Apparatus for enabling an excavator to mount, demount and travel on railroad tracks
A glyde-rail apparatus removably attached to a carrier such as an excavator to enable the excavator to mount and demount at any point along a railroad track and to travel along the railroad track without damaging the railroad track. The glyde-rail apparatus comprises a front swing arm assembly having a pair of rail wheels which removably attaches to one end of a frame of the excavator and a back swing arm assembly having a pair of rail wheels which removably attaches to a second end of the frame of the excavator. A pair of hydraulic cylinders positioned on the front swing arm assembly and another pair of hydraulic cylinders positioned on the back swing arm assembly enable the rail wheels to be raised or lowered onto the railroad track. A hard rubber cover attaches to the track of the excavator.
This application claims the benefit of Provisional Application No. 60/841,625, filed Aug. 30, 2006 which is incorporated herein by reference.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to a vehicle having rail wheels attached to operate on a railroad track and, in particular, to a glyde-rail apparatus that enables an excavator having rubberized tracks to mount on and demount from railroad tracks at any point along the track, and travel on the railroad tracks.
2. Description of Related Art
The clearing of vegetation along railroad tracks is a serious responsibility for the owners of railroad tracks for the safety of trains traveling on the tracks. Further, there are Federal laws which provide for fines to the track owners if vegetation is not controlled outside a certain distance from the tracks.
Heavy mobile equipment exists having a boon support column pivotally attached to a boom arm having a universal connection for connecting various working devices. Typically, work equipment has to load and unload from railroad tracks at a railroad crossing where the top of the track is level with the street. When the mobile equipment is moved along a track to a work area, the equipment cannot be removed from the track to allow a train to pass without being moved to a crossing somewhere along the track, which takes time and requires leaving and returning to a work area.
The prior art discloses many diverse railroad track repair and maintenance machines each devoted to a single specialized task. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,428,296, issued Jan. 31, 1984 to Fredy Scheuchzner, et al., and assigned to Les Fils d'Auguste Scheuchzner S. A., of Switzerland, discloses a railroad track relaying train comprising a track removing car, an excavating car, a track relaying car and a tie-screw fitting car followed by a transporting car. Coupling frames interconnect two adjacent working cars by means of universal or Cardan joints. Each coupling frame is equipped with a caterpillar truck which has a pair of track members and is equipped with lifting means comprising a hydraulic cylinder for lowering and lifting the truck in relation to its coupling frame. Each of the cars constitute together a hinged sequence of wagons supported by six bogie-trucks and they are interconnected by the coupling frames. Each truck is provided with hydraulic cylinder for raising and lowering the coupling frame relative to the respective truck and with mechanisms for driving and steering the truck. However, the relaying train does not disclose an ability to remove trucks from the rails of any point along the tracks.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,745,205, issued Jun. 8, 2004 to Lionel C. Desmarais, et al., and assigned to Ledcor IP Holdings, Ltd., of Canada, discloses a rubber tired railway plow comprising a plow unit mounted on the forward end of the vehicle, railwheels mounted on the vehicle and a high rail unit positioned on the rear end of the vehicle. The plow unit is attached so as to be moveable in a plate. Wedges are used to maintain the plow unit in position on the plate. Another embodiment shows a cable winder apparatus having a front reel and a rear wheel mounted on a vehicle having steerable forward and rearward tires. A high rail unit mounted on rear of the vehicle comprises a pair of railwheels between arms which are rotated up and down by hydraulic cylinders. However, the vehicle cannot access and egress from the railroad tracks without requiring the presence of a siding.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,862,822, issued Mar. 8, 2005 to Ken Masse, of Edmonton, Alberta discloses a mobile railway track repair apparatus having a mobile unit, a boom unit, a universal connector unit, an excavator assembly, a tampering/compacting assembly and an undercutter assembly. The mobile unit comprises a motorized track traversing member having a dual mode undercarriage that supports a rotating turret style cab wherein, the undercarriage employs both a rail engaging flanged wheel assembly and a crawler track assembly wherein the flanged wheel assembly may be raised relative to the crawler track assembly in a well recognized fashion to allow the repair apparatus to gain access and egress from the railway tracks without requiring the presence of a siding to do so, as well as ditching/excavating, etc. The cab is rotatably supported on the undercarriage to support and position the boom unit and the associated tool assemblies at numerous angular inclinations relative to both the railroad track and track bed. However, the track repair apparatus does not have rubber pads replacing track grooves whereby the apparatus could be self-propelled along the track.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTIONAccordingly, it is therefore an object of this invention to provide a removable glyde-rail apparatus on a vehicle, such as an excavator, to enable the vehicle to mount and demount on a railroad track at any point along the railroad track without having to find a section of the railroad track where the top of the track is level with a roadway, and to enable the vehicle travel along the railroad tracks.
It is another object of this invention to provide a glyde-rail apparatus for removably mounting on an excavator used to travel along the railroad tracks without damaging the tracks by covering the track of the excavator with rubber material.
It is a further object of this invention to provide control means to raise and lower rail wheels of the glyde-rail apparatus to facilitate a vehicle to which the glyde-rail apparatus is attached mounting on and demounting from a railroad track.
Additional objects, features and advantages of the invention will become apparent to those skilled in the art upon consideration of the following detailed description of the preferred embodiments exemplifying the best mode of carrying out the invention as presently perceived.
The appended claims particularly point out and distinctly claim the subject matter of this invention. The various objects, advantages and novel features of this invention will be more fully apparent from a reading of the following detailed description in conjunction with the accompanying drawings in which like reference numerals refer to like parts, and in which:
Referring to
The front swing arm assembly 14 comprises a pair of rail wheels 24, 25 shown in contact with the railroad track 18. The back end swing arm assembly comprises a pair of rail wheels 80, 81 shown in contact with the railroad track 18. When the excavator 12 comprises the glyde-rail apparatus 10 including the track 20 with non-metal covers, the front end swing arm assembly 14, and the back end swing arm assembly 16, the excavator 12 is able to mount a railroad track 18 at any point along the track, demount from the railroad track 18 at any point along the track, and travel along the railroad track 18 to perform various work activities. A boom support 13 extending outward from the front end of the excavator 13 may have various work equipment attached to a boom arm which connects to the boom support 13. One important and useful machine tool, for use with the excavator 12, when the glyde-rail apparatus 10 is attached, is a mower used for vegetation control along the railroad track 18. The glyde-rail apparatus 10, although shown in
Referring to
Referring to
Referring to
Referring to
The hydro-power unit cylinders 34, 36 and 88, 90 may be embodied by Model No. 067839-755261 (BM07-25-001), manufactured by Parker Hannifix of Cleveland, Ohio. The hydraulic pump power pack 60 may be embodied by Model No. 2622960027 (G03G), manufactured by Mason Dynamics of Grand Rapids, Minn. The battery 58 may be embodied by a heavy-duty 31 Series 12 V Battery.
This invention has been disclosed in terms of a certain embodiment. It will be apparent that many modifications can be made to the disclosed apparatus without departing from the invention. Therefore, it is the intent of the appended claims to cover all such variations and modifications as come within the true spirit and scope of this invention.
Claims
1. An apparatus for attaching to a carrier comprising:
- a front swing arm assembly attached to a first end of said carrier having a first pair of rail wheels extending in front of said first end;
- said front swing arm assembly comprises means for raising and lowering said first pair of rail wheels;
- a back swing arm assembly attached to a second end of said carrier having a second pair of rail wheels extending in front of said second end; and
- said back swing arm assembly comprises means for raising and lowering said second pair of rail wheels.
2. The apparatus as recited in claim 1 wherein said carrier comprises tracks made of rubber material or covered with rubber material.
3. The apparatus as recited in claim 1 wherein said carrier comprises a first pair of body mounts attached to said excavator for attaching said front swing arm assembly thereto.
4. The apparatus as recited in claim 1 wherein said apparatus comprises a first pair of body mounts attached to said excavator for attaching said back swing arm assembly thereto.
5. The apparatus as recited in claim 1 wherein said apparatus comprises a second pair of body mounts attached to said carrier for attaching said back swing arm assembly thereto.
6. The apparatus as recited in claim 1 wherein said raising and lowering means of said front swing arm assembly comprises:
- a first pair of hydraulic cylinders having a first end mounted on one of a pair of front swing arms and a second end attached to one of a pair of front body mounts attached to said carrier;
- means for driving said hydraulic cylinders; and
- means for controlling the raising and lowering of said first pair of rail wheels and said second pair of rail wheels.
7. The apparatus as recited in claim 1 wherein said raising and lowering means of said back swing arm assembly comprises:
- a second pair of hydraulic cylinders having a first end mounted on one of a pair of back swing arms and a second end attached to one of a pair of back body mounts attached to said carrier; and
- means for driving said hydraulic cylinders connected between said front swing arm assembly and said back swing arm assembly.
Type: Application
Filed: Aug 29, 2007
Publication Date: Mar 6, 2008
Inventor: John Roy (Deering, NH)
Application Number: 11/897,196
International Classification: B61F 13/00 (20060101);