Classifications

• • B—PERFORMING OPERATIONS; TRANSPORTING
  • B61—RAILWAYS
  • B61D—BODY DETAILS OR KINDS OF RAILWAY VEHICLES
  • B61D47/00—Loading or unloading devices combined with vehicles, e.g. loading platforms, doors convertible into loading and unloading ramps
  • B61D47/005—Loading or unloading devices combined with road vehicles carrying wagons, e.g. ramps, turntables, lifting means
• • B—PERFORMING OPERATIONS; TRANSPORTING
  • B61—RAILWAYS
  • B61D—BODY DETAILS OR KINDS OF RAILWAY VEHICLES
  • B61D3/00—Wagons or vans
  • B61D3/16—Wagons or vans adapted for carrying special loads
  • B61D3/18—Wagons or vans adapted for carrying special loads for vehicles

Definitions

• the present invention relates to a mixed-use rail unit for combined rail / road transport of road vehicles or other road loads and their loading / unloading.
• Vehicles taken out of the production lines are stored in the manufacturer's external storage areas until they are picked up for removal.
• the manufacturers' sites have traditionally been connected to the rail network.
• the vehicles to be removed are loaded from the storage areas on trains presenting a succession of specialized wagons each comprising a double stage of loading and transport.
• connecting walkways interconnect the floors of the same level of the successive specialized wagons of the train.
• the vehicles are moved and then loaded onto one of the floors from the rear of the train, by their own means, one after the other in line until the succession of wagons is filled over its entire length. The other stage of the train is then loaded in the same way.
• the train unloading operations are carried out in reverse order. Unloading being carried out only from the rear of the train, this mode of transport does not in practice make it possible to selectively and unload optimal, throughout the rail journey, some of the vehicles transported by train depending on their final destination. This is why the manufacturers have organized near certain railway stations regrouping zones intended to receive in large quantities the vehicles transported by the train.
• the vehicles are all unloaded from the train one after the other by their own means, in the reverse order of their loading onto the train, possibly transported by road on units or sets of road transport of vehicles designed specifically for this type of transport known under the generic name of car transporter vehicles, and finally parked in the regrouping areas.
• car transporter will be given the most general meaning, namely a carrier of all types of road vehicles.
• the vehicles After storage in the regrouping area, the vehicles are distributed and loaded according to their final destinations on car transport vehicles. They are then routed, as the case may be, either to their final destination, or to secondary consolidation areas from where they will ultimately be routed by road on other car transporters to the delivery point at customers.
• the vehicles delivered are subject to at least three loading and unloading cycles which inevitably generate each risk of damage to the vehicles transported.
• the wagons intended for the transport of vehicles moreover have on the lower loading plane a non-planar rolling path due to the presence of the bogies of the wagons.
• the ground clearance of vehicles manufactured today is lower, especially at the front, this also generates during loading and unloading the risk of interference during crossing of the elevated taxiways provided above the wagon bogies.
• the vehicles to be delivered are parked outside on areas generally neither covered nor closed. Until delivery to the customer, the vehicles thus remain exposed to significant risks of damage. They are also subject to soiling. In order to ensure better preservation, the manufacturers condition the vehicles to protect them from minor deterioration. Prior to their delivery, it is therefore necessary to remove the protections from the packaging and wash the vehicle, which incurs additional costs.
• Rail motorways are thus suitable for the transport of trucks and harnessed road units, but they do not allow the transport of a trailer alone.
• these embodiments have the drawback of seeing the motor vehicle of the road assemblies immobilized during the entire duration of the transport.
• car transporter units and road assemblies adapted to ensure optimal or at least profitable vehicle transport have loading heights incompatible with the use of rail motorways in the transport configuration.
• a car transporter road vehicle loaded on a rail motorway wagon exceeds the railway gauge dedicated to these motorways.
• Rail motorways do not by design have any element of protection for the vehicles transported and the risk of damage to these vehicles remains significant. This type of transport does not provide the necessary flexibility since all articulated road vehicles are all transported in the same train to a main station serving other destinations by road.
• Rail motorways are organized so generally by shuttles on predefined railway lines, which does not allow efficient service to all destinations.
• Specialized so-called railroad stations require significant infrastructure and extensive space for maneuvers and are often far from the final destination. To reuse the train, it must be unloaded in its entirety because it consists of vehicles loaded one behind the other.
• the manufacturers' sites have not been adapted or organized to date to allow, using road transport vehicles, the removal of manufactured vehicles from the factory.
• a third alternative would be to use wagons specially designed for the transport of semi-trailers by rail.
• a large part of the corresponding achievements is incompatible with the car transporter road assemblies offering the most efficient useful load volume: these are in particular harnessed assemblies composed of a truck and a trailer or even a bodywork removable on which a trailer is articulated.
• the mixed-use rail transport unit according to the invention is located in the field of road vehicle transport and aims to be used for direct rail transport of road vehicles on removable retractable or erasable supports adapted and in another configuration of being able to be used to transport a unit or a car transporter road assembly, preferably without its power unit.
• the term “road unit” or “road combination” is understood to mean, without this list being exhaustive, a truck, a trailer, a semi-trailer, a removable bodywork, a swap body, a container or a coupled or coupled assembly of these road vehicles.
• the rail unit has a pivoting carrying structure thanks to known lifting and pivoting means, allowing the wagon to be set obliquely for its loading / unloading. Therefore, in a train comprising railway transport units according to the invention, it is possible to load and unload the units independently of each other. In addition, as it is the railway unit which is loaded, the vehicles do not have to pass through raised areas of bogie passage as is the case in conventional car transport wagons. This puts 03/031247
• FIG. 1 is a side view of the empty conveyor rail structure in one of its versions
• FIG. 2 is a sectional view of the empty conveyor rail structure in one of its versions
• FIG. 3 is a side view of the transport railway structure loaded with minivan type cars
• FIG. 4 is a front view of the structure conveyor loaded in onospace type cars
• FIG. 5 is a side view of the conveyor rail structure containing an articulated road assembly loaded with cars
• FIG. 6 is a front view of the conveyor rail structure of FIG. 5,
• FIGS. 7 and 8 are two perspective views illustrating the loading or unloading in cars of the railway structure
• Figures 9 and 10 are two perspective views illustrating the entry or exit of an articulated road assembly of the transporting railway structure.
• the mixed-use rail transport unit consists of a carrying rail structure 1 hooked or fixed or otherwise connected in a lockable and detachable manner by at least one of its ends 2 and 3 to the rolling assembly of adjacent end, front 4 or rear 5.
• Each end rolling assembly consists of an end platform 6 or 7 mounted on one or more bogies or on one or more axles.
• the supporting railway structure 1 is of the type with lateral clearance by pivoting either at the end directly around an end pivoting center or supported by an end crossmember pivotally mounted on the next wagon, or central by any suitable means.
• It may be a pivoting center, central or end, associated with a rectilinear element for joining and retaining the end platforms 6 and 7 in combination with motorized lifting-pivoting means provided by example on tracks in loading and unloading stations. It can also be an end pivot center allowing the railway structure to offset more weakly, but condemning in operation the pivot end and this around a pivot crosspiece carried by the next wagon.
• any set of lateral clearance can be used obliquely, but preferably by pivoting.
• the carrying railway structure 1 according to the invention has means suitable for carrying out the direct transport of road vehicles, for example cars such as 8 or vans or vans such as 9 or the transport of units or road units 10 specifically provided for the transport of road vehicles.
• road vehicles for example cars such as 8 or vans or vans such as 9 or the transport of units or road units 10 specifically provided for the transport of road vehicles.
• the carrier rail structure 1 as a whole will first be described as shown in FIGS. 1 to 6.
• This lowered bottom 11 constitutes a lower loading floor 12 reinforced locally if necessary by stiffeners.
• This floor is preferably thin in order to gain useful loading volume and thus to allow two levels of loading in road vehicles or a road unit 10 transporting road vehicles without its power unit. It is even made in a preferred version as thin as possible. It can have on the underside, as can be seen more particularly in FIG. 6, a central channel 13 resulting from a recessed longitudinal cavity serving as a housing for a mechanical connection 14 of constant length between the two end platforms 6 and 7 and this in order to keep them at a fixed distance from each other during loading / unloading operations.
• One of the ends, only 2 or 3 or both ends 2 and 3 of the carrying railway structure 1 has (s) attachment and dissociable and lockable fixing means on the facing face or on the top of the platform (s) (s) -form (s) corresponding (s) 6 or 7 or 6 and 7 for assembly-association after loading and disassembly-dissociation before unloading.
• the supporting rail structure 1 continues on one side, for example towards the front, by a projecting overhanging end which, for example, engages in a complementary stabilization structure as described in parallel protection.
• the lowered bottom 11 is extended upwards by lateral side walls 15 and 16 mechanically connected to the latter and constituting with the lowered bottom 11 most of its bodywork and its structural elements.
• These sidewall walls 15 and 16 serve as support structures on which are mounted support means 17 adjustable in height and removable, retractable or erasable, intended to constitute an upper loading floor 18 supporting a plurality of road vehicles in position transport as shown in Figures 2 and 4 and which disappears from this space in the transport configuration of a road unit ( Figure 6).
• These support means 17 are formed of support elements intended to support for each of them and each time with its opposite counterpart or all by itself a road vehicle or a part thereof. These support means (17) are retractable, removable or erasable, for example against or in each of the sidewall sides (15) and (16).
• a plurality flat support supports for example individual ones such as 19 whose position is adjustable in height.
• These are, for example trays 20 formed of decking elements or other made removable or retractable between a retracted position of rest and an active working position in which the trays 20 counterparts are erected horizontally and can come to junction or overlapping by their lateral edges, making it possible to constitute, by their longitudinal succession, a horizontal rolling and support plane over which the vehicles pass during the loading or unloading phases and on which the vehicles rest in the transport position.
• the internal longitudinal edges opposite these plates 20 are either contiguous as shown in the figures, or separated to reduce the width of these plates 20.
• planar supports because of their generally planar shape. It is understood that these can have protrusions or recesses or any other specific conformation.
• An alternative embodiment consists in providing these flat supports 19, in particular these plates 20 each articulated by one of its longitudinal sides on for example a longitudinal element, profiled edge or other of the adjacent side wall 15 or 16 or on one or two successive uprights 21 or vertical area (s) of reinforcement, for example by pivot hinges of the hinge type or the like allowing the flat support supports 19, in particular to the plates 20, to be erased by folding against the face internal of the adjacent side wall and to stand in a horizontal position to be immobilized in this position by appropriate means.
• uprights or lifting posts for example of the type of those known for car-carrier vehicles or more generally vehicle-carriers.
• the place where the forces are transmitted to the adjacent side wall and to the frame are mechanically reinforced by doublings, by stiffeners or other means.
• the height of these flat supports, in particular of these plates 20, relative to the lower loading plane is adjustable by a known mechanism, for example rack, screw and translation nut or any other appropriate means.
• these flat support supports 19 or trays 20 will be chosen to be as small as possible to make them lighter and therefore easier to transport, handle and store, and to facilitate their deletion when they are not in use. .
• the sidewall walls 15 and 16 can extend vertically upwards up to the limit authorized by the applicable railway gauge, which makes it possible to protect, during their transport, the vehicles loaded on the two floors of the carrying railway structure 1.
• the sidewall walls 15 and 16 can be in many different forms and variants. Unable to describe them all, a limited number of examples have been chosen and developed below.
• side walls 15 and 16 without any intermediate stud.
• These consist of a general frame defining a circumscribed surface covered with one or more juxtaposed sheets of sheet metal.
• the areas in line with the joints with the removable retractable or erasable support plates, are reinforced. If necessary, the sheet is reinforced on its rear face along a vertical zone extending between each articulation to a support plate and the connection corresponding to the support rail structure 1.
• flank 15 and 16 with thin protection for example a sheet veil or a sheet of flexible material of a textile or plastic element, for example a tarpaulin covering the entire lateral surface and bearing on uprights 21
• this type of side walls 15 and 16 requires a minimum frame to support, at the level of each articulation or attachment point, the weight of the loaded plates 20. Amounts, posts or other suitable means must be provided for this purpose.
• the sidewall walls 15 and 16 may each be formed from uprights mechanically connected each to the edges or to the edge profiles 22 of the lower loading floor 12. If necessary, the uprights 21 will be mechanically stabilized and braced and joined at their upper part by an upper mechanical connection which can constitute the mechanical base of the roof structure.
• a closing door is provided on one of the front faces. If necessary, the door is fitted to the only accessible front face. It is intended for the passage of operators and any person having to access the interior. The opposite front face is then closed for security reasons.
• Means for immobilization and stowage means are also provided on the lower loading plane 12, these being specific either to the road units transported or to the road vehicles transported. It is the same on the upper loading floor 18 for road vehicles.
• Road vehicles are moved by their own means by operators to the place they will occupy for their transport.
• an inclined access ramp such as 23 adjustable in height at at least two positions on its inclined plane 24 allows road vehicles to access the lower loading floor 12 and the upper loading plane 18 respectively in its low and high position.
• the loading, then unloading is carried out stage by stage, the cars being arranged one after the other in the appropriate locations along the useful space existing on the flat supports 19 or trays 20 of the upper stage on the floor upper loading 18 and lower loading floor 12.
• the upper space of the supporting railway structure can be opened or closed by a covering structure 25. This can be flexible or else rigid and articulated. If it is chosen for the upper central space to remain open, there is no structure or predisposition for closing.
• a roof 28 in the form for example of two folding shells 29 and 30 closing the upper space by juxtaposition of their free edges, as shown in FIGS. 2, 4 and 6, makes it possible to quickly carry out the operations of loading and unloading and to ensure sufficient protection against bad weather, dust and any disturbance coming from outside.
• the profile of the folding hulls 29 and 30 is such that their lower part remains rising over a certain length so as to provide a free space in extension of the side walls of flank 15 and 16, sufficient space not to interfere with the posts 31 of the articulated road units 10 transported.
• These folding protective shells 29 and 30 serve in the open position of bodyguards for operators.
• the profile of the lower part 32 of the wagon is such that it makes the best use of the possibilities of the railway gauge, in particular in its lower limit.
• the lower loading floor 12 is thus located by construction at a low level and in general as low as the lower limit of the railway gauge as shown in FIG. 6 allows.
• the lower longitudinal edges 33 and 34 of the wagon must be raised to avoid interfering with the track devices.
• these raising structures or supports 37 are spaced towards the inside of the carrying railway structure 1 by a distance compatible with the average track width of the vehicle-transported road assemblies.
• the carrying railway structure according to the invention can admit an articulated road unit 10 transporting road vehicles without its power unit unit formed for example of a trailer and a removable body mounted on the truck.
• Figures 9 and 10 show the case of transporting an articulated road unit 10 without its truck.
• the loading and unloading of this road unit 10 is carried out in the pivoted position of the rail structure 1 using the access ramp 23 with two height-adjustable positions and the motor-tractor unit used for the maneuvers of this articulated road unit 10.
• the roof 28 is fully opened by folding the two shells 29 and 30 outwards to allow the entry of the road unit with the pneumatic suspensions inflated in the running state. .
• the dissociation with the motorcycle-tractor road group takes place and the latter is released for other uses.
• the carrier body 1 of the articulated road assembly 10 is then fixed to the carrier rail structure, and this preferably body to body. In certain cases, to gain useful loading height, the suspension of the articulated road assembly is deflated. This operation must of course take place before securing the structures.
• the pivoting roof shells 29 and 30 are then folded down to close in order to completely close the conveyor rail unit.
• Unloading is carried out in reverse, the motor-tractor unit comes in reverse gear at the entrance to the carrying railway structure.
• the articulated road unit 10 is ready for road transport after its association with the body structure carrying the road vehicles and opening the roof then, if necessary, inflating the suspensions under road driving conditions.

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• Engineering & Computer Science (AREA)
• Transportation (AREA)
• Mechanical Engineering (AREA)
• Loading Or Unloading Of Vehicles (AREA)
• Road Paving Structures (AREA)
• Platform Screen Doors And Railroad Systems (AREA)
• Machines For Laying And Maintaining Railways (AREA)
• Auxiliary Methods And Devices For Loading And Unloading (AREA)
• Vehicle Step Arrangements And Article Storage (AREA)

Applications Claiming Priority (3)

Publications (2)

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ID=8868090

Family Applications (1)

Country Status (7)

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• 2001
  • 2001-10-09 FR FR0112991A patent/FR2830502B1/fr not_active Expired - Fee Related
• 2002
  • 2002-10-08 CN CNB028199030A patent/CN100482508C/zh not_active Expired - Fee Related
  • 2002-10-08 AU AU2002362708A patent/AU2002362708A1/en not_active Abandoned
  • 2002-10-08 DE DE60202890T patent/DE60202890T2/de not_active Expired - Lifetime
  • 2002-10-08 WO PCT/FR2002/003417 patent/WO2003031247A2/fr not_active Application Discontinuation
  • 2002-10-08 AT AT02800638T patent/ATE288374T1/de not_active IP Right Cessation
  • 2002-10-08 EP EP02800638A patent/EP1434708B1/de not_active Expired - Lifetime

Non-Patent Citations (1)

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