Abstract: A railroad scrap pick up machine includes a magnetic wheel and transversely extending support arm or beam which pivots in a plane transverse to the right and left sides of the machine. The magnetic wheel may alternately be mounted on the left or right side of the machine for picking up loose tie plates disposed on the railroad bed. The single magnetic wheel which is used for picking up tie plates may be removed and a support arm having two magnetic wheels for picking up spikes may be attached at either the right or left side of the machine. Stripper trays are used for separating metallic articles from the magnetic wheels. Crawlers which may slide from left to right on the machine are used to support the machine when traveling on a roadbed having only one rail.

Abstract: A conveyor trolley and chain cleaner which straddles the conveyor track and drives a pair of askew mounted brushes in counter directions while urging the brushes toward resilient contact with track chain and parts moving thereon. The motor and drive means are tensioned and provide overload slippage.

Abstract: This invention relates to under carriages for supporting and displacing heavyweight sliding doors. Two spaced carriages 10 and 11 are arranged to run on a trackrail 6 which is cemented into the ground. Each of the carriages comprises two track wheels 19 and 20 situated one behind another and these track wheels each have flanges 21 at each side to enflank the head 15 of the track. The track wheels are also joined to a rigid beam which includes a spheroidal seat bearing 25 into which engages a calotte 26 having a plane upper surface which fits into a matching recess in a door frame 27 to carry the weight of the door, (FIG. 3).

Abstract: A rail-transportation system had a longitudinally elongated rail assembly along which extends a longitudinally moving traction element connected to a plurality of longitudinally spaced cars riding on the assembly. The rail assembly consists of upper and lower longitudinally extending rails interconnected by struts and normally formed thereby into a rigid framework or box-beam construction. The car has a car body to one transverse side of the rails, an upper wheel to the other transverse side of the rails and riding on the upper rail, and a lower wheel to the one side of the rails and bearing on the lower rail in a transverse direction opposite that of the upper wheel. The car may have inner and outer frames connected together by a parallelogrammatic linkage connected to a guide rail between the upper and lower rails to maintain a load-carrying platform of the car horizontal even when the various rails are all inclined to the horizontal.

Abstract: A portable pneumatic cleaning device for removing particulate material from crevices and channels particularly between component parts of railroad switch mechanisms, is provided which has a heavy duty nozzle including a central port and a pair of outwardly divergent side ports having axes which are coplanar with the axis of the central port for discharging a pressurized stream of air in a generally fan-shaped pattern along a surface to be cleaned when the device is connected to a pressurized air source. The device has an elongated body portion and end portions formed at an angle therewith and parallel to one another, and includes a switch for controlling the flow of air therethrough, a runner to maintain the nozzle at a spaced distance from a surface to be cleaned, and a handle to facilitate manual use of the device.

Abstract: According to this invention a guideway for railway vehicles and the like having beams or slabs extending between columns or footings comprises a continuous welded steel rail which is fixed directly to the columns or footings. The rail is prestressed in tension prior to fixing to the columns, the amount of prestressing being such that the rail remains in tension at all times that the guideway is usable. Thermally induced effects in the rail may lessen the tension in the rail with increasing temperature but do not fully relieve the tension when the guideway is usable. As the rail is in tension at all times that the guideway is operable no fasteners are used which would ordinarily transmit thermally induced forces to the beams or slabs. The rails are installed on the guideway according to the method of this invention in sections. Adjoining sections of rails are spaced apart a distance "X" and affixed to a column preferably other than at the end of the rail.

Abstract: A temperature control system and method for controlling the bus bar temperature of an automated guideway transit system in relation to the ambient dew point temperature. A resistance temperature device detects the temperature of the bus bars, and a dew point cell detects the dew point temperature of the ambient atmosphere. A first transmitter converts the detected bus bar temperature to a first electrical signal, and then amplifies and transmits the first electrical signal. A second transmitter converts the detected dew point temperature to a second electrical signal, and then amplifies and transmits the second electrical signal. A first electronic comparator receives the transmitted signals and detects the magnitude of the difference between the two signals. When the magnitude of the difference between the two signals reaches a set level, an output signal is triggered.

Abstract: A driving gear for a mining machine comprising a coil chain wound over a driving wheel and a jockey wheel and co-operating with a rack mounted along a conveyor. A sweep-off gear is pivotably mounted in front of a slide of the machine at a level above the rack. The sweep-off gear has a sweep-off surface which is inclined both with respect to the longitudinal axis of the rack and the horizontal surface of the rack teeth for sweeping-off bodies from the rack onto the conveyor. Nozzles are provided on the gear for washing the rack with a water stream under pressure at an angle with respect to the surface of the rack.

Abstract: A machine for cleaning debris from railway roadbeds, particularly from between rails of a single track and the space between tracks in railroad yards, comprises an articulated tractor and scraper-loader, each preferably having only two wheels. The scraper-loader has a scraper blade which extends transversely to the track when the machine is in use and a notch which loosely fits over a rail. The blade has wings extending oppositely from the notch. One of the wings has a length which is substantially equal to, but no greater than, the distance between the rails of a track, and the other has a length equal to at least one-half of that distance. The blade has a shoe which overlies the notch and which rides on the surface of a rail to establish the depth of the blade relative to the rails. The shoe is adjustably mounted on the blade so that such depth can be varied in order to clean between the rails of tracks which have rails of different heigths above their ties.

Abstract: A method and system for maximizing the track-to-wheel adhesion and minimizing the rolling resistance of the wheels of a locomotive is disclosed. A low volume of high pressure water, alone or in admixture with wetting agents, cleaning agents, etc. is sprayed onto the wheel contact surface of the rail forward of the driven wheels of the locomotives at very high pressures, i.e. 4,000 to 6,000 psi. followed immediately by ejecting air or other gas under pressure onto the wheel contact surface of the rail to dry the contact surface.

Abstract: A mobile ballast plow comprises a plow arrangement vertically adjustably mounted on a frame and including a V-shaped central plow consisting of two plow blades rigidly interconnected at an apex of the central plow, a side plow associated with each one of the track rails, each of the side plows having a single ballast guide blade adjustably between the track rails and having an effective operating length extending to the apex of the central plow, and a tunnel-shaped element extending over and covering each track rail.

Abstract: A vehicle for cleaning a railway roadbed of magnetic articles such as spikes, tie plates, rail support plates, bolts, and the like has a chassis supported by rail engaging wheels which are rotated by a hydraulic motor powered by an internal combustion engine driven pump mounted on the chassis. At least one endless conveyor of non-magnetic flexible material is mounted on the chassis with a lower end thereof adjacent the roadbed and passing over a lower drum supporting fixed magnets. The conveyor is driven by a hydraulic motor powered by the pump to move at the same speed as the vehicle to prevent scuffing over the ballast of the roadbed. The endless conveyor is provided with spaced parallel cleats across the conveyer whereby metallic articles attracted by the magnets acting through the conveyor will engage the articles and move them along the conveyor out of the field of action of the magnets.

Abstract: An apparatus is provided for continuously cleaning rust and other corrosion from elevator guide rails and for filling pits, joints and other irregular areas in the rails. A plurality of guide brackets are mounted on the car for contact with the rail. Each guide bracket includes a bushing insert for contact with surfaces of the guide rail. In one embodiment, the insert is made from an elastomeric material with particles of bronze or brass embedded therein. In a second embodiment, the insert has lead embedded therein. Where the insert has bronze or brass embedded therein, the sliding of the insert relative to the walls of the guide rails acts as an abrasive cleaner to remove rust, corrosion and dirt particles from the surface of the rails. Where the insert has lead embedded therein, contact between the insert and the rail results in the transfer of lead to the rails to fill pits, joint areas and irregularities in the rails.

Abstract: A longwall mining machine is provided with a roller resiliently urged into engagement with a track extending along the longwall face. Sensor means are provided to sense rotation of the roller and derive a signal indicative of the machine's position along the longwall face.

Abstract: Electrically nonconductive rotary cleaner elements supported for movement into and out of contact with a third rail of an electrified railway vehicle includes sets of cleaner elements arranged in tandem along one side of an adjustable carriage. The carriage is mounted in a frame structure having a device for rigidly attaching the frame to a wheel truck portion of the railway vehicle. Power driving apparatus received in the carriage provide for vertical movements of the carriage in the frame as well as actuating the rotary cleaner elements. The drive apparatus is responsive to a control device located in the cab of the railway vehicle. A counterbalancing weight arrangement mounted in the frame and attached to upper sides of the carriage provides for uniformly guided travel of the carriage in all positions.

Abstract: A heater is provided to supply hot air through apertured distribution ducts at a rate of at least 1300 CFM, a temperature of at least 250.degree. F, and a velocity of at least 3000 FPM so as to clear the entire switch area of ice, snow and water. The parallel, spaced distribution ducts are apertured so as to direct the air not only outwardly toward the rails but also inwardly to clear the central portion of the rail grade. The switch grade is therefore kept dry and the movable rails are free to be shifted when required.

Abstract: An emergency slipper of the type usually spaced above a track but which comes into sliding engagement with the track in an emergency. The slipper comprises slide blocks having bottom surfaces which slide easily along the track, and scraper means for scraping rust, dirt, ice, and the like for the track. The scraper means may be a vertical scraper plate arranged diagonally with respect to the direction of travel, the slipper having a diagonal groove directly in front of the scraper plate. The scraper means may be a scrubbing block arranged as the first slide block of the slipper, the scrubbing block being formed of an impact and abrasion resistant material with a low coefficient of friction and high resistance to high temperatures produced by friction. The rear block of the slipper may be formed of the same material as the scrubbing block. The scrubbing block may have a diagonal groove in its bottom surface. The front block may have an inclined surface between its front and bottom faces.

Abstract: The arrangement includes at least one first and at least one second electrode positioned one above the other and spaced from each other in the vertical direction by at least one respective interelectrode gap which can be bridged over by snow, ice and other forms of freezing precipitation to produce an interelectrode gap resistance decrease. A detecting circuit is electrically connected across the electrodes and is operative for detecting the bridging of the interelectrode gap by snow, ice or other forms of freezing precipitation by detecting the interelectrode gap resistance decrease resulting therefrom.

Abstract: A railroad switch sweeper or snow removal machine including a vehicle having a body member supported at a relatively high elevation above the ground by steerable ground engaging wheels. The underside of the body member has a turret mounting a plurality of barrels for delivery of compressed air or flame to blow or melt accumulated snow and ice. The barrels of the air blower and flame thrower are arranged in pairs so that air and flame may be concentrated on each rail of the pair of rails making up a railroad track.

Abstract: An apparatus for producing snow deflecting air curtains for a railway switch comprising one (or two side-by-side) ducts along the center of the railway switch and having nozzle slits for directing snow-deflecting air curtains in opposite directions over each pair of rails consisting of one fixed and one movable rail. The duct internal cross-section tapers so that air passes therealong at a more or less constant velocity from an air blower connected to the conduit. The air curtains issue from the nozzle slits at at least one hundred feet per second and preferably travel along a path which inclines upwardly from the horizontal about 5.degree..