side Wall members of the car adjacent the lower edge of the elongatedopenings; the vertical leg of the first angle member being affixed to the outer surface of the wall member and the vertical leg of the second angle member being affixed to the inner surface of the Wall member and the horizontal leg of the first and second angle members lying in the same horizontal plane as the upper surface of said rails, whereby a shelf is formed by said horizontal legs aligned with the upper surface of said rails to help maintain a tie passing through said openings at a limited angle relative to a horizontal plane.

8. A car for hauling ties comprising a flat, elongated floor member mounted on wheels for operation along a track, side walls extending upwardly from the longitudinal edges of the floor member, removable bulkhead means positioned between the side walls at each end of the car and fonming the ends of the car, the lower ends of said bulkhead means extending into recesses in the floor member and the upper ends being clamped rigidly with respect to the side walls, each of the side walls having an opening in the lower portion thereof for removing the ties from the car the vertical dimension of said openings being such that only one tie at a time can pass therethrough, elongated members fixed to the floor member to maintain the ties above the iioor member, and rails positioned longitudinally within the car for operation of an unloading machine therealong.

9, A car for hauling ties as set forth in claim 8 including a pair of spaced channels extending transversely at each end of the car and rigidly connecting the upper edges of the side walls together, a plurality of rotatably mounted eccentric cams afiixed to the channels to rigidly clamp the upper ends of said bulkhead means with respect to said side walls and said channels, each of said cams being positioned to overlie one of said recesses in the floor member.

10. A car for hauling ties as set forth in claim 8 where in the bulkhead means consist of a plurality of vertical members having their lower ends extending into said recesses and having their upper ends rigidly held between the upper edge of the side Walls by quick release clamping means, and at least one horizontal member extending between and rigidly supported by the side walls.

References Cited by the Examiner UNITED STATES PATENTS 888,647 5/09 Otis l05-258 986,207 3/11 Otis 105 25s 1,259,426 3/18 Meindel 105378 1,318,550 10/19 Gregg 105 37s 1,361,896 12/20 Norman 105378 2,052,867 9/36 Cartzdatneretal 105 -259 2,819,688 1/58 Hall.

2,858,774 ll/SS Batten 1G5-367 2,911,925 11/59 Adler an 105-376 LEO QUACKENBUSH, Primary Examiner.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE CERTIFICATE OF CORRECTION Patent No; 3,162,145 December 22, 1964 Richard E. Franklin et a1.

It is hereby certified that error appears in the above numbered patent requiring correction and that the said Letters Patent should read as corrected below Column 3, line 34, after 'only" insert one line 52, for "32 a" read 42 as column 4, line 35,f0r "the" read to column 5, lines 35 and 36, strike out "piston rod 152 inwardly into the cylinder 81, thus moving the rail"; column 6, line 15, for "sticks" read stacks Signed and sealed this 11th day of May 1965.

(SEAL) Attest:

ERNEST- W. SWIDER EDWARD J. BRENNER Attcsting Officer Commissioner of Patents

Claims (1)

1. 8. A CAR FOR HAULING TIES COMPRISING A FLAT, ELONGATED FLOOR MEMBER MOUNTED ON WHEELS FOR OPERATION ALONG A TRACK, SIDE WALLS EXTENDING UPWARDLY FROM THE LONGITUDINAL EDGES OF THE FLOOR MEMBER, REMOVABLE BULKHEAD MEANS POSITIONED BETWEEN THE SIDE WALLS AT EACH END OF THE CAR AND FORMING THE ENDS OF THE CAR, THE LOWER ENDS OF SAID BULKHEAD MEANS EXTENDING INTO RECESSES IN THE FLOOR MEMBER AND THE UPPER ENDS BEING CLAMPED RIGIDLY WITH RESPECT TO THE SIDE WALLS, EACH OF THE SIDE WALLS HAVING AN OPENING IN THE LOWER PORTION THEREOF FOR REMOVING THE TIES FROM THE CAR THE VERTICAL DIMENSION OF SAID OPENINGS BEING SUCH THAT ONLY ONE TIE AT A TIME CAN PASS THERETHROUGH, ELONGATED MEMBERS FIXED TO THE FLOOR MEMBER TO MAINTAIN, THE TIES ABOVE THE FLOOR MEMBER, AND RAILS POSITIONED LONGITUDINALLY WITHIN THE CAR FOR OPERATION OF AN UNLOADING MACHINE THEREALONG.

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