US3105674A - Tie remover and spike puller - Google Patents

Description

Ogt. 1, 1963 J. K. STEWART- v 3,105,674

7 TIE REMOVER AND SPIKE PULLER' v Filed March 12, 1959 5 SheetsSheet 1 1, 1963 V .1. K. STEWART 3,105,674

TIE REMOVER AND SPIKE FULLER Filed March 12, 1959 5 Sheets-Sheet 2 Oct. 1, 1963 J. K. STEWART TIE REMOVER AND sum: FULLER 5 Sheets-Sheet 3 Filed March 12, 1959 llllll 523% was 7 :4 T role/V675.

Oct. 1, 1963 J. K. STEWART TIE REMOVER AND SPIKE FULLER 5 Sheets-Sheet 4 Filed March 12, 1959 Oct. 1, 1963 J. K. STEWART 3,105,674

1 TIE REMOVER AND SPIKE FULLER, Filed March 12, 1959 5 Sheets-Sheet 5 v VENTOE (/a/v/v K Srzm/ T hf WWW United States Patent Office Patented Get. 1, 1963 3,105,674 THE REMOVER AND SFIKE FULLER John Kenneth Stewart, Montreal, Quebec, Canada, assignor to Canada Iron Foundries, Limited, Montreai, Quebec, Canada Filed Mar. 12, 1959, Ser. No. 798,893 1 Claim. (Cl. ZS t- IS) This invention relates to a machine for inserting and removing railway ties.

It has previously been proposed to provide a machine of this type in which pairs of jaws are hydraulically operated by a first piston and cylinder arrangement to clamp a tie, the jaws and tie being subsequently moved by means of a second piston cylinder arrangement, and both of said piston and cylinder arrangement being controlled by manually operated valves. This prior proposal has the disadvantage that as the resistance to movement of the tie builds up the jaws are liable to slip along the tie until the operator opens the valve for said first piston and cylinder arrangement to eflect a tighter clamping of the jaws. On the other hand if the jaws are clamped as tightly as possible to begin with this is detrimental to the tie and in most cases is entirely unnecessary.

It is an object of the present invention to provide a machine for inserting and removing railway ties which does not suffer from the above disadvantage.

'It is another object of the invention to provide a machine of the type stated in combination with mechanism for pulling the spikes from railway ties to allow removal thereof.

According to the invention there is provided in a machine for inserting and removing railway ties wherein hydraulically operated jaws are adapted to clamp and move a tie by means of first and second piston and cylinder arrangements respectively, the improvement which comprises linking both of said piston and cylinder arrangements to the source of pressurized hydraulic fluid through a common valve whereby an increase in pressure required by said second piston and cylinder arrangement in moving the tie will automatically entail a corresponding increase in pressure in said first piston and cylinder arrangement to clamp the jaws tighter on the tie, the clamping operation automatically being effected prior to the moving operation by providing the piston of said first piston and cylinder arrangement vw'th a working area utilised in clamping the jaws substantially greater than that of the piston of said second piston and cylinder atrangement.

An embodiment of the present invention will now be described by way of example with reference to the accompanying drawings in which:

FIGURE 1 is a diagrammatic front elevation of a railway maintenance vehicle having a spike puller and tie renewing mechanism mounted thereon;

FIGURE 2 is a view of the tie renewing mechanism and hydraulic connections therefor;

FIGURE 3 is a view taken from the right-hand side of FIGURE *2;

FIGURE 4 is a view similar to FIGURE 2 with parts broken away and parts in section;

FIGURE 5 is a detailed view of the piston and cylinder arrangement for opening and closing the tie clamping jaws;

FIGURE 6 is a part-sectional elevation of the spike puller;

FIGURE 7 is a part-sectional vie-w at right angles to FIGURE 6;

FIGURE 8 is a plan View of the spike puller handle assembly;

FIGURE 9 is a diagrammatic side elevation of the vehicle showing how the spike puller is mounted thereon and FIGURE 10 is a partial sectional view of the connection between the spike puller and the supporting plate.

As shown in FIGURE 1 a railway maintenance vehicle 1, mounted on rail engaging wheels 2, has mounted thereon mechanism 3 for removing and inserting railway ties, a rectangular framework 4- mounted for easy manipulation in a vertical direction, and a spike puller 5 adapted for transverse movement along said framework 4. A hydraulic circuit consisting of a reservoir, pump and suitable connections is also provided on the vehicle for actuating the tie renewing mechanism and spike puller but only the characteristics of such circuit which are peculiar to the present invention will be described herein. The pump is driven by a gasoline driven self-contained power unit mounted on the vehicle.

Referring now to FIGURES 2 through 5, the tie removing and inserting mechanism illustrated comprises a pair of tie clamping jaws 6, 7 pivotally mounted at their upper ends, as at 8 and 9, on the piston rod 10* and cylinder 11, respectively, of a double acting piston and cylinder arrangement and pivotally mounted intermediate their ends, as at 12, 13 respectively, on a slide 14 adapted to be reciprocated with a cylinder 15 slidably mounted on a piston 16 and piston rod 17. The piston rod 17 extends through the cylinder 15 and is secured at one end to a bracket 18 and at its other end to a web 1.9. The slide 14 has two apertures 20, 21 to accommodate guide rods 22', 23 which are also secured at their ends to bracket 18 and web 19'.

Pressurized hydraulic fluid is fed to and exhausted from the cylinders -11 and 15 through a common control valve 24 and suitable connections 25 to 30. Flexible pipes 25 and 26 connect valve 24 with the ends of cylinder 11. Flexible pipes 27 and 28 are paralleled off from pipes 25 and 26 and lead to a manually controlled valve 31 which is connected with the ends of cylinder 15 through flexible pipe 29 and rigid connection 30. Valve 24 controls both the clamping or unclamping operation and the movement of the jaws to and from a rail 32 of a railway track and valve 31 controls the sequence of operations. Thus, in one position of valve 31, some of the fluid flowing through pipe 25 flows into cylinder 11 to effect clamping of the jaws and some is caused to flow through pipe 27 and connection 30 to elfect outward movement of the jaws with cylinder 15. In this position of the valve, the mechanism is adapted for removing a tie 33. To adapt it for inserting a tie, valve 31 is moved to another position so that the flow of fluid is diverted through pipe 29 to move the jaws inward after they have been clamped.

To ensure automatic clamping of the jaws prior to movement of cylinder 15, the working area 34 of piston 35 utilized for the clamping operation is made substantially, preferably 15 percent, greater than the working area 36 of piston 16. Thus, a greater force is exerted by the pressurized fluid to clamp the jaws than to cause movement of cylinder 15 which carries the jaws. Moreover, it follows from the parallel feed to cylinders 11 and 15 from common valve 24 that any increase in pressure required in cylinder 15 to overcome resistance to movement of the jaws, created for example by friction between the tie and the ballast, will automatically entail a corresponding increase in pressure in cylinder 11, thus causing the jaws 6, 7 to grip the tie more tightly and prevent the jaws from slipping along the tie.

The working area 37 on the other side of piston 35 need not necessarily be greater than the working area 36 of piston 16 since the pressure build-up required in cylinder 11 to eitect unclamping of the jaws 6, 7 is obviously less than the pressure build-up required in cylinder 15 to move the cylinder 15, slide 14, jaws 5, '7, valve 31 and the tie 33 clamped by the jaws. Thus, the jaws will automatically open in any event before the commencement of the return stroke of cylinder 15.

The bracket 18 of the tie removing and inserting mechanism described above is upwardly recessed to bridge a tie transversely and is fixedly secured to a sleeve 18A. Sleeve 18A is slidably mounted on a shaft 183 borne by a bracket 18C. Bracket 18C also has mounted thereon a downwardly depending flange member 18D. Bracket -8 is adapted to engage the outer edge of the base flange of a rail, as shown in FIGURE 2, and flange member ISD is adapted to engage the inner side of the ball of the rail.

Provision is made for relative movement of about 1 inch between sleeve 18A and shaft 13B. Thus, when a tie is being removed, the reaction force will cause the sleeve 18A to ride inwards to ensure close abuttal of bracket 18 with the base flange of the rail, thus preventing the rail from being moved with the tie. Conversely, when a tie is being inserted, the reaction force will cause close abuttal of flange member 189 with the ball of the rail.

Bracket 13C is attached to sleeve 18F which forms an integral part of a cylinder 38 adapted for vertical reciprocation on a piston 3%. The piston 39 is rigidly mounted on the wheeled railway maintenance vehicle 1. The cylinder 38 is supplied with pressurized hydraulic fluid through a manually operated control valve 4% adjacent valve 24 and through the connection 38A and the port 383. Thus, when a tie replacing operation has been completed and it is desired to move on, the operator opens valve 49 to admit fluid to the top of cylinder 38 through the port 385. Since the piston 39 is rigidly attached to the vehicle the cylinder 38 moves upwards relatively thereto and in so doing carries therewith its integral sleeve 18F and consequently the tie renewing mechanism which is secured thereto until the jaws of that mechanism clear the top of the newly inserted tie. The operator then closes the valve and the vehicle is moved along the track until the jaws are disposed upon the next tie to be worked upon. The operator opens valve 40 to exhaust the fluid from cylinder 38 whereupon the weight of thetie renewing mechanism causes the cylinder 38 to move down relative to the piston 39 and exhaust the hydraulic fluid through the port 58B. When the point where the jaws are disposed on either side of the tie to be worked upon is reached the operator again closes the valve. By use of the valves 24 and 31 the cycle of operation is repeated.

The spike puller is provided for pulling the spikes from a tie about to be removed. The spike puller comprises a cylinder ii, a casing 42 mounted on the lower end of cylinder 41, a piston 43 slidably mounted in cylinder 41, a piston rod 44 extending through the bottom of cylinder 41 into casing 42, and a lazy-tongs arrangement 45 mounted on the lower end of piston rod 44 and having spike-engaging pincers 46.

As shown in FIGURE a bracket 47 secured to the casing 42 has a cross-pin 48 with an enlarged bulbous centre portion 4-9 adapted to seat in an eyelet 50 having an interior wall of spherical configuration so that the spike puller is capable of limited universal movement to facilitate positioning of the pincers over a spike to be pulled.

The eyelet 5i} extends outwardly from a plate 51 which has grooved rollers 52. adapted to run on the top edge of the lower beam of rectangular framework 4. The spike puller can thus be moved transversely on rollers 52 across the full width of a railway track to pull the spikes adjacent both rails.

As previously stated, the framework 4 is mounted for easy vertical manipulation. For this purpose it is provided with rollers 64) which run in vertical guide channels 61 at the front of the vehicle and with compression springs 62 which extend diagonally downwards to anchorage brackets 63 at the rear of the vehicle. The tension in springs 62 is adjustable so that the framework 4 and spike puller 5 can normally be maintained in an elevated position, but can be pushed down with a minimum of eifort to engage pincers 46 with the head of a spike to be pulled.

Lateral stability of the framework 4 is provided by means of two chains 64 which extend from the upper beam of the framework around upper sprockets 65 and lower sprockets 66 to the lower beam of the framework.

The sprockets 65 and 66 are mounted on guide channels.

61 and a shaft 67 extends between the two lower sprockets 66 for rotation therewith. Thus, if an upward or downward push is exerted on one end only of framework 4, movement of that end will be transmitted automatically to the other end through the chain at that end, the lower sprocket at that end, the shaft 6'7, the lower sprocket at the other end, and the chain at the other end. Thus, the upper and lower beams of framework 4 are always maintained perpendicular to the guide channels 61.

A port 53 (FIGURE 6) for pressurized hydraulic'fluid' is provided in the wall of cylinder 41 and an air or gas inlet valve 54 is provided at the top of the cylinder. The handle assembly 55 of the spike puller has a bell-crank lever portion 56 pivoted at 57 and having a cable 58 attached thereto for controlling a remote valve (not shown) which in turn controls the flow of hydraulic fluid to and from the cylinder 41.

Before the spike puller is put into operation, air or gas is pumped through valve 54 to establish a pressure of between 36 and 50 psi. in the cylinder space above the piston. The spike puller is then positioned above a spike to be pulled and is lowered so as to engage the pincers 46 with'the head ofa spike. The pincers 46 open automatically upon contact with the spike head and close to grip the spike as soon as the initial pull is triggered by swinging the lever 56 to introduce pressurized fluid into cylinder 41 below piston 43 to raise the latter. Lever 56 is held in its new position until continued upward movement of piston 43 causes the pivot pins 455; of lazy-tongs arrangement 45 to engage in upwardly divergent guide slots 59a of a guide member 59 for effecting the opening of pincers 46 to release the pulled spike. Movement of lever 56 back to its original position opens the lower end of cylinder 41 to exhaust through port 53, thus allowing the pressurized air or gas above piston 43 to return the lazy tongs arrangement 45 to its initial position as shown in FIGURE 6. The pincers 46 are prevented from rotating relative to the casing 42 by engagement of the ends of pivot pin 35i; in a transverse slot 42a in the casing \Vhat I claim as my invention is:

A railway maintenance vehicle having rail engaging wheels and comprising a rectangular guide framework extending transversely of the vehicle at the front end thereof, a pair of upstanding guide channel members spaced apart and mounted on said vehicle, first rollers on said framework engaging in said guide channel members for movement therein, chain means connected at both ends thereof to the framework, sprocket members rotatably mounted at the top and bottom of each of the guide members; said chain means being entrained over the sprocket members, a shaft coupled to and extending between the bottom sprockets on each of the upstanding guide channel members to transmit the rotation of one bottom sprocket to the other; a plate member, second rollers rotatably journalled on said plate member and mounting said plate member for movement on saidrectangular guide framework; a fluid operated spike puller; means connecting said fluid operated spike puller and said plate, said means comprising universal connections including a ball and socket joint between said fluid operated spike puller and said plate; and compression springs connected to said rectangular framework and extending diagonally away from said frame to anchorage brackets at the rear of the vehicle, whereby the spike puller is normally maintained in an elevated position and can be readily moved downwardly, the spike puller adapted to be moved laterally in said frame and to be moved directly vertically to position the spike puller directly over a spike, the universal connections between the spike puller and plate permitting final angular adjustment of the spike puller to engage a spike.

1,808,896 Jackson June 9, 1931 Hursh Jan. 24, 1956 6 Swallert Feb. 21, 1956 Sublett et al. Aug. 5, 1958 Kershaw Oct. 13, 1959 Geier et al. Feb. 2, 1960 FOREIGN PATENTS France Apr. 9, 1952 OTHER REFERENCES Publication A, Apr. 11, 1957.

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