US3388237A - Method and means of automatically processing information contained on railroad cars - Google Patents

Description

June 11, 1968 METHOD AND MEANS OF AUTOMATICALLY PROCESSING INFORMATION CONTAINED ON RAILROAD CARS Filed Aug. 28, 1962 XYL RAtLROAD CAR NO. 0568 v DATA ' PROCESSING SYSTEM f7 6. 4

& J 17 r 2 3 z INVENIOR :7 3 WORTH 6. E1540 BY F W g ATTORNEY w. G. READ 3,388,237

Unitcd States Patent METHOD AND MEANS OF AUTOMATICALLY PROCESSING INFORMATION CONTAINED ON RAILROAD CARS Worth G. Read, 3162 Hamline Ave. N., St. Paul, Minn. 55116 Filed Aug. 28, 1962, Ser. No. 220,008 3 Claims. (Cl. 23561.12)

This invention relates generally to the identification of railroad cars and the like, and pertains more particularly to use of a binary code for identifying certain information contained on the cars in an automatic manner.

One feature of the invention is to eliminate the existing need for human identification of cars, such as railroad freight cars, and to thereby eliminate the time and effort that has hereinbefore been required.

Another feature of the invention is to provide a ready means by which the car will automatically identify itself and also convey to a suitable processing system any additional information that might be needed with regard to the particular car. It will be appreciated that when used in railroad operations that it is extremely difiicult for the yardmaster and his personnel to keep track of all cars, the task being particularly burdensome because of the difference in car types and also the ownership of the various cars.

The invention also has an additional feature the provision of a marking arrangement that can be easily attached and removed from the various cars as circumstances dictate. =In this regard, the invention has for an aim the provision of a low-cost strip of material that can contain the binary information that is needed for maintaining records of the various car movements within a freight yard or when the cars are traveling along a main railroad line.

Still another feature of the invention is to obtain the appropriate identification and other information while the car is moving, thereby saving a tremendous amount of time in not having to stop the car at any particular location in order to obtain the required information.

Yet another feature is the provision of a marking system that can be empioyed without the need of any special equipment as far as the making of the marking strip is concerned. More specifically, the invention envisages a strip of plastic material or metal having alternate bars and slits whereby appropriate bars can be easily torn away or otherwise removed in order to provide the information in a permanently coded form. In other words, the particular strip containing the binary information can be prepared on the spot while a railroad worker is viewing a particular car, or may be prepared in advance from the consist lists or individual Waybills of approaching trains.

Another feature of the invention is to provide a binary coded strip for railroad operations and the like which will be long-lasting, such as when cars travel from one road to another in interchange thereby further contributing to its widespread use by various railroads.

It is also within the purview of the invention to provide a method and means of railroad car identification that is very unform and simple in character so that it can be adopted by various railroads on a compatible basis without an expenditure of any great sum for the equipment utilized in reading and processing the information.

3,388,237 Patented June 11, 1968 "ice These and other objects and novel features of the present invention will be more clearly and fully set forth in the following specification and claims.

In the drawing forming a part of the specification;

FIGURE 1 is a side elevational view of a railroad freight car about to pass over a pickup station which will automatically read the coded information that is contained on one or more of the car axles.

FIGURE 2 is a plan view of a plastic strip that has been originally formed with alternate bars and slits.

FIGURE 3 is a view of the strip shown in FIGURE 2 after certain of the bars have been removed in order to provide the proper binary code with the remaining bars.

FIGURE 4 is a side elevational view of the prepared strip of FIGURE 3 showing the preferred form in which it appears just prior to the application thereof to one of the car axles.

FIGURE 5 shows one of the axles belonging to the railroad car of FIGURE 1 in cross section with the strip of FIGURE 4 encircling same.

FIGURE 6 is a view similar to FIGURE 3 but showing a second or extended strip with binary information arranged in a reverse order, it being intended that a second strip be employed for identifying the car of FIGURE 1 when it is moved in an opposite direction from that in which it will be identified when employing only the strip of FIGURE 3. This arrangement also permits both strips or both ends of a single strip to be read simultaneously when the car moves in either direction, providing an automatic double check or vertification for reliability or other benefits.

Referring first to FIGURE 1, it will be observed from this figure that a conventional railroad freight car 8 has been illustrated. The car 8 includes a pair of trucks 9 each equipped with two pairs of Wheels 10 mounted for ro tation with axles 11. The name of the railroad is denoted at 12 and the particular car number is shown at 13. For the sake of completeness, a set of railroad tracks 14 have been pictured and are attached to a series of underlying ties 15, all as is customary.

Attention is now directed to FIGURE 2 where a plastic or metal strip has been designated in its entirety by the reference numeral 16. The strip 16 includes longitudinal marginal portions 17 of sufficient Width so that one of them can conta n the numerical figures 1S signifying the value of the binary code. As will be understood, the code in this instance is to constitute four columns and the figures therefore are of the order: 1, 2, 4, and 8. In its initial form, the strip 16 includes a number of transverse bars 19 with intervening or alternating slots 20. The slots can originally be formed by a simple punching or stamping operation. It is also within the purview of the invention to have the bars 19 of any pronounced color that might be desirable for ready recognition by the sensing system yet to be referred to. In some instances, it will be desirable to have the strip 16 of aluminum or other metal instead of plastic so that the bars 19 will be quite reflective in character.

From FIGURE 1, it can be seen that the name of the railroad company owning the car 8 has been indicated at 12 and the particular car number at 13. Assuming that the code number for the name of the railroad is 73 and that the car number 568, then certain bars 19 appearing in FIGURE 2 will be removed so as to pro- 55 vide the proper number and location of bars I? in FIG- URE 3.

For instance, in order to provide the binary equivalent of the decimal digit 7, then only the bars 1 corresponding to the column locations of l, 2, and 4- would be left. Stated somewhat differently, the bar 19 associated with the column 8 would be removed. If the material used to make the strip 16 is plastic, then it will be appreciated that the various bars 19 can be made thin enough or frangible enough so that they can be easily broken away. Also, suitable perforations or weakened lines can be used so that the appropriate bars can be removed. When the strip 16 is of sheet metal, then other similar means, such as shipping away the bars, can be resorted to. To constitute the 3 of 73, the bars under the columns I and 2 would be the ones lift. Thus, various bank spaces would be produced by the removal of the bars that are not needed in order to provide the binary information. From what has been said, it will be appreciated that a similar procedure would be utilized in providing the number 568 more precisely 0563 as in the illustrated situation car numbers up to 9999 can be processed.

The end result is that certain gaps or spaces 21, these gaps or spaces differing in width depending upon the number of bars 19 removed, will exist. Only the remaining bars 19 are instrumental in providing the desired binary information that is to be used in identifying the car 8. For the purpose of making sure that the grouping will be understood, the groups of remaining bars 19 constituting the number 73 have been bracketed and identified by reference numeral 22, whereas the bars 19 that signify the number 568 have been bracketed and are identifiable by the reference numeral 23.

Having removed certain of the bars 19 that were originally present in FIGURE 2, the resulting strip has been distinguished in FIGURE 3 by the suflix a. Thus, the strip of FIGURE 3 bears the reference numeral 16a. It is preferable that this strip 16a and the parent strip 16 be resilient and tend to form a circle as shown in FIGURE 4. This resiliency will facilitate the application of the strip 16a to one of the axles 11. All that the user need do is to flex the strip 16a into a condition such that it can be inserted over the axle fl and the resutling rela-' tionship has been depicted in FIGURE 5. If desired, a suitable adhesive or any other bonding agent or fastening means can be utilized in securing the strip 16a to the axle 11. In place of two separate strips it is preferable to provide a wider or extended single strip with codes arranged to read from the center outwardly, to avoid any chance of confusion in the strips at the time of application.

Returning to FIGURE 1 for a moment, it will be p rceived that an appropriate pickup head 24 has been shown between the rails of the track 14. This pickup head can be of the photoelectric type and need not be described in detail. The pickup head 24 must be such as to discriminate between the bars 19 that are left on the strip 16a from the various gaps 21 that are formed by removing certain of the bars 19. The pickup head may also be a dual type to read both halves simultaneously. The bars 19 can be of a reflective nature or can have a color applied thereto in order to provide a pronounced amount of difference. A light source can be associated with the pickup 24.

A transmission line 25 leads from the pickup head 24 to a data processing system 26. Here again, there are a number of data processing systems that may be employed and it is not felt that the specific construction is necessary for an appreciation of the invention. Briefly, though, the pickup head 24 can produce an electrical pulse for each transverse bar 19 and these pulses can be transmitted via the line 25 to the processing system 26. Suitable flip-flop circuits can be used for initially receiving this information and the information can be then transferred to an approll priate storage medium, such as punched or magnetic tape.

From the information that has been presented up to this point, it should be readily apparent that the method utilized in the practicing of my invention involves the first step of initially preparing a strip of suitable material so that it contains alternating bars and slots. Thereafter certain of the bars are removed so that the remaining bars will constitute the binary pattern which is representative of the information that is to be interpreted. The car is passed over the pickup station and the movement of the car is instrumental in providing the necessary signals that are transmitted to the data processing system, the information so derived either being viewed immediately or stored for future use.

The one difliculty with the method described above resides in the fact that the car 8 would have to be moved in a particular direction in order to present the binary information to the head 24 at the pickup station. To eliminate this inconvenience, it is contemplated that a second strip 16b be prepared or that the strip I6 be of sufhcient length to form the strips Ida and 16b. The same procedure is utilized in the preparation of the strip 16b, but from FIGURE 6 it can be discerned that the information is in a reverse order. Whereas the strip 16a of FIGURE 3 would be read from left to right, the strip Ib of FIGURE 6 would be read from the right to the left. Consequently, when the second strip 161: is mounted on one of the axles Ill, it can register the appropriate identifying information that is to be recorded and will do so when the car is moved in an opposite direction from that in which it would be moved in order to process the information from the strip 161:. Moves can then be made back and forth, or in either direction, and the pickup mechanism will recognize the condition without alteration, with one condition checking against the other for reliability and direction of travel recorded by automatic action from flange of wheels.

As an alternate arrangement, the information may be read out by providing a key signal at one end of the strip, and reading the information either in one direction or the other from this key signal point. The earlier arrangement has the advantage of providing the double check for accuracy.

In accordance with the patent statutes, I have described the principles of construction and operation of my method and means of automatically processing information contained on cars and the like, and while I have endeavored to set forth the best embodiment thereof, I desire to have it understood that changes may be made within the scope of the following claims without departing from the spirit of my invention.

I claim:

I. A device for identifying car information of interest including:

a body including a pair of spaced parallel elongated strips,

parallel transverse bars integrally connecting said strips at substantially right angles thereto arranged in a binary pattern representative of said information of interest,

said bars and strips being formed of flexible resilient material and said bars being generally arcuate in form with the center of arcuation generally parallel to said strips.

2. The structure of claim 1 and in which said bars are symmetrical with respect to the longitudinal center of the strip.

3. A member for identifying railroad car information including:

an elongated body of flexible resilient material having spaced parallel generally rectangular slots therein to provide a pair of parallel strips extending along the longitudinal edges of said body and a series of equally spaced parallel bars connecting said strips, said bars being of a material readily separable from said strips so as to permit selected strips to be re- 5 6 moved so that the remaining strips form a binary 2,710,962 6/1955 Fritze 235-616 code, and 2,746,679 5/ 1956 Stratton 235-61.6 said body being of a material capable of being placed 3,045,905 7/1962 Tarasuk 235-61.12 about the periphery of a railroad car axle. 3,026,029 3/1962 Daniels 23561.12

5 References Cited FOREIGN PATENTS UNITED STATES PATENTS 798,538 7/ 1958 Great Britain. 2,320,150 5/1943 Loughridge 177-353 1183655 7/1959 France 2,333,248 11/1943 Harvey 20046 2,612,994 10/1952 Woodland et al. 23561.115 10 DARYL Emmmer- 2,194,057 3/ 1940 Simpson 104-26 MA'LCOLM A. MORRISON, Examiner. 2,656,497 10/ 1953 Schweighofer 20046 2,084,052 6/1937 Walker n 23 5-61.12 P. J. HIRSCHKOP, J. SCHEIDER, Assistant Examiners.

Claims (1)

1. A DEVICE FOR IDENTIFYING CAR INFORMATION OF INTEREST INCLUDING: A BODY INCLUDING A PAIR OF SPACED PARALLEL ELONGATED STRIPS, PARALLEL TRANSVERSELY BARS INTEGRALLY CONNECTING SAID STRIPS AT SUBSTANTIALLY RIGHT ANGLES THERETO ARRANGED IN A BINARY PATTERN REPRESENTATIVE OF SAID INFORMATION OF INTEREST, SAID BARS AND STRIPS BEING FORMED OF FLEXIBLE RESILIENT MATERIAL AND SAID BARS BEING GENERALLY ARCUATE IN FORM WITH THE CENTER OF ARCUATION GENERALLY PARALLEL TO SAID STRIPS.

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