US2633190A - Gas fueled rail heater - Google Patents

Description

March 31, 1953 D. G. KERWIN ETAL 2,633,190

dAs FUELED RAIL HEATER Filed June 18, 1947 L INYENTOR. fizz/ad G Kenyan, Frederic/(( 0mm; an, I

Patented Mar. 31, 1953 GAS FUELED RAIL HEATER Daniel G. Kerwin, Chicago, and Frederick G. OCallaghan, Franklin Park, Ill., assignors, by mesne assignments, to The Rails 00., New

Haven, Conn.

Application June 18, 1947, Serial No. 755,304

This invention relates to a rail heater for melting snow and ice in track-switches. Sometimes they are called switch heaters. The demand for a gas heaterthat remains lighted irrespective of weather conditions and without supervision is increasing because of the growing number of railroad centralized trafiic control systems where switches at points remote from railroad personnel must be kept in operable condition; The requirementsfor this type of switch heater are much more exacting than are those for the switch heaters that have been in common use in approaches to yards and stations, where during inclement weather, personnel is constantly supervising the heaters and reigniting them when they are blown out.

The problem to be solved by a switch heater is frequently misunderstood. Many think that the switches become inoperable because of the freezing of water and snow amongst the operating parts. This is not correct. The switch is blocked because of the jamming of snow between a switch point and the rail against which the switch. point operates. Figure 1 illustrates an ordinary switch. Numerals l and I2 identify 39 foot rail lengths; l4 and it are the switch points, and I8 and 20 are rails continuing the switch track and the main track respectively. The switch points I4 and I6 slide back and forth on plates such as 22 and 24 and the points may be joined, at one end by one or more links such as 26. Referring to Figure 2, which is a view taken on the line 2-2 of Figure 1, the snow drops into the space 28. As the switch is thrown back and forth, the point It packs the snow into the space 28 adjacent the Web of the rail and beneath the ball. Commonly, the temperature of the rails, the points, the plates, and the ties is below freezing, and there is no water formation. Each time the switch .is thrown they point [6 packs more snow and very quickly the point is working against a snow pack, which from the standpoint of. strain, is the equivalent of ice. At this point the switch cannot be thrown. Moreover, the points are likely to lock in a midpoint position so that a train cannot advance onto either the main track or the switch track. The switch cannot be easily cleared. It is not a question of breakingwith a hammer small formations of ice between the bo-ttom of the switch points and the base of the rail and of theswitch-point, as sug? gested by the dotted line 34 in Figure 2. The second type seeks to heat, continuing to reier to Figure 2, the web 13 of the rail. Applicant sterm this the web and ball type heater. Itmust be of a length such that it can be used not only on rails at switches,- but at crossovers-and oilers and hence is built in'a standard, "comparatively short length. The theoryof this typeof heater is that as fast as the-snow is packed against the web, the snow is melted and'the water runs down onto the ballast. This typeof heaterhas been employed for some years-on streetrailway switches, and is shown in the Greenfield Patent No. 1,681,231. The invention that is the subject of this application is of this second type.

Both types of rail heaters when employed at unsupervised switches, must be able to resist blowing out due to the passage of a train, or if blown'out, must be capable of being reignited automatically. 7;

The first object of this invention is to provide a new and improved web and ball type heater characterized by burners protected by open-end.- ed tunnels which constitute combustion chambers and these are positioned to resist the snufling effect of a gust of wind moving through the heater along a, path substantially parallel to the rail. The burners employed are old in the propane gas art. A propane burner has a tunnel which is made of heat-radiating material and the burner is designed so that the flame will heat the tunnel. Until the tunnel is heated, the propane gas, which is slow burning, will not burn efficiently. However, applicants in the present invention are not concerned with the. burning qualities of these propanetunnels. The important function of the tunnel so far as this invention is concerned is that-it provides a combustion chamber which is shielded from a strong gust of wind. The featureof applicants invention, therefore, is the positioning of these tunnels in the heater so that the plane of their delivery orifice is parallel to the length of the rail. A gust of wind caused by a moving train will move across the tunnel mouth and not into it. Inasmuch as most of the combustion occurs in the tunnel, in which the gas and air pressure is higher than atmospheric pressure, the effect of a gust of wind across the tunnel orifice which further lowers the pressure in the tunnel, will be little.

It is important that the pressures in the tunnel be such that combustion will take place there and applicants utilize a, wide-range aspirator whichwill mix the proper amounts of air with gas despite a wide range of gas pressures. Propane gas is usually under comparatively high pressure and natural gas from city mains is supplied in a rather wide range of comparatively low pressures.

The second object of this invention is to provide a flame' transfer channel which will reignite snuffed-out burners". Applicants burners are spaced four inches apart and are in a straight line. So long as one burner remains ignited, all burners will be promptly reignited by the movement of gas along the flame transfer channel. d d V Another object of this invention is'to provide a multiple unit heater which may beassembled on the job and still provide a flame transfer channel between the units. A feature of this heater is a bridging flame plate which may be positioned between adjoining heaters and which in effect makes a single heater out of a plurality or units? Another object of the 'inventien is to preduce a heater or simple constructi Mast heaters today have gas manifolds csnsisting or a pipe and a shield of some sort is attached to' the pipe. Applicants heater including" the mani rem-aria the" shieldis formed out or a single sheet or plate arsteel whiehc'a'n be bent on brakes and sip r iine'welaedto held 'th'e desired oiffig'ur ion. Thegas rnahifolditself is 'sd are in "er -sect'io'ii, but an dijdinary' pipe do pllng isin dunted at each-end. The aspirator is designed to handle a selected number of burners. In applicants design, the aspirator will handle two lengths of live feet each where the aspirator feeds the gas through a T into one end of each length. I he aspirators capacity is not suitable for attachment to one end (if a ten-foot length.

Some difiiculty has been experienced with the shields of heaters which warp due t6 changes in temperature. Inasmuch as the shield is really a ba fi le for directing heat against fthe 'ur'ider side of the rail ball and the 'Wb, when the shield warps, "it pen-nits the heat ts escape upwardly between the bail and the shield, whereas the operation is more efficient if the heat is forced downwardly and out around the bottom of the heater itself. Applicants provide slots in the shield which permit 'so'ine expansion and contraction; thereby avoiding warping, although a slight a'inouri't 'of'he'at is lost as it passes through the slots. A slot is also provided in the flame 's'fer"chafinel 'iintnediately above each burner. "dvantage derived from the manifolds formed integrally with the shield, .par- 'where the heater is using propane gas. g is duite cold and it tends to keep the manuals cold, and this turn tends to keep the shield cold.

"These and ether objects may hereinafter appear are attained in the "embodiment of the invention hereinafter described in conju'n'ction with drawings on one sheet, wherein:

1 is a schematic, plan view of a railroad switch; Fig. 2 is a sectional View or applicants heater positioned at a point on the rail indicated by line 2+2 of Fig. 1;

Fig. 3 is "an inside elevation or applicants heater; and F g.4 is a side view or a bridging name plate.

, 1 Continuing" to refer to the drawings, the main 3. The lower portion of the plate, referring to Fig. 2, carries right angle bends, 32, 34, 36, and 38, which form between themselves lands, the significant land being the burner land 40. The land 42 is welded to the under side of the plate. By this construction there is formed a manifold having a rectangular cross section.- The ends of the manifold are closed by" couplings 44 and 46 which are brazed to the ends of the manifold, see Fig. 3.

A The burner land 40 carries a row of circular holes such as 48 in which is mounted a tunneltype burner 50. This tunnel-type burner is similar to those used for burning propane gas and consists of a burner screen 52 mounted over the opening of the circular hole 48 and inside a tubular tunnel member or duct 54. The tunnel member or duct is made of metal adapted to radiate heat into the combustion space 56. These burners are spacedat selected intervals along the manirdld.

Men-med above the burners is a continuous flame angle, 53, Wl lih, the burner is mounted as illustrated in Fi 2, constitutes a downwardly directed channel. Ihis' flame angle carries a transverse slot 60 above each burner to permit expansion and contraction of the metal without warping the name angle. The upper edge of the plate 30 is canted at 62 and this canted portion carries slots 64 to permit expansion and contraction or the plate 30 with'dut warping. In this type (if burner the plate 30 is commonly described as 'a shield. In applicants burner, however, the plate 30' constitutes the body of the device. This is important not only because it provides a simple construction but because the manifold 0601s" the plate 30 when the heater is operated on propane gas. When propane gas is introduced to the manifold, it is extremely cold and while the name heats the u per part of the plate,- the cold as in the manifold tends to edunter'act this undesirable heat.-

Applicant's rectangular manifold makes it possible to utilize a holder 66 which'i's readily adjustable laterally. Referring to Fig. 2, the lower portion of applicants holder 66 is conventional, but the upper part consists of two arms 68 and 10'. The arm 70 has 2. lug 18 on its end. The inside dimensions between the arms, or one arm and the lug 1B, is slightly greater than the outside diameter of the manifold, so that referring to Fig. 3, the holder '66 can be slipped over the endof the manifold and then pushed down to any desirable point, the lug 18 not engagirig the burner 50. Ties do not bear any fixed relationship to the end of a switch point, and hence, the holder 66 must be movable laterally ofthe heater.

Gas may be introduced to the manifold by mounting an aspirator such as 1 2 in Fig. 2 directly on the end of the coupling 44 in Fig. 3. However, the aspirator utilized by applicants has a capacity of handling two manifolds with burners, each having a length of five feet. In Figs. 3 and 4, there are illustrated portions of two of applicants burners in which the shield portion of the "plates 30 are joined by a bridging flame plate 14, which has a spring clamp 16 for holding a T-coupling 18. More importantly, it has a flame transfer channel link 80. As illustrated in Fig. 3, if all of the burners on the right-hand heater are extinguished, gas from the left-hand heater will flow-along the flame transfer channel across the 'b'lidging plate and reignite the burners in the right-hand heater. The bridging flame plate is an important practical asset in applicants device because it makes it possible to string a row of heaters where fifteen or twenty feet of rail web should be heated while providing a maximum guarantee of reignition of snuffed-out burners. These heaters must be installed by regular railroad employees and for that reason, installation instructions must be simple and the equipment must be simple to install. Moreover, the heaters as made must be comparatively short. In many track layouts, heaters should be installed where the maximum available space is only four or five feet. Unless the manufacturer is going to manufacture heaters of various lengths, the maximum length of a heater is limited to four or five feet. As a practical matter, designing heaters for each switch installation is uneconomical and designing heaters of varying lengths undesirable because neither railroads nor rail equipment jobbers like to tie up money in various length heaters. Applicants single length heater, therefore, conforms with standard practice but the bridging flame plate makes it possible to join a plurality of these heaters in the field so as to get a single heater of any desired length.

The end of a heater is closed by an end shield 82 which has a flange 84 that engages the outside surface of the plate and a hole 86 which seats over the coupling such as 46, see Fig. 3. This end shield may or may not be fastened to the plate as it leaves the factory. Ordinarily, it is fastened in the factory at that end of the heater which is to be closed by a cap such as 33.

Having thus described our invention, what we claim is:

1. A rail web and ball heater comprising a plate having an upper and a lower side and having two substantially parallel edges, one edge of said plate being folded around to the lower side of the plate so as to form an elongated manifold, a plurality of burners mounted along the manifold adjacent the lower side of the plate, and each said burner including a duct connecting each burner to the manifold.

2. A rail web and ball heater comprising a plate having an upper and a lower side and having two substantially parallel edges, one edge of said plate being folded around to the lower side of the plate so as to form an elongated manifold, a plurality of burners mounted along the manifold adjacent the lower side of the plate, each of said burners including a duct connecting each burner to the manifold, and a longitudinally extending, continuous, flame transfer channel member mounted on the lower side of the plate.

3. A rail web and ball heater comprising a plate folded to provide an elongated manifold, a plurality of gas burners spaced along one face of said manifold, a tubular tunnel member surrounding each burner communicating at one end with the interior of said manifold and at the other end forming a flame orifice, said orifices lying in a plane substantially parallel to the length of the manifold, a shield integral with and extending from the manifold over but spaced from said orifices and a longitudinally extending angle member, forming with the side of the manifold a continuous flame transfer channel, mounted immediately below the shield and overlapping the flame orifices and into which channel said orifices are directed.

4. A rail web and ball heater comprising a longitudinally extending manifold of rectangular cross-section formed from a portion of a sheet metal plate, the remainder of said plate projecting beyond the manifold and adapted to extend towards the rail to be heated, a plurality of burn as operatively positioned along one side of said manifold below said extended plate portion, and an angle member mounted on the lower side of said extended plate portion overlapping the burners and forming with the manifold a continuous flame transfer channel into which said burners are directed.

5. The rail web and ball heater of claim 4 wherein heat expansion slots are cut into the extended edge of the plate.

6. The rail web and ball heater of claim 4 wherein a heat expansion slot is cut into the angle member forming the flame transfer channel above each burner.

7. The rail web and ball heater of claim 1 in combination with a holder having fixed arms shaped to engage slidingly the greater portion of the outside, cross-sectional periphery of the manifold.

8. A multiple unit rail web and ball heater comprising two identical, elongated heaters each having an elongated manifold provided with 1ongitudinally spaced gas burners and a continuous flame channel adjacent to said burners and extending lengthwise of the heater and into which said burners are directed, said heaters being positioned in end-to-end relationship, a gas coupling positioned between the manifolds of the heaters when they are positioned in end-to-end relationship, a bridging flame plate mounted bet-ween the heaters, and a laterally extending flame transfer channel mounted on the bridging flame plate in horizontal alignment with the flame channels on the heaters.

9. In combination with two rail heaters, each comprising an elongated manifold provided with a plurality of gas burners spaced along the outer face of said manifold and protected by a continuous shield extending from said manifold over said burners and a flame transfer channel formed with the manifold by an angle member positioned below said shield and extending lengthwise thereof, into which channel said burners are directed, of a bridging flame plate connecting said two heaters, said plate having a cross-section to match that of the burner shields and an angle member integral therewith alignable with those of the two heaters to make said flame transfer channel continuous, and couplings for holding adjacent ends of the heaters and the bridging flame plate in assembled relationship.

DANIEL G. KERWIN. FREDERICK G. OCALLAGHAN.

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

UNITED STATES PATENTS

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