US2144608A - Railway track construction - Google Patents

Description

Jan. 24, 1939. -.R. P. CLARKSON 8- RAILWAY TRACK CONSTRUCTION Filed Jline 29, 1955 2 Sheets-Sheet l INVENTOR.

Jan. 24, 1939. v 'R. P. CLARKSON 2,144,508 1 RAILWAY TRACK CONSTRUCTION Filed June 29, 1955 Y 2 Shets-Sheet 2 INVENTOR.

Patented Jan. 24, 1939 UNITED STATES mites PATENT OFFICE Application June 29,

9 Claims.

This invention relates to railway track construction and more particularly to track construction involving that type or kind of rail fastener in which the rail is resiliently clamped to a tie plate or other supporting means or in which the rail is directly clamped to the tie or other cross member.

It is well known that numerous devices of this class have been devised but have not come into general use, largely because of cost, special tool requirements, difiiculty in installation, and/or the necessity of providing special forms of tie plates from those universally rolled by the mills and in general use throughout the country.

It is a general object of this invention to overcome the disadvantages mentioned and to provide a novel and improved track construction including a rail fastener which is simple in design, easy to manufacture, low in cost, and efiicient in .operation; which permits the continued use of the present types of tie plates; by means of which there is produced a stronger, safer, and more easily and economically maintained track struc ture than those now in general use; which permits :1 and actually facilitates wave motion in the rail without transmission of this motion to the supporting structure; which distributes the load on the tie plate without tendency to rock the tie plate and thus, in fact, prolongs the life of wooden ties; and which particularly lends itself to simple installation with ordinary tools and labor and without special equipment.

More particularly it is an object of the present invention to provide a rail fastener by means of which the rail base is secured to the tie plate or other support, solely by the spring action or resilient w-edging effect of a forked or bifurcated fastener which may be readily driven into position and which requires no bolts or nuts for fastening or flexing, no special tools for installation or removal, and which may be employed with the present widely used, ordinary rolled tie plates with single or double shoulders or without any shoulders at all.

Thus any present tie plate may readily permit the application of the principles of the present invention. It is apparent that this feature, combined with the low cost of the fastener and ease of installation, facilitates'changing over present track construction to the more modern continuous welded rail construction as it may be done without discarding any present track equipment.

A further object of the present invention is to provide a rail fastener of the type described which locks itself into position so that when once 1935, Serial No. 29,052

placed the movement of the rail is not in line with the withdrawal direction of the fastener and there is substantially no maintenance required such as the continual tightening of spikes or the tightening of clip tensing nuts, and yet the fastener may be removed and replaced when necessary or desirable.

From the standpoint of economy, besides the elimination of ever costly maintenance, it may be further pointed out that the construction provided by this invention will prevent the rail from creeping and thus preclude the necessity of the provision of rail anchors or anti-creepers and will permit the removal and replacement of rails more speedily than where spike securing means are employed to hold the rail.

Another important feature of the structure provided by this invention is the provision of means whereby the ordinary cut spikes, or the like, usually employed for securing the rail and tie plate to the tie, or for maintaining gauge, may be used instead of or supplementary to, the resilient type of fastener whenever necessary or desirable as, for instance, when an accident requires temporary track laying or on curves or elsewhere where it may be desired to use spikes to maintain gauge simultaneously with rail clamping clips or fasteners without the one interfering with the other.

A further feature of the present invention is that it makes possible the scientific application to track construction of the well known principles of balanced three point suspension in that the engagement of the rail fastener with the tie plate may be at the longitudinal center line, which helps to avoid rocking the tie plate, and the engagement of the fastener with the rail base may be at points on either side of the center line, thus facilitating the slight rocking of the rail during the wave motion caused by passing traflic.

With the foregoing and other objects in view, as will be apparent to those skilled in the art as the description proceeds, my invention resides in the combination and arrangement of parts and in the details and method of construction described in this specification and particularly pointed out in the appended claims, it being understood that changes may be made in the particular embodiment of the invention within the scope of what is claimed without departing from the spirit of the invention. I intend no limitation other than those of the claims when fairly interpreted in the light of the full disclosure and the present state of the art.

Reference is made to my copending applications Serial No. 64,999, filed Feb. 21, 1936, and Serial No. 65,945, filed Feb. 27, 1936. Reference is also made to my divisional application Serial No. 190,793, filed February 16, 1938.

Referring now to the accompanying drawings which are furnished solely for illustrative purposes, it is apparent that various modifications in the embodiment of my invention are possible, of which a number are shown by way of example, including a form at present preferred.

In the drawings:

Fig. 1 is a fragmentary sectional elevation showing a rail and tie plate construction embodying my invention, utilizing a screw spike for holding the tie plate, the rail fastener illustrated being of the preferred form;

Fig. 2 and Fig. 3 are fragmentary details illustrating the drive fastener passage in the tie plate;

Fig. 4 is a fragmentary transverse section illustrating an application of my invention to the type of construction widely used in street railway tracks with rail mounted on metal cross members, in this case an angle or the like steel shape;

Fig. 5 is a sketch illustrating one form of rail fastener applied in Fig, 4;

Fig. 6 is a plan view of rail and tie plate illustrating the application of two forms of rail fasteners, including the preferred form of Fig. 1;

Fig. 7 is a fragmentary transverse section on the line T'! of Fig. 6;

Fig. 8 is a sketch illustrating the preferred form of rail fastener shown in Fig. 1;

Fig. 9 is a sketch illustrating a form of rail fastener applied in Fig. 4;

Fig. 10 is a sketch showing, in slightly modi fied form, a rail fastener applied in Figs. 6 and Figs. 11 and 12 illustrate detail modifications of fastener holding devices;

Fig. 13 is a fragmentary sectional detail on the line l3-l3 of Fig. 6.

Similar reference characters refer to corresponding parts in the several views.

The present invention is illustrated as applied to the standard forms of railway rail indicated generally by the numeral iii and provided with the usual parts including web I i and base flanges I2 and [3. A standard tie plate l5 may be of any type and preferably extends beyond the base flanges of the rail if The tie plate may be held to the cross tie by screw spikes M, by a reversed rail fastener, by the rail fastener itself, or otherwise as may seem desirable. Normally, in street railway construction, the rail lea (Fig. 4) rests directly on a cross member which may be any steel shape.

Tie plate l5 may be double shouldered (Fig. 1). single shouldered (Figs. 6 and 7), or without shoulders (Fig. 3), or the tie plate in any construction may be dispensed with (Fig. 4) Moreover, the tie plate may or may not be provided with a cambered rail seat, the detail of Fig. 13 illustrating a three point balanced suspension application of my present invention to the cambered type of rail seat.

A preferred embodiment of my invention is illustrated in Fig. l which, in fragmentary section, illustrates one side of a standard, heavy rail type, double shouldered tie plate construction wherein a rail rests on a rail seat i5 defined between the shoulders and is yieldingly held by one or more bifurcated or forked drive fasteners 9 which preferably have a straight, more or less rigid driven leg 8 and, in this embodiment, a plurality of resilient finger members 1, I, (Fig. 8) integral with the driven leg and which have their free ends engaging the top surface of a rail flange !2. The lower end of driven leg 8 is finally anchored or locked in position (dotted Fig. 1) engaging a surface I! which is substantially parallel to the base of the tie plate l5. In this final position, shown clearly at the left side of Fig. 7, fastener 9 is tilted away from the rail, the full lines (Fig. 1) showing its position just before the tilting to the dotted position takes place.

A driving head is provided as at B, where the opposite ends of the diverging legs 1 and 8 are joined or become integral.

This particular form of fastener (best shown in Fig. 8) is preferably formed from a flat plate of spring steel, preferably rustless, by a stamping and forming process and the finished fastener is carefully spring tempered. Various modifications in the particular form of the fastener are shown in accompanying figures, embodying my invention, as will be described. All, however, comprise a driven or anchoring leg and a pressure resiliently coacting with the driven leg, the fastener in each case preferably being a driven type. bifurcated or forked, and preferably provided with a driving head so that the force applied thereto may be applied in the line of direction of, or the line of divergence of, the driven leg.

In general, I prefer to prepare the tie plate for a drive fastener by providing openings 20 (Fig. 1) through the tie plate, adjacent to and to one side of the rail seat l6, preferably through the rib-like shoulders, if present. Such openings preferably are punched from the bottom so as to form wedging side walls I B for more easily guiding the driven leg of the fasteners in canted position. The wedging guide side wall surface I8 extends downwardly and inwardly towards the rail center and normally slopes below the rail seat I 6 to a portion I! which is not a right angled shoulder but is a locking surface substantially parallel to the base of the tie plate and a distinct purpose of this formation is to tilt the fastener by a sliding and rocking motion so that the bent end 5 of the driven leg 8 engages surface I! and the leg 8 seats against the upper outer edge IQ of the opening 20. It is this edge which provides a fulcrum for the tilting and sliding motion of the clip. If pre: ferred, the surfaces l8 and ll may glide into each other by a curve (Fig. 2) rather than by the more or less abrupt change in direction illustrated in Figs. 1, 3, and 7.

In introducing the bifurcated fastener 9 into an opening 20, the end 5 seats against wedging surface l8 as in Fig. 3, and is guided thereby as the fastener is driven by force applied to the riving head 6 preferably, as stated above, in line with the canted driven leg. A maul or hammer may be used. Up to the point illustrated in the full line position of Fig. 1 the motion of the driven leg 8 is along its direction and the resilient leg 1, contacting the base flange I2 early in the travel, is spread apart from the leg 8 and tensed, by reason of the wedge surface I8 and the sloping topsurface of the base flange I2 or I3, thus increasing the angular diversion of the legs.

After reaching the point mentioned, and shown in full lines (Fig. 1), further applied force causes the tilting motion of the fastener away from the rail and the fastener is anchored or locked in position by reason of the bent end or hook 5 catching the surface IT. The fastener cannot be withdrawn without first tilting it back towards the rail which would require tensing of the clip, as end 5 of leg 8 is further away from the base flange bearing end of leg I in the full line position of Fig. 1 than it is in the final dotted position. To withdraw the fastener, therefore, force is preferably applied underneath the driving head 6 to tense the clip, rock it towards the rail, and finally withdraw it. In practice I have found it convenient to first Wedge a cone end pinch bar under the pressure leg I and remove it from contact with the sloping rail base before tilting the clip back towards the rail. It is apparent, however, that no motion of the rail caused by traffic, can loosen the clip.

Moreover, it is apparent that driven leg 8 may be much narrower than the resilient legs I, I, and still be relatively non-flexible, not only because of its straightness but also because of the shortness of the leverage arm about the fulcrum I9 where the leg is braced by the tie plate.

If desired, the opening or passage 20 in the tie plate I5 may be so spaced at the edge of a rail seat I6 as to permit the driven leg 8 to act to prevent sideways motion of the rail and to maintain the gauge of the track without the use of shoulders on the tie plate, as shown for example in Fig. 3, in which case the base flange I2 of the rail preferably extends over the upper mouth of the passage 2|] and the fastener, may be inserted either before laying the rail or by tilting the rail and both fasteners, if there is one on each side of the rail, may remain undriven until both are in position.

It is apparent that in the construction of Fig. 1 and other embodiments of my invention illustrated, the driven member 8 or 8a of the rail fastener is canted at an angle to the motion produced in the rail by passing traflic and because of the Wedging type of grip action between the forked legs due to the resilient coaction between them, the driven member is not loosened by the Wave motion of the rail nor is the tie plate holding means loosened. In other words, in all the constructions shown, the rail is free to move up and down under traffic conditions and this motion is not imparted to the tie plate fastener because of the yielding pressure of the rail fastener on the rail and the angle or cant of the rail fastener. Additional protection against loosening is afforded by the secondary tilting action of those types of rail fasteners which grip the tie plate and not the tie, as in Fig. 1, or those which grip the tie and not a tie plate, as in Fig. 4.

In Fig. 4 is illustrated an application of my invention to the usual type of rail construction used in street. railways, with a rail Illa directly supported by a cross member or metal tie 22, usually a standard rolled steel shape provided with a flange 23 which may be punched as at 20c, providing a slanting wedging guide surface I8 sloping downwardly and inwardly under the rail seat. In the instance shown, the under side of flange 23 acts as the terminal or looking surface, corresponding to the surface I! of Fig. 1, which permits the bent end 5 of the driven member 8 or 81) to anchor the fastener after the same tilting motion of the fastener away from the rail as in Fig. 1.

In the particular embodiment shown in Fig. 4, the form of rail fastener used at the left, engaging base flange IZa and shown clearly in Fig. 9, is preferably provided with a raised portion 4 on the driven leg 81) to provide a stop for the edge of the rail base. This permits the leg 8b to be thinner in section than would otherwise be the case if the opening 20a extends out from the rail seat a considerable distance.

Another modified form of rail fastener of the bifurcated type is illustrated at the right side of Fig. 4 and clearly in Fig. 5, in this instance a split bar with legs I and 8 spread apart, their free ends engaging the base flange I3a and the cross member flange 23 respectively, and the other ends integral to form the driving head 6.

A further modified form of rail fastener is illustrated at the right hand side of Figs. 6 and '7 requiring, in this instance a sloping wedge slot 24 for the driven leg and an anchor slot 25 engaging a locking tongue 5a, the metal of the bifurcated fastener not terminating with the driving head 6a but continued, as in Fig. '7 or less anguiaz-ly as in Fig. 10, in full width and terminating with a locking tongue 5a which is integral with all parts of the fastener, the turned up end of the drive leg, in this case, being not essential.

In place of the preferred right angled end or lip 5, the drive leg 8 of the various modifications may be provided with a backwardly bent end 517 (Fig. 12) or a punched out anchor lock 50 either of which may be resilient and serve to Wedge against the back side wall of a passage, as 20. Such construction is shown in Fig. 11.

It is apparent from the various forms of rail fasteners disclosed herein that the inner side of the tie plate opening 20 may be sloped, as for example at I8 (Fig. 4), curved (Fig. 2), or straight punched. It is further apparent that the locking surface I! may be parallel to the rail support base (Fig. 3), or it may be the base surface itself (Fig. 4), or the bent end may be omitted but the anchor member fulcrumed on the outer edge of the opening may merely wedge slantwise across the opening.

While my invention may be utilized in any construction regardless of the type of tie plate used, I prefer to employ a double shouldered or channel type tie plate, as in Fig. 1. I prefer that the rail seat I6 be cambered, as illustrated in Fig. 13, to provide line contact transversely between the rail and the rail seat, and I prefer that the tie plate be held in engagement with the tie as by screw spikes I4 passing through openings I, I, (Fig. 6). Then, as illustrated (Fig. 13) a true three point balanced rail suspension may be provided, facilitating rocking or wave motion of the rail on the tie plate without disturbing the latter. This is effected by reason of the engagement of the rail fastener leg 3 with the tie plate at the longitudinal center line where the fulcrum is, and engagement of the resilient finger members I, I, of the fastener on either side of the center line. In this, as in other embodiments herein described, the frictional effect arising by means of the resilient clamping action of the rail fastening prevents creeping of the rail.

The rail may be clamped to a support I5, by spring pressure applied to the rail on alternate sides of the center line whether or not the par ticular rail support is cambered, as in Fig. 13 or not cambered, as in Fig. 4, for example.

My invention contemplates not only the features of construction so far described but also the provision of additional openings 2| in each tie plate to one side of the rail seat and spaced from the resilient rail fastener engaging passage, so that a rail spike 2 (Fig. 6) may be used simultaneously with the rail fastener, if desired. The preferred passage 20 (Fig. 1) provided for engagement with the rail fastener 9 is such as to permit the use of a rail spike therein, if desired. Preferably the driven leg 8 is of rail spike width and engages the side walls of the passage 20 to prevent twisting.

What I claim is:

1. In a railway track construction, in combination, a tie plate, means for securing said tie plate to a tie, a rail seat on said tie plate of a configuration providing line contact between the rail and said rail seat transversely thereof, and means for resiliently securing said rail to said tie plate comprising finger members engaging the upper surface of the base flange of the rail on either side of said line of contact, and means resiliently coacting with said finger members engaging said tie plate substantially at said line of contact and below said rail base, whereby slight rocking movement of said rail relative to said tie plate is facilitated while longitudinal creeping of said rail is prevented.

2. In a railway track construction, in combination, a tie plate, means for securing said tie plate to a tie, a rail seat on said tie plate of a configuration providing line contact between the rail and said rail seat transversely thereof, and

means for resiliently securing said rail to said tie plate comprising a plurality of members en gaging the base flange of the rail, one of said members engaging said base flange on one side of said line of contact and one of said members engaging said base flange on the other side of said line of contact, said members being on opposite sides of said rail, and anchoring means for each said member resiliently coacting therewith and engaging said tie plate substantially at said line of contact, whereby slight rocking movement of said rail relative to said tie plate is facilitated while longitudinal creeping of said rail is prevented.

3. An assemblage of the character described comprising, in combination, a tie, a rail section, a tie plate provided with an opening therethrough adjacent the edge of the rail, and means for holding said rail section in yielding engagement with said tie plate including a drive fastener provided with legs resiliently engaging the upper surface of the base flange of the rail integral with another leg extending downwardly between said first named legs and engaging said tie plate below said rail flange whereby to yieldingly press said rail and tie plate together, and means to secure said tie plate to said tie.

4. An assemblage of the character described comprising, in combination, a tie, a rail, a tie plate provided with an opening therethrough adjacent the edge of the rail, and means for permitting relative motion between said rail and said tie plate including a rail fastener provided with resilient members engaging the rail base and a leg integral with and extending downwardly in said opening between said members and engaging an under surface of said tie plate.

5. An assemblage of the character described comprising, in combination, a wood tie in ballast, a rail, a tie plate provided with an opening therethrough adjacent the edge of the rail, rail fastening means adjacent to and in engagement with the rail for clamping said rail in direct contact with said tie plate and holding said rail against lateral or longitudinal movement, said rail fastening means including a resilient member overlying the base of said rail and pressing downwardly thereon and otherwise free therefrom, a comparatively rigid member extending through said tie plate opening provided with a hook end engaging the under side of said tie plate, said comparatively rigid member coacting with said resilient member to tense the latter, and said comparatively rigid member engaging both the edge of the base flange of said rail and the outer wall of said tie plate opening, so constructed and arranged as to present a solid bar against lateral movement of said rail, and tie plate fastening means, separate from and independent of said rail fastening means, for holding said tie plate to said tie.

6. As an article of manufacture a rail fastener for securing a rail to a support comprising a pair of resilient members adapted to engage a rail base and means integral with and between said members for engagement with the rail support below said rail base whereby to yieldingly clamp said rail base and support together.

'7. In a railway track construction, in combination, a rail and a support therefor, a fastener for holding said rail comprising a canted driven member anchored in said support and means integral therewith resiliently engaging the base of said rail on either side of said member adapted to coact with said driven member to prevent longitudinal creeping of said rail and to permit wave motion of said rail.

8. In a railway track construction, a rail and a support therefor provided with an opening therethrough, a rail clip resiliently engaging said rail and fulcrumed on the upper outer edge of said opening when tensed, and anchoring means for said clip being free of the outer wall of said opening below the fulcrum edge and extending slant wise across said opening and provided with a hooked lower end having a sharp edge which bites into the metal of said support.

9. A rail fastener for clamping a rail to a tie plate comprising two resilient pressure members and a driven member resiliently coacting therewith and extending downwardly between them and engaging the under surface of the tie plate.

RALPH P. CLARKSON.

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