US3389661A

US3389661A - Monorail trackway

Info

Publication number: US3389661A
Application number: US596387A
Authority: US
Inventors: Wainwright Ralph; Archer Alan
Original assignee: Qualter Hall and Co Sales Ltd
Current assignee: Qualter Hall and Co Sales Ltd
Priority date: 1965-11-17
Filing date: 1966-11-15
Publication date: 1968-06-25
Anticipated expiration: 1985-06-25
Also published as: BE689721A; GB1147187A; ES333955A1; NL6616170A

Description

J1me 1968 R. WAINWRIGHT ETAL 3,389,661

MONORAIL TRACKWAY Filed Nov. 15, 1966 2 Sheets-Sheet. l

Inventor; RALPH WMNWAIGHT ALAN ARCHER A ttorneys June 1963 R. WAINWRIGHT ETAL 3,389,661

MONORAIL TRACKWAY Filed Nov. 15, 1966 2 Sheets-Sheet f I rwenlors MLPH wMNwRiHT ALAN ARCHER A tlorneys United States Patent 3,389,661 MONGRAIL TRACKWAY Ralph Wainwright, Wakefield, and Alan Archer, Barnsley,

England, assignors to Qualter, Hall 8: Co. (Sales) Inmited', Barnsley, England, a company of Great Britain and Northern Ireland Filed Nov. 15, 1966, Ser. No. 596,387 Claims priority, application Great Britain, Nov. 17, 1965, 48,859/ 65 (Filed under Rule 47(a) and 35 U.S.C. 116) 10 Claims. (Cl. 104-106) ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE There is provided a monorail trackway with a plurality of flanged elongate rail sections the adjacent rail sections of which are coupled together at their adjacent ends for pivotal movement about an axis perpendicular to their web. Pivoting is made possible by passing a pivot pin through interleaving bearing elements at those adjacent ends, one bearing element being provided by the web itself of one rail section and the other by a pair of mouthforming members secured to the web of the other rail section. Adjacent track sections each have cut-back portions of flange at the adjacent ends whereby longitudinally overlapping laterally side-by-side tongues are formed on the end portions of the flange, the tongue of one rail section being fast with the web along its inner edge and the tongue of the other rail section being fast with one of the mouth-forming members along its inner edge so that there is an angle section formed at each tongue.

This invention relates to monorail trackways consisting of rail sections having a pair of flanges projecting generally co-planar one each side of a web, the web usually being vertical in use and the flanges horizontal.

The sections of track are usually substantially rigid girder members bent, it necessary, to conform generally to the changes of direction or inclination required in the trackway, but still there must be left accommodation at the joints between sections to allow for slight misalignment or for shifts in the trackway during use. This latter is particularly likely to occur when the monorail is instaled in a mine, hanging from the roof of the mine roadway.

This accommodation presents problems to the designer of the trackway particularly if the locomotive and trolleys to use the trackway are of a type where running wheels of the locomotive and trolleys engage one horizontal surface of the horizontal flanges while a drive or braking wheel of the locomotive engages the opposite horizontal surface of the same flanges. Obviously in this case both the upper and lower horizontal surfaces of those flanges must be kept free of interruption and give as smooth a transition as possible from one rail section to the next, and the hinge construction must be as thin as possible in the lateral direction, to permit maximum use of the upper surface.

The problem is one of design of the hinge construction. This must prevent twisting between adjacent rail sections, but at the same time:

(i) keep to a maximum the smoothness of transition between the running flanges of adjacent rail sections even when there has been pivotal movement between them.

(ii) keep the outer face of the running flanges (the face not interrupted by the web) completely free of obstruction.

(iii) be of a construction allowing ease of assembly but occupying minimum lateral width: this latter because 'ice rollers are to be able to engage each of the faces of the running flange-obviously if the hinge construction extends laterally too far from the web less of the width of that inner face of the flange is unobstructed and the rollers which engage that face must run only on a narrow marginal portion of that flange. This would expose that portion to high loads and excessive wear.

A type of hinge construction where the outer surface of a track is interrupted by the hinge is shown in the Specification of United Kingdom Patent No. 1,007,904, where a knuckle on the outer face of the flange of one rail section is engaged by a lug on the next. Although this would meet requirement (i) about, obviously only the inner faces of the running flanges are available for supporting running rollers, and locomotives of the type mentioned will not run on the track.

The axis of pivoting has to be kept as close as possible to the running flange [(i), above], but the outer face must be clear [(ii), above]. Therefore the axis of pivoting must be in the height of the Web, and the problem of lateral thickness of the hinge has to be overcome [(iii), above].

A type of standard hinge construction, allowing pivoting about vertical and horizontal axes, is shown in the specification of United Kingdom Patent No. 919,281. A pair of plates extends from the web of each adjacent section, one pair diverging to fit outside the other at the axis of pivoting. A pin fits through all the plates and is retained by its head and by a locknut assembly. The total width of the hinge assembly at its pin is greater than that of the flange.

We find that by using the Web of one rail as one of the bearing elements for the pivot pin, and by securing the pin fast to one of the bearing elements, a construction is given which enables the pin to terminate flush with the laterally outer of its bearing elements and which is of minimum lateral thickness at the pivot axis.

In order to give greater smoothness of transition between adjacent rail sections it is preferred to provide longitudinally overlapping, laterally side-by-side tongues.

In one of the embodiments shown in the specification of United Kingdom Patent 919,281,. the pin which pivotally joins the two rail sections (each of I-scetion girder) is positioned directly below an end of a first rail section which has, forward of that end, a projecting tongue. The end of the second rail section which is joined to this end is similarly shaped, so that the two tongues can overlap. But the pivot pin is not positioned longitudinally midway between the end of the tongues, it is positioned directly below the root end of one tongue. Therefore, given a certain angle of pivoting between the two rail sections about a horizontal axis, the vertical movement of one of the tongue is much greater than the vertical movement of the other (relative to the rail track flanges between which the tongues respectively are intended to bridge), and an uneveness in running on the track surface results. In order to try to overcome this the tongues are downwardly curved and are thin towards their free ends.

If this type of track were used with a locomotive which squeezes the upper and lower surfaces of the flanges which have the tongues, apart from disadvantages of the uneveness which would result from the positioning of the pivot pin and the excessive width of the hinge construction there would be loss of pressure because of the thinness of the flange where the tongues are thinned. The tongues are in any case stricturally weak (being long compared to the size of the pivot pin and being unsupported by the webs), and would not withstand this pressure unless made of unduly heavy gauge flange material.

In contrast, a construction embodying the present invention, is one in which the pivot pin is longitudinally between the ends of the tongues.

The tongues are preferably supported at their inner edge by being fast with the web of the rail section or to a part fast with the web whereby each tongue has an angle section, and this is carried out in the present invention by providing a projecting mouth beyond the end of one web into which the end of the web of the other rail section may be received, one of the members forming one side of the mouth being fastened to the tongue of that rail section.

In the case that the opposed rollers are to run on both sides of one pair of flanges, the pivot pin is placed as close as possible to the line of that flange whereby the longitudinal relative displacement of the tongues on pivoting about the horizontal axis is minimized.

Although the problems are particularly acute when using locomotive of the type we have mentioned, the monorail trackway is not restricted in its use to a system intended for running with those locomotives.

According to a first aspect of the invention we provide a monorail trackway consisting of a plurality of flanged elongate rail sections, adjacent rail section coupled together at their adjacent ends for pivotal movements about an axis perpendicular to their web by means of a pivot pin passing through interleaving bearing elements provided at those adjacent ends, one bearing element being provided by the web itself of one of the rail section and the other by a pair of mouth-forming members fast with the web of the other rail section, the pivot pin being fast with a said bearing element.

Preferably the adjacent track sections each have cutback portion of flange at the said adjacent ends whereby the longitudinally overlapping laterally side-by-side tongues are provided by the end portions of the flange. The interengagement between the rail sections may be such that play for relative pivotal movement between the sections about two perpendicular axes is provide for.

Usually, the trackway will be I-section and in this case the point of pivotal interaction of the web portions of adjacent track sections will be between the two pairs of flanges and be closer to that pair of flanges adapted to be engaged by opposed wheels than the other pair of flanges (this pair of flanges may be vertically above or below the said other pair of flanges).

The invention also includes, as its second aspect a rail section, for a monorail trackway, having a pair of flanges projecting perpendicularly from a web, one flange on each side of the web, one end of the web adapted to form a bearing for a pivot pin, the other end of the web having a pair of mouth-forming members attached to it and projecting beyond it, the mouth-forming members adapted to receive a pivot pin to form a hinge coupling with a like rail section by engagement of that pivot pin with the said bearing in the web of that like rail section to dispose the flanges of the rail sections coplanar.

A particular embodiment of the invention will now be described with reference to the accompanying drawings wherein:

FIGURE 1 is a side view of a junction between sections of a monorail trackway,

FIGURE 2 is a sectional view on the line II-II FIG- URE 1, and

FIGURE 3 is a sectional view on the line III-III FIG- URE 1.

FIGURE 1 shows in side view adjacent ends of two adjacent rail sections A and B of I-section girder forming a monorail trackway. Each I-section elongated rail section A, B has a

web

2, 3 which is vertical when the trackway is in use and has at the bottom end of the web 2, 3 a pair of oppositely directed horizontally extending

coplanar flanges

4, 5 and 6, 7 respectively. The flanges 4 to 7 are adapted to be engaged on their upper surfaces by running wheels 9 (FIGURE 3) of a monorail locomotive or car and on the lower surface of the flanges (which surface extends continuously and completely planar between respectively, pairs of

flanges

4 and 6 and 5 and 7) by a drive or braking roller 10 of the locomotive. Upper horizontal flanges generally designated 11 of the I-section rail sections correspond generally to flanges 4 to 7 but in the present instance are not used as a running or supporting surface by a locomotive or cars but are used for the suspension of the monorail trackway from an overhead support such as a roof of a mine roadway by means of clamping brackets 12 (FIGURE 3).

To form a coupling between the adjacent rail sections A, B which junction can accommodate up to 4 of pivotal movement between the track sections in either a horizontal or a vertical direction, the web 2 of the track section A together with its flange 7 is cut back. The web is cut on a line 12 (FIGURE 1) extending at an angle to the exact vertical and the flange 7 is cut laterally on the line 13, which is perpendicular to the plane containing the web 3. The upper flange 11 corresponding to flange 7 is similarly cut, to intersect the line 12. The flange 5 0f the track section A is however continued beyond the line 13 to terminate at 14 (FIGURE 2), the inner edge of the projecting terminal portion of flange 5 so formed being tapered towards its end remote from the web 2 generally in the way shown at 15 (FIGURE 2).

The end of adjacent rail section B which is to be coupled to the thus prepared end of rail section A terminates generally at a plane 16 which contains the end of flange 6 as well as its corresponding upper flange 11 and the end of web 3. The plane 16 is, as shown in FIGURE 1 precisely vertical and perpendicular to the plane containig the web 3.

The flange 4 however is cut back from the plane 16 at a line 17 (FIGUR E2), and the upper flange 11 Corresponds to the flange 4 is treated similarly. Thus in the running flanges a pair of longitudinally overlapping laterally slde-by-side tongues is formed by the projecting terminal portions.

When the ends of adjacent track sections A and B are placed in juxtaposition in the way shown in FIGURES 1 and 2 with their

webs

2, 3 coplanar and their flanges 4 to '7 also coplanar, there is formed a trackway in which the gaps between

lines

13 and 16 and 14 and 17 respectively do not coincide longitudinally, and laterally opposed running wheels 9 borne on the trackway are always supported at one side or the other by at least one flange. The end portions of the flanges 4 to 7 are coplanar with the rest of the flanges.

Provision has to be made for the supporting of the adjacent track sections in this position and for allowing them to accommodate to changes in relative vertical or horizontal attitude.

This is provided by a hinge assembly consisting of mouth-forming members (a first plate 20 and a second plate 26) between which is inserted one end of the web 3. The plate 20 is welded to one face of the web 2 of the track section A and extends substantially the whole depth of that web and is joined by

weld seams

21, 22, 23 to the web and to the inner edge of the projecting portions of the flanges 5, 11 to reinforce them, and form an angle section with them. It will be remembered, the web 2 does not extend to them. Part of the plate 20 secured by the Weld line 21 to the web 2 overlies the end portion of the web 2 and is exactly parallel to it, but the planar forward part of the plate 20 diverges slightly from the line of the web 2 following the line of the inner edge 15 of the projecting terminal portion of the flange 5, the plate 20 terminating at the same line, 14, as that tongue.

An aperture 24 in the plate 20 is provided to receive a pivot pin 25 which is received by and welded fast with a second plate 26 which also has welded to it four set screws 27 arranged in an end part 28 of the plate 26 which lies in abutment with and exactly parallel with an end portion of the web 2 of the track section A. Beyond the line 12, the mouth-forming planar portion of the plate 26 diverges somewhat from the line of the web 2 so that together plates and 26 form at their projecting portions a mouth with planar diverging walls for the reception of the end portion of the web 3 of the track section B.

The plate 20 terminates short of the set screws 27. This means that, on assembly, the set screws have to penetrate and hold together only two eflective elements, the web 2 and the plate 26. Thus the total lateral width occupied by these securing means can be less than the lateral width of the whole hinge assembly '(see FIGURE 3).

The end portion of web 3 is provided with an aperture 30 for receiving the pivot pin, which aperture is of a diameter that much greater than the diameter of the pivot pin that play is allowed for between the two track sections, pivoting about an axis parallel to the web thus being possible within the angle defined by the mouth formed by the

plates

20, 26.

To assemble the two track sections together, the plate 26 is removed from the track section A, the

webs

2, 3 aligned generally, the apertures and 24 brought into register and then the plate 26 complete with its pin 25 secured in position by means of nuts 31 on set screws 27 so that the pin 25 passes through the

apertures

30 and 24.

The nuts 31 are secured onto a self-locking plate 32.

It is to be noted that by securing the pin fast to one of the elements which it bears on, it is possible to end the pin flush with the outer surface of the

plates

20, 26. This is best seen in FIGURE 2. There is no need for the pin to have a head, lock-nut or keep-plate assembly, as

in conventional practice.

The outer edges of flanges 4 to 7 (as well as flanges 11) are chamfered as at 33, adjacent their terminations.

Although we havee shown the pivot pin welded to the plate 26 it is clear that it may be fast with any one of the elements on which it bears, i.e., it alternatively may be fast with the web 3 or with the permanently-attached plate 20. In either of these cases the sequence for assembly is the same.

In the embodiment shown in the drawings the lower horizontally disposed pair of flanges are run by running wheels and so the pivot pin 25 is placed substantially nearer to those pairs of flanges than to the flange 11, and larger gaps (34) are left at the upper edge of the trackway between adjacent ends of flanges 11 than are left (35) at the lower side of the trackway. The positioning of the pivot pin nearer the running flanges helps smoothness in transition for a train passing along the trackway if there should be any relative pivotal displacement of the track section.

The provision of overlapping tongues greatly helps in giving such smoothness. However, it is possible to embody the present invention in rail trackways in which the joint between the running flanges of adjacent sections is contained in one plane only.

In the particular embodiment illustrated the depth of the track members from mutually outer planar face to planar face is 8 inches and the total width of the flanges is 16 inches. The gaps 35 are A" in the longitudinal direction of the trackway and the gaps 34 $3 in the longitudinal direction of the trackway. The pivot pin 25 is 1 /2" in diameter and the distance (in plan view) between its centre axis and the

lines

16 and 14 is 1 /8" and 1%." respectively.

The vertical distance between the lowermost surface of the trackway and the centre axis of the pivot pin is 2%", the distance in the longitudinal direction of the trackway between the nearest of the set screws 27 and the central axis of the pivot pin being 3%.

It must be clearly understood however that these dimensions may be and should be varied to suit individual requirements.

The embodiment described may be inverted (that is, the flanges 4 to 7 may be vertically above the flanges 11) if a locomotive or trolley is used which requires running surfaces at theupper edge of the track. Each flange of a rail section may have more than .one tongue, and the tongue or tongues may be of less lateral width than the flange from which they originate. Obviously the formation of a tongue or tongues on one end of a section should be compatible with junction to a complementary formation on the other end of a like rail section.

The termination of the flanges need not lie in a plane perpendicular to the web. For example, referring to FIGURE 2 of the drawings, the

lines

13, 14, 16, 17 could all lie at some other suitable angle to the line of the

web

2, 3, e.g., and respectively. This gives even greater smoothness of running but can weaken the outer most edge of the end of the projecting tongues if an excessive angle to the perpendicular is used.

What we claim and desire to secure by Letters Patent 1. A monorail trackway consisting of a plurality of flanged elongate rail sections, adjacent rail sections coupled together at their adjacent ends for pivotal movements about an axis perpendicular to their web by means of a pivot pin passing through interleaving bearing elements provided at those adjacent ends, one bearing element being provided by the web itself of one of the rail section and the other by a pair of mouth-forming members secured to the web of the other rail section, the pivot pin being fast with a said bearing element.

2. A monorail trackway according to claim 1 wherein the adjacent track sections each have cut-back portion of flange at the said adjacent ends whereby longitudinally overlapping laterally side-by-side tongues are provided by the end portions of the flange.

3. A monorail trackway according to claim 2 wherein the tongue of the one rail section is fast with the web along its inner edge and the tongue of the other rail section is fast with one of the mouth forming members along its inner edge, whereby an angle section structure is formed at each tongue.

4. A monorail trackway according to claim 3 wherein the pivot pin is longitudinally between the ends of the tongues.

5. A monorail trackway according to claim 1 wherein the rail sections are of I-sections girder, the pivot pin being nearer one pair of flanges than to the other.

6. A monorail trackway according to claim 1 wherein the mounth-forming members diverge planarly away from the web with which they are fast, there being play between the pivot pin and the bearing element. from which it is free, whereby pivotal movement about an axis parallel to the web is allowed for.

7. A monorail trackway according to claim 1 wherein the pivot pin is welded to one of the mouth-forming members which is detachably secured to the web of its rail section.

8. A rail section, for a monorail trackway, having a pair of flanges projecting perpendicularly from a web, one flange on each side of the web, one end of the web adapted to form a bearing for a pivot pin, the other end of the web having a pair of mouth-forming members attached to it and projecting beyond it, the mouth-forming members adapted to receive a pivot pin to form a hinge coupling with a like rail section by engagement of that pivot pin with the said bearing in the web of that like rail section to dispose the flanges of the rail sections coplanar.

9. A rail section according to claim 8 wherein tongues are formed by terminal flange portions at each end of the rail, the tongues being disposed so that on coupling together like rail sections end-to-end the tongues are disposed longitudinally overlapping and laterally side-byside.

10. A rail section according to claim 8 wherein one of the mouth forming members is detachably secured to 7 s the web by securing means passing through the web and References Cited ing means and being permanently fast with theweb and 903,594 11/1908 Madclren 4 104-407 with a terminal flange portion at that end of the rail 5 9141443 3/1909 Myels 104 107 section, the web extending to the end of a terminal flange portion at the other end of the rail section, whereby the ARTHUR LA POINT Prlmmy Examme" said flange portions are reinforced up to their ends. D. F. WORTH, Assistcm! Examiner.