Fish-plates for electrically conducting railway rails

A fish-plate for joining together two electrically conducting railway rails, each railway rail comprising a conventional rail including a foot, a head and a web extending between the head and the foot, and two conducting sections extending along the entire length of the conventional rail, between the foot and the head thereof, and forming the side walls of the rail, said fish-plate comprising:

• two fish-plate sections for location one on each side of adjacent ends of the two electrically conducting railway rails to be joined,
• a surface on each of said two fish-plate sections for contacting co-operating surfaces of the conducting sections forming the side walls of the two electrically conducting railway rails,
• teeth on each said surface of each of said two fish-plate sections, said teeth extending parallel to the length of the electrically conducting railway rails for engagement with complementary teeth formed on said co-operating surfaces of the conducting sections,
• at least two bolts for passing through the two fish-plate sections, the conducting sections and the conventional rails to draw the two fish-plate sections towards one another and against the electrically conducting railway rails with the teeth on the surfaces of the fish-plate sections in engagement with the teeth of the co-operating surfaces of the conducting sections of the electrically conducting railway rails, and
• means for allowing relative vertical adjustment between the electrically conducting railway rails and the two fish-plate sections to enable the fish-plate to be located at various heights relative to each of the electrically conducting railway rails such that the electrically conducting railway rails may be joined with their upper surfaces in alignment even though they may be of a different height.