Rail lifter
A rail lifter used to lift a set of assembled railroad tracks above the ballast that has been spread on them includes a front loader or the like having a pair of widely spaced front wheels and a pair of similarly widely spaced rear wheels so that the front loader does not ride on the railroad tracks or the railroad ties. An elongated boom attached to the front of the front loader can be raised or lowered. A plow attached to the distal end of the boom scrapes excess ballast from the tracks when the boom is lowered into contact with the tracks and the rail lifter advance. A rail lifter mechanism grips the rails and lifts them up over the ballast and then lowers the rails onto the top of the ballast.
Not Applicable.
STATEMENT REGARDING FEDERALLY SPONSORED RESEARCH OR DEVELOPMENT.Not applicable.
SEQUENCE LISTINGNot applicable
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTIONThe present invention is related to an apparatus for assisting in the laying of a railroad track. More particularly, the present invention is an apparatus that raises railroad track attached to railroad ties that are laid on top of a railroad bed and places it atop the ballast.
DESCRIPTION OF THE RELATED ART INCLUDING INFORMATION DISCLOSED UNDER 37 C.F.R. 1.97 and 1.98In current practice these are the basic steps in laying new railroad tracks (the present invention cannot be used on replacement track laying).
First, a roadbed is graded. Second, a layer of asphalt is spread over the roadbed if desired. Third, a set of two parallel railroad tracks is laid over the bed using a machine that automatically draws straight railroad rail sections, which may be up to about 0.16 km (¼ mile) long, from a magazine and lays them out as a pair of properly spaced parallel rails that fall onto immediately previously set out cross ties and fastens the rails to the cross ties. When this operation is complete, there is a bare roadbed of dirt or asphalt with a completed railroad track lying on it, but the railroad track cannot be used by a train because there is no ballast to distribute the train's weight and to allow the track to move in response to changes in load or temperature. Fourth, a layer of gravel, i.e, ballast, is dumped onto the top of the railroad track and is spread out on the railroad tracks. Upon completion of this step, the railroad track is not usable for trains because the ballast is on top of the railroad tracks, which are not seated in the ballast.
Fifth, the rails are raised or lifted up, allowing the ballast to settle under the rails, and then the rails are lowered so that the rails and ties lie on top of the ballast. Sixth and finally, a tamper machine tamps down the ballast by plunging large tines into the spaces between the ties. The track is now ready for normal use by railroad trains.
In the prior art, a rail lifter rides on the railroad track that has just been laid, so it is basically lifting up on part of the track in front of the machine while at that same time the weight of the rail lifter device is riding on the rails that have just been lifted free of the ballast. To prevent bending the track too much, the rail lifting goes very slowly. That is, prior art rail lifters rely on a truck, boom or the like rides directly on top of the rails in the same fashion as a railroad train. The weight of the driving vehicle holds down the track it is sitting on, so that the rail lifter itself is required to pull up on rails that are being held down by the driving vehicle, requiring some upward bending of the rails being lifted in front of the drive vehicle and dramatically reducing the effectiveness of the rail lifter. This is always the case, regardless of the spacing between the driving vehicle riding on the tracks and the actual rail lifter mechanism. A conventional rail lifter having a truck or other driving unit sitting atop the tracks is always fighting itself and its own weight in attempting to lift the track above the ballast bed.
On effort to address this problem is found in U.S. Pat. No. 3, 274,952, issued to Fekete on Sep. 27, 1966, which utilizes a pair of spaced carts that ride the rails and support each end of an elongated boom, with the rail lifting clamps supported by the boom midway between the carts. This is a large and unwieldily apparatus. Further, no other vehicles can use the railroad while the apparatus is on the tracks. Uncompleted railroad tracks, that is, those that have not been settled into the ballast, can still be used by trains, very slowly, but the rail lifter must first be removed from the tracks. It can be removed from the tracks by moving it to a siding track, which may be many miles away from the job site, or by a large off-track crane, which must be on site and on standby. If, for example, a section of track is being replaced, it is likely to be bounded at each end by sound track that needs to be used during replacement of the track section. This is very difficult with Fekete '952 and other prior art rail lifers, and their progress is very slow. Fekete '952 discloses, however, a suitable rail lifter mechanism for gripping, raising, and and lowering railroad tracks by tightening pairs of opposed rollers against each rail and holding them by gripping under the rail flange throughout the work process.
Therefore it would be useful to provide a rail lifter that does not fight itself and its own weight in lifting the rails and tie assembly free from the ballast bed; that does not sit on the very rails it is lifting, thereby vastly increasing productivity, and that can easily be moved on and off the tracks to allow train traffic to proceed as the newly laid railroad track and tie system is being raised above the ballast, allowing the ballast to settle under the rails and ties.
BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTIONAccordingly, it is a primary object of the present invention to provide a rail lifter that does not fight itself and its own weight in lifting the rail.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide a rail lifter that does not sit on the very rails it is lifting, thereby vastly increasing productivity.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide a rail lifter that can easily be moved on and off the tracks to allow train traffic to proceed as the newly laid railroad track and tie system is being raised above the ballast, allowing the ballast to settle under the rails and ties.
These and other objects of the present invention are achieved by providing a rail lifer comprising a front loader having four wheels equipped with rubber tires that straddle the railroad ties widely and that contact the ground well outside the outer ends of the ties. An elongated boom is attached to the front of the front loader and can be raised and lowered with hydraulic rams. At the distal end of the boom is a set of small rail-riding wheels and a plow for leveling and scraping excess ballast from the rails. A rail gripper assembly, or rail lifter mechanism, is connected to the boom at about the midpoint of the length of the boom. The rail gripper assembly is hydraulically operated and actually grips the rails for lifting by the boom, which then lowers the rails onto the ballast. In a continuous process, the gripper never releases its grip on the rails during its work. The eight gripper mechanism rollers each spin about a shaft, so the that rail gripper assembly is in contact with the rails at all times. The rail lifter of the present invention is useable only on new track construction and is used only for step 5 above. A rail lifter according to the present invention can prepare a new railroad as described at the rate of about 3.1 km (5 miles) per day, whereas the prior art rail lifter can prepare about only 0.9 km (1.5) miles per day of the same track, a productivity increase of 333%. The increased productivity in track laying leads to dramatically lower labor and capital costs in preparing the new railroad. Further enormous benefits arise from the ability to quickly move the rail lifter off the tracks and allowing trains to pass.
Other objects and advantages of the present invention will become apparent from the following description taken in connection with the accompanying drawings, wherein is set forth by way of illustration and example, the preferred embodiment of the present invention and the best mode currently known to the inventor for carrying out his invention.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE SEVERAL VIEWS OF THE DRAWING
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While the present invention has been described in accordance with the preferred embodiments thereof, the description is for illustration only and should not be construed as limiting the scope of the invention. Various changes and modifications may be made by those skilled in the art without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention as defined by the following claims.
Claims
1. A rail lifter comprising:
- a. a front loader having an elongated boom heading a proximal end and a distal end with said proximal end operatively attached to a front end of said front loader;
- b. a plow operatively connected to said distal end of said elongated boom; and
- c. a rail lifer mechanism operatively mounted on said elongated boom intermediate of the proximal end of said elongated boom and the distal end of said elongated boom.
2. A rail lifter in accordance with claim 1 further comprising means for raising and lowering said distal end of said elongated boom.
3. A rail lifter in accordance with claim 1 further comprising means for supporting said plow in a fixed position relative to a left-hand side rail and a right-hand side rail of a railroad tracks.
4. A rail lifter in accordance with claim 3 wherein said plow supporting means further comprises a truck having a pair of parallel space wheels that ride on said left-hand side rail and said right-hand side rail of said tracks respectively.
5. A rail lifter in accordance with claim 1 further comprising means for adjusting an angle of attack of a leading edge of said plow.
6. A rail lifter in accordance with claim 1 wherein said plow further comprises means for scraping debris from a top portion of a pair of spaced parallel railroad rails and from a pair of opposed upstanding side walls of each of said spaced parallel railroad rails.
7. A rail lifter in accordance with claim 6 aware and said means for scraping debris from a top portion of a pair of spaced parallel railroad rails and from a pair of opposed upstanding side walls of said parallel railroad rails further comprises a pair of spaced notches in said leading edge of said plow.
8. A rail lifter in accordance with claim 1 wherein said front loader further comprises a left-hand side ground engaging drive means and a right-hand side ground engaging drive means for propelling said front loader.
9. A rail lifter in accordance with claim 8 wherein said left-hand side ground engaging drive means strikes the ground outside a left-hand end of a plurality of laid railroad ties and said right-hand side ground engaging drive means strikes the ground outside of a right-hand end of a plurality of laid railroad ties, said railroad ties comprising a portion of a railroad track.
10. A rail lifter in accordance with claim 1 wherein said rail lifter mechanism further comprises means for alternately gripping and releasing a pair of parallel rails and four alternately raising and lowering said rails while they are being gripped by said rail lifter mechanism.
11. A rail lifter comprising:
- a. a front loader having an elongated boom heading a proximal end and a distal end with said proximal end operatively attached to a front end of said front loader;
- b. a plow operatively connected to said distal end of said elongated boom;
- c. a rail lifer mechanism operatively mounted on said elongated boom intermediate of the proximal end of said elongated boom and the distal end of said elongated boom; and
- d. means for raising and lowering said distal end of said elongated boom.
12. A rail lifter in accordance with claim 11 further comprising means for supporting said plow in a fixed position relative to a left-hand side rail and a right-hand side rail of a railroad tracks.
13. A rail lifter in accordance with claim 11 wherein said plow further comprises a left-hand side face and a right-hand side face joined along an inner edge of each said face forming a nose portion forward of an outer edge of said left-hand face and forward of an outer edge of said right-hand face.
14. A rail lifter in accordance with claim 13 wherein said plow further comprises an upper plowing portion and a lower debris dispersal portion.
15. A rail lifter in accordance with claim 12 wherein said plow supporting means further comprises a truck having a pair of parallel space wheels that ride on said left-hand side rail and said right-hand side rail of said tracks respectively.
16. A rail lifter in accordance with claim 11 further comprising means for adjusting an angle of attack of a leading edge of said plow relative to said railroad tracks.
17. A rail lifter in accordance with claim 11 wherein said front loader further comprises a left-hand side ground engaging drive means and a right-hand side ground engaging drive means for propelling said front loader and said left-hand side ground engaging drive means strikes the ground outside a left-hand end of a plurality of laid railroad ties and said right-hand side ground engaging drive means strikes the ground outside of a right-hand end of a plurality of laid railroad ties, said railroad ties comprising a portion of a railroad track.
18. A rail lifter comprising:
- a. a front loader comprising a left-hand side ground engaging drive means and a right-hand side ground engaging drive means for propelling said front loader and said left-hand side ground engaging drive means strikes the ground outside a left-hand end of a plurality of laid railroad ties and said right-hand side ground engaging drive means strikes the ground outside of a right-hand end of a plurality of laid railroad ties, said railroad ties comprising a portion of a railroad track, said front loader having an elongated boom heading a proximal end and a distal end with said proximal end operatively attached to a front end of said front loader;
- b. a plow operatively connected to said distal end of said elongated boom;
- c. a rail lifer mechanism operatively mounted on said elongated boom intermediate of the proximal end of said elongated boom and the distal end of said elongated boom;
- d. means for raising and lowering said distal end of said elongated boom.
19. A rail lifter in accordance with claim 18 wherein said rail lifter mechanism further comprises roller means for alternately gripping and releasing a pair of parallel rails and four alternately raising and lowering said rails while they are being gripped by said rail lifter mechanism.
20. A rail lifter in accordance with claim 18 wherein said plow further comprises means for scraping debris from a top portion of a pair of spaced parallel railroad rails and from a pair of opposed upstanding side walls of each said spaced parallel railroad rails, where and said scraper means further comprises a pair of spaced notches a long a leading edge of said plow, each said notch further comprising a U-shaped upper end flowing downward into a pair of opposed parallel side walls, with said two notches such that one said notch rides on top of one of said rails.
Type: Application
Filed: Jan 22, 2007
Publication Date: May 3, 2007
Inventor: Lawrence Pike (Arkansas City, KS)
Application Number: 11/656,053
International Classification: E01B 27/17 (20060101);