This invention relates to an improved railway ground tie having satisfactory performance requirements of the railway industry, while minimizing the amount of material needed; and particularly said tie formed of a lignocellulose fibre-resin composite material.
Today, in North America and around the world, the vast majority of railway crossties used are made of rectangular pieces of creosote-impregnated hardwood or softwood. Typical dimensions for these ties are about 2.4-2.6 m in length, about 18-23 cm in width, and about 15-18 cm in height. Even ties made from newer materials, such as concrete, steel, plastic or composites in general, mimic this standard rectangular design.
One of the key railway safety and performance issues is lateral track stability i.e. sideways movement of the ties perpendicular to the parallel rails, particularly, the ability of the entire track to resist lateral movement when subjected to forces produced by the movement of trains. Lateral track movement is costly because it requires expensive maintenance to reposition the track and, if left to exceed established limits, the lateral travel movement can cause track failure and, ultimately, train derailments.
Typically when installed, the ties are partially buried in rock particles known as ballast. The crosstie/ballast relationship is one of the main defenses against lateral track movement. The better the tie is “locked” into the ballast, the more the track will resist lateral movement. The rail industry relies on friction between the ballast and wooden ties to resist movement. This friction increases over time due to the formation of pits or pockets in the ties caused by abrasion from the rock particles. Unfortunately, in situations where significant lengths of track have been replaced, this “conditioning phase” can force the track user to temporarily slow train movements, which in turn can cause operational complexity and loss of efficiency. This is one of the reasons that steel ties have not found wide spread acceptance. Their friction factor is very low and, consequently, they are susceptible to longitudinal movement, i.e. movement parallel to the railway lines. Extruded HDPE (high-density polyethylene) tie producers have tried to deal with HDPE's natural “slipperiness” by embossing or pitting the side surfaces, while respecting the original tie dimensions.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,285,115, issued Aug. 25, 1981 to Arbed, describes a steel or concrete sleeper having improved directional stability and sliding resistance due to the sleeper being formed in a Y-shape. Each arm of the Y-shape is of identical and consistent cross-section.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,230,981 B1—issued May 15, 2001 to Corus U.K. Limited describes a steel railroad sleeper (tie) of inverted channel section that may have a waisted central section of reduced width. U.S. Pat. No. 6,230,981 B1 focuses exclusively on producing a hollow sleeper from cold rolled steel. The purpose of the reduced central cross-section is to create greater locking of ballast that must be propelled into the sleeper interior and to reduce the amount of ballast necessary to fill the sleeper interior. The central region can also be filled with foam that would actually prevent ballast from entering this region. It is not clear whether the waisted central section is for locking the sleeper into position or to increase friction between the tie and the ballast.
United States Patent Application No. 2003/0085293 A1, published May 8, 2003 to Nosker et al, describes a crosstie surface design consisting of a pattern of indentations that contacts the ballast, which increases the ties' resistance to sliding (abstract). It is an alternative pattern to previous attempts at surface scoring (paragraph 0020). It considers molding or embossing the pattern into the tie so as not to compromise the said ties' overall rectangular cross-sectional dimensions (paragraph 0024).
However, none of the aforesaid prior art references provides ties having sufficiently improved efficacy in preventing lateral tie slippage and longitudinal track movement with reduced tie volume and, thus, material costs.
There is, therefore, a need for an improved tie that decreases the lateral movement of the tie within the ballast, while at the same time minimize the volume of the tie and, thus, the amount of material required.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a railway ground crosstie that works in conjunction with stone ballast to maximize friction between the tie and ballast, immediately, from the time of installation.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide a crosstie that sufficiently minimizes the effective crosstie volume.
Accordingly, the invention provides in one aspect an elongate railway crosstie for supporting rail tracks on a bed of stones or the like, said tie having a first end, a second end, a length between said first and said second ends and a top surface, a bottom surface and a pair of side surfaces between said first and second ends, characterized in that at least one of said side surfaces has a portion of a non-planar stone-embeddable form extending between said first and said second ends, so-shaped as to effect reduced lateral and longitudinal slippage of said tie within said bed.
Preferably, the crosstie, is as defined hereinabove wherein at least one of said side surfaces has a portion of undulating form extending between said first and second ends, wherein said undulating portion is so-shaped as to define a plurality of concave and convex surfaces which are embeddable in said bed of stone to effect reduced lateral and longitudinal slippage of said tie within said bed.
More preferably, the invention provides a crosstie wherein said undulating portion extends the full length between said first and second ends of said tie.
More preferably, the invention provides a crosstie wherein both of said side surfaces have an undulating form.
In preferred embodiments, the tie as hereinabove defined, has a first end portion adjacent and extending a first distance from said first end and a second end portion adjacent and extending a second distance from said second end wherein
(i) said side surfaces of said first end portion are parallel the length of said first distance,
(ii) said side surfaces of said second end portion are parallel the length of said second portion; and
(iii) said first end portion and said second portion define therebetween an inner portion.
In further preferred embodiments, the inner portion has a plurality of central portions defining a plurality of different inner widths.
In further preferred embodiments, the inner portion has a plurality of portions of widths inwardly decreasing from said first end portion and said second end portion.
The inner portion is further, preferably, spline-shaped and tapered inwardly from said first end portion and said second end portion.
In further preferred embodiments the invention provides a railway crosstie for supporting rail tracks on a bed of stones or the like, said tie having
a first end;
a second end;
a top surface, a bottom surface and a pair of side surfaces between said first and said second ends;
characterized in that said tie has a first end portion adjacent and extending a first distance from said first end and having a first end portion width;
a second end portion adjacent and extending a second distance from said second end and having a second end portion width;
wherein
wherein said inner portion has
wherein said plurality and undulation of said concave and convex surfaces embeddable in said bed of stones is such as to effect reduced lateral and longitudinal slippage of said tie within said bed.
Most preferably, a tie as hereinabove defined has
(i) a length between said first end and said second end selected from about 2.4-2.6 m;
(ii) a height selected from about 15-18 cm;
(iii) a first end portion width and a second end portion width selected from about 18-23 cm;
a first end portion and said second end portion length selected from about 40-50 cm;
(iv) a midpoint width selected from about 8-12 cm; and
(v) each of said tapered portions has an undulating intercrest distance selected from 15-30 cm.
The tie may be formed, for example, of a material selected from wood, concrete, steel, a plastics material and a composite material.
The composite material is preferably a lignocellulose-resin material, most preferably, wherein said resin is a phenol-formaldehyde.
The aforesaid lignocellulose-resin composite is most preferably made by the method as described in PCT/CA2004/001679—Tembec Industries, Inc., published March 2005, comprising
In a further aspect, the invention provides a railway track comprising in combination a railway tie as hereinabove defined in any one of claims 1 to 15, and a pair of railway tracks on a bed of stones, wherein said ties are embedded in said bed of stones.
In order that the invention may be better understood, preferred embodiments will now be described, by way of example only, with reference to the accompanying drawings, wherein
With reference to
With reference also to
Portion 26 has an undulating form so shaped as to define a plurality of concave and convex surfaces which when embedded in stone ballast 14 reduce the longitudinal and lateral slippage of tie 16 as denoted by arrows “A” and “B”, respectively. In the embodiments shown, portion 26 is, thus, spline-shaped while being tapered inwardly from each end portion 22,24 to central portion 28, to constitute a pair of tapered portions 30,32, and define a plurality of portions of different widths, which in this embodiment said widths decrease inwardly from each end portion 22,24.
Generally, each of tapered portions 30,32 has an undulating intercrest distance “d” selected from 15-30 cm, and approximately 25 cm in the embodiment shown. The tapered portions 30,32 gradually decrease in width from the width “w1” (
The tie 16 may be made by a process as described in aforesaid PCT/CA2004/001679.
Although this disclosure has described and illustrated certain preferred embodiments of the invention, it is to be understood that the invention is not restricted to those particular embodiments. Rather, the invention includes all embodiments which are functional or mechanical equivalence of the specific embodiments and features that have been described and illustrated.
Number | Date | Country | Kind |
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2499193 | Mar 2005 | CA | national |
Filing Document | Filing Date | Country | Kind | 371c Date |
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PCT/CA2006/000343 | 3/10/2006 | WO | 00 | 8/16/2007 |