EP0630670B1 - Vehicle for electric toy or model railways - Google Patents

Abstract

A vehicle for electric toy and model trains with a freight car body, which is suspended in a free-floating fashion over overrunning inclinations at superstructures of the carriages passing through its bottom in such a manner, that the pivoting angle is positively controlled proportionally by the rotation of the carriages when passing through curves, in the case of a carriage, the superstructures and the freight car body being provided with curve grooves or suspension pins, which engage the curve grooves and are disposed horizontally and transversely to the longitudinal axis, and that the other carriage is not guided and is hooked in a self-aligning fashion to the freight car body.

Description

The invention relates to a vehicle for electric play and model railways with a car body with the features in the preamble of claim 1.

In order to be able to run trains with greater driving comfort for the user and, moreover, also at higher speeds on winding routes, it is known in the industrial model to arrange the vehicle bodies on the chassis part with the bogies so that they can be pivoted about a longitudinal axis, so that, as it were, the passenger compartment can put in the curve and thus counteracts centrifugal forces.

In the case of the industrial model, a solution has become known in which a sensor optically scans the tracks in order to initiate a hydraulic swivel adjustment of the car body from the curve radius calculated in conjunction with the measured speed. It is obvious that this is an extremely complicated process that is not suitable for electric play and model trains.

For such electric play and model railroads, a vehicle of the type mentioned at the outset has become known for realizing this design principle, for example as described in the catalog "Hornby Railways", 29th edition 1983, page 6. In addition to the supports of the bogies, on which inclined ramps are supported under the roof of the car body, hooks are also provided which are offset by 90 ° with respect to these, which are intended to prevent the car body and the bogies from falling apart. However, this type of suspension without a central oscillating axis of rotation leads to considerable play in the suspension, which is reflected in a driving behavior that contradicts the industrial model, which is unsuitable for today's strict requirements of model railroad enthusiasts.

The construction according to US Pat. No. 4,799,431 was also unable to contribute to the creation of a vehicle for electric play and model railways with a positively guided inclination of the body when cornering on the industrial scale. In this US patent, the car body is suspended in a free-swinging manner on the bogie, only the angle of inclination being limited to a predetermined angular range. A targeted positive guidance of the inclination according to the radius of curvature of a curve is not provided.

The invention is therefore based on the object of a vehicle of the type mentioned, cf. Above mentioned "Hornby Railways" catalog (page 6), to be designed so that there is a more precise, less backlash swivel connection between the bogies and the body.

This object is achieved according to the invention with the features listed in the characterizing part of claim 1.

The inventive arrangement of the suspension pins engaging in curved grooves results in addition to the pendulum guide for the car body when the bogies are rotated, the suspension of the bogies on the car body at the same time, so that additional suspension devices are avoided.

According to a first embodiment of the invention, the superstructures can be particularly advantageously lateral lateral cylindrical pillars which engage in corresponding, preferably also cylindrical circular arc guides on the inner walls of the car body, the suspension pins and the cam grooves being arranged in the overlapping guide area. This results - similar to that Hornby vehicle described - the possibility of arranging the drive motor on one of the bogies, but the great advantage is that the pendulum suspension does not have to be under the roof of the body, which requires correspondingly high lateral supports, but the entire bottom in the floor area Suspension takes place, which also allows a significantly larger swivel angle.

Although it would of course also be possible to arrange the pins on the superstructures of the bogies and the cam grooves in the car body, it has proven to be particularly advantageous in practice for pins that protrude inward from the circular arc guides into preferably inwardly closed cam grooves on the outside protrude the columns. This avoids higher installations on the inside of the car bodies, since the cam grooves can be attached to the side guide pillars, which are necessary anyway, much more easily.

In order to avoid difficulties when driving through S-curves, the second bogie of each vehicle cannot be provided with a pendulum guide according to the invention, since there is otherwise the risk that one bogie will tilt the car in one direction and the other in the other direction , which would inevitably lead to damage to the vehicle and to derailment. The second undercarriage should therefore be connected to the car body by a playful pivot pin guide, so that - despite the resulting disadvantage that when this bogie advances, the in-the-corner rain does not take place until the trailing bogie reaches the curve area - in opposite directions Controls the oscillating car body are avoided by the two bogies.

In particular for locomotives for small gauges (gauge N), it can be provided according to a second embodiment of the present invention that the superstructures comprise lateral, inside cylindrical guide surfaces for mating webs engaging therebetween, which have continuous cam slots for a preferably detachable pin penetrating the web walls are provided.

This embodiment of a vehicle according to the invention has the particular advantage that, for example, the pin can form the axis of a transmission spur gear arranged between the web walls, which, on the one hand, has an output worm of the motor shaft lying in the longitudinal direction of the vehicle and, on the other hand, gears connected to the wheel axles, so that - Even more so if the spur gear has axially tapered tooth heads - A drive connection is possible via the oscillating suspension on the bogie from a drive motor arranged inside the vehicle body to the wheels of the bogie.

In the usual design of vehicles for electric play and model railways with laterally pivotable coupling drawbars on the car bodies, each with a coupling shaft receiving the coupling head, it is provided in an embodiment of the invention that either the coupling drawbars or the coupling heads in the coupling shafts can be rotated about their longitudinal axis, or else it is preferred that the coupling heads intermesh rotatably about their longitudinal axis.

In this preferred latter embodiment with rotatably interlocking coupling heads, it can either be provided that head pins on an end plate of a coupling head engage an end plate of the mating coupling head in circular arc slots with end threading extensions, where appropriate one of the end plates additionally has a centering pin which engages in a bore in the counter plate, or but that one of the coupling heads has a mushroom-shaped attachment which can be hooked through a lateral longitudinal slot into an enlarged receiving bore of the counter head.

In deviation from the usual attachment of the coupling parts to the vehicles, it can also be provided, especially for the vehicles according to the invention with a pendulum structure, that the coupling parts are each fastened to the bogies, which makes the rotatability of the coupling parts against one another about their longitudinal axis unnecessary.

This results in the advantageous possibility of forming a close coupling by pivotally attaching a short coupling drawbar which is spring-loaded into the central position and engages with a guide pin in a link guide on the vehicle floor, similarly to the connection in German with a close coupling arranged entirely on the body Patent P 40 20 756 is described.

It has proven to be particularly advantageous for the mounting bearing screw of the bogie to penetrate a pin supported with a rounded tip on the car floor with play, which not only results in a particularly simple rotary mounting of the bogie on the vehicle floor results, but a quasi gimbal, which also has special advantages when driving on undulating track sections, especially when driving over mountain tops and when driving through valleys.

Fig. 1

eine perspektivische Ansicht des Vorderteils eines Wagenkastens mit dem darunter in ausgebauter Stellung gezeigten Drehgestell für eine pendelnde Führungsaufhängung,

Fig. 2

eine Aufsicht auf das Drehgestell von oben bei aufgeschnitten gedachtem Dach in der Geradeausfahrstellung auf gerader Schiene,

Fig. 3

einen Querschnitt längs der Linie III-III in Fig. 2,

Fig. 4

eine Aufsicht entsprechend der Fig. 2 in einer Gleiskurve mit entsprechend ausgelenktem Drehgestell,

Fig. 5

einen Querschnitt längs der Linie V-V in Fig. 4,

Fig. 6

eine schematische Teilseitenansicht eines Fahrzeugs speziell für Spur N, mit im Fahrzeugaufbau liegend angeordnetem Antriebsmotor und einer Antriebsverbindung zwischen dem Motor und den Rädern des Drehgestells über die pendelnde Aufhängung,

Fig. 7

eine vergrößerte perspektivische Explosionsdarstellung des Drehgestells und der darüber erfolgenden Antriebsverbindung zum Antriebsmotor,

Fig. 8

eine vereinfachte Aufsicht auf das Drehgestell,

Fig. 9

eine der Fig. 8 entsprechende Aufsicht bei einer Kurvenfahrt des Fahrzeugs,

Fig.10

einen Schnitt längs der Linie X-X in Fig. 9 mit eingezeichneten Getriebeteilen des Motorantriebs,

Fig.11

eine perspektivische Ansicht der Kupplungsköpfe einer Kupplung für erfindungsgemäße Fahrzeuge mit pendelnd aufgehängtem Wagenkasten,

Fig.12

eine Seitenansicht der Kupplungsköpfe nach Fig. 11,

Fig.13

eine Stirnansicht des rechten Aufnahmekupplungskopfs nach den Figuren 11 und 12,

Fig.14

eine perspektivische Ansicht einer zweiten Ausführungsform der Kupplungsköpfe für erfindungsgemäße Fahrzeuge mit pendelndem Kupplungsaufbau, und

Fig.15

eine perspektivische Explosionsdarstellung einer Kurzkupplung, insbesondere für Fahrzeuge mit pendelnd aufgehängtem Wagenkasten.

Further advantages, features and details of the invention result from the following description of some exemplary embodiments and from the drawing. Show:

Fig. 1

2 shows a perspective view of the front part of a car body with the bogie shown underneath in the expanded position for a pendulum guide suspension,

Fig. 2

a top view of the bogie from above with the roof cut open in the straight-ahead position on a straight rail,

Fig. 3

3 shows a cross section along the line III-III in FIG. 2,

Fig. 4

2 in a track curve with a correspondingly deflected bogie,

Fig. 5

3 shows a cross section along the line VV in FIG. 4,

Fig. 6

2 shows a schematic partial side view of a vehicle especially for N gauge, with a drive motor arranged in the vehicle body and a drive connection between the motor and the wheels of the bogie via the oscillating suspension,

Fig. 7

an enlarged perspective exploded view of the bogie and the drive connection above it to the drive motor,

Fig. 8

simplified supervision of the bogie,

Fig. 9

8 is a top view corresponding to FIG. 8 when the vehicle is cornering,

Fig. 10

9 shows a section along the line XX in FIG. 9 with the gear parts of the motor drive shown,

Fig. 11

2 shows a perspective view of the coupling heads of a coupling for vehicles according to the invention with a pendulum car body,

Fig. 12

11 shows a side view of the coupling heads according to FIG. 11,

Fig. 13

11 shows an end view of the right receiving coupling head according to FIGS. 11 and 12,

Fig. 14

a perspective view of a second embodiment of the coupling heads for vehicles according to the invention with oscillating coupling structure, and

Fig. 15

a perspective exploded view of a close coupling, especially for vehicles with a pendulum car body.

In Fig. 1 you can see an end portion of a car body 1, the car floor 2 is provided in the region of the bogie 3 with a recess that includes circular arc guides 4 with inwardly projecting suspension pins 5. On the bogie box 6, on which the wheels 7 to 10 are rotatably mounted, lateral structures are formed in the form of cylindrical columns 11 and 12 on the outside, which are provided on the outside with curved grooves 13, in which the suspension pins 5 engage. The at least partially outside cylindrical shape of the columns 11 and 12 must be present especially in the area of the curved grooves, i.e. in the upper sections 11a and 12a, and forms a counter-guide for the circular arc guides 4, so that in connection with the suspension pins engaging in the curved grooves 13 5 a quasi gimbal suspension is achieved, in which there is also a captive mounting of the bogies on the car body. When the bogie 6 is rotated relative to the longitudinal axis of the vehicle, ie when cornering, the suspension of the suspension pins 5 in the cam grooves 13 results in a pivoting of the car body 1, as can be seen particularly clearly from FIGS. 4 and 5. In order to keep the play, which is necessary for tilting, as small as possible, the circular arc guides 4 and the sections 11a, 12a, the columns 11, 12 containing the curved grooves 13 could also be rounded in the vertical direction, ie it could be provided that these sections represent sections of spherical surfaces.

In the drive vehicle for electric play and model railways shown in FIGS. 6 to 10 with a pendulum-suspended car body, this car body is shown only schematically in the drawings as 1 ', while the bogie effecting the pendulum guide bears the reference symbol 3'. The bogie frame 6 'carries laterally spaced web walls which form cylindrical guide surfaces 15 and 16 in the middle section for mating guide webs 17 and 18 of the car body 1 which intervene therebetween. The webs 17, 18 are with aligned bores 19 and 20 for a suspension pin 5 'provided, the curve slots 13' penetrates the web walls 11 ', 12'. When the bogie 3 'is rotated relative to the longitudinal axis of the vehicle, the suspension of the suspension pin 5, in the cam slots 13', in a manner corresponding to the exemplary embodiment according to FIGS. 1 to 6, causes the vehicle body 1 'to pivot on the bogie as is it can be seen particularly from FIGS. 9 and 10.

A special feature of the exemplary embodiment according to FIGS. 6 to 10 is that a geared connection from the drive motor 22 arranged in the vehicle body 1 'to the wheels 7 to 10 of the bogie is possible via the oscillating bearing guide. For this purpose, a transmission spur gear 23 with axially tapered tooth heads 24 is mounted on the suspension pin as a bearing axis, which meshes with gear wheels 25, which mesh with gear wheels (not shown) on the running axles of the wheel pairs 7, 8 and 9, 10, respectively another is in engagement with a worm 26 at the end of the output shaft 27 of the drive motor 22.

In order to minimize lateral play of the suspension of the bogie on the car body or vice versa in the present case, it could be provided that the guide surfaces 15, 16 are spherical on the inside and in a corresponding manner the outer sides of the counter-guide webs 17 and 18 on the car body.

FIGS. 11 to 13 show the coupling heads of a coupling especially for vehicles with an oscillating car body according to FIGS. 1 to 10, the coupling parts being fastened to the car body itself in the usual way. The coupling drawbar and the coupling shaft receiving the coupling head are not shown, since the coupling shaft is usually designed so that the coupling head can be inserted with a slotted plug end 31 forming two hook arms 30 into such a coupling shaft. In the exemplary embodiment of a coupling shown in FIGS. 12 and 13, a stop plate 33 is formed on the plug-in part 31 of the one coupling head 32, via which a mushroom-shaped extension 34 with a spherical head 35 protrudes. The associated receiving head 36 with a similar plug-in part 31 has a longitudinal bore 37 with an enlarged receiving bore 38 for the ball head 35 and a lateral longitudinal slot 39 through which the extension 34 can be threaded from the side. By a train taking place when the vehicle starts up and the corresponding longitudinal displacement, the head 35 arrives in the region of the receiving bore 38, which no longer coincides with the threading extension 39 of the lateral longitudinal slot, so that there is no fear of a lateral unhooking. This type of design of the coupling heads allows the coupling heads to be rotated about their longitudinal connection axis to one another, so that the body of the front carriage and the attached rear carriage can tilt independently of one another, as is the case when the first enters a curve and the second is still on the straight.

Another embodiment of such a coupling rotatable about the longitudinal axis is shown in FIG. 14. The coupling heads 32 ″ and 36 ″ shown there, again with plug-in projections 31, are each provided with an end plate 40 and 41, of which the former two head pins 43 , the circular arc slots 44 engage behind the latter, provided for threading at the ends of the circular arc slots 44 Threading extensions 45 are provided. These are arranged so that the threading can only be done by tilting the vehicle bodies to extremely opposite positions to each other. Such extreme opposing positions can not occur in practice even in narrow S-curves, so that an automatic decoupling cannot take place.

Finally, FIG. 15 schematically shows a close coupling which is particularly suitable for the oscillating bodies of the present application, but which also has advantages for other vehicles without an oscillating structure. The coupling drawbar 47 is pivotally articulated on the bogie frame 6, which is only schematically indicated, of an otherwise not shown bogie about the axis 48, the bridge-shaped component 49, which can be latched to the bogie frame 6 by recesses (not shown), being used to fix it on the bogie frame. The coupling drawbar is supported on a pin 50 with an inner bore 51 which is larger than the diameter of the part 52 to be arranged in it, a fastening bearing screw 53 which can be screwed into a threaded bore 54 on the vehicle floor 55. The free tip 56 of the pin 50 is rounded, so that the bogie is virtually gimbal-mounted on the car floor 55 with the aid of the mounting bearing screw and not only the lateral tilting movements of the car body with the car floor 55 are possible in accordance with the pendulum control described above, but also the tilting the longitudinal axes of successive wagons can be compensated for when driving over hills or when driving through valleys. In a manner known per se, a guide pin 58 is arranged on the coupling drawbar 47 with the coupling shaft 57 for receiving a coupling head, not shown Link guide 59 engages on the car floor. This guide pin 58 must be made relatively long so that it always engages in the link guide 59 even during the aforementioned tilting movements about the longitudinal axis of the carriage or transversely thereto. At 60, a return spring known per se is indicated, which is placed around the pin 61 of the guide drawbar on the one hand and the pins 62 on the vehicle floor in the dash-dotted manner in order to prestress the clutch drawbar in each case into the central position.

Claims (15)

1. Vehicle for electric toy and model railways, having a carriage body (1) capable of inclining laterally inward during travel on bends, to which end the carriage body (1) is supported on mountings (11, 12; 11', 12') penetrating its base (2) of at least one of its bogies (3) via stop ramps (13, 13') extending substantially in the vehicle longitudinal direction, in such a manner that the swivel angle is proportionally constrained by the rotation of the bogie when traveling on bends, characterised in that in the case of the one bogie (3) the mountings (11, 12; 11', 12') and the carriage body (1) are provided with cam grooves (13, 13') in the form of the stop ramps, which extend obliquely to a horizontal plane, or suspending pins (5, 5') are provided which engage therein and are disposed horizontally and transverse to the longitudinal axis, and in that the other bogie is suspended on the carriage body (1) so as to swing unguided.
2. Vehicle according to claim 1, characterised in that the mountings are lateral columns (11, 12) which are cylindrical on the exterior, which engage in corresponding, preferably also cylindrical arcuate guides (4) on the inner walls of the carriage body (1), and in that the suspending pins (5) and the grooves (13) are disposed in the overlapping guide region.
3. Vehicle according to claim 2, characterised in that suspending pins (5) projecting inwards from the arcuate guides (4) project into grooves (13), preferably closed towards the inside, on the exteriors of the columns (11, 12).
4. Vehicle according to one of claims 1 to 3, characterised in that the second bogie is connected to the carriage body by a rotary bolt guide having play.
5. Vehicle according to one of claims 1 to 4, characterised in that the grooves (13) extend horizontally over one part of their length and obliquely over another, the pins resting both in the horizontal part during travel straight ahead, and upon rotation of the bogie along a bend, the pin on the outside of the bend moves in the horizontal part and the pin on the inside moves in the oblique part (Figures 1, 3, 5).
6. Vehicle according to claim 1, in particular for driven vehicles for small track widths, e.g. track N, characterised in that the mountings comprise lateral guide faces (15, 16) with a cylindrical inner face for web walls (11', 12') engaging therebetween and having counter-guide webs (17, 18), which web walls are provided with continuous, obliquely disposed slots (13a) for a preferably detachable suspending pin (5') penetrating the webs (17, 18).
7. Vehicle according to claim 6, characterised in that the suspending pin (5') forms the axle of a transmission spur pinion (23), which is disposed between the webs (17, 18) and which is in engagement with a power take-off worm (26) - disposed above the spur pinion in the vehicle longitudinal direction - of the motor shaft (27) on the one hand and with gearwheels (25) on the other, which mesh with gearwheels of the wheel pair (7, 8 and 9, 10 respectively).
8. Vehicle according to claim 7, characterised in that the spur pinion (23) has tooth tips (24) which converge to a point in the axial direction.
9. Vehicle for electric toy and model railways, having a carriage body capable of inclining laterally inward during travel on bends according to one of claims 1 to 8, having coupling tongues laterally pivotable on the carriage body each with a coupling shaft receiving the coupling head, characterised in that the coupling heads engage in one another rotatably about their longitudinal axis (Figures 11-14).
10. Vehicle according to claim 9, characterised in that head pins (43) on an end plate (40) of one coupling head (32'') engage with widened, end threading regions (45) through an end plate (41) of the counter-coupling head (36'') in arcuate slots (44).
11. Vehicle according to claim 10, characterised in that one of the end plates (40) has a centring pin (43a) engaging in a bore in the counter-plate (41).
12. Vehicle according to claim 9, characterised in that one of the coupling heads (32) has a mushroom-shaped projection (34) capable of hooking through a lateral longitudinal slot (39) into a widened receiving bore (38) of the counter-head (36).
13. Vehicle for electric toy and model railways, having a carriage body capable of inclining laterally inward during travel on bends according to one of claims 1 to 8, characterised in that the coupling parts are each fixed to the bogies (Fig. 15).
14. Vehicle according to claim 13, characterised in that a short coupling tongue (47) braced resiliently in the middle position is pivotably fixed to the bogie and engages with a guide pin in a slide guide (59) on the carriage body (55) (Fig. 15).
15. Vehicle according to claim 13 or 14, characterised in that the fixing bearing screw (53) of the bogie penetrates with clearance a pin (50) bearing with a rounded tip (56) on the carriage body (55) (Fig. 15).

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