US2582757A - Spike retaining device - Google Patents

Description

Jan. 15, 1952 L. Q. MOORE SPIKE. RETAINING DEVICE Filed Dec. 28, 1948 WVENTOR L00 Qu/A/ M0025, By (2&4 1.

Fig.3

ATTORNEY Patented Jan. 15, 1.952

UNITED STATES PATENT orrics SPIKE RETAINING DEVICE Lou Quin Moore, Pueblo, c010. A pumuon December 28, 1948, Serial No. 67,635

The present invention relates to spike retaining devices and particularly to spike locking devices designed to hold railroad rail spikes securely in place against forces which might tend to loosen or displace them.

As is well known in the art, railroad rails and the like are commonly mounted on transverse supports, usually in the form of wooden crossties, to which such rails are usually fastened securely by means of heavy iron or steel spikes driven into the wood. Many efforts have been made to replace these wooden cross-ties with other devices and materials which are more weather resistant but without much success. Wooden cross-ties, in their'untreated state or treated with chemical preservatives, still remain the chief means of mounting railroad rails on railway road beds and the problem of securely fastening the rails to the ties remains an important one, notwithstanding numerous and varied efiorts that have been made in the past to insure against rails loosening from the ties. The safety of railroads depends in a large measure upon the security with which the rails are held in place on the road bed.

When conventional railroad spikes are driven into wooden cross-ties, the natural resilience and friction of the wood usually are relied upon to hold them and, in turn, to hold the rails in place. Such devices as threaded screws, bolts, anchored driven devices of complex structure and the like have been suggested as substitutes for the simple standard spikes. These, however, have usually been unsuccessful because they are too costly or the labor of installing them is prohibitive in cost. Locking and anchoring devices for standard and modified spikes have also been proposed but have not generally been adopted because they are either too costly, or the labor of installing them is too expensive, or they require modification of i standard equipment such as rails, ties, tie plates and spikes or spike substitutes, all of which is objectionable and frequently quite impracticable.

Under favorable conditions, the woods of which cross-ties are made may holdthe spikes for a time without the use of any auxiliary devices whatever. If the grain of the wood is tough and it has an optimum content of natural or synthetic gum, resin or other material which gives it a high coefficient of friction, the. ordinary driven spike may be retained adequately for a long time; Such woods, however, are not usually available and severe conditions of track vibration, or of weathering, repeated and extreme cycles of temperature change, moisture conditions, freezing and thawing, and the like may result inloosening of spikes in the best of woods. When the wood of the tie is weak transverse to the grain, i. e., readily subject to splitting, or the grain is badly broken by the driven spike as hap- 4 Claims. (Cl. 238-375) r resilient material and designed so that pens with many woods, the spike is not strongly held and may easily be loosened. Under such conditions it is frequently desirable, if not absolutely necessary, to employ some auxiliary means to prevent the loosening of the spike and it is best to apply the remedy before the spike becomes loose in the slightest degree. An object of the present invention is to provide such a remedy.

Obviously, a successful spike lock or retaining means must be relatively very inexpensive since spikes are used in very large numbers, frequently two or three or more to every foot of rail. It must be easily installed, preferably by unskilled laborers using ordinary conventional tools, and should be fairly well retained so as not to be subject unduly to unauthorized tampering. To be efiective, such a device should be designed to apply a constant pressure or force upon the spike which will oppose and overcome any and all forces which may tend to lift or loosen the spike.

The present invention has as an object the attainment of the above requirements and is based upon the discovery that such may be attained by the use of a simple device constructed of strong in its in stalled position it is constantly under longitudinal compression forces and deformation within its elastic limits. It is a further object of this invention to so design a spike retainer or locking device that it maybe firmly installed in locking position by simple operations and may be retained securely in such position against inadvertent displacement or removal by unauthorized agencies.

Other objects will become manifest as this description'proceeds and therefore reference will next be had to the drawings accompanying this specification in which:

Fig. 1 is a fragmentary front View showing a short section of railroad rail and its mountings, illustrating an initial step in the application of a spike retaining device thereto according to this invention;

Fig. 2 is a view similar to Fig. 1, showing the retaining device of this invention in its final looking position;

Fig. 3 is a vertical sectional view taken transversely to the longitudinal axis of the rail, substantially along the line 3-3 of Fig. 2, showing an edge view of the spike locking device of the present invention; and I Fig. 4 is aperspective View of the spike locking device per se.

Referring first to Figs. 1 and 2, there is shown ventional tie plate 2| which has a plane or substantially plane lower surface 23, a raised rib or thrust flange 25 on the upper surface to resist lateral thrust of the rail, and a substantially plane upper surface area 21 upon which the flange or base l3 of the rail rests firmly; The tie plate 2| is provided with holes of rectangular shape and a size to fit rather closely around standard railroad spikes, as shown at 29. The number of holes may vary, depending upon the area of the tie plate and the use to which it is put. Usually each tie plate has 4 orv 6 holes for spikes, only one hole 29 being shown in the drawings.

The tie plate 2| is not always used and may be omitted in some installations. As shown herein, it is mounted upon a woodentie 30, shown only fragmentarily but offionventional shape, size and material,

The rail, and the tie plate upon which vit rests, are securely fastened. to the cross-tie 38 by means of standard spikes 3|, of which only one is shown. The spike, as, is well known, has a rectangular body portion 32'; most of which is driven into the wooden tie, and; it has a flanged or enlarged head portion 33. designed to overlap the edge portion of. rail flange l3 and hold the rail in place. Thesspike 3| has a sharpened or wedge-shaped point to facil ta driving it the tie and is usually drivenv with the wedge or chisel-shaped end transverse to the grain of the wood sothat it cutsand bends downwardly the longitudinal wood fibers. which, in theory at least, grip the spike with a downward thrust to resist other forces which might tend to pull the spike 3| upwardly.

Various forces such as the uncut fibers of wood around the point 3110f spike 3|, water which may penetrate thewood and be subjected to freezing and thawing and, most of all, vibration of the rail and, other track elements as trains roll along it, tend, to force the spike 3| upwardly. To overcome this tendency, the spike lock element itself, shown at 4|, is formed of suitable material having; at least a fair quality of resiliency so that it may be placed, under a permanent stress withoutpermanent deformation. A ferrous metalflis preferred, for reasons of economy andrigidity, a mild steel being par ticularly preferred because of its resiliency although, iron is usually suitable. element 4! is formed of a strip of steel having adequate width and thickness to give it substantial rigidity. Preferably the element 4| is formed of material which is somewhat wider than the head of spike 3| and of sufiicient thickness,

that it cannot be materially bent or deformed by hand.

The element 4| is bent into a rough: S shape, as shown in the drawings, and the lower end. is

curved rather sharply near the end; The lower end also is bifurcated, a central portion being ginning from the lower'end of element 4|, arches up over the head 33.

The second part of thereverse curve which gives the element 4| its rough S shape, indicated at 49, is solocated. that. its apex lies ,on top of As. shown, the e the spike head 33 when the lock element 4| is in locking position (Figs. 2, 3). From the bend 49 to its upper end, as viewed in the drawings, the element 4| is fairly straight but preferably has a slight camberas shown in the dotted lines in Fig.3, so that it may be forced into position between the head of spike 3| and the juncture of rail web l and rail ball I! by assuming a somewhat greater degree of curvature as indicated in the full lines of Fig. 3. It is important that the dimensions of element 4|, and particularly the lengthof section 5| thereof, between the curved portion 49'which rests on the head of the spike and the upper end which abuts against the rail, be such that considerable pressure is applied to the spike head. At the same time, lt'is important that the-length of section 5| and the degree ofcamber or curvature to which it is subjected both be such that this section is under longitudinal compression but is not cambered or bent beyond its elastic limit. Inthis way a force of considerable magnitude may be applied continuously to the head of the spike to resist its working upward as time goes on.

The upper end 55 of lock element 4| is pref-,- erably substantially straight and square or perpendicular to the general longitudinal axis of section 5| thereof. However, asindicated at 51, it is desirable to cut off one corner by beveling or rounding it to some extent so that drivingthe element 4| into lockingposition, thatis from the position of Fig. l to-that of Fig. 2 may be facilitated. The degree to which the corner should be cut away as at 51 may be varied somewhatbut should be enough that the corner 5'! will not gouge into the rail but not so much as to render it easy to remove. the locking element after it is once installed. In some variations it may be desirable to round or bevel both upper corners but this is not preferred as a rule. beveled portion 51 is preferably at the upper left corner, as viewed in Figs. 1, 2 and 4, for convenience of installation by a right handed workman driving the element. into locking position with a hammer or otherappropriate drivinginstrument.

Ordinarily it is not necessary to provide a special camber or curvature in section 5| since the formation of the curve at 49' usually results in a slight residual camber. It may be specially curved, if desired, and the curvature or camber may be such that the section 5| (Fig. 3) will flex downwardly rather than upwardly when the device is forced into locking position. The up ward curvaturahowever, appears more desirable since the force applied to the spike head approaches more nearly to the vertical withsuch curvature.

Itwill be understood that the locking element may bemade in varioussizes for use. with rails of varying sizes and types. It may be applied by placing the bifurcated lower end astride the inward part of the spike head with the upper end 55 against the juncture of the rail web and-ball, whereupon it may be forced into final locking position (Fig. 2) by. strikingor pressing against the upper sideedge portion Edwith a hammer orother tool until the lock assumes the final position of Fig. 2 with its square upper end 55 firmly engaged in the recessed junctureof web and ball. In such position the element Mapplies continuous. pressure on the spike head and even when the rail is subj cted toheavy. vibrations 3 pass ingtrains this, pressure is not interrupted since the bends 41, 49 if portion 5| is perfectly straight, within its elastic limits and hence without permanent deformation.

Modifications and variations will suggest themselves to those skilled in the art and such are intended to be covered, as far as the prior art may properly permit, by the appended claims.

What is claimed is:

1. In a spiked rail assembly which includes a standard railroad rail having a base flange, a vertical web, and a ball, secured to a supporting base by a driven headed spike, the improvement which consists of a spiize retaining device comprising an elongated flat, relatively thin bar of resilient metal bent out of its main plane into a reversely curved pattern of roughly S shape, said device comprising a lower portion having bifurcate portions projecting outwardly away from the rail body and. adapted to embrace the inner and railward edge portions of the head of a driven railroad spike, an intermediate part of said device being bent outwardly from said rail and over said lower portion to engage the upper surface of the head of said spike, and the upper part of said device being bent inwardly from said intermediate part toward said rail and being dimensioned to abut under compression against said rail below the ball thereof to apply a sustained resilient force between said rail and said spike head.

2. A device according to claim 1 wherein the upper portion is cut away slightly at one extreme corner portion to facilitate its installation into spike retaining position by forcing said upper portion longitudinally of said rail.

3. A spike retaining device of flat resilient metal strap bent into a modified S shape and comprising a lower outwardly directed portion having a bifurcated end for engaging the head of a spike, an intermediate part in continuation of said lower part and bent outwardly thereover to overlie and engage the top part of a spike head located in said bifurcation, and an upper part continuing from said intermediate part and reversely bent inwardly and upwardly so as to extend substantially in the reverse direction from said lower portion.

4. A spike lock of the character described, comprising a unitary strut member of resilient strap metal having a substantially flat bifurcated lower end directed outwardly and away from the upper portion of said member and adapted to engage vertical edge portions of the head of a driven spike nearest the body of a railroad rail secured by said spike, said member having a reversely curved intermediate portion in continuation of said bifurcate portion and bent outwardly thereover to overlie and contact the head of said spike, said lock member having also an extended upper strut portion in continuation of said intermediate portion, the extreme end of said strut portion being adapted to engage said rail substantially at the juncture of the ball and the web of such rail when said member is under longitudinal compression, to apply a constant pressure to the head of said spike, thereby urging said spike in the general direction of driving.

LOU QUIN MOORE.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the file of this patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 821,841 Tower May 29, 1906 941,621 Crippen Nov. 30, 1909 1,009,568 Powell Nov. 21, 1911

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