Abstract: A continuously advancing track surfacing machine for compacting a ballast bed comprises a power-actuated, vertically adjustable track stabilization assembly mounted on the machine frame between front and rear undercarriages supporting the machine frame on the track. The track stabilization assembly includes rail-engaging vibratory roller tools and a drive for pressing the roller tools into engagement with the facing gage sides of the track rails, and a track leveling reference system monitors the track level. A vertically adjustable plow arrangement for smoothing the ballast bed is mounted on the machine frame between the undercarriages and associated with the track stabilization assembly, the plow arrangement extending across the track at least from one of the tie ends to the opposite tie end.

Abstract: An apparatus for operating the locks of wafer baking tongs, which revolve in a wafer baking oven and move past the stationary operating apparatus, which is mounted in the wafer baking oven, comprises a movable closing element, which is engageable with the actuating member of the lock to lock the latter. It is proposed to provide an unlocking element, which is engageable with the actuating member to unlock a lock which has not entirely been locked. An actuator is provided for moving the unlocking element into engagement with the actuating member when the closing element has been pushed back a predetermined distance from its operative position by the actuating member when the lock has not entirely been locked.

Abstract: A method of working a main track and a laterally adjacent track in a track switch section in tandem comprises the steps of intermittently moving a track leveling, lining and tamping machine with lifting tools and vertically and laterally adjustable, vibratory tamping tools along a main track, lifting the main track under the control of a reference system with the lifting tools to a desired level at respective longer ties connecting the tracks, and tamping ballast under the lifted ties with the tamping tools. A switch leveling and tamping machine with lifting tools is moved along the laterally adjacent track and, in the same operating stage, at least one of the rails of the laterally adjacent track is lifted with the lifting tools of the switch leveling and tamping machine, and ballast is tamped under at least a portion of the longer ties at the laterally adjacent track. The ballast tamping is completed under any not previously tamped ties or portions of the longer ties in a subsequent operating stage.

Abstract: A fastening device is manufactured of a strip of sheet material and comprises a flexible tongue capable of being looped around an element to be fastened and a holding part. The tongue has a hook-shaped free end and an end opposite to the hook-shaped free end, and the holding part projects at an angle from the opposite tongue end and is bendable towards the tongue along a folding line adjacent the opposite tongue end. The holding part is integral with the tongue and has a hook-up edge spaced from the tongue end and arranged to be engaged by the hook-shaped free end when the flexible tongue is looped around the element to be fastened, and it is operable as a lever upon bending the holding part towards the tongue along the folding line for tightening and closing the fastening device when the tongue is looped around the element to be fastened and the hook-up edge of the holding part has been engaged by the hook-shaped free end of the tongue.

Abstract: In a mobile machine for tamping ballast under ties of a railroad track, which comprises a machine frame, spaced undercarriages supporting the machine frame for mobility on the railroad track in an operating direction, and a ballast tamping assembly mounted on the machine frame and comprising a vertically adjustable tamping tool carrier, a drive for vertically adjusting the tamping tool carrier, pairs of vibratory and reciprocatory tamping tools immersible in the ballast upon vertical adjustment of the tamping tool carrier, and drives for vibrating and reciprocating the tamping tools, the invention provides a vertically adjustable device associated with the ballast tamping assembly for gripping and transversely positioning a respective one of the ties, and a drive for vertically adjusting the device. A vertically adjustable ballast broom device preferably precedes the tamping tool assembly for sweeping ballast off respective ones of the ties into an adjacent crib defined between successive ones of the ties.

Abstract: In order to ensure a desirable withdrawal of the felt in an apparatus for needling a felt from one side, the stripper plate (3) is provided on that side which faces the support (2) for the felt with guide ribs (7), which extend between the longitudinal rows of holes (4) and protrude from the underside surface of the plate and have a height amounting to 0.2 to 2 times the diameter of the holes.

Abstract: A mobile machine for cleaning a track bed comprises a suction arrangement on the machine frame, the suction arrangement comprising a suction head having an inlet port, a suction conduit, a ventilator connected to the suction head by the suction conduit for producing suction at the inlet port, and a receptacle incorporating a filter connected to the suction conduit; and a compressed air generating arrangement associated with the suction arrangement, the compressed air generating arrangement comprising a compressed air discharging nozzle arranged within the inlet port of the suction head, a compressed air conduit, and compressed air generator connected to the nozzle by the compressed air conduit, the suction and compressed air generating arrangements forming a substantially closed pressure-suction system.

Abstract: A safety module for a machine table comprises two vertical columns, a safety plate supported by the vertical columns for protecting the machine table and designed to aid in the prevention of accidents, cantilevers connecting the columns to flanges at a front of the machine table, and releasable coupling devices received in bores in the flanges for connecting the cantilevers thereto.

Abstract: Wood from broad-leaved and/or coniferous woody plants, particularly bushwood or waste wood or wood obtained in wood-growing plantations, is processed in that wood in a green state is chopped to form wood chips and is mixed with accompanying or additional fermentable green plant material, which has also been comminuted. The resulting mixture is compacted to form a compacted body of plant material in a space which is airtightly enclosed at least on the sides and at the bottom. The compacted body is fermented in said space to generate heat of fermentation, which is used to dry the compacted body so that water vapor and gases are evolved, which are permitted to escape. The fermentable green plant material may consist of the bark and leaves of broad-leaved woody plants, of the leaves of leaved plants, of grass, or of mixtures of said materials.

Abstract: A contact arrangement in a housing including a cover, the housing and cover defining a battery chamber having an opening closable by the cover, the chamber having dimensions substantially corresponding to the dimensions of a button battery to be received in the chamber through the opening thereof, and the battery having a negative pole and a positive pole, which comprises two contact elements arranged within the battery chamber to contact the battery poles. One of the contact elements is a pre-tensioned V-shaped spring having two legs arranged to be pressed apart against the tensioning bias of the spring by the battery upon insertion of the battery into the chamber through the opening thereof, and one of the spring legs is arranged opposite the opening and biases the inserted battery into a predetermined position in the chamber. The other contact element is arranged in the range of a free end of the other spring leg and insulated therefrom.

Abstract: The invention relates to a method and a device for compression of gases, in particular of air, within a compressed air piping system. The air drawn in for the compressor is cooled below 0.degree. C. within a freeze-dehumidifer in a cooling channel. The supply of undercooled refrigerant into the freeze-dehumidifier is interrupted during the defrosting of the freeze-dehumidifier situated within the cooling channel for the air drawn in towards the compressor. The condensate appearing in the form of ice on the freeze-dehumidifer is separated thereby. The defrosting operation is terminated after a pressure of the refrigerant corresponding to a positive temperature of the freeze-dehumidifier is exceeded, or after a presettable period has elapsed. The pressure of the refrigerant is monitored in the suction pipe and if appropriate in the delivery or pressure pipe of the refrigerant compressor.

Abstract: A mobile electric flash-butt welding machine comprises machine frame, undercarriages supporting the machine frame on a railroad track, and a drive for propelling the machine frame along the track. The machine frame carries a hydraulic fluid supply pump, an electric current generator, a motor for operating the pump and the generator, a longitudinally, transversely and vertically adjustable electric flash-butt welding head for selectively welding together the adjacent rail section ends of a respective one of the track rails, the welding head comprising two welding halves movable towards and away from each other in a direction of the rail, hydraulic cylinders for moving the two welding head halves in said direction, a pair of clamping and welding jaws on each welding head half, and a hydraulic clamping cylinder connecting the jaws of each pair.

Abstract: A continuously advancing machine for track leveling, lining and tamping comprises a main frame, a single undercarriage supporting the main frame and the main frame having a portion projecting in the track direction from the single undercarriage, a drive connected to the single undercarriage for continuously advancing the main frame in an operating direction, a brake connected to the single undercarriage for stopping the advancing main frame, and an operator's cab, a control arrangement and a power plant mounted on the continuously advancing main frame.

Abstract: A clamping device, more particularly a toggle lever clamping device is devised for clamping workpieces and comprises an actuator cylinder (3) with a mounting head (23), said mounting head protruding from the piston rod and being provided with the control mechanism for the clamping arm (24) which is linked to said mounting head and, furthermore, two pressure medium supply lines and sensors for the final position with connecting lines. A positioning rod (5), provided with positioning elements (4), is arranged on the free end (1) of, and parallel to, the piston rod (2) and directed toward the actuator cylinder (3). The positioning path (W) of the positioning elements (4) extends within the region of the actuator cylinder (3). At least two sensors (6, 6') for the end position are located in the region of the positioning path (W).

Abstract: A ballast tamping tool for attachment to a reciprocating tamping drive of a ballast tamping machine comprises a shaft having an upper end affixed to the tamping drive and a tamping blade detachably mounted on a lower end of the shaft. A plug-in, form-fitting connection detachably connects the tamping blade to a lower end of the shaft, the detachable connection defining a recess behind the rear surface of the tamping blade and comprising a plug projecting from the lower shaft end and being offset therefrom by a step to form a shoulder, the upper tamping blade edge extending at least partially along, and axially adjacent, the shoulder, and a connecting part at the rear tamping blade surface form-fittingly connecting the tamping blade to the plug.

Abstract: A ballast cleaning machine comprises a machine frame comprising two frame parts, one of the ends of one machine frame part adjoining one of the ends of the other machine frame part while the machine frame part ends opposite to the one ends are remote from each other, and the adjoining machine frame part ends being pivotally linked to each other for pivoting about a vertical axis. Respective undercarriages support the machine frame on the track, two of the undercarriages being arranged at the remote machine part ends and a third one of the undercarriages being arranged on one of the machine frame parts in the range of the vertical pivoting axis.

Abstract: A mobile installation for loading, transporting and unloading track parts such as ties on, in and from open top railroad cars including a train mounted for mobility along a railroad track and having a plurality of open top railroad cars. Adjacent ones of the railroad cars are coupled together and each one of the railroad cars has two parallel side walls with top edges extending in the direction of the railroad track, and two end walls, the end wals of the adjacent railroad cars defining respective gaps therebetween. A power-driven crane is provided for loading and unloading the track parts and has an undercarriage supporting the crane for mobility in the direction of the railroad track. There is also a track supporting the undercarriage of the crane for mobility above the top edges of the railroad cars in said direction. The track includes two parallel guide rails mounted on the top edges of the railroad cars and is spaced apart a distance corresponding to the gage of the crane undercarriage.