US2101900A - Rail joint shim - Google Patents

Description

Dec. 14, 1937. A. F. FIFIELD 2,101,900

RAIL JOINT SHIM Filed May 3 195a SLM A Arroemws.

Patented Dec. 14, 1937 UNlTED STATES zioistc ATENT ()F'FECE RAIL JOINT SHIM Ohio Application May 3, 1933, Serial No. 669,218

4 Claims.

This invention relates to improvements in rail joint constructions and particularly to improvements in shims to effect compensation for wear of the elements of rail joints.

At the juncture of two rail ends of a railway track, it is customary to provide a joint construction comprising a pair of rail clamping joint side bars, or so-called fish plates, wedgingly engaging the undersides of the rail heads and the upper sides of the rail flanges and clamped to the rails by bolts extending through aligned perforations in the vertical rail webs and the joint bars.

After continued use, due to passage of trains over the track, the engaging surfaces of the rail ends and the joint bars become worn away and produce a tapered crevice intermediate the upper fishing surfaces of the joint bars and the under surfaces of the rail heads, the greatest wear of the rail heads occurring nearest the rail ends. It has been proposed to compensate for this wear by means of shims. Since the ends of the rails are usually separated, a fillet or fin is left of the joint bar at the ends of the rails which is not worn away as is the case with the more remote portions of the joint bars; it is considered highly important that a shim of this character should be re-usable after considerable use of the shimmed joint in other joints where a smaller crevice is encountered and for this reason and other reasons it is highly undesirable that the shims break into two parts during use of the joint because of movement of the rail ends upon passage of trains over the track.

Inasmuch as the adjacent rail ends must be slightly separated to allow for thermal expansion of the rails, the ends of the rails do not actually abut and there is therefore little or no wear of the joint bars intermediate the spaced rail ends, which leaves an upstanding fin on the joint bar.

Therefore, an important object of the present invention is to so form the shim as to escape undesirable contact with the fillet or fin of the joint bar and at the same time to increase the cross-sectional area of the shim at the mid part of the joint so that breakage will not be so liable to occur, even though the shim be otherwise weakened as for example by notching it to prevent undesirable contact with the fin.

Another object of this invention is to provide a joint construction comprising an improved shim which may be used between the rail heads at the ends of the rails and the joint side bar to compensate for wear which has occurred thereat.

Another object is to provide an improved shim of the type referred to so constructed that the above mentioned fin may not interfere with the fit of the shim between the joint bars and the rails.

Another object is to provide an improved shim of the type referred to having means for suitably positioning it in wear compensating position and to maintain it with full operative effect in such position.

Another object is to provide a shim of the type referred to so constructed that liability to breakage thereof, when subjected to the strains and shocks of use in Wear compensating position in a rail joint, will be minimized.

Another object is to provide a sturdy one-piece shim of the type referred to, so constructed as to compensate for the unequal or varying amounts of wear occurring at points adjacent the ends of both rails of a joint, and which may be readily installed and later removed as a single unit, for j use in another joint.

'Other objects will be apparent to those skilled in the art to which my invention 'appertains.

My invention is fully disclosed in the following description taken in connection with the accompanying drawing, in which:

Fig. 1 is a side elevational view of a rail joint construction embodying my invention;

Fig. 2 is a sectional view taken from the plane 2 of Fig.1;

Fig. 3 is a cross-sectional view taken from plane 3 of Fig. 1;

Fig. 4 is a view similar to a part of Fig. 3 drawn to a larger scale;

Fig. 5 is a perspective View illustrating a. shim element which I may employ;

Fig. 6 is a View similar to Fig. l with a joint side bar of the rail joint of Fig. l omitted and illustrating the shim element of Fig. 5 in its position of use;

Fig. 7 is a view illustrating a blank from which the shim element of Figs. 5 and 6 may be made by bending the blank;

Fig. 8 is a View illustrating a modified form of shim element which I may employ;

Fig. 9 is an elevational View of a joint side bar element of Fig. l, drawn in reduced scale and illustrating wear which may occur thereon and which may be compensated for by the shims embodying my invention and illustrated in the other figures.

Referring to the drawing, Fig. 1, I have shown at l and 2 the adjacent ends of a pair of rails, at 3 and 4 (see also Figs. 2 and 3) a pair of rail joint side bars, and at 55 and 6-6 bolts prothe jected through aligned perforations in the web of the rail 1 and in the bars 3 and 4 for drawing the bars into wedging engagement with the undersides of the rail heads and the upper sides of the rail flanges to provide the rail joint.

The rail joint thus illustrated and described is the conventional rail joint. As is well known, in use the shocks occurring at the ends of the rails by the passage of traffic thereover causes wear to occur on the undersides of the rail heads, but particularly upon the upper sides or upper edges of the bars 3 and 4. The wear which may thus be occasioned is clearly illustrated in Fig. 9. The broken line 1 illustrates the: original contour of the bar and the solid line 8 a worn contour thereof, which as will be seen, is greatest in intermediate portions of the bar and least at the ends thereof.

In most cases the extreme ends of the rails I and 2 are not in perfect fitting contact and therefore when the wear occurs upon the bar, a small fin 9 of substantially unworn portions of the bar is left, upstanding on the intermediate portion of the bar.

One form of shim embodying my invention by which the wear just described may be compensated for is illustrated in Figs. 5, 6, and 7. Thisshim may be made from a flat blank as illustrated in Fig. 7, the blank comprising a longitudinally elongated body portion ill, a downwardly extending intermediately disposed lug II and an upwardly open intermediately disposed notch 12. The shim formed from the blank I, as illustrated in Figs. 5 and 6, is longitudinally bent to render the body portion generally angular in cross-section and providing an upper flange l3 and a vertical flange or apron l4.

The flanges i3 and M are generally of the same width and notch I2 is of such depth as to extend into the flange l s as clearly shown in Fig. 6. The flanges l3 and id are tapered in thickness proceeding from an intermediate part of the shim outwardly toward each end thereof as clearly shown in Figs. 5 and 6. I

A pair of shims constructed as just described and which may be referred to generally by the reference character I6, is placed against the rail ends and between the rails'a-nd the bars 3 and 4 as clearly illustrated in the drawing, particularly Figs. 1 to 4 inclusive and as indicated in Fig. 6. The notch i2 provides a clearance space into which the fin 9 may project. When the bolts have been put in place and the nuts thereof drawn up tight, the tapering flanges of the shim will fit in the worn-away portions of the rails but particularly of the bars 3 and 4.' The worn bar and rails may thus be continued in use.

The longitudinal extent of the lug H, forming in effect a portion of the flange I4, is such as to substantially fit between the two innermost ad jacent bolts fi-5 and thus positions the shim longitudinally when installing it and thereafter prevent its displacement longitudinally if it should tend to creep in use.

Any weakening of the shim by the notch I2 is compensated for by the lug H and thus tendency of the shim to crystallize and crack in its intermediate portion when inuse is prevented. The lug H, as clearly illustrated in Fig. 7 makes the width of the shim blank approximately the same at its middle portion where the notch 12 occurs, as it is in the laterally extending wings, and preferably the lug ll extends oppositely to the notch l2 a greater distance than the distance represented by the width of the blank at laterally remote portions of the shim, so that notwithstanding the notch l2, the shim is stronger at the notched middle portion than it is in portions laterally remote from the notch. This is particularly important, since the rails and joint side bars during passage of trains over the track may be moved upwardly and downwardly with considerable force, and it is exceedingly important that the vertically disposed portion of the shim be made much wider at the middle portion of the shim than elsewhere, so as to withstand the component of resulting stress tending to shear or break the shim into two parts.

It is a very valuable characteristic of shims of this type that once put in track they do not break into two parts, since otherwise the two resultant halves may, after the joint has become worn slightly or the bolts become slightly loose, tend to move longitudnally inwardly towards and past the center of the joint and become overlapped and so wedged as to spread the joint bars from'the rails, with the result that a very poor joint soon results.

Also, even though the resultant shim halves have not overlapped and for this reason gives good service in the joint where the shim is first installed, the fracture may be of such a nature as to ruin the shim halves for further service in other joints after further wear in the joint has caused the wear crevice in the joint to become too Wide to be filled by the compensating portion of the shim. By virtue of my present invention whereby liability to fracture of the unitary shim 'into two parts is so minimized as to make such an occurrence unusual, whenever the shim is insufficiently thick in its wear compensating portions to fill the crevice in the joint occasioned by wear, it it may be removed for use in other joints where the wear is not so excessive and a new thicker shim substituted therefor.

It is not essential that the notch l2 shallextend into the flange I4. If desired it may terminate at the bend or in the angle between the two flanges 13 and l4. 7

The shim l6 of Figs. 1, 5 and 6 may be considered as a relatively long shim and is preferably made of relatively thick metal, for example A, thick and may be employed where the wear is correspondingly great. In cases where there is less wear, the shim illustrated generally at IT in Fig. 8 may be employed. This shim is made generally of the same form as the shim {6 above described but is shorter longitudinally and may be made from thinner sheet metal, and in general it'is preferably to provide the generally vertical flange [8 of uniform thickness throughout and to taper the thickness of the other flange, !9, toward its ends, as clearly illustrated in Fig. 8. Otherwise the shim of Fig. 8 may be the same as that of Fig. 5. r 7 Having thus described my invention in specific embodiments, I am aware that numerous and extensive departures may be made'therefrom but without departing from the spirit of my invention.

I claim: 7

1. A wear compensating means for rail end joints of the type comprising a pair of joint side bars and bolts projected through the bars and the intermediately disposed rail Web, comprising a metallic shim adapted to be disposed between the bar' and the rail being of angular cross-section tapering in thickness toward both ends from an intermediate portion and having an intermediate joint fin receiving notch, said notch substantially bisecting the generally horizontally ex- 75 tending shim portion, and a lateral extension extending from the side opposite the notch, the extension being sufiiciently narrow to extend between a pair of rail joint bolts and of sufli'cient length and thickness to sufficiently compensate for the notch to prevent the concentration of bending stresses at the notch and a consequent tendency of the shim to break at its intermediate portion.

2. A Wear compensating means for rail end joints of the type comprising a pair of joint side bars and bolts projected through the bars and the intermediately disposed rail web, comprising a metallic shim adapted to be disposed between a bar and the rail, the shim being of angular cross-section tapering in thickness toward both ends from an intermediate portion, one flange having therein an intermediate cut-away portion to provide clearance for a projection on the joint side bar and the other flange having an intermediate portion of increased width, the intermediate portion extending longitudinally of the joint on both sides of its intermediate portion toprovide for engagement with the rail joint bolts upon longitudinal shifting movements of the shim in the joint to restrain such movements, the intermediate extending portion being of such length and thickness as tocompensate for the cut-away portion and to provide the shim at its intermediate portion with resistance to bending at least as great as in portions on each side of the cutaway portion.

3. An angle section wear compensating means substantially as set forth in claim 2 characterized by having one flange adapted to be disposed between the web of the rail and a joint bar and thicker than the other flange in portions disposed the same distance longitudinally from the medial portion of the shim as corresponding portions of the said one flange.

4. A wear compensating means substantially as set forth in claim 2 characterized by having the flange adapted to be disposed between the web of the rail and the joint bar of substantially the same thickness throughout its length.

ALBERT FRANK FIFIELD.

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