GB1573327A - Tailway bogies - Google Patents

Description

(54) RAILWAY BOGIES (71) We, GENERAL STEEL INDUS TRIES INC., a Corporation organised and existing under the laws of the State of Delaware, United States of America, of 11 South Meramec, St. Louis, State of Missouri 63105, United States of America, do hereby declare the invention, for which we pray that a patent may be granted to us, and the method by which it is to be performed, to be particularly described in and by the following statement: This invention relates to railway bogies.

The present specification is a divisional from our U.K. Patent Specification No. 1573324 (7402/77), to which reference is directed.

Reference is also directed to our U.K.

Patent Specification No. 1573326 (7912446), which is also a divisional from U.K. Patent Specification No. 1573326 (7402/77).

According to the present invention there is provided a railway bogie comprising a pair of wheel and axle assemblies, each having a pair of railway flanged wheels rigidly mounted on the ends of an axle and journal bearing means on the end portions of each said axle, a bogie frame supported from said wheel and axle assemblies and accommodating relative yawing thereof for steering, a rigid element mounted on each said journal bearing means and having upwardly converging fore and aft surfaces, each of said surfaces being V-shaped in plan and mounting similarly shaped elastomeric pad devices, said bogie frame having downwardly open pedestal jaws at each of its ends with their inner jaw surfaces similarly inclined and complementarily V-shaped in plan to said pad devices, said elastomeric pad devics being secured to said pedestal jaw surfaces whereby to resiliently support the respective ends of said bogie frame from the respective axle bearing means vertically, the V-shaped angle of said pad devices being sufficiently acute that said pad devices are yieldable substantially lengthwise to accommodate longitudinal components of said yawing movements and are relatively stiff transversely of the bogie, said axle bearing means and the respective rigid elements being relatively movable transversely of the truck whereby to allow transverse components of said yawing movements and thereby cooperate with said pad devices to accommodate yawing movements of the respective wheel and axle assemblies with respect to said bogie frame.

A specific embodiment of the invention will now be described by way of example with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which: Figure 1 is a side elevational view, partially sectionalized, of a bogie embodying the invention.

Figure 2 is an enlarged fragmentary elevational view, partially sectionalized along line 9-9 of Figure 3, of a pedestal and the associated primary suspension arrangement of the bogie illustrated in Figure 1.

Figure 3 is an enlarged top view partially sectionalized along line 10-10 of Figure 2.

The bogie illustrated in the drawings has a pair of spaced wheel and axle assemblies each comprising railway flanged wheels mounted in gauged pairs on the ends of the respective axles 2 and 3. The effective conicity of the wheel tread profiles is sufficient to effect self-steering of each wheel and axle assembly by means of the differential effect between the wheel diameters of the outer and inner wheels on curved track and is substantially greater than the standard conicity of 1:20 or 0.05, preferably being between 1:10 and 1:5.

Housings 105 of journal bearings 106 are of cylindrical shape and are surrounded by an elastomeric grommet 107 which is clamped between semi-cylindrical apertures 109 in the verticaly divided journal bearing adapter halves 111 and 112. Journal bearing adapter havles 111 and 112 are formed at their tops with hinge pin bearing members 113 and 114 through which a hinge pin 115 extends to permit opening up the adapter 111, 112 for insertion and removal of grommets 107 and journal bearing housings 105.

On their lower surfaces, adapter halves 111 and 112 are formed with depending bosses 116 and 117 with aligned holes receiving a bolt 119 by which the journal bearing adapter halves are secured to each other in abutting assembled relation by means of a nut 121 on bolt 119.

With this arrangement of the journal bearings and their housings 105, the surrounding grommets 107 and the journal bearing adapter structure 111, 112 thus described, it will be evident that the axle 2 or 3 will be capable of movement transversely of the bogie with respect to the journal bearing adapters 111 and 112 to the extent that the elastomeric material of grommet 107 is yieldable in shear.

To support the bogie frame from the journal bearing adapters 111, 112, the bogie frame end portions 120 are formed with downwardly open pedestal jaws defined by depending pedestal legs 121 and 123 spaced apart longitudinally of the bogie a substantially greater distance than the maximum dimension longitudinally of the bogie of axle bearing adapters 111, 112 and their inner surfaces 125 and 127 respectively are symmetrically inclined slightly toward each other upwardly in a direction longitudinally of the bogie and are of concave V-shape with their apices 129 pointing away from the respective axle. The outer transverse surfaces 131 and 133 respectively of journal bearing adapter halves 111 and 112 are similarly inclined substantially parallel respectively to pedestal surfaces 125 and 127 are are of similar, though convex, V-shaped cross section.Interposed between the opposed V-shaped surfaces 125, 131, and 127, 133 are multi-layer sandwich devices of chevron shape in plan, each consisting of three V-shaped elastomeric pads 135 interleaved by V-shaped metal plates 139 and bounded by V-shaped metal boundary plates 141 and 143. Elastomeric pads 135 are bonded to the adjacent metal plates 135, 141 and 143, and inner boundary plates 141 are secured to the outer V-shaped surfaces 131 and 133 of the axle bearing adapter halves 111 and 112, and the outer boundary plates 143 of the elastomeric sandwich devices are secured to V-shaped surfaces 125 and 127 respectively of the pedestal legs, such that the bogie frame is supported on the axle bearings housings 111 and 112 by the resistance to shear and compression vertically of elastomeric pads 135, vertical cushioning of the bogie frame being provided by the yieldability, principally in shear vertically, of the elastomeric pads 135. The sandwich devices 135, 139, 141, 143, the mounting surfaces 131 and 133 of journal bearing adapters 111, 112, and the mounting surfaces 123 and 127 of pedestals 121 and 123 are sharply angled, preferably in the order of 90 , such that elastomeric pads 135 are relatively yieldable longitudinally of the bogie due to their relatively large shear component and relatively small compression component lengthwise of the bogie, thus accommodating substantial movement lengthwise of the bogie of the respective axle journal portions and eliminating the need for additional means to accommodate such longitudinal movement of the axle ends as is required for radial movements of the axles on curved track.Inasmuch as the chevron sandwich devices of this relatively acute angular configuration provide resistance through compression transversely of the bogie, movements of the axles transversely of the bogie, required for radiation of the axles on curved track and to cushion the bogie frame from impact due to transverse irregularities in the bogie rails, are accommodated by shear in elastomeric grommets 109 in a direction transverse of the bogie.

To oppose any tendencies of pedestal legs 121 and 123 to spread apart due to the longitudinal components of the load applied through chevron devices 135, 139, 141, 143., the lower ends of the pedestal legs are secured to each other by tie bolts 151.

Preferably diagonal links 47 and 49 are pivotally connected at 45 to brackets 149 extending inwardly from the axle bearing housings 105. The diagonal links 49 couple the wheel induced steering movements of the individual wheel and axle assemblies to cause their symmetrical turning movements in opposite directions on curved track and cooperate with the resistance offered by the longitudinally acting pads 23 to oppose hunting movements of the wheel and axle assemblies on tangent track.

It will be evident that when steering forces are applied to the axles as a result of the differential effect of the high conicity treads of the inner and outer wheels, the journal portions of the axles and their surrounding bearings and bearing housings 105 will be permitted to move longitudinally in the pedestal jaws by reason of the relatively sharp angular configuration of the chevron pad devices with their consequent large shear components and relatively small compression components lengthwise of the bogie and shear in grommets 109 between journal bearing housings 105 and journal bearing adapters 111, 112 will permit the necessary movement of the axles transverse of the bogie, compensating for the transverse stiffness of the chevron devices resulting from their relatively high compression component transversely of the bogie.Im pacts received by the wheel and axle assemblies from transverse irregularities in the bogie rails are absorbed by shear in grommets 107 which thereby cushion the bogie frame from such impacts.

WHAT WE CLAIM IS: 1. A railway bogie comprising a pair of wheel and axle assemblies, each having a pair of railway flanged wheels rigidly mounted on the ends of an axle and journal bearing means on the end portions of each said axle, a bogie frame supported from said wheel and axle assemblies and accommodating relative yawing thereof for steering, a rigid element mounted on each said journal bearing means and having upwardly converging fore and aft surfaces, each of said surfaces being V-shaped in plan and mounting similarly shaped elastomeric pad devices, said bogie frame having downwardly open pedestal jaws at each of its ends with their inner jaw surfaces similarly inclined and complementarily V-shaped in plan to said pad devices, said elastomeric pad devices being secured to said pedestal jaw surfaces whereby to resiliently support the respective ends of said bogie frame from the respective axle bearing means vertically, the V-shaped angle of said pad devices being sufficiently acute that said pad devices are yieldable substantially lengthwise to accommodate longitudinal components of said yawing movements and are relatively stiff transversely of the bogie, said axle bearing means and the respective rigid elements being relatively movable transversely of the truck whereby to allow transverse components of said yawing movements and thereby cooperate with said pad devices to accommodate yawing movements of the respective wheel and axle assemblies with respect to said bogie frame.

2. A railway bogie as claimed in claim 1, wherein an elastomeric element is interposed between each of said journal bearings and the respective rigid element and substantially yieldable only transversely of the bogie to cooperate with said elastomeric pad devices to yieldingly resist yawing movements of the respective wheel and axle assemblies with respect to said bogie frame.

3. A railway bogie as claimed in claim 2, wherein each axle bearing means is of cylindrical shape and each rigid element has a cylindrical recess receiving the respective axle and bearing means, each elastomeric element comprising a grommet clamped in the annular space between said rigid element and the respective axle bearing means.

4. A railway bogie substantially as hereinbefore described and with reference to and as illustrated in the accompanying drawings.

GENERAL STEEL INDUSTRIES INC.

**WARNING** end of DESC field may overlap start of CLMS **.

Claims (4)

**WARNING** start of CLMS field may overlap end of DESC **. pacts received by the wheel and axle assemblies from transverse irregularities in the bogie rails are absorbed by shear in grommets 107 which thereby cushion the bogie frame from such impacts. WHAT WE CLAIM IS:

1. A railway bogie comprising a pair of wheel and axle assemblies, each having a pair of railway flanged wheels rigidly mounted on the ends of an axle and journal bearing means on the end portions of each said axle, a bogie frame supported from said wheel and axle assemblies and accommodating relative yawing thereof for steering, a rigid element mounted on each said journal bearing means and having upwardly converging fore and aft surfaces, each of said surfaces being V-shaped in plan and mounting similarly shaped elastomeric pad devices, said bogie frame having downwardly open pedestal jaws at each of its ends with their inner jaw surfaces similarly inclined and complementarily V-shaped in plan to said pad devices, said elastomeric pad devices being secured to said pedestal jaw surfaces whereby to resiliently support the respective ends of said bogie frame from the respective axle bearing means vertically, the V-shaped angle of said pad devices being sufficiently acute that said pad devices are yieldable substantially lengthwise to accommodate longitudinal components of said yawing movements and are relatively stiff transversely of the bogie, said axle bearing means and the respective rigid elements being relatively movable transversely of the truck whereby to allow transverse components of said yawing movements and thereby cooperate with said pad devices to accommodate yawing movements of the respective wheel and axle assemblies with respect to said bogie frame.

2. A railway bogie as claimed in claim 1, wherein an elastomeric element is interposed between each of said journal bearings and the respective rigid element and substantially yieldable only transversely of the bogie to cooperate with said elastomeric pad devices to yieldingly resist yawing movements of the respective wheel and axle assemblies with respect to said bogie frame.

3. A railway bogie as claimed in claim 2, wherein each axle bearing means is of cylindrical shape and each rigid element has a cylindrical recess receiving the respective axle and bearing means, each elastomeric element comprising a grommet clamped in the annular space between said rigid element and the respective axle bearing means.

4. A railway bogie substantially as hereinbefore described and with reference to and as illustrated in the accompanying drawings.

GENERAL STEEL INDUSTRIES INC.