Classifications

• • E—FIXED CONSTRUCTIONS
  • E01—CONSTRUCTION OF ROADS, RAILWAYS, OR BRIDGES
  • E01B—PERMANENT WAY; PERMANENT-WAY TOOLS; MACHINES FOR MAKING RAILWAYS OF ALL KINDS
  • E01B9/00—Fastening rails on sleepers, or the like
  • E01B9/02—Fastening rails, tie-plates, or chairs directly on sleepers or foundations; Means therefor
  • E01B9/32—Fastening on steel sleepers with clamp members
  • E01B9/34—Fastening on steel sleepers with clamp members by resilient steel clips
• • E—FIXED CONSTRUCTIONS
  • E01—CONSTRUCTION OF ROADS, RAILWAYS, OR BRIDGES
  • E01B—PERMANENT WAY; PERMANENT-WAY TOOLS; MACHINES FOR MAKING RAILWAYS OF ALL KINDS
  • E01B2205/00—Electrical insulation of railway track parts

Definitions

• This invention relates to preloading rail clips and insulators into steel railway sleepers.
• Steel railway sleepers have been widely used for many years and are usually either formed from strip steel or rolled at the steel mill with an appropriate cross section. The steel thickness is usually in the range of 6-12mm.
• Shoulders are attached to the sleeper to provide abutments to locate the rails so that the correct rail gauge width can be maintained. Usually these shoulders also serve as mountings for fasteners which hold the rail down.
• the fasteners may be ordinary bolts or resilient spring clips. Many different means have been used to fix the shoulders in place.
• shoulders of this type projecting below the shoulder top there is a generally circular stem having a hook and a spur extending from the bottom of it. In use, the hook extends towards the rail and the spur extends away from the rail.
• the hook type fastening as described is prior art and generally works well. However, it has one major disadvantage in that clips cannot be preloaded in the shoulders in a parking position prior to the rail being installed.
• One way of obtaining significant labour cost reductions is to preload the clips, insulators, and rail pads into the new sleepers at the sleeper manufacturing plant so that when the sleepers are placed in track it is only necessary to drop the rail in place and mechanically push the rail clips into their final position.
• a rail insulator for use with a steel railway sleeper of a type including an opening for receiving a shoulder, said insulator being operatively disposed between a rail and said shoulder, said insulator being characterised in that it includes a member which operatively extends below a top surface of said sleeper and into said opening so as to lie between the walls of said opening and said shoulder and retain said shoulder in its operative position.
• an embodiment of the present invention provides a new mounting arrangement, in which the insulator includes a projection or spigot extending into the opening in the sleeper.
• the opening in the sleeper is circular or oval in shape .
• the shape of the member is such as to substantially fill the cavity in the opening caused by the difference in size between the opening and the part of the shoulder passing through the opening.
• the insulator is retained on the shoulder by means of a pair of recesses for receiving a corresponding pair of flanges or wings on said shoulder.
• a preloaded sleeper assembly including a steel railway sleeper having two shoulder mounting openings for each rail, and associated with each mounting opening in combination, a shoulder including a hook and a spur inserted through the opening and located in an operative position, an insulator located on said shoulder on the side near the intended rail position, said insulator including a projection which extends into the mounting opening so as to prevent movement of the shoulder towards the intended rail position, and a rail clip mounted on said shoulder in a parking position, so that the shoulders, insulators and clips are retained on said sleeper.
• a method for preloading a steel railway sleeper with shoulders, rail clips and insulators said sleeper including two shoulder mounting openings for each rail, said shoulder including a hook and spur, said method including the steps of : a) inserting said shoulder into said opening and rotating it, so that the hook lies toward the intended rail position and the spur away from it; b) locating said insulator onto the shoulder on the side near the intended rail position, said insulator including a projection which extends into the mounting opening so as to prevent movement of the shoulder towards the intended rail position; c) driving said rail clip into a preload parking position, such that the shoulder, insulator and clip are retained on said sleeper.
• the step of locating the insulator onto the shoulder includes sliding the insulator over a pair of flanges on the shoulder, to be slidably received in corresponding recesses in the insulator.
• the insulator may be retained in its located position by the preloaded and parked clip engaging the insulator in that position.
• Figure 1 shows a general cross-sectional view through the longitudinal axis of a sleeper and rail assembly embodying the present invention
• Figure 2 shows a side view of a part of the sleeper of Figure 1;
• Figure 3 shows an end view of the sleeper of Figure 1
• Figure 4 shows a section through the top of the sleeper showing a shoulder with a shoulder hook being threaded through a sleeper hole
• Figure 5 shows the shoulder in its final position in the hole
• Figure 6 shows a view looking upwards at the bottom of an insulator embodying the present invention
• Figure 7 shows a side elevation of the insulator showing the central spigot
• Figure 8 shows a plan view of the shoulder
• Figure 9 shows a sleeper rail seat with all components preloaded in place in readiness to receive the rail .
• FIG. 1 A representation of a completed rail assembly embodying the present invention with a rail 2 resting on a sleeper 1 is shown in Figure 1.
• connection elements on each side of the rail .
• Each connection element is made up of a shoulder 4 and a spring clip 5. Because in many cases (for signal purposes) , rail
• insulators are used to isolate the live rail from other sections.
• insulating pad 14 isolates sleeper 1 from rail 2
• shoulder insulator 3 isolates the shoulder 4 from the lower edge face of rail 2
• clip toe insulator 5 isolates shoulder 4 from an upper face of rail 2.
• shoulder insulator 3 has a downwardly projecting spigot 11 ( Figure 5) fitting into the opening in the sleeper between the shoulder 4 and the rail 2.
• the sleeper 1 has a circular hole 6 ( Figures 2 and 3) to receive a hook 7 of shoulder 4, as shown in Figure 4.
• Hole 6 must be large enough for the stem 8 and spur 9 of hook 7 to be received.
• the shoulder 4 is inserted in hole 6 by tilting the top towards the position where the rail will sit (left hand side in Figure 4) , then feeding hook 7 through hole 6 and moving the shoulder as far as possible towards the intended rail position.
• the shoulder 4 is rotated back to its normal position with the base of the shoulder top sitting flat on the top of sleeper 1. During this action spur 9 will pass through the hole 6 in sleeper 1.
• the shoulder is moved as far back as possible from the intended rail position which causes spur 9 to engage the underside of sleeper 1 adjacent hole 6.
• the shoulder insulator 3 with its spigot 11 is shown in various views in Figures 6 and 7.
• the shape of spigot 11 is such as to match the available space in hole 6 to substantially fill it.
• hole 6 is circular, although holes of other shapes are possible.
• the shoulder stem 8 and spigot 11 would then be shaped to fit into such a hole of different shape.
• hole 6 could be oval, with a substantially matching oval stem 8.
• One advantage of this would be in limiting the amount the shoulder and preloaded clip assembly could rotate prior to fitting the rail, thus ensuring an easy assembly of the rail on site.
• the hole 6 and matching stem 8 could also be square or pentagonal, but it is desirable to avoid any sharp corners which act as stress concentrators.
• Recesses 12 in insulator 3 are provided to slide downwards over wings on the shoulder 4 and restrain the insulator 3 in all directions except vertically.
• insulator 3 could be held in place by the clip 5 sitting, in the preload position, on a part of the insulator 3.
• Figure 8 shows the shoulder 4 with hook 7, stem 8 and spur 9. Also shown are side wings 13 which are received in corresponding recesses 12 in insulator 3.
• Figure 9 there is shown part of a sleeper with all components preloaded in place to receive a rail. The entire assembly can thus be preloaded in the factory by automated processes, and transported to the site where the rail is to be laid. Once laid in position, spring clip 5 is simply pushed into its final position using conventional mechanical systems to secure the assembly to the rail. This final state is as shown in Figure 1.
• the feature of being able to preload or park the clips is also useful when replacing rails in track since the machine for removing the clips can be made to move the clips to the preload position instead of completely removing them. This means that after the rail is replaced it is only necessary to use the clip fitting machine to push the clips back into their final position, thus saving the manual labour required to pick the clips and other components up from the side of the track.

Landscapes

• Engineering & Computer Science (AREA)
• Mechanical Engineering (AREA)
• Architecture (AREA)
• Civil Engineering (AREA)
• Structural Engineering (AREA)
• Railway Tracks (AREA)
• Machines For Laying And Maintaining Railways (AREA)
• Bridges Or Land Bridges (AREA)
• Load-Engaging Elements For Cranes (AREA)

Priority Applications (6)

Applications Claiming Priority (2)

Publications (1)

Family

ID=3811469

Family Applications (1)

Country Status (8)

Cited By (2)

Families Citing this family (5)

Citations (4)

Family Cites Families (2)

• 1998
  • 1998-11-23 AU AUPP7260A patent/AUPP726098A0/en not_active Abandoned
• 1999
  • 1999-11-17 JP JP2000584143A patent/JP4084928B2/ja not_active Expired - Lifetime
  • 1999-11-17 US US09/856,013 patent/US6499667B1/en not_active Expired - Lifetime
  • 1999-11-17 OA OA1200100125A patent/OA11804A/en unknown
  • 1999-11-17 CA CA002351360A patent/CA2351360C/en not_active Expired - Lifetime
  • 1999-11-17 WO PCT/GB1999/003833 patent/WO2000031343A1/en not_active Ceased
  • 1999-11-17 GB GB0111057A patent/GB2358423B/en not_active Expired - Lifetime
  • 1999-11-17 BR BR9916862-6A patent/BR9916862A/pt not_active IP Right Cessation

Patent Citations (4)

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