CA1116572A - Safety reflector for freight cars - Google Patents

Abstract

A B S T R A C T

This invention consists of a light reflecting sign for attachment to railway cars for the prevention of accidents when such cars are stalled or parked across minor, poorly lit country roads. It is in the shape of a horizontal "X" re-sembling a "railway crossing" sign the face of which is lined primarily with red flat plastic light-reflecting strips which are tipped at the ends of tile sign with small yellow angular surface reflectors.

Description

This invention consists of a warning sign, in the form o~ a light reflector which is attachable to one or both walls o~ a freight car.
Quite often, and ~or various reasons whlch cannot be avoided, a single ~reight car or a train of such freight cars are stopped, for a long or short period o~ ti~e, across a minor highway or country road which is not provided with ringing or flashing signals or street lights. This creates a serious hazzard to vehicles travelling on such roads, during the night or other periods of poor ~isibility. Many accidents or near accidents have been recorded because of this si~uation.
The obj~ct of this invention is to provide a means ~or preventing such accidents~
Since the above described condition creates the greatest amount o~ danger to ~ast tra~elling vehicles, such as cars or txucks, safety means can be provided by this invention, being a suitable light re~lecting devi.ce which can be activated and æeen from a considerable distance, by the headlights o~ the approaching vehicle.
In descr~bing the inventlon reference will be made to the attached drawings in which,-Figure 1, is a ~ront vie~ of the invention, Figure 2~ is sestion A A of Figure 1, Figure 3~ is section B-B of Figure 1, Figure 4, shows a front view o~ a variation in th~
inventîon, Figure ~3 iæ section C-C of Figure 4, and Figure 6, sho~s the way the invention is pre~erably attached to a ~reight or box car.
The invention which is a light re~lecting sign, is shown consisting o~ two elongated rectangular bars 1 and 2 which ~a~ ~ f~o cross each other at their centers, at an angle about 60t similar -to the standard railway c-rossing sign used on highways approaching railway tracks. The outlines of the crossing bars 1 and 2 are omitted at the center of the 3ign where they cross, since the sign consists of a single moulded unit, so tha-t the outline of the entire sign consists o~ -the outlines of said ~ars terminating at the corners 3,4,5, and 6, where they meet.
Inside the face of the sign are centrally located~ spaced, raised, and parallel tracks 7, which contain flat sheets of plastic, light-reflecting sheets 8~ which are red in color, These sheets 8, star ~ short distance from each end of the slgn and terminate at th~ center of the sign where their ends abut each other. Abuting the outer ends of the sheets 8, and filling a space at the end of each arm 1 and 2 is inserted 1~ a yellow colored, short angular surfac~d plastic re~lector 9.
A preferred method of attach:ing the sheets 8 to the said arms consis-ts of rivetting their pointed ends with a single rivet 10 at the center o~ the s.ign, and rivetting their other ends with hollow tubular an.~ flared. rivets 11~ Each o~
the ri~ets 11 will then provide a means o~ attaching the invention to the faces of the box car 12~ by inser~ing screws in the hollow rivets. A set o~ tracks 7' corresponding to the tracks 7 is provided directly below -the tracks 7, on the underside o~
the sign to reinforce and stiffen the sign.

2~ In Figures 4 and 5 is shown a varlation in the con-struction of the invention. In this casel the red ~lat plates 8, are replaced by a series of short reflector 13 which abut each other. The reflector 13,is similar to the re~lector 9 in that it consists of a prism having a flat bottom, and. verti-cal flat sides. The surface comes to a raised. c~ntral peak so that two sloping faces are formed to reflect light coming in at an angle.
A pre~erred method of attaching -the various components ii7;~

to each o ther has been described. However, var.ious me-thods of plastic glueing can be used, particularly in the case of -the variation shown in Figures 4 and 5.
In Figure 6, a sugges-ted method of locating the 5 reflectors on the walls oî a box car 12, are shownO These can be attached permanen~ly to the car or they may be made easily removable and replaceable.

Claims (2)

The embodiments of the invention in which an exclu-sive property or privilege is claimed are defined as follows:-

1. In combination, a railway freight car, a safety light-reflecting device attached to a side of said freight car and comprising a sign having a shape of an "X" in a horizontal position resembling a standard railway crossing warning sign, said sign comprising two elongate rectangular bars which cross each other at their centers, said bars having front, spaced, raised parallel tracks, reflecting material located in and fill-ing space between said front -tracks, said reflecting material extending from a short distance away from the ends of the bars -to the center of the intersection thereof, additional reflecting means between the front tracks at the outer ends of said bars beyond said reflecting material, and abutting the ends of the reflecting materoal, single rivet means at the intersecting ends of said reflecting material and affixing all four of the ends to said bars, hollow rivet means near the outer ends of each said bars and extending through said bars and affixing outer end por-tions of said reflecting material to said bars, said hollow ri-vet means having bores extending completely therethrough from one end to the other for receiving fastener means extending therethrough for affixing said sign to the side of the freight car.

2. The combination according to claim 1 characterized by said reflecting material comprising a plurality of abutting colored rectangular prisms, each having a centrally raised ridge with two downwardly sloping sides extending from the ridge, said ridges being at right angles to the longitudinal extent of said bars.