US2305711A - Method for reforming rails - Google Patents

Description

Dec- 22, 1942- G. L. JONES ETAL METHOD FOR REFORMING RAILS Filed June 28, 1959 INVENTORS 65086! (3727? JD/YES OVA/M5523. MED! ATTORNEY Patented Dec. 22, 1942 2,305,711 I METHOD FOR REFORMING RAILS George Lester Jones, Garden City, N. Y., and Charles B. Roede, Ridgefield, N. J., assignors to Sperry Products, Inc., Hoboken, N. J., a corporation of New York Application June 28, 1939, Serial No. 281,598

4 Claims.

This invention relates to a method of reforming battered rail portions, especially the battered ends of rail joints in track. It is well known that the passage of heavy loads over the rails causes the tread portions of .the rails to receive more wear and tear at the joints than at other points throughout the raillength, so that there is a marked depression in the rail ends at the joints. Heretofore such rails have been removed from track as defective, and more recently these rail ends have been built up by welding additional metal to the ends or by heating the rail ends and hammering them to build up the treads. The welding of additional metal on the rail ends has been found unsatisfactory due to separation of the metal within a relatively short service period, and the method of heating and hammering has been slow and unsatisfactory. Therefore there have been devised machines whereby the rail ends, after heating may be quickly raised. Such a machine, for instance, is illustrated in the patent to Chas, A. Miller, No. 2,135,107, granted November 1, 1938. Another such machine is illustrated in the patent to Harcourt C. Drake, No. 2,144,916 granted January 24, 1939. In operation, both of these machines were found to yield reformed rail ends which required considerable machining before said ends could be brought into line with the unbattered tread of the rail. It is the principal object of our invention, therefore,

to provide a method of reforming the battered ends of rails which will permit the said ends to be raised quickly to such point that they will be in the same plane with the unbattered tread portions of the rail without necessitating a substantial amount of grinding or other machining.

In the above described methods of raising the battered portions of the rail ends, the ball of the rail was heated to plasticity and then pressure was applied to opposite sides or" the ball to raise the tread. It was found, however, that this resulted in indenting both the gauge side and the outside surface of the railhead, This was due to the fact that even though the fixed lateral die extended beyond the heated portions of the rail into engagement with, thecold, unheated portions, nevertheless, due to the resiliency of the rail, pressure on the outside of the railhead for the purpose of raising the tread caused the gauge side to be indented also. Since any indentation of the gauge; side is undesirable, in that it will set up lateral motion of the train running over the track, we have devised a method and apparatus for accomplishing the raising of the tread without appreciably indenting the gauge side of the rail.

Further objects and advantages of this invention will become apparent in the following detailed description thereof.

In the accompanying drawing,

Fig. 1 is a graph illustrating the theory of the invention.

Fig, 2 is a perspective of a rail end showing in exaggerated form the action of the rail end when the ball of the rail is heated.

Fig. 3 is an end view of a rail end showing in diagrammatic form the application of the dies to the rail head.

Fig. 4 is a view similar to Fig. 3 and showing the modified principle and apparatus for raising the tread without indenting the gauge side of the rail.

Fig. 5 is a front elevation of a form of die.

The principle of this invention can best be understood by reference to the graph of Fig. l and the perspective view of Fig. 2. The horizontal line I!) represents the unbattered tread surface of the rail. The line H represents the battered end before heating or reforming. The line I 2 represents the position which the said end assumes when heated preparatory to applying pressure to the railhead to raise the tread. The reason for this is shown in Fig. 2. It will be understood that in rail end reforming, only the ball or headof the rail is heated, and when the ball or head H of the rail is heated and the heat is applied largely from the top, the web W and the base B remain cold. The heated head expands in every direction including the direction longitudinal of the axis of the rail and so assumes the dotted line position, which is an exaggeration for the purposes of illustration. It is thus that we obtain the position l2 shown in exaggerated form in Fig, 1. Heretofore at this point, the top die was applied which extended across the unbattered portions of the rail treads in the plane i0, and then pressure was applied to the sides of the railhead to bring the tread into coincidence with the plane I0. Upon cooling, however, the rail end proceeded to move upwardly above the plane [6 a distance ab equal to the distance which the rail had moved downwardly during the heating operation. The rail therefore assumed the dotted line position indicated at I5 and required considerable grinding and machining to bring it down to the tread plane [0.

In order to remedy this condition and to avoid the necessity for machining after the tread of the battered end has been raised, we provide a die which instead of extending in the plane In of the unbattered portions of the rails, takes the form shown at It which consists of a member extending above the battered rail end i2, when heated, a distance bd, equal to the distance w-c, which is the actual batter. Pressure is applied to the sides of the rail to raise the surface l2 to the plane IE5 and thereafter, upon cooling, the rail end rises a distance ab which equals the distance cd, and therefore the rail lies in the plane id of the unbattered portions of the rails. If both rail ends are reformed at the same time, the die will have the shape shown in Fig. 5.

In certain cases, depending upon the method of application of heat to the'railhead, it has been found that because of the extension of the railhead longitudinally, there is set up a stress within the web W which results in :a permanent .enlargement of the fishing height, that is, the height between the under side of the head and the top surface of the base, which remains even after the rail is cold. The result of this is that the rail end :rises permanently a distance in excess of the distance a--b= which it turned downwardly during the heating. Therefore, in determining which die to .use, a die having a surface which extends downwardly more steeply than surface 16 would be used. In other words, the distance of the die above the heated rail end would be less than the distance -b-d to allow not merely for the rise of the rail LI -b61116 to cooling, but also to a further rise dueto the stress set up in the web W as just stated.

Because of the action described in the .preceding paragraph wherein the fishing height is increased by the heatlngprocess, it may be desirable to utilize means for applying pressure to the sides of the railhead which will depress the metal on the under side of the railhead, thus decreasing the fishing distance to cause the angle bars to fit. For this purpose the pressure element having the shape shown in Fig. 3 maybe employed, wherein two end portions 28, 2| apply the pressure, causing metal to be raised at the top and at the bottom of the railhead. As described in the said patents to Miller and Drake, a fixed die engages the other side .of the railhead and extends a distance sufficient to engage the cold portions of the rail.

When a pressure element such as 25 applies pressure at one side of the railhead, it has been found that indentation of the rail occurs on both sidesof the railhead, even though the gauge'side operates against a die 38 which extends far enough along each rail to engage the cold por tions of the rails. Thisis due to the fact that the rail is resilient and the head bends against the die. This results in indentation of-the gauge side of the railhead which, as stated in the introduc tion, is undesirable. For obtaining indentation of therailhead only n the outside surface thereof, and not on the gaugesurface, we provide the following method and means. We apply heat through the top of the rail so that the heat'distribution is as shown graphically by the lines in Fig. 4. It will be seen that the'heat distributes itself in such manner that a relatively cold-corneriit is obtained on the lower. edge. We then provide a die it! extending along the rails and having a shoulder 4| adapted to fitthe cold corner 36 of the rail .as well as extendingupwardly along the gauge surface of the head.

Pressure is applied by a pressure member 42 to the outside of the railhead near the upper end thereof, that is, near the highly heated portion and therefore the most plastic portion. This will cause the tread of the rail to rise, but since the railhead has a cold portion 36 resting against the die 40, there will be no tendency for the gauge side to be indented since the cold edge 36 will resist the pressure which ordinarily would cause indentation on the gauge side.

In accordance with the provisions of the patent statutes, we have herein described the principle and operation of our invention, together with the apparatus which we now conisder to represent the best embodiment thereof, but we desire to 'have'it understood that the apparaus shown is only illustrative and that the invention can be carried .out by other equivalent means. Also, while it is designed to use the various features and elements in the combination and relations described, some of these may be altered and others omitted without interfering with the more general results outlined, and the invention extends to such use.

Having described our inyention, what we claim and desire to secure by Letters Patent is:

l. The method of reforming battered rail ends which consists in heating only the heads of said ends to plasticity, said heating causing the battered tread to be lowered vertically away from the plane of the unbattered tread, after said heating positioning a die above the rail ends and spaced therefrom an amount equal to the original batter, and applying pressure to the sides of the railhead to raise the same to said die.

2. The method of reforming battered rail ends which consists in heating only the heads of said ends to plasticity, said heating causing the battered tread to be lowered vertically away from the plane of the unbattered tread, said heating also causing permanent increase of the distance between the head and the base to .a predetermined degree, after saidheating positioning a die above the rail ends and spaced therefrom an amount equal to the original batter less the permanent increase in distance of the head with respect to .the base caused by said heating, and applying pressure to the sides of the railhead to raise the same to said die.

3. The method of reforming battered rail ends .which consists in heating only the heads of said ends to plasticity, said heating causing the battered tread to be lowered vertically away from the plane of the unbattered tread, after said heating positioning a die above the rail ends and spaced therefrom an amount equal to the original batter, and applying pressure to the top and bottom portions of the sides of the railhead to raise the sameto said die.

4. The method of reforming battered rail ends which consists in heating only the heads of said ends 'to plasticity, said heating causing the battered tread to be lowered vertically away from the plane of the unbattered tread, after said heating positioning a die above the rail ends an amount equal to the distance of the heated rail ends below the unbattered'tread less the amount :which said ends will rise due to cooling, and

applying pressure to the sides of the railhead to raisethe same to said die.

GEORGE LESTER JONES.

CHARLES B. ROEDE.

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