WO2009149729A1

WO2009149729A1 - Rail wagon for transporting vehicles

Info

Publication number: WO2009149729A1
Application number: PCT/EP2008/004759
Authority: WO
Inventors: Larkin Aidan
Original assignee: Market Management Limited
Priority date: 2008-06-13
Filing date: 2008-06-13
Publication date: 2009-12-17

Abstract

The rail wagon (1) for transporting one or more vehicles comprises a frame (2) having a top portion (3) carried by an underlying first bogie (4), a back portion (5) carried by an underlying second bogie (6), and a depressed central portion (7) arranged between the first and second bogie and having a platform (8) for supporting vehicles (9) and means (10) for moving the platform between a position raised from the bottom of the depressed central portion of the frame, in which the platform is aligned with the bottom of the top and/or back portion of the frame for loading vehicles, and a position withdrawn towards the bottom of the depressed central portion of the frame while the wagon is travelling to keep the transported vehicles within a clearance gauge.

Description

RAIL WAGON FOR TRANSPORTING VEHICLES

DESCRIPTION

The present invention refers to a rail wagon for transporting vehicles and to a process for loading and unloading a train set having one or more of said rail wagons .

Rail wagons are known that are used for transporting vehicles consisting of a frame with a depressed bottom so as to respect the height of the clearance gauge of rail tunnels.

One type of such rail wagons currently widely used foresees a mobile footboard fixed to the frame through a pin that allows the footboard to rotate to allow loading and unloading of road vehicles from the side.

Such rail wagons do, however, have substantial limitations in terms of the composition of the road vehicles able to be loaded. In particular, it is not possible to load complete trucks and trailers and articulated buses since it is necessary to separate the driving element from the towed element. This means a complication of the loading and unloading operations in addition to extending the time needed to carry out these tasks.

The loading yard also requires a rather complex terminal structure made along the entire length of the train set with large lateral manoeuvring spaces .

For the loading and unloading operations it is also necessary to equip the yard with suitable systems for moving the rotary footboard since the rail wagon, whilst it allows the rotation of the loading footboard, ford not have its own actuations for moving it .

Other types of rail wagons known today distinguish themselves for the adoption of two bogies with four axles with wheels having small diameters: such a constructive solution allows the load per axle to be reduced but has an extremely negative in terms of stability, in terms of the achievable speed, and in terms of maintenance since the wheels and the brake shoes are subjected to greater wear.

The technical task proposed of the present invention is, therefore, to make a rail wagon dedicated to the transportation of vehicles, particularly haulage vehicles and automobiles, which allows the aforementioned technical drawbacks of the prior art to be eliminated.

In this technical task, a purpose of the invention is to make a rail wagon that has an improved capacity and loading speed.

Another purpose of the invention is to make a rail wagon that has improved flexibility of use.

Yet another purpose of the invention is to make a rail wagon that can withstand an increased travel speed without having a negative impact upon its load capacity.

Yet another purpose of the invention is to make a rail wagon capable of being integrated, thanks to its telematic communication systems, with the rail traffic management systems with rail interoperability criteria.

The last but not least purpose of the invention is to make a rail wagon that requires limited maintenance .

The technical task, as well as these and other purposes, according to the present invention are accomplished by making a rail wagon according to claim 1.

The present invention also discloses a process for loading and unloading a train set having one or more wagons according to claim 1.

The rail wagon in accordance with the invention allows vehicles to be loaded and unloaded without decoupling the driving element from the towed element and therefore achieves a greater capacity and loading speed.

The rail wagon in accordance with the invention has platform lifts directly on board that allow quick and simple adaptation to the existing yards for the loading and unloading operations without the need for large spaces and complicated fixed installations .

The rail wagon in accordance with the invention has a configuration that lends itself to the transportation of vehicles respecting the clearance gauge of rail tunnels without the need to extremely reduce the diameter of the wheels: for this reason and due to what has been stated above it adapts to use in mixed goods/passenger train sets where high travel speeds and short stop times for the loading and unloading of the vehicles are required.

Other characteristics of the present invention are, moreover, defined in the subsequent claims. Further characteristics and advantages of the invention shall become clearer from the description of a preferred but not exclusive embodiment of the rail wagon according to the finding, illustrated for indicating and not limiting purposes in the attached drawings, in which:

figure 1 shows a top side view of a wagon of a train set, in accordance with a preferred embodiment of the present invention, in which the vehicle is in the position taken up while the train set is travelling;

figure 2 shows the rail wagon of figure 1 whilst the vehicle is being loaded;

figure 3 shows a front view of the rail wagon of figure 1 without the platform;

figure 4 show a plan view of the rail wagon of figure 3; and

figure 5 shows a perspective view of the rail wagon of figure 3 sectioned transversally in a central area.

With reference to the quoted figures, a rail wagon is shown wholly indicated with reference numeral 1.

The rail wagon 1 comprises a frame 2 having a top portion 3 carried by an underlying first bogie 4, a back portion 5 carried by an underlying second bogie 6, and a depressed central portion 7 arranged between the first bogie 4 and the second bogie 6 and having at least one platform 8 for supporting vehicles 9 and means 10 for moving the platform 8 between a position raised from the bottom 11 of the depressed central portion 7 of the frame 2, in which the platform 8 is aligned with the bottom 11 of the top and/or back portion 3, 5 of the frame 2 for loading vehicles 9, and a position withdrawn towards the bottom 11 of the depressed central portion 7 of the frame 2 whilst the wagon 1 is travelling to keep the transported vehicles 9 within a clearance gauge.

The clearance gauge to be respected is the one, governed by special legislation, which allows safe transportation taking into account the tunnels distributed along the rail network.

The moving means 10 are of the type suitable for performing a vertical translation of the platform 8.

The platform consists, for example, of a steel flooring made through a reinforced plate with C- shaped structures arranged longitudinally and transversally .

In a preferred solution the moving means 10 comprise one or more scissor lifts, which can for example be actuated by a system (not shown) of double-acting oleodynamic cylinders, or else by an electromechanical system (not shown) .

Every scissor lift comprises a worm screw 13 with which two connecting rods 15 are slidably associated through support rollers 14, said connecting rods 15 being hinged together at 16 at the support point of the platform 8.

The frame 2 has two side members 17 with variable section in the longitudinal direction connected by a series of crossbeams (not shown) .

The frame 2 has a great longitudinal extension and a cross section with the characteristic omega shape that allows the bogies 4 and 6 to be housed beneath the ends 3 and 5 of the wagon 1. The resistance to stress and bending deformation is indeed ensured by the structure of the frame 2 that suitably foresees the two side members 17 and the crossbeams that connect them. The frame 2 is made entirely with electrowelded metallic box-shaped structures.

Each bogie 4 and 6 is provided with at least a primary suspension system for the frame 2, positioned between the axles of the wheel sets and the side members 17.

The primary suspension system can either be of the conventional type consisting of an assembly of coil springs and vertical dampers, or of an alternative type in which the primary suspension is made from elastic material mounted between the axle box supports of the axles and the side members.

Each bogie can also be equipped with a secondary suspension system consisting of air springs arranged between the central crossbeam of every bogie 4 and 6 and the wagon 1.

It is also preferable for each bogie 4 and 6 to have a series of longitudinal and side dampers mounted between its frame and the frame 2 of the wagon 1.

Moreover, advantageously, each bogie 4 and 6, thanks to the special configuration of the frame 2, can have wheels with an ordinary or not too reduced diameter and preferably no smaller than 600 mm to allow travel at high speed with wear within normal limits.

Finally, the braking unit of each bogie 4 and 6 is preferably of the pneumatic type with discs for a favourable bulk/performance ratio.

The wagon 1 also has transceiver means for its identification via satellite that allow not only the train set but also the individual wagon and the vehicles 9 transported by it to be tracked. The information transmitted then interfaces with all of the management systems of the train operating companies .

Through the satellite transceiver means it is also possible for each wagon to manage the information relative to its automatic diagnostics, to its maintenance, to its possible anomalies, and to other exchange data with remote operations centres.

Of course, each wagon 1 has an electric power supply unit equipped with a control panel having the necessary voltage surge protection and the possible diagnostics. In particular, every wagon 1 must provide the electrical power supply voltage for the operation of the satellite transceiver means and also at least for the refrigeration system of the vehicles 9 having a refrigeration unit.

A suitable wagon 1 has a transformer, on one side connected through the locomotive to the overhead electric power supply line and on the other side connected with the power supply lines of the wagons of the rest of the train set. The electric power supply line of each wagon has branching offs of the different voltages provided by the transformer.

As an example, a rail wagon 1 in accordance with the invention has a length of 24 m, the depressed portion of the frame has a length of 17 m, the distance of the loading plane from the bottom of the depressed portion of the frame 2 is 380 mm in the lowered position of the platform, the distance of the bottom of the depressed portion of the frame 2 from the ground is 160 mm, the distance of the bottom of the end portions of the frame 2 from the ground is 1250 mm, the pivot pitch, i.e. the resting gap between the middle axles of the bogies is 20 m, the pitch of the bogies is 1.8 m, the diameter of the wheels of the bogies is 840 mm, the tare weight is 36 t, the maximum capacity is 44 t, the weight per loaded axle is 20 t, for an average achievable speed of 120 Km/h.

The process for loading vehicles in a train set that comprises a series of wagons made in accordance with the invention is briefly the following.

The initial step consists of moving the platform of the wagons vertically towards the raised position to create a single loading plane for the entire train set .

Thereafter, it is foreseen to carry out the serial loading step of the vehicles 9 on the loading plane through a ramp 20 associated with an end wagon. When the vehicles 9 reach the correct position on the loading plane it is foreseen to carry out the vertical moving step of the platform of the wagons towards the withdrawn position that is maintained while the train set is travelling to respect the clearance gauge.

The transported vehicles are fixedly attached to the platform of the wagons with suitable attachment systems that take into account the dynamics of the masses involved and particularly for every wagon the possible angular and translation oscillations for the entire bogies-frame-platform-vehicle group.

It can be estimated that the time to load/unload a train set of 20 wagons in accordance with the invention is of the order of 30 minutes, according to the type of vehicles transported (lorries, trucks with full trailers, articulated buses, etc..) and the functionality of the loading/unloading yard.

Loading can take place with the vehicles complete without separation of the driving element from the towed element, and also exploiting the wagons' own actuations to move the platforms. All of this, together with the fact that the wagons can manage high travel speeds thanks to the provision of bogies with wheels having not too small diameters, assures the compatibility of the wagons of the present invention with train sets intended for the mixed transportation of goods and passengers .

Of course, many vehicles can be transported on the same wagon, according to their size.

The rail wagon thus conceived can undergo numerous modifications and variants, all of which are covered by the inventive concept; moreover, all of the details can be replaced by technically equivalent elements.

In practice, the materials used, as well as the sizes, can be whatever according to the requirements and the state of the art.

Claims

1. Rail wagon for transporting one or more vehicles, characterised in that it comprises a frame having a top portion carried by an underlying first bogie, a back portion carried by an underlying second bogie, and a depressed central portion arranged between said first and second bogie and having at least one platform for supporting said vehicles and means for moving said platform between a position raised from the bottom of said depressed central portion of said frame, in which said platform is aligned with the bottom of said top and/or back portion of said frame for loading said vehicles, and a position withdrawn towards the bottom of said depressed central portion of said frame during the travel of said wagon to keep said transported vehicles within a clearance gauge.

2. Rail wagon for transporting vehicles according to claim 1, characterised in that said moving means perform a vertical translation of said platform.

3. Rail wagon for transporting vehicles according to one or more of the previous claims, characterised in that said moving means comprise one or more scissor lifts.

4. Rail wagon for transporting vehicles according to one or more of the previous claims, characterised in that said one or more scissor lifts are actuated by a system of double-acting oleodynamic cylinders.

5. Rail wagon for transporting vehicles according to one or more of the previous claims, characterised in that said one or more scissor lifts are actuated by an electromechanical system.

6. Rail wagon for transporting vehicles according to one or more of the previous claims, characterised in that said frame has two side members with variable section in the longitudinal direction connected by a series of crossbeams .

7. Rail wagon for transporting vehicles according to one or more of the previous claims, characterised in that each of said first and second bogie is provided at least with a primary suspension system for said frame, positioned between the axles of the wheel sets of each of said first and second bogie and said side members .

8. Rail wagon for transporting vehicles according to one or more of the previous claims, characterised in that it has transceiver means for its satellite identification.

9. Rail wagon for transporting vehicles according to one or more of the previous claims, characterised in that it has a electric power supply line.

10. Rail wagon for transporting vehicles according to one or more of the previous claims, characterised in that each of said first and second bogie has wheels with a diameter of no less than 600 mm.

11. Train set characterised in that it comprises a series of rail wagons in accordance with one or more of the previous claims.

12. Process for loading vehicles in a train set in accordance with the previous claim, characterised in that it comprises a vertical moving step of said platform of said series of wagons towards said raised position to create a single loading plane for the whole of said train set, a serial loading step of said vehicles onto said loading plane through a ramp associated with an end wagon of said series of wagons, and a vertical moving step of said platform towards said withdrawn position to be maintained while said train set travels to respect said clearance gauge .

13. Rail wagon for transporting vehicles as described and claimed.