US2815902A - Two-piece rail anchor - Google Patents

Description

Dec. 10, 1957 J. L. GRANT 2,815,902

TWO-PIECE RAIL ANCHOR Filed Sept. 22. 1954 ATTX United States Patent TWO-PIECE RAIL ANCHOR John L. Grant, Chicago, Ill., assignor, by mesne assignments, to Poor & Company, Chicago, 111., a corporation of Delaware Application September 22, 1954, Serial No. 457,588

4 Claims. (Cl. 238-324) This invention relates to certain new and useful improvements in railway rail anchors and particularly to the two piece type of rail anchor disclosed in the Patent 1,402,852 granted to Charles G. Erickson, January 10, 1922.

The principal object of the invention is to provide, in a rail anchor of the above type, simplified structural improvements which will be highly effective in overcoming the tendency with the various disturbing influences encountered in service have to loosen the grip on the rail of such two-piece rail anchors and cause their dislodgement from the rail.

The type of rail anchor to which the present invention appertains comprises a cast metal shoe which fits onto one edge of the base portion of a rail and a yoke which embraces the rail base and said shoe in tight clamping engagement. The outer face of the shoe is inclined to form a wedge configuration and one end is formed with an abutment flange for bearing against an adjacent cross-tie. The yoke is made from a relatively heavy bar of only slight resilience. It is formed at one end with a small hook for engagement with an edge of the rail base opposite to the edge engaged by the shoe and at the other end with a large hook for embracing said shoe. The yoke is applied to its operative position by engaging the small hook over an edge portion of the rail base and moving it lengthwise of the rail until the small end of the wedge portion of the shoe enters the large hook of the yoke. The yoke is then driven lengthwise of the rail to force the large hook onto the wedge portion of the shoe.

When the above type of anchor, as heretofore constructed, is properly applied it exerts a strong grip on the rail and said shoe, but there is a pronounced tendency, because of the vibration and other disturbing forces encountered in service, for the yoke to back off the wedge portion of the shoe and therefore loose its rail clamping force.

The present invention is directed to improvements which overcome the above mentioned objections to this type of rail anchor as theretofore produced. Accordingly the yoke member is improved whereby, instead of being moved lengthwise of the rail into initial engagement with the wedge portion of the shoe, the large hook of the yoke may be engaged over the wedge portion of the shoe at a location intermediate its ends and driven transversely thereof until a locking shoulder, formed at the other end of the yoke, snaps up into engagement with the vertical edge surface of the rail base flange at the opposite side of the rail. In this position the resilient vertical grip of the large hook on the shoe is sufiicient to maintain the yoke in position on the rail and prevent accidental dislodgement thereof. The yoke is then driven further upon the wedging surfaces of the shoe while the latter abuts a cross-tie and the body of the yoke is driven to a diagonal position relative to the rail so as to provide 2,815,902 Patented Dec. 10, 1957 a shackle grip on the rail and shoe to resist creeping movement of the rail.

A preferred embodiment of the invention is shown in the accompanying drawing wherein:

Fig. l is a plan view of the base portion of a railroad rail showing a rail anchor constructed according to the present invention installed thereon;

Fig. 2 is a cross section taken through the rail base, but showing a face view of the anchor construction;

Fig. 3 is an end view of the rail anchor assembly as viewed at the right of Fig. 2; and

Fig. 4 is an enlarged fragmentary detail section taken on line 4-4 of Fig. 1.

Referring to the drawings, 10 designates the base portion of a railroad rail, 11 one of the cross-ties of a track way, and 12 designates a conventional form of tie plate interposed between the top surface of the cross-tie 11 and the bottom surface of the rail base 10 so as to provide a seat for the latter. The rail base portion of the rail may be secured to the cross-tie in any suitable manner.

The improved rail anchor shown in the drawing is a two piece device designed to clamp the rail base 10 and abut against a vertical face of the cross-tie 11 to resist creeping movement of the rail in the direction of the moving traffic thereon, that is to say in the direction of the feathered arrow shown in Fig. 1. One piece of. the improved device is a shoe 13. It is preferably a metal casting formed with a top flange 14 and with spaced apart bottom flanges 1516, all of which cooperate to define a recess for embracing an edge portion of the rail base. The upper flange 14 of the shoe bears upon the inclined upper surface of the rail base flange embraced and the bottom flanges 15-16 bear against the bottom surface of the rail base at locations adjacent the opposite ends of the shoe. The end of the shoe adjacent the cross-tie 11 is formed with a tie abutting foot 17 which is adapted to abut against a vertical face of the crosstie 11. The said foot 17 extends downwardly from the rail a substantial distance and is rigidified by a vertical web 18. The portion 19 of the shoe is relatively heavy and connects the three flanges 14, 15 and 16. The outer surface 20 of the portion 19 is curved and tapers to increase in thickness from end to end in the direction of the tie abutting foot 17 and its lower edge 21 at the location between the lower flanges 15 and 16 terminates above the plane of the bottom surfaces 2324 of these flanges for a purpose hereafter explained. Also the said increase in thickness of the shoe extends over the top flange 14 as indicated at 25 so that the wedge is provided with both lengthwise and vertical wedging faces for engagement with the second member 26 of the rail anchor device. Also the vertical distance between the upper and lower flanges of the shoe 13 is such that it is necessary to drive the shoe onto the rail base flange. the upper flange 14 being flexed upwardly from its initial position 25 and bears principally at its inner margin against the inclined top surface of the rail base. The clearance 27 (Fig. 4) between the top flange 14 and the rail base in the region of the upper corner thereof permits application of the shoe to rail base flanges of greater thickness than that shown in the drawing.

The second member 26 of the device is a relatively heavy yoke made from a rolled steel bar having only slight resiliency. The bar is bent at one end to provide a hook 28 which fits over the wedge portion of the shoe 1? at a location between the bottom flanges 15-16 thereof. The terminal end of the hook constitutes an upper jaw 29 of the yoke which bears on the inclined upper surface of the top flange 14 of the shoe. The curvature of the hook 28 is such that the inner face 30 thereof conforms to the curvature of the outer surface 20 of the shoe 13 and merges into a curved pocket 31 which receives the lower edge 21 of the side portion 19 of the shoe. The said pocket 31 constitutes a lower jaw of the yoke and provides a resilient interlock of the yoke and shoe. Adjacent the said pocket form of lower jaw 31, the yoke is formed with a horizontal platform 32 which extends beneath the rail, but is spaced from the bottom face thereof so as to provide a hump or shoulder 33 which resists movement of the yoke laterally of the shoe in a direction to effect disengagement of the yoke and shoe. The other end of the yoke is offset to form a locking shoulder 34 which engages the edge 35 of the rail base to lock the yoke and shoe members in their cooperative engagement on the rail base 10. The portion of the yoke intermediate the locking shoulder 34 and said platform 32 is bowed downwardly to provide some resilience transversely of the rail. The book 28 also has some resilience and the upper and lower jaws 29 and 31 are spread apart slightly when the hook is in its applied position. Consequently the bearing of the terminal end 29 of the hook on the shoe and the upward flexing thereof relative to the curved lower jaw 31 imparts a lever force on the yoke tending to turn it about said curved lower jaw 31 and thereby, in addition to its gripping action on the shoe, holds the shoulder end 34 up in a locking position opposite the vertical surface 35 of the rail base.

The yoke 26 is initially applied by driving the hook 28 onto the shoe at a location between the lower flanges 1516 of the shoe until the resilience of the hook snaps the locking shoulder 34 up over the edge of the rail base to its locking position shown in Fig. 2. In this initial position of the yoke, it extends across beneath the base at right angles to the length of the rail. Inasmuch as the inner face 36 is formed to extend diagonally across the width of the yoke, the said face will stand at an acute angle to the adjacent edge face 35 of the rail base, but one edge of the shoulder 34 is in close relation to the said face 35 of the rail base and will therefore prevent accidental disengagement of the yoke from the shoe. The lower flange 14 of the shoe serves as a stop to prevent the hook portion 28 of the yoke from backing off the end of the shoe.

In order to obtain a clamping grip of sufficient tenacity to held the rail from creeping toward the cross-tie, the hook end 28 is driven lengthwise of the shoe in a direction to increase the wedging effect of the shoe within the hook 28, and the locking shoulded end 34 is driven lengthwise of the rail to position the yoke diagonally across the base as shown in full lines in Fig. 1. In this position the shoulder face 36 bears flat against the edge face 35 of the rail base and the downwardly bowed portion of the yoke is partially straightened and thereby insures a strong resilient grip of the yoke on the rail base 10 and the shoe 13 which resists any tendency that the vibration on the rail might otherwise have to loosen the transverse grip of the yoke on the wedging faces of the shoe. The resilience of the yoke also compensates for the normal variations in the widths of rail bases and thereby insures a tight fit on both oversized and undersized rail bases.

I claim:

1. A two piece rail anchor comprising, in combination, a shoe member formed with an upper flange and with spaced apart lower flanges cooperating with the upper flange for gripping the top and bottom surfaces of a rail base flange at one side of the rail, means at one end of the shoe for abutting against a vertical face of a cross-tie, a vertical side portion connecting said upper and lower flanges, and a yoke for clamping said shoe to the rail, the yoke comprising a relatively heavy steel bar having only slight resilience formed at one end with a hook having a curved inner surface and adapted to be driven transversely of the shoe into resilient gripping engagement with said upper flange and the lower edge of said side portion at a location intermediate said lower flanges of said shoe, locking means at the other end of the yoke for releasably engaging the vertical edge portion only of the rail base flange at the other side of the rail comprising an upwardly projecting shoulder formed on the yoke and movable therewith transversely of the rail into its locking position, and an abutment surface on one of said flanges of the shoe for preventing removal of the yoke from the shoe by movement lengthwise of the shoe.

2. A two-piece rail anchor according to claim 1 characterized in that the said vertical side portion of said shoe includes a flat surface which projects beyond the planes of the surfaces of the spaced apart lower flanges of the shoe and therefore projects below the bottom plane of the base flange when the shoe is applied thereto, a curved outer face extending from the upper flange to the lower flanges with the portion thereof intermediate said spaced apart lower flanges having an upwardly curved portion terminating at its junction with said flat surface, and further characterized in that the curved inner face of the hook is complemental to the curved outer face of the side portion of the shoe and joins a horizontal under-rail portion of the yoke at a location above the extreme bottom of the curved inner surface of the yoke, whereby the hook of the yoke is opened slightly and thereafter contracted by the movement thereof transversely of the shoe to its applied position to interlock the shoe within the hook of the yoke.

3. A two-piece rail anchor according to claim 2 characterized in that the terminal end of the hook portion bears against the top surface of the shoe at a substantial distance inwardly from the curved lower face of the side portion intermediate said spaced apart lower flanges of the shoe, whereby the pressure of the terminal end of the hook on the upper flange of the shoe turns the yoke about said curved lower face of the shoe intermediate said spaced apart lower flanges to hold the locking shoulder end of the yoke in its operative position.

4. A two-piece rail anchor according to claim 3 characterized in that the said horizontal under-rail portion of the yoke is normally positioned to engage a vertical face of one of said spaced apart lower flanges of the shoe, whereby the surface of the flange engaged constitutes the said abutment for preventing removal of the yoke from the shoe by movement thereof lengthwise of the shoe.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,251,705 Stephenson Jan. 1, 1918 1,355,949 Elgena Oct. 19, 1920 1,471,171 Knell Oct. 16, 1923 1,613,608 Hackmann Jan. 11, 1927 1,996,286 Ericson Apr. 2, 1935

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