GB2324775A

GB2324775A - Wagon for drawing welded rails off tranport wagons using at least two laterally spaced crane jibs.

Info

Publication number: GB2324775A
Application number: GB9726655A
Authority: GB
Inventors: Bruno Stroebl
Original assignee: Georg Robel GmbH and Co
Current assignee: Georg Robel GmbH and Co
Priority date: 1997-01-09
Filing date: 1997-12-17
Publication date: 1998-11-04
Anticipated expiration: 2017-12-17
Also published as: DE29701016U1; FR2759339B1; DE19700463A1; FR2759339A1; GB9726655D0; GB2324775B

Abstract

A wagon 1 for travel on rails for drawing long welded rails 2 off transport wagons has a crane carriage 9 mounted in a positively locking manner in a linear guide 10 extending in the longitudinal direction of the wagon and connected to a wagon frame 3. The said crane carriage is displaceable longitudinally by means of a displacement drive 17 for positive power transmission and is connected to at least two variable length crane jibs 5 which are spaced from one another with respect to the transverse direction of the wagon and comprise rail gripping devices 7 arranged in the free end region. Preferably the crane jibs 5 are mounted on a crane pillar 8 which may be rotatable about a vertical axis by means of a rotary drive. The wagon 1 may be provided with two independently displaceable crane carriages 9 and all of the various drives may be controlled remotely.

Description

1 2324775 A WAGON DESIGNED FOR TRAVEL ON RAILS FOR DRAWING LONG WELDED

RAILS OFF TRANSPORT WAGONS The invention relates to a wagon designed for travel on rails for drawing long welded rails off transport wagons, comprising a wagon frame supported on on-track undercarriages.

Rail-loading trains composed of a plurality of railloading wagons which are coupled together are already known through DE 12 08 326 B or DE 27 34 748 B. Rail supports secured to the wagon frame and spaced apart from one another in the longitudinal direction of the wagon or train and comprising supporting rollers arranged one behind the other in the transverse direction of the wagon are known for supporting the long welded rails which are to be transported.

The wagon provided at the end of the train, also referred to as the chute wagon, for drawing off the long welded rails has, like the adjoining railloading wagons, crane rails in the region of each longitudinal wagon side which extend in the longitudinal direction of the wagon for a railloading crane to travel along. This crane is designed to travel over the supported long welded rails by means of a gantry frame-like construction and with the aid of two crane jibs is able to pick up two long welded rails at a time and move them towards the chute wagon. The rails guided in this end region by means of rollers are then moved on until they touch the ground and are finally anchored to the track. The rest of the procedure for drawing off the two long welded rails is effected by moving the rail-loading train forwards.

However, a wagon designed in this way for drawing off long welded rails with the aid of a rail-loading crane requires specially designe.d railloading wagons.

The object of the present invention is to provide a wagon designed for travel on rails of the type previously defined which may be universally used with a great variety of types of 2 rail-loading wagon.

This object is achieved according to the invention with a wagon of the type previously defined which is characterised by a crane carriage, mounted in a positively locking manner in a linear guide extending in the longitudinal direction of the wagon and connected to the wagon frame, which crane carriage is displaceable longitudinally by means of a displacement drive for positive power transmission and is connected to at least two crane jibs which are spaced from one another with respect to the transverse direction of the wagon, are variable in length by means of drives and comprise rail gripping devices arranged in the free end region.

A wagon designed in this way may be attached to any known type of railloading wagon and enables the long welded rails to be drawn off without involving any conversion work. It is of particular advantage here that by combining positive power transmission with crane jibs which are variable in length, a high pulling force in conjunction with ease of reaching the rail ends located on the adjoining loading wagon can be achieved. More particularly, as a result of the invention, it is also possible to draw off long welded rails which are supported merely by interlayers of wood, involving a particularly high surface resistance.

According to a particularly advantageous development of the invention, the crane pillar together with the crane jibs may be rotatable around a vertical axis relative to the crane carriage by means of a rotary drive. This means that, at the beginning of the drawing-off procedure, the crane jibs can be positioned so that they are directed towards the adjoining rail-loading wagon to enable them to withdraw the long welded rails, which they have picked up, without difficulty towards the middle of the wagon. In order to make the depositing procedure easier, both crane jibs are then rotatable around 0, so that the crane jibs can be employed without difficulty 3 projecting over the end of the wagon.

If, according to another advantageous embodiment, a total of four crane jibs which are adjustable independently of one another by means of drives are provided, arranged in pairs and symmetrically with respect to a vertical plane extending perpendicularly to the longitudinal direction of the wagon, this then ensures simplified and quicker drawing-off of the long welded rails.

Other advantages of the invention are apparent from the sub-claims and the drawings.

The invention is described in more detail in the following with the aid of embodiments represented in the drawing, in which:

Fig. 1 shows a schematically represented side view of a wagon designed for travel on rails for drawing off longwelded rails, Fig. 2 shows a plan view of the wagon, Fig. 3 and 4 show greatly enlarged detailed views of a positively locking guide of a crane carriage, and Fig. 5 shows a simplified side view of another embodiment.

A wagon 1 for drawing off long welded rails 2 which is shown in Fig. 1 and 2 is composed essentially of a wagon frame 3 with on- track undercarriages 4 and crane jibs 5. These crane jibs 5 which are variable in length by means of drives 6 and are connected at the free end to respective rail gripping devices 7 are fixed on a vertical crane pillar 8. This in turn is connected to a crane carriage 9 which is mounted so as to be displaceable longitudinally in guides 10 connected to 4 the wagon frame 3 and extending in the longitudinal direction of the wagon.

As is particularly evident in Fig. 2, a total of four crane jibs 5 which are adjustable independently of one another by means of drives 6 are provided, arranged in pairs and symmetrically with respect to a vertical plane extending perpendicularly to the longitudinal direction of the wagon. An internal combustion engine 11 and also a hydraulic unit 12 are provided to operate the various drives of the wagon 1. Also, chutes 13 are arranged at one end of the wagon 1 for depositing and guiding the rails 2. The opposite end of the wagon 1 is provided with coupling means 14 for coupling to a rail-loading train which is not shown specifically.

As is shown in Fig. 3 and 4, the crane carriage 9 is guided in a positively locking manner in the guide 10 by means of guide rollers 15 having a horizontal, transverselyextending axis and also by means of other guide rollers 16 having a vertical axis to produce a linear movement in the longitudinal direction of the wagon. The power transmission or transmission of the advancing force for the crane carriage 9 is similarly effected positively by means of a displacement drive 17 (not shown in Fig. 4 for reasons of greater clarity) which is fixed to the crane carriage 9 and comprises a toothed wheel 18. This toothed wheel is designed to engage into a rack 19 extending in the longitudinal direction of the wagon and connected to the guide 10. This positively locking guide 10 and the positive displacement drive 17 make it possible for even extremely high pulling forces to be applied for drawing off the rails 2.

The wagon 1 may advantageously be coupled to differeht types of railloading train with the aid of the coupling means 14. By operating the displacement drives 17 preferably by remote-control, the crane carriage 9 is moved together with the crane jibs 5 towards the adjoining rail-loading train (not shown specifically) until the two adjacent rail gripping devices 7 are able to pick up two rails 2. By operating the displacement drives 17 in the opposite direction, the two rails 2 are then drawn off the rail- loading train in the direction towards the two chutes 13. If, for example, the rails 2 are supported on interlayers made of wood, very high pulling forces of about 36000 N for each rail are required. If 120 metre rails are used, these pulling forces may be even higher. As soon as the ends of the two rails 2 have reached the second half of the wagon 1, the two rail gripping devices 7 shown on the left in Fig. 1 are opened and the crane carriage 9 is moved counter to the drawing-off direction shown by an arrow 20 until the rail ends can be gripped by the other two rail gripping devices 7. Changing crane jibs 5 in this way means that the rail ends can easily be deposited in the two chutes 13 and be further drawn off until the rail ends can be anchored to the rails of the track 21 in the known manner. As an alternative to the embodiment shown, it would also be possible to provide only a single pair of crane jibs 5 (see Fig. 5 for this embodiment) which, in order to load the rail ends into the chutes 13, may be rotated by rotating the crane 0 pillar 8 around 180 The wagon 1 for drawing off long welded rails which is shown in Fig. 5 has two wagon frames 3 joined together in an articulated manner, a crane carriage 9 comprising a pair of crane jibs 5 being associated with each wagon frame 3. These two crane carriages 9 have individual displacement drives 17 and are displaceable independently of one another in the longitudinal direction of the wagon. Each crane pillar 8 is rotatable together with the crane jibs 5 around a vertical axis 23 relative to the crane carriage 9 by means of a rotary drive ' 22. The.wagon 1 is provided both with road-going undercarriages 24 and with on-track undercarriages 26 which are vertically adjustable by means of drives 25.

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Claims

CLAIMS:

A wagon for travel on rails for drawing long welded rails off transport wagons, comprising a wagon frame supported on on-track undercarriages, characterised by a crane carriage, mounted in a positively locking manner in a linear guide extending in the longitudinal direction of the wagon and connected to the wagon frame, which crane carriage is displaceable longitudinally by means of a displacement drive for positive power transmission and is connected to at least two crane jibs which are spaced from one another with respect to the transverse direction of the wagon, are variable in length by means of drives and comprise rail gripping devices arranged in the free end region.
2. A wagon according to claim 1, characterised in that the crane jibs are fixed on a crane pillar connected to the crane carriage.
3. A wagon according to claim 2, characterised in that the crane pillar together with the crane jibs is rotatable around a vertical axis relative to the crane carriage by means of a rotary drive.
4. A wagon according to one of claims 1, 2 or 3, characterised in that a total of four crane jibs which are adjustable independently of one another by means of drives are provided, arranged in pairs and symmetrically with respect to a vertical plane extending perpendicularly to the longitudinal direction of the wagon. 1
5. A wagon according to one of claims 1 to 4, characterised in that the displacement drive and also all the other drives are remotely controllable.

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6. A wagon according to one of claims 1 to 5, characterised in that an internal combustion engine and a hydraulic unit are provided to operate the drives.
7. A wagon according to one of claims 1 to 6, characterised in that ontrack undercarriages which are vertically adjustable by means of drives are associated with road-going undercarriages.
8. A wagon according to one of claims 1 to 7, characterised in that two crane carriages which are displaceable independently of one another are provided.
9. A wagon, substantially as herein described with reference to the accompanying drawings.