1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to improvements in devices that are useful for placing derailed cars and locomotives back onto the track.
2. Brief Description of the Related Art
In the operation of railroads, it is sometimes the case where railroad cars, including locomotives, become derailed as they are moving along the track. The derailment of the railroad cars is often a result of uneven loads being carried by the cars, the condition of the track, or other factors. A common cause of the derailing of railroad cars is due to the cars rocking back and forth on the tracks. The rocking may cause one or more of the cars, in particular a wheel of the car, to rock off of the rail of the track. When a car is off the track, the locomotive that is pulling or pushing the derailed car will usually possess sufficient power to continue to move the car along the track, but with the derailed car wheel or wheels being dragged along with the other cars. The derailed car generally may find itself being dragged through the gravel ballast of the track bed, or along the ties. Aside from requiring more power and energy to pull the derailed car, there is a risk of danger or injury should the derailed wheel encounter an obstruction that would impede it from continuing to move along in the direction in which it is being pulled by the locomotive. For example, where a derailed car encounters a switch, the switch may direct the derailed car in a direction different than that of the locomotive or the other cars. Even the contact of the derailed wheel with the gravel, ties or other structure has the potential to cause decoupling of the derailed car from other cars.
Traditionally, rerailers have been employed as a way to address the problem of derailed cars. Rerailers are placed along the tracks to urge the derailed wheel back onto the track. Typically, rerailers consist of a metal casting that is slotted and positioned over or next to the rail near the wheel of a derailed train car. The train engine then pushes or pulls the derailed car so that the derailed wheel runs up the rerailer and is guided back onto the track. U.S. Pat. No. 349,783, issued on Sep. 28, 1886 to E. Campbell for a “Railway Frog”, discloses an arrangement of inclined plates to guide derailed wheels to the rails of the track. The '783 patent discloses a length of the frogs are thirty feet. The frogs are disclosed to be formed from short sections to facilitate handling. This means that they must be joined together when they are installed or prior to installation.
A railroad rerailer is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,306,504, issued on Dec. 22, 1981 to Leslie E. Charles. The '504 patent discloses a stationary railroad rerailing apparatus for rerailing derailed cars while the train is moving. The '504 patent discloses the use of an inclined pad of a cushioning penetrable material, such as asphalt-aggregate material, for raising the derailed car, and rigid wedges outside the track rails for cooperating with the inclined pad to raise the derailed wheels above the level of the track rails and into a rerailed position. The '504 patent requires that inner rail sections be installed, and that wedges be used to urge the derailed wheel onto the track rail.
The prior devices involve considerable installation procedures and are heavy to transport and install. Some prior devices include a body with a ramp and guide flanges that allow the derailed car to be raised and pushed toward the track rail so that the wheels end up realigned on the track rail. Because the devices must raise the railroad car or locomotive, the devices must be very strong, since they need to support the railroad car or a locomotive, which could weigh up to about 420,000 lbs. In order for the prior rerailer devices to possess the strength sufficient to accommodate multiple rerailments, the devices are constructed from high tensile strength alloy steel. Even the light weight rerailers for 90 to 150 lbs. rail, weigh between 125 and 165 lbs., while heavier models may weight upwards of 150 to 190 lbs.
Rail or track is generally measured in weight per unit of length. In the United States, for example, the rail weight is generally expressed in lbs. per yard. It is common for the rail to be expressed or referred to as lbs. For example, 132 lb rail is generally 132 lbs./yd. Rerailers are used with a variety of rail weights and sizes. Rerailers may be used with track weights from about 40 lbs to 155 lbs or greater. Non-permanent type rerailers that are used with 90 to 155 lb rail are generally well over 100 lbs. in weight. The rerailers, for example, may weigh about 124 lbs., with some non-permanent rerailers weighing in excess of 150 or 200 lbs. This makes for difficult lifting and transport of the rerailers from a location to the site of the track location where the vehicle to be rerailed is located. In addition, for safety reasons a number of railroads have mandated 50 lbs per person lifting limit. This weight limit therefore requires that rerailers weighing 150 lbs. need to be carried by at least three people, and heavier rerailers may require up to 5 people to lift and transport them. The current rerailers require costs and difficulty to move and transport.
For safety and ease of transportation and installation a need exists for a lighter weight device that may be used for rerailing derailed railroad vehicles.
An improved lightweight rerailer for facilitating the realignment of a derailed wheel of a railroad vehicle back onto the track. The rerailer may be used to rerail derailed locomotives, as well as derailed railroad cars, and as used herein, the term railroad cars includes locomotives.
The present invention provides improved rerailers that have suitable strength for use with a variety of rail sizes and weights, and may be constructed to be considerably lighter in weight than prior rerailers and yet provide suitable strength for rerailing derailed rail cars. The present invention may accomplish the result of providing a suitably strong yet lightweight rerailer by constructing the rerailer from a material that has been specially treated through an austempering process, by providing a configuration that has a support structure that is lighter in weight, and/or by providing a combination of both a specially treated austempered material and a configuration that has a support structure. Several embodiments of a light weight rerailer are illustrated, including permanent and non-permanent rerailers, as well as inside rerailers and outside rerailers (that may be used in pairs and which are bi-directional), and y-style rerailers that sit on the track rail and provide ramps on both rail sides (inner and outer). These objects and advantages are illustrated in the preferred embodiments, which are exemplary of the rerailers encompassed by the scope and spirit of the invention.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a practical and effective solution to overcome the drawbacks associated with the prior heavy rerailer designs on the market today by providing an improved rerailer that may be constructed from preferred lighter weight material with similar or better tensile strength, by configuring the improved rerailer to reduce the amount of material used in non-load bearing areas, by configuring the load bearing areas of the rerailer by reducing material in those areas, or by combinations of one or more of the foregoing.
According to one embodiment, an improved rerailer is constructed by coring out material in thick load bearing areas.
According to a preferred embodiment, a lightweight rerailer is provided which is constructed from a material that has sufficient strength to support a locomotive and other railroad cars, and which may be more easily transported due to the weight of the rerailer.
It is an object to accomplish the above objects by providing a rerailer that is constructed from austempered ductile iron (ADI). According to a preferred embodiment, the austempered ductile iron is produced by a suitable austempering process. For example, austempering of ductile iron may be accomplished by heat-treating cast ductile iron to which specific amounts of nickel, molybdenum, or copper or combination thereof have been added to improve hardenability; the quantities of the elements needed to produce the ADI from ductile iron are related to the rerailer configurations and, for example, may depend on the thickest cross sectional area of the rerailer.
Another object of the invention is to provide an improved rerailer device that is constructed from a material that has a specific gravity that is less than that of alloy steel.
Another object of the invention is to provide a rerailer device that is constructed from a material that has a specific gravity of about 0.26 lbs/in3.
According to a preferred embodiment, an improved rerailer is constructed having a dual sided configuration with a tapering upper flange and configured to provide suitable support in the load bearing areas.
According to preferred embodiments, a lightweight rerailer is provided having an improved construction for handling and transferring stress loads.
It is an object of the present invention to accomplish the above objects by providing a configuration that comprises cross directional ridges for providing suitable strength to the rerailer structure.
Preferred embodiments of the invention are configured for use with trains moving along a railway, and other embodiments may be used for specific applications when a rail car is to be rerailed. Embodiments of the rerailers include permanent type rerailers and non-permanent type rerailers, which may include inside rerailers and outside rerailers that are designed to be placed alongside a rail.
It is one object of the invention to accomplish the above objects by providing an improved rerailer that is configured for installation alongside a track rail.
It is another object of the invention to accomplish the above objects by providing an improved rerailer that is configured for installation to provide a rerailer that may be installed in a railroad bed between parallel rails of a track section, and on the outside lateral sides of the track section.
Rerailer devices are provided in accordance with the invention. According to one embodiment, an improved rerailer is constructed as a ramp style, y-style or permanent style rerailer. One exemplary embodiment of the invention is illustrated in
Referring to
According to a preferred embodiment, the bi-directional rerailer 10 preferably is constructed from a strong material that possesses suitable strength to support a load, such as, for example, the load placed on the rerailer from the wheel of a railway car. One preferred exemplary configuration for the bi-directional rerailer 10 is a rerailer 10 where the wall thickness of the side walls has a reduced wall thickness, which may be up to about 0.5 inches, and more preferably, from about 0.20 to 0.5 inches, in cross sectional thickness, and where the guide flanges, including the first guide flange 14 and second guide flange 15, each taper from about 0.8 in. to about 1.75 in. According to a preferred exemplary embodiment, as shown in
Referring to
According to some configurations, the rerailer 10 may be constructed from stainless steel or other alloy steels, and more preferably from an austempered ductile iron. According to a preferred embodiment, the lightweight features of the improved rerailer 10 may be accomplished by constructing the rerailer 10 from a suitably strong material that provides improved density characteristics. The rerailers must be suitable to withstand the weight, or portion thereof, of a passing railway car that is imparted to the rerailer by way of the derailed wheel of the car that travels on the rerailer.
The specific gravity of a substance, such as, a solid, relates the density of the substance to the density of water at 4 degrees C. Below are formulas (I) and (II) which are used to determine the specific gravity (sp gr) of solids and liquids, with water used as the standard substance.
According to preferred embodiments, the rerailer 10 is constructed from austempered ductile iron. Austempered ductile iron is a wear resistant material, and has a specific gravity of about 0.26 lbs/in3. Alloy steel is steel that is alloyed with different elements that change the properties (e.g., hardness) of the steel alloy.
According to the present invention, the rerailers, such as, the outside rerailers 10, 10′ and 110 in
The configuration of the rerailers 10, 10′ preferably provides lightweight rerailers 10, 10′ that possess suitable strength for handling loads from railway cars. The sloping of the first side wall 21, 21′ and the provisioning of the secondary support ribs, such as, for example, the second support ribs 45, 46, 47, 48 of the rerailer 10 and the transverse support ribs 77-84, lateral support ribs 85-90 and connecting support ribs 91-96 of the rerailer 10′ (
According to preferred embodiments, the lightweight rerailers 10, 10′, and the other rerailer embodiments and configurations shown and described herein (e.g., rerailers 110, 210, 310, 410 and 510), may be constructed from austempered ductile iron. As illustrated in
Although not shown in
Referring to
An inside rerailer 210 is shown in
As illustrated in
Referring to
Referring to
According to the preferred embodiment of the rerailer 10 illustrated in
The lightweight rerailers shown and described herein preferably may be constructed utilizing an industry standard process of casting and heat treating to achieve the desired austempered ductile iron grade. In view of the foregoing, it may be seen that many embodiments of the preferred rerailer may be taken to achieve the desired lower weight. In addition, the alternative support structures, such as, for example, the second support structures, may be provided in configurations other than the support rib configurations shown in the preferred embodiments in
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Number | Date | Country | |
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20150217789 A1 | Aug 2015 | US |
Number | Date | Country | |
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Parent | 14087962 | Nov 2013 | US |
Child | 14690214 | US | |
Parent | 13136968 | Aug 2011 | US |
Child | 14087962 | US |