US3380395A

US3380395A - Apparatus for tamping ballast

Info

Publication number: US3380395A
Application number: US495123A
Authority: US
Inventors: Franz Plasser; Josef Theurer
Original assignee: Individual
Current assignee: Franz Plasser Bahnbaumaschinen Industrie GmbH
Priority date: 1964-11-30
Filing date: 1965-10-12
Publication date: 1968-04-30
Anticipated expiration: 1985-04-30
Also published as: SE314393B; DE1285491B; CH452569A; GB1120839A; AT294168B; FR1454379A

Description

April 30, 1968 F. PLASSER E AL APPARATUS FOR TAMPING BALLAST 2 She etsSheet 3.

Filed Oct. 12, 1965 INVENTOHS Fmmz. 1 Lnsse R Toss; THELLRER QQMM M 4 Agent A ril30,1968 I RPLASF ER ETAL 3,3

APPARATUS FOR TAMPING BALLAST Filed Oct. 12, 1965 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 FILE E INVENTORS- FRANZ 191155614 j'osEF THufi J' Kdm Agent United States Patent 3,380,395 APPARATUS FOR TAMPING BALLAST Franz Plasser and Josef Them-er, both of Johannesgasse 3, Vienna, Austria Filed Oct. 12, 1965, Ser. No. 495,123 Claims priority, application Austria, Nov. 30, 1964, A 10,077/64; Nov. 30, 1964, A 10,076/64 6 Claims. (Cl. 104-12) ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE A railway track tamping apparatus wherein two or more tamping tool assemblies spaced longitudinally of the apparatus are coupled together in a group for simultaneous movement of the group of assemblies in the direction of elongation of the track. 1

The present invention relates to railroad track maintenance, and more particularly to improvements in ballast tamping.

Mobile track tampers with or without means for aligning and/or grading the track are known. In U.S. Patent No. 2,734,463, it is proposed to provide a plurality of tamping tool assemblies on such machines. Such tamping tool assemblies are individually movably mounted on the machine so that their position may be adjusted in the direction of the track elongation and in respect of the track ties to be tamped. In the operation of such machines, each tamping tool assembly has its own operator and is operated independently as the machine advances along the track intermittently from track section to track section, each track section corresponding in length to the length of the machine and being aligned and/or graded, and the several ties in each track section being tamped while the machine stands at rest to fix the track in the aligned and/ or graded position.

It is the principal object of the present invention to make track tamping operations more efficient.

Throughout the specification and claims, the term tamping tool assembly designates ballast tamping means designed to tamp the ballast underneath a tie. In the well known assembly illustrated herein, each tamping tool assembly includes a pair of tools spaced from each other in the direction of elongation of the track and opposing tools of each pair being arranged for immersion in the ballast adjacent a selected tie and for reciprocation in the direction of elongation of the track.

According to this invention, a mobile track tamper has a plurality of tamping tool assemblies mounted for movement on the tamper in the direction of elongation of the track and means is provided for coupling the assemblies in a group of at least two assemblies for simultaneous movement of the group of assemblies in said direction.

Other objects, advantages and features of the invention will become apparent in the following detailed description of certain preferred embodiments thereof, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawing wherein FIG. 1 is a side view, partly in section, of a track tamper embodying tamping tool assemblies mounted according to the invention;

FIG. 2 illustrates, in an enlarged view, the coupling of the two assemblies shown in FIG. 1

FIG. 3 is a side view, on a smaller scale, of a track tamping and grading arrangement incorporating another modification of the mounting of the tamping tool assemblies; and

FIG. 4 is an enlarged view of the coupling of the three tamping tool assemblies ,of FIG. 3.

Referring now to the drawing and first to FIG. 1, there is shown a mobile track tamper including frame I mounted on front axle 2 and rear axle 3. The front and rear axles of the tamper frame carry wheels 4 on which the tamper moves along the track on track rails 5 mounted on ties 6. Since the tamping tool arrangement of the present invention is particularly useful in connection with tampers which comprise means for correcting the position of the track and also work as track liners, it has been illustrated and will be described in this manner. With this type of machine, much time is saved in the grading and/or lateral alignment of tracks because a relatively long track section including a considerable number of ties may be corrected therewith in a single operation. This has the added advantage that a relatively long track section is moved in each track correction step, which avoids irregularities occurring at each individually tamped tie.

As shown and as is conventional, 21 mobile track liner of this type includes means for raising the track, the illustrated means being generally conventional and comprising a track lifting device consisting of a strong electromagnet 7 designed to contact and hold an adjacent rail 5 when actuated. While the track is raised by the lifting device, the tamper frame is supported on the ballast or road bed by a hydraulic jack means. This is shown to incluude a cylinder 9 mounted on frame 1 and carrying piston 10 for vertical reciprocating movement in the cylinder. Piston rod 11 moves with the piston and has mounted on its outer end a shoe 8 for engagement with the ballast or road bed. The hydraulic jack means is operated by supplying pressure fluid to the respective chambers of cylinder 9 through

conduits

12, 12. The lifting stroke determining the track grade is determined in a known manner by reference line 13 which extends from a forward station (not shown) in a track section to be grated to a rear station on the tamper behind the front axle and preferably close to the rear axle. As is also known, this reference line may be a tensioned wire and is preferably a beam of radiant energy, such as light, infrared or ultraviolet radiation. Either the receiver or the sender of the radiant energy beam may be positioned at the front and rear stations, and vice versa. The desired position of the track is established when a sighting board or stop 14 contacts the reference line and thus causes an interruption of the beam or otherwise energizes or de-energizes an electric circuit causing the track lifting to stop.

As shown, the sighting board and the sender (or receiver) 15 are independently mounted on the tamper by means of

rods

30, 30 running on the rails on

rollers

31, 31. The rods are journaled in a support frame 32 for vertical movement in response to the grade of the track.

In accordance with known practice, a grade and/orv aligned track section is fixed in position by tamping the ties in the corrected track section. Useful tamping tool assemblies for this purpose have been disclosed and claimed in our U.S. Patent No. 2,876,709, for instance, and assemblies of this type are illustrated herein by way of example.

In the embodiment of FIG. 1, two tamping tool assemblies 16 and 17 are illustrated, each being vertically adjustable by being slidably supported on

columns

18, 18. Each assembly comprises pairs of

opposing tamping tools

19, 19 which are vibrated by rotation of cam shaft 20 while being reciprocated in the direction of elongation of the track when immersed in the ballast to compact the ballast underneath the tie 6 positioned between the opposing tools of the assembly. Any suitable hydraulic or other motor 21 may be used for reciprocation of the tools towards and away from each other.

All of the above-described structure is conventional and is merely illustrated by way of example, other suitable track lining and/or tamping tool arrangements being equally usable in connection with mounting the tamping tool assemblies in the manner to be now described.

In accordance with the present invention, the tamping tool assemblies are mounted for movement on the tamper in the direction of the track elongation, for instance by running on guide rails in frame 1. The columns 18 supporting each tamping tool assembly for vertical movement in respect of the ballast are shown to be affixed to respective

sliding elements

22 and 23 which are glidably journaled on common guide rod 24 extending in the direction of track elongation and supported by frame 1.

As is best shown in FIG. 2, the two tamping tool assemblies are coupled together for simultaneous movement of both assemblies in the direction of track elongation by a single moving means. The illustrated moving means is a hydraulic motor including a cylinder 25 linked at one end to tamper frame 1 and carrying piston 26 for reciprocation therein under the pressure of pressure fiuid supplied to either cylinder chamber through conduits 28. The outer end of piston rod 27 of the hydraulic motor extends through the other end of cylinder 25 and is linked to a coupling means for the

sliding elements

22, 23 and thus for the tamping tool assemblies. In the illustrated embodiment, this coupling means is another cylinder 29 open at both ends to receive the sliding elements therein and permitting varying the spacing between the two tamping tool assemblies.

For this purpose, one of the sliding elements (22 in the illustrated embodiment) forms a cylinder 31 at its end received in cylinder 29. A piston 32 divides the cylinder 31 into two chambers which may be supplied with pressure fluid through

respective conduits

30 and 33. The piston rod 34, which in the illustrated embodiment is a sleeve gliding on rod 24, is integral with piston 32 and the other sliding element (23 in the illustrated embodiment) of the tamping tool assembly 17. By delivering pressure fluid to one or the other chamber of cylinder 31, the tamping tool assembly 17 will be moved in relation to tamping tool assembly 16 so as to adjust their relative spacing. The coupling means constituted by cylinder 29, on the other hand, is connected to the moving means constituted by a hydraulic motor for simultaneously moving both tamping tool assemblies in the direction of track elongation.

The modification of the arrangement illustrated in FIGS. 3 and 4 will now be described, like reference numerals being used for like parts to avoid duplication of description of those elements described hereinabove in connection with FIGS. 1 and 2. Basically, this modification diifers from the first-described one by the mounting of a group of three tamping tool assemblies on a considerably longer machine frame extending over a correspondingly longer track section being aligned and/or graded in each intermittently progressing operation.

The entire group of tamping tool assemblies is mounted for simultaneous movement by a hydraulic motor 25-27 connected to the bearing sleeve 35 which carries the columns 18 of the three

tamping tool assemblies

16, 17 and 16'.

For the purpose of adjusting the mutual spacing between the tamping tool assemblies, the center assembly 17 carries

fixed piston rods

39, 39 extending in opposite directions towards

assemblies

16 and 16, respectively, the

pistons

38, 38 of these piston rods forming part of hydraulic motors carried by

assemblies

16 and 16. Each of these hydraulic motors consists of a cylinder 36 to whose chambers pressure fluid may be selectively supplied through conduits 37 to move a selected one of the

assemblies

16, 16 towards and away from the center assembly 17, as seen in FIG. 4.

The arrangement shown in FIG. 3 illustrates the forward and rear stations for the track grading control mounted on separate carriages 15', 15' and the length of the machine makes it advantageous to provide additionally grading systems at the rear of the machine frame, which provides a very useful after-control of the grading effected first at the front end of the machine. These additional grading systems are similar to the system used in front and described hereinabove, and they are indicated in FIG. 3 by

numerals

7', 8', 14 and 7", 8" and 14", respectively, the indexed numerals designating like parts. An arrangement of the illustrated type may operate in either direction as it moves intermittently over the track to grade and/ or align successive track sections.

The adjustment of the spacing of the tamping tool assemblies within each group serves not only for the adaptation of the arrangement to different tie spacings but also makes it possible to adjust the position of each tamping tool assembly during tamping, if necessary.

One of the outstanding advantages of the hereinabove described arrangement of the tamping tool assemblies resides in the full and systematic use of all tamping tools within the track section determined by the length of the tamper without leaving any of the tools idle. It is obviously of great importance that the time during which the tamper stands still in the intermittently progressing track correction operation and when the track is held in the corrected position be fully used for tamping the ties and thus to fix the track section in the corrected position. Even a short idling time during each such stand-still period adds up to considerable lost time during the entire operation which may cover miles of track. Furthermore, the described tamping tool assembly arrangement saves operating personnel or makes it possible to use such personnel more effectively in supervising the track correction proper. Finally, the grouping of the tamping tool assemblies for simultaneous movement makes it possible more efiiciently to automate operations and thus constitutes another step in the automation of track grading work which has steadily progressed over the last few years.

The tamping tool arrangement of the present invention makes it possible to tamp a plurality .of ties systematically in a minimum of time in any corrected track section. Thus, a given track section whose length is determined by the length of the track tamper is graded and/ or aligned in a first operation and, while the tamper stands still over the corrected track section, groups of at least two ties are simultaneously tamped in a succession of like tamping operations.

As is known, the tamping of ties involves time-consuming steps not connected directly with the tamping of the ballast, such as stopping and starting the tamper for and after each grading operation, lowering and raising the tamping tool carrier, etc. Over a considerable number of such individual grading operations effected to grade a succession of track sections, the number of these basically wasted steps may be greatly reduced when a number of ties are periodically tamped with the expenditure of only a single one of these wasted steps. Therefore, this invention saves much time because it makes it possible to tamp simultaneously a group of ties to fix the entire corrected track section in position while the tamper stands still over this track section.

All the ties in the corrected track section are tamped in groups of two or more in at least two successive operations to increase the efiiciency of the tamper to a maximum, various selections of tie groups being possible, of course. For instance, adjacent pairs of groups of ties may be successively tamped, each group being simultaneously tamped by the coupled tamping tool assemblies. For instance, a group of ties remote from a previously tamped track section may be tamped first and the group of ties between the tamped track section and that first group of ties may be tamped subsequently. This has the advantage that the previously tamped ballast forms a barrier preventing sideways displacement of ballast and thus favoring high-quality tam-ping of the intermediate group of ties.

Such a tamping sequence may also be effected by first tamping a group of ties which encloses at least one tie that has not been previously tamped and then tamping such untamped ties in a group. Advantageously, groups of ties are tamped which enclose a single untamped tie and then, while the spacing of the tamping tool assemblies in the group remains unchanged, the untamped ties are then tamped in groups. It is also possible, however, to tamp groups of ties enclosing two or more untamped ties and these groups of ties may then be simultaneously tamped while the mutual spacing of the tamping tool assemblies in the group is decreased.

While the invention has been described and illustrated in connection with certain now preferred embodiments, it will 'be clearly understood that many modifications and variations may occur to those skilled in the art, particularly after benefiting from the present teaching, without departing from the spirit and scope of this invention, as defined in the appended claims.

What we claim is:

1. A mobile track tamper comprising a plurality of tamping tool assemblies mounted on the tamper in spaced relation in the direction of elongation of the track for movement in said direction, and means coupling the assemblies in a group of at least two assemblies for simul- 6 taneous movement of the group of assemblies in said direction.

2. The mobile track tamper of claim 1, further comprising means for varying the spacing .of the tamping tool assemblies in said group.

3. The mobile track tamper of claim 1, further =c0mprising means for simultaneously moving the coupled tamping tool assemblies in said direction.

4. The mobile track tamper of claim 1, further comprising means for correcting the position .of the track.

5. The mobile track tamper of claim 4, wherein said track position correcting means includes means for grading the track.

6. The mobile track tamper of claim 5, wherein said track grading means includes a track grading mechanism at the front end of the tamper and another track grading mechanism at the rear end of the tamper.

FOREIGN PATENTS 205,532 10/1959 Austria.

ARTHUR L. LA POINT, Primary Examiner. R. A. BERTSCH, Assistant Examiner.