Railroad tie handler
OwnerBrandon J. Makovskyinventor
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A hydraulically powered railroad tie handler can be attached to a crane on the rear of a truck which can travel either over rails or over pavement. The tie handler has seven hydraulic functions: clamping a main body to underlying rails, gripping a new or old railroad tie, stroking to move the gripped tie laterally under the rails, pivoting the stroker relative to the main body of the tie handler angle the stroker path relative to the main body, tilting of the gripper head relative to the stroker, pivoting the main body to change its angle with respect to the crane attachment plate; and lifting of the main body and clamped rails by pushing off ground between the rails. The stroker extends between two spaced plate portions of the main body.
Claims20
A railroad tie handler comprising:
- a crane rotator mount;
- a main body pivotally attached below the crane rotator mount, the main body being able to pivot about a main body pivot axis relative to the crane rotator mount;
- a tie gripper supported by the main body via a stroker that allows the tie gripper to be selectively extended or retracted relative to the main body, the tie gripper being adapted for selectively gripping a railroad tie;
- and
- a rail clamp supported by the main body, which is adapted for selectively clamping the main body relative to rails of a railroad section;
- wherein the railroad tie handler defines a center of mass which is below the main body pivot axis:
- wherein the stroker and the tie gripper are hydraulically powered, and further comprising:
- a main body tilt hydraulic cylinder, wherein the main body tilt hydraulic cylinder can extend or retract to change the tilt angle of the main body relative to the crane rotator mount.
A railroad tie handler comprising:
- a main body;
- a tie gripper supported by the main body via a stroker that allows the tie gripper to be selectively extended or retracted relative to the main body, the tie gripper being adapted for selectively gripping a railroad tie, wherein the stroker defines a stroking movement path of the tie gripper relative to the main body;
- stroker;
- and
- a rail clamp supported by the main body, which is adapted for selectively clamping the main body relative to rails of a railroad section;
- and
- a gripper tilt mechanism, which selectively allows tilting of the tie gripper relative to the stroking movement path.
A method of handling a railroad tie extending transversely under two rails of a railroad track, comprising:
- clamping a main body of a railroad tie handler onto the two rails;
- lifting the rails by biasing a ground location underneath and between the rails downwardly relative to the rails, so as to place a lifting force tending to lift the rails relative to the underlying ground;
- gripping a tie extending transversely under the two rails with a tie gripper;
- and
- extending or retracting a stroker supporting the tie gripper from the main body, thereby moving the tie transversely relative to the rails.
A railroad tie handler comprising:
- a main body;
- a tie gripper supported by the main body via a stroker that allows the tie gripper to be selectively extended or retracted relative to the main body, the tie gripper being adapted for selectively gripping a railroad tie;
- and
- a rail clamp supported by the main body, which is adapted for selectively clamping the main body relative to rails of a railroad section, wherein the rail clamp comprises:
- two hooking portions which are fixed relative to the main body, the hooking portions being spaced and oriented to hook around a first side of each of two railroad rails, such that one of the hooking portions contacts an outer side of one of the railroad rails while the other of the hooking portions contacts an inner side of the other of the railroad rails;
- and
- two clamping portions which are moveable relative to the main body and relative to the hooking portions, oriented to clamp around a second side of each of the two railroad rails, the second side opposing the first side of each railroad rail.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.