GB1581313A

GB1581313A - Underground suspended railway structures

Info

Publication number: GB1581313A
Application number: GB196678A
Authority: GB
Original assignee: Becorit Ltd
Current assignee: Spare IPG 15 Ltd
Priority date: 1978-01-18
Filing date: 1978-01-18
Publication date: 1980-12-10

Description

54) IMPROVEMENTS RELATING TO UNDERGROUND SUSPENDED RAILWAY STRUCTURES (71) We, BECORIT (G.B.) LIMITED a British Company of 2, Leslie Road, Gregory Boulevard, Nottingham, NG7 6PB 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 a suspended railway structure in a mine or other underground working.

Railway tracks in underground mine workings are commonly suspended from roof-supporting girders by means of chains.

One end of each chain is connected by a suitable bracket to a girder and the track is attached to the chain at a position along the length of the chain which is selected according to the required height of the track relative to the girder. The track comprises a number of rails arranged end-to-end. Because movements of the girders are likely to occur during the service life of the railway structure, it is desirable to connect the rails together in a manner such that some degree of free articulation of adjacent rails in a vertical plane can occur. For this reason, it is desirable to suspend each rail by its ends only, otherwise the connected ends of adjacent rails may move vertically when a load passes along the track.

It is not always convenient to so arrange the track that the ends of each rail coincide with roof supporting girders. Accordingly, it is common for some of the suspension chains to be inclined in a direction along the track, instead of extending vertically. The tension in the chain resulting from a given vertical load increases as the inclination of the chain to the vertical is increased. Thus, inclined chains may be stressed excessively or chains having a greater strength than would be required if the chains were always arranged vertically must be used. Furthermore, the inclined suspension chains apply to the roof supporting arches forces having a component in a horizontal direction along the track. Such forces tend to displace the arches from their required positions.Also, the inclination of some of the chains makes it difficult to install the track with the rails level or uniformly inclined.

It is an object of the present invention to provide a suspended railway structure in which significant inclination of suspension chains can be avoided.

According to the invention, there is provided an underground suspended railway structure including a track comprising a plurality of running rails arranged end-toend and a plurality of roof-supporting girders which are spaced apart along the track and from which the track is suspended, wherein there is provided a beam having opposite ends supported on respective girders and the adjacent ends of a pair of running rails of the track are suspended from the beam.

By selecting the position along the beam from which the ends of the running rails are suspended so that this position lies directly above the ends of the rails, inclination of the chain or other element by which the rails are suspended can be avoided.

The beam preferably has at opposite ends formations adapted to rest on flanges of adjacent, parallel roof-supporting girders and means for clamping these formations to the flanges.

The means for clamping may be arranged to draw each formation towards the web of an I-section girder with which the formation is engaged.

The beam may be formed with a series of apertures which are spaced apart along the beam. A bolt or other releasable fastener can then be passed through a selected aperture to fasten a bracket to the beam at a selected position along the beam.

The invention will now be described, by way of example, with reference to the accompanying drawing wherein: Figure 1 illustrates diagrammatically a part of a suspended railway structure, Figure 2 shows on an enlarged scale a beam and adjacent parts of the structure of Figure 1, and Figure 3 shows a cross-section on the line 3-3 of Figure 2.

The underground suspended railway structure shown in the accompanying drawing includes a monorail track comprising a plurality of running rails arranged end-toend. The rails are suspended at their ends by chains 2 which are connected to the rails by brackets 3. The structure further comprises a series of roof-supporting girders which are spaced apart along the track. The girders may be arch girders or rectilinear girders supported by props. Where the ends of running rails of the track lie directly below a girder or approximately directly below a girder, the chains by which the ends of the rails are suspended are attached to the corresponding girder by a bracket which may be of known construction.

In the drawing, there is shown a crosssection of each of two adjacent roofsupporting girders 10 and 11, between which the adjacent ends of a pair of running rails 4 and 5 are disposed. The ends of these rails cannot be suspended directly from one or other of the arches 10 and 11 by means of a substantially vertical chain.

Between the arches 10 and 11, there extends a beam 12 which has an I-shaped cross-section along the major part of its length. In the vertical web 13 of the beam there is formed a series of apertures 14 which are spaced apart along the length of the beam. A bracket 15 is releasably connected to the beam by a bolt 16 which extends through a selected one of the apertures 14. The bracket is formed to embrace lower flanges of the beam and includes an eye 17 situated below the beam to enable the suspension chain 2 to be attached to the bracket. If the bolt 16 is withdrawn from the aperture 14, the bracket can slide along the beam to a selected other one of the apertures 14 and then be fastened to the beam at that position by means of the bolt.The beam 12 lies directly above and is parallel to the monorail track 1 so that the bracket 15 can be positioned substantially directly above the adjacent ends of the pair of running rails 4 and 5. The ends of these rails can be suspended from the bracket by means of substantially vertical chain.

At each end of the beam 12, there is provided a formation for engaging a lower flange 18 of the adjacent arch. This formation includes a plate-like element 19 which is arranged to rest on the upwardly presented face of the flange 18 and so transmit a downward load from the beam to the arch.

The structure further includes a pair of clamps, one at each end of the beam 12, to clamp the plate elements 19 to the flanges 18. Each clamp includes an abutment 20 which is structurally separate from the beam 12 and is adapted to engage over a lower flange 21 opposite to the flange 18. The clamp further includes a pair of bolts 22 which is arranged to draw the abutment 20 towards a further abutment 23 which is integral with the plate element 19 and is rigidly secured to th web 13 of the beam.

The bolts 22 are situated below the flanges 18 and 21 and are spaced somewhat therefrom. A spacer 24 is provided between the abutments 20 and 23 at a position on the side of the bolts 22 remote from the flanges 18 and 21. When the bolts 22 are tightened, the plate element 19 is clamped firmly in face-to-face engagement with the flange 18.

This ensures that the beam 12 cannot move longitudinally relative to the arch and also prevents rocking of the beam about an axis parallel to its longitudinal centre line.

As compared with arranging the track so that the ends of each rail lie directly below respective girders, it is relatively easy to arrange the track so that the ends of each rail do not lie directly below roof-supporting girders but lie directly below beams such as the beam 12. If the track is arranged in this manner, the load which is, transmitted from the track by each chain to the roof supporting girders is distributed between two such girders. Since the load which can be supported by the track is limited by the maximum load which can safely be applied to any one girder, this arrangement increases the load capacity of the railway structure. It will be noted that none of the apertures 14 is situated immediately adjacent to either of the arch girders 10 and 11. This ensures that the load applied to either arch is substantially less than the tension in the chain 2.

WHAT WE CLAIM IS: 1. An underground suspended railway structure including a track comprising a plurality of running rails arranged end-toend and a plurality of roof-supporting girders which are spaced apart along the track and from which the track is suspended, wherein there is provided a beam having opposite ends supported on respective girders and the adjacent ends of a pair of running rails of the track are suspended from the beam.

2. A structure according to Claim 1 wherein the beam has at opposite ends formations adapted to rest on flanges of adjacent roof-supporting girders and means for clamping these formations to the flanges.

3. A structure according to Claim 2

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

Claims

**WARNING** start of CLMS field may overlap end of DESC **. The invention will now be described, by way of example, with reference to the accompanying drawing wherein: Figure 1 illustrates diagrammatically a part of a suspended railway structure, Figure 2 shows on an enlarged scale a beam and adjacent parts of the structure of Figure 1, and Figure 3 shows a cross-section on the line 3-3 of Figure 2. The underground suspended railway structure shown in the accompanying drawing includes a monorail track comprising a plurality of running rails arranged end-toend. The rails are suspended at their ends by chains 2 which are connected to the rails by brackets 3. The structure further comprises a series of roof-supporting girders which are spaced apart along the track. The girders may be arch girders or rectilinear girders supported by props. Where the ends of running rails of the track lie directly below a girder or approximately directly below a girder, the chains by which the ends of the rails are suspended are attached to the corresponding girder by a bracket which may be of known construction. In the drawing, there is shown a crosssection of each of two adjacent roofsupporting girders 10 and 11, between which the adjacent ends of a pair of running rails 4 and 5 are disposed. The ends of these rails cannot be suspended directly from one or other of the arches 10 and 11 by means of a substantially vertical chain. Between the arches 10 and 11, there extends a beam 12 which has an I-shaped cross-section along the major part of its length. In the vertical web 13 of the beam there is formed a series of apertures 14 which are spaced apart along the length of the beam. A bracket 15 is releasably connected to the beam by a bolt 16 which extends through a selected one of the apertures 14. The bracket is formed to embrace lower flanges of the beam and includes an eye 17 situated below the beam to enable the suspension chain 2 to be attached to the bracket. If the bolt 16 is withdrawn from the aperture 14, the bracket can slide along the beam to a selected other one of the apertures 14 and then be fastened to the beam at that position by means of the bolt.The beam 12 lies directly above and is parallel to the monorail track 1 so that the bracket 15 can be positioned substantially directly above the adjacent ends of the pair of running rails 4 and 5. The ends of these rails can be suspended from the bracket by means of substantially vertical chain. At each end of the beam 12, there is provided a formation for engaging a lower flange 18 of the adjacent arch. This formation includes a plate-like element 19 which is arranged to rest on the upwardly presented face of the flange 18 and so transmit a downward load from the beam to the arch. The structure further includes a pair of clamps, one at each end of the beam 12, to clamp the plate elements 19 to the flanges 18. Each clamp includes an abutment 20 which is structurally separate from the beam 12 and is adapted to engage over a lower flange 21 opposite to the flange 18. The clamp further includes a pair of bolts 22 which is arranged to draw the abutment 20 towards a further abutment 23 which is integral with the plate element 19 and is rigidly secured to th web 13 of the beam. The bolts 22 are situated below the flanges 18 and 21 and are spaced somewhat therefrom. A spacer 24 is provided between the abutments 20 and 23 at a position on the side of the bolts 22 remote from the flanges 18 and 21. When the bolts 22 are tightened, the plate element 19 is clamped firmly in face-to-face engagement with the flange 18. This ensures that the beam 12 cannot move longitudinally relative to the arch and also prevents rocking of the beam about an axis parallel to its longitudinal centre line. As compared with arranging the track so that the ends of each rail lie directly below respective girders, it is relatively easy to arrange the track so that the ends of each rail do not lie directly below roof-supporting girders but lie directly below beams such as the beam 12. If the track is arranged in this manner, the load which is, transmitted from the track by each chain to the roof supporting girders is distributed between two such girders. Since the load which can be supported by the track is limited by the maximum load which can safely be applied to any one girder, this arrangement increases the load capacity of the railway structure. It will be noted that none of the apertures 14 is situated immediately adjacent to either of the arch girders 10 and 11.This ensures that the load applied to either arch is substantially less than the tension in the chain 2. WHAT WE CLAIM IS:

1. An underground suspended railway structure including a track comprising a plurality of running rails arranged end-toend and a plurality of roof-supporting girders which are spaced apart along the track and from which the track is suspended, wherein there is provided a beam having opposite ends supported on respective girders and the adjacent ends of a pair of running rails of the track are suspended from the beam.

3. A structure according to Claim 2

wherein the means for damping is arranged to draw each formation towards the web of an I-section girder with which the formation is engaged.

4. A structure according to any one of Claims 1, 2 and 3 wherein the beam is formed with a series of apertures which are spaced apart along the beam and a bracket is fastened to the beam at a selected position along the length of the beam by means of a releasable fastener which extends through a selected one of the apertures.

5. A structure substantially as herein described with reference to and as shown in the accompanying drawings.