Claims
- 1. A railroad concrete sleeper fastener assembly comprising at least one metal insert embedded in the concrete sleeper and having a central longitudinal axis extending across the width of the sleeper, said width being defined as the dimension essentially parallel to rails laid upon said sleeper in a conventional manner, the insert having side walls with inner and outer surfaces spaced from and essentially parallel to said central longitudinal axis, the side walls terminating along their upper edges in respective in-turned flanges which define between them a T-slot with a mouth of width which is less than the space between said inner surfaces;
- said outer surfaces comprising upwardly facing keying surfaces directed towards each other thereby keying the insert within concrete of the sleeper;
- and at least one retaining block having a tail which bears upwardly against an upper surface of a first said flange which underlies a rail foot assembly when supported by the sleeper, a head which bears downwardly on an upper surface of the other said flange outboard of said rail foot, walls defining an aperture extending through said head in a direction also across the sleeper, a fastener retained by the aperture walls and bearing downwardly both on the rail foot and on said head, and a stem extending through said mouth and joining the head and tail of the retaining block.
- 2. A railroad concrete sleeper fastener assembly according to claim 1 wherein said mouth is defined by generally vertical edges of the respective said flanges, said stem also having a generally vertical edge which abuts said vertical edge of the outboard flange, and said head also having a generally vertical edge which, in use, abuts an edge of said rail foot assembly.
- 3. A railroad concrete sleeper fastener assembly according to claim 1 wherein said insert side walls extend into a lower flange, and said keying surfaces are surfaces of the lower flange.
- 4. A railroad concrete sleeper fastener assembly according to claim 1 wherein the length of the insert is less than the width of the sleeper.
- 5. In combination, a concrete sleeper comprising a fastener assembly according to claim 1 near one end thereof, and a pair of shoulders each having a spigot embedded in the concrete of the sleeper and a head projecting from the upper surface of the concrete sleeper, each said shoulder head having a shape essentially identical to the retaining block head as defined in claim 1, the shoulders being equally spaced along the sleeper from the fastener assembly respectively towards and away from said one end, and a further fastener selectively positioned in one of said shoulder heads cooperating with the fastener assembly of claim 1 to retain a rail in one of two gauge modes.
- 6. In combination, a concrete sleeper comprising a fastener assembly according to claim 5 wherein the shape of said insert is symmetrical about a vertical plane central to the insert and extending across the width of the sleeper, whereby the retaining block is positionable with its head bearing downwardly on either one of the flanges.
Priority Claims (1)
| Number |
Date |
Country |
Kind |
| PI6463 |
Jan 1988 |
ATX |
|
BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
This specification accompanies a Continuation-in-Part application in respect to the co-pending patent application 07/301620 entitled "SLEEPER CONSTRUCTION", and filed in the United States Patent Office on the 24th of January 1989, now Pat. No. 4,946,099.
In that specification there was described and claimed a concrete sleeper which had an elongate metal insert embedded in the concrete of the sleeper and extending in the direction of the length of the sleeper, the insert having a cruciform sectional shape to provide means whereby it was keyed into the concrete of the sleeper, and the insert having side walls terminated along their upper edges in inturned flanges forming a T-slot extending for the length of the insert. A pair of rail retaining blocks were provided each with an upper portion bearing downwardly on the flanges, an inverted T-head in the T-slot bearing upwardly against the flanges, and a stem joined the upper portion and the inverted T-head. The upper portion had an aperture for receiving a rail clip, and the arrangement was such that a rail clip would bear downwardly on a rail foot and also on the upper portion of the retaining block so as to permanently retain the rail foot to the sleeper. In order to prevent lateral movement of the rail foot, after assembly is completed the extending portion of the T-slot of the insert was filled grout.
The system described in that application has been particularly successful and has two basic functions, the first being the provision of the ability for on-site lateral adjustment to the positioning of track fastenings without drilling or compromising the integrity of the prestressed concrete, and the second being that the system provided an excellent means for gauge conversion, for example from broad gauge to standard gauge, because the retaining blocks could be simply reversed and positioned over an adjacent rail foot flange of an adjacent rail without the need for reworking a sleeper.
The main object of this invention is to provide an alternative and simplified construction which is useful in the second of the abovenamed functions, that is, making provision for simply positioning a second rail by reversal of a retaining block.
Briefly, the invention can be described as a fastener assembly for a railroad concrete sleeper wherein an insert is embedded in the concrete and extends across the sleeper, the insert having flanges which form between them a mouth of a T-slot over a wider space below the flanges and having surfaces which key it into the concrete, and a retaining block having a tail which bears upwardly against the undersurface of the flange which lies beneath the a rail foot, and a head which bears downwardly on the upper surface of the other flange outboard of the rail foot, the head having an aperture extending through it in a direction also across the sleeper, and a bent rod type fastener is retained by the aperture and bears downwardly both on the rail foot and on the block head.
Although the insert extends across the rail and not along it, and it therefore can reduce the strength of the rail, the arrangement is very simple, and its cost is much less.
US Referenced Citations (13)
Foreign Referenced Citations (8)
| Number |
Date |
Country |
| 1137752 |
Oct 1962 |
DEX |
| 2324152 |
Jun 1974 |
DEX |
| 2409510 |
Sep 1975 |
DEX |
| 433135 |
Dec 1911 |
FRX |
| 638730 |
Jun 1928 |
FRX |
| 114110 |
Jul 1975 |
DDX |
| 116482 |
Nov 1975 |
DDX |
| 988860 |
Apr 1965 |
GBX |
Continuation in Parts (1)
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Number |
Date |
Country |
| Parent |
301620 |
Jan 1989 |
|
Patent Grant
5083706
