GB1288283A - - Google Patents

Abstract

1288283 Track connecting apparatus F PLASSER 27 Nov 1969 [2 Dec 1968] 58093/69 Heading B7N [Also in Divisions E1 and G1] In a railway track-shifting and aligning machine wherein ballast-tamping tools 7 and rail-lifting rollers 8 are mounted between front and rear undercarriages of a chassis shown carrying track level monitoring means 11, 12, 13, the spacing between the front and rear undercarriages is variable so that a shorter spacing can be used e.g. in transit and for small lifts, whilst a larger spacing can be used when a greater rail lift is required. As shown, the chassis 1 has fixed front and rear undercarriages 3, 2 at the shorter spacing and a further hydraulically-actuated foremost undercarriage 4 at the larger spacing, the latter being vertically displaceable so that it can be lowered on to the track 5 to render the undercarriage 3 inoperative. The undercarriage 4 may also be horizontally displaceable along guide 20. In a modification, Fig. 3 (not shown), the shorter-spaced undercarriage (3) is vertically displaceable, whilst the foremost undercarriage (4) is carried by a horizontal beam telescopically protruding from the front of the chassis 1. The tamping tools 7 are height-adjustable and may as shown straddle a single sleeper or, Fig. 3 (not shown), a pair of sleepers. The rail-gripping rollers 8 are shifted by hydraulic cylinders 9, 10 to effect vertical and lateral alignment. Monitoring systems.-In Figs. 1 and 2 track level is monitored by a track-mounted shadow board 13 between light transmitter/receivers 11, 12. Lateral alignment is monitored by measuring the horizontal arc heights (at point 12<SP>1</SP>) from short and long chord wires 15 and 16 stretched between trolleys 17-18 and trolleys 17-21, the track 5 being shifted sideways until the arc heights are equal. The rear trolley 7 is adjustably connected to the chassis 1 by rod 19. In Figs. 3, 4 (not shown) and also in Fig. 5 the level-monitoring shadow board 13<SP>1</SP> is supported at longitudinally-spaced points to compensate for local level differences, while the chord wire system is replaced by a light system wherein a horizontally-movable shadow board (25) intercepts a light beam 22 on one side of the chassis, the front receiver/transmitter being mounted on a trolley which is either (Fig. 5) independent and remotely controlled (e.g. by light beams 30, 22), or (Figs. 3, 4) connected to the chassis by a telescopic rod (27). In Fig. 5 the light beam 30 can be used to increase the accuracy of the beam 14.