US 4,554,624 AGranted

Railroad measuring, gauging and spiking apparatus

AssigneeHarsco Corporation

InventorsThomas D. Wickham, Wayne R. Monson

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Abstract

A railroad measuring, gauging, and spiking apparatus uses a closed servoloop arrangement to provide accurate rail gauging. An LVDT sensing arrangement uses three rail feeler wheels to sense the rail gauge immediately adjacent to spiking guns on the apparatus. The output from the LVDT sensor is fed into a signal processing circuit which compares this signal with the desired track gauge in addition to calibrating various analog signals. A gauger control circuit comprises a microprocessor chip which raises and lowers a gauger mechanism and causes the gauger mechanism to track an error signal output by the signal processing circuit until the error signal is equal to zero. The hammers of the spiking guns are interlocked to receive an OK TO SPIKE signal from the microprocessor such that the spiking can not take place until the circuits indicate that the rails are properly gauged.

Claims41

Dependent claims

A railroad measuring, gauging and spiking apparatus operable to bring a distance between rails to a desired gauge comprising:

a frame;
a first rail feeler mounted to said frame for contacting one of a pair of rails;
second and third rail feelers mounted to said frame for contacting the other of the pair of rails at two different locations, each of said rail feelers being a rail gauge feeler, said first rail feeler being movable with respect to at least one of said second and third rail feelers;
a sensor for detecting a relative position of said first rail feeler with respect to at least one of said second and third rail feelers, said sensor outputting a sensor output representative of the gauge of the rails;
a gauging mechanism operable in a first direction and in a second direction to change the distance between the pair of rails, said gauging mechanism including inboard pushing means for increasing a separation between the rails and outboard pushing means for decreasing the separation between the rails;
a feedback control circuit operable to receive said sensor output and operable to compare an actual gauge of the rails with the desired gauge of the rails as set on the gauge setter and operable to control said gauging mechanism to automatically bring the rails into the desired gauge;
and
a spiker for spiking at least one rail into position after the gauging mechanism has brought the rails to the desired gauge.

5 more elements

A railroad measuring, gauging, said spiking apparatus for bringing a distance between rails to a desired gauge comprising:

a frame;
a sensor mounted to said frame and having a sensor output representative of the distance between a pair of rails;
a gauging mechanism operable in a first direction and in a second direction to change the distance between the pair of rails, said gauging mechanism including inboard pushing means for increasing a separation between the rails and outboard pushing means for decreasing the separation between the rails;
a gauge setter for setting the desired gauge of the rails;
a spiker for spiking at least one rail into position after the gauging mechanism has brought the rails to proper gauge;
a feedback control circuit operable to receive said sensor output and operable to compare an actual gauge of the rails with the desired gauge of the rails as set on said gauge setter and operable to control said gauging mechanism to automatically bring the rails into the desired gauge, said feedback control circuit including;
a signal processing circuit outputting a beyond-gauge signal indicating that the gauging mechanism has caused the rails to be a minimum distance past the desired gauge and outputting an at-gauge signal for indicating that the gauging nmechanism gauge;
and has caused the rails to be at the desired gauge;
and
a gauger control circuit operable to cause said gauging mechanism to operate in said first direction until said beyond-gauge signal is received from said signal processing circuit, a which point, said gauger control circuit is operable to cause said gauging mechanism to operate in said second direction and stop upon receiving said at-gauge signal from said signal processing circuit.

7 more elements

A railroad measuring, gauging and spiking apparatus operable to bring a distance between rails to a desired gauge comprising;

a frame;
a sensor mounted on said frame having a sensor output representative of the distance between a pair of rails at a gauge point;
a gauging mechanism operable in a first direction and in a second direction to change the distance between the pair of rails, said gauging mechanism including inboard pushing means for increasing a separation between the rails and outboard pushing means for decreasing the separation between the rails;
a gauge setter for setting the desired gauge of the rails;
a feedback control circuit operable to receive said sensor output and operable to compare an actual gauge of the rails with the desired gauge of the rails as set on the gauge setter and operable to control said gauging mechanism to automatically bring the rails into the desired gauge;
and
a spiker for spiking at least one rail into position after the gauging mechanism has brought the rails to the desired gauge;
and
wherein said gauge point is closed to said spiker than it is to said gauging mechanism.

6 more elements

A railroad measuring, gauging, and spiking apparatus operable to bring a distance between rails to a desired gauge comprising:

a spiker carriage frame movably mounted to a vehicle frame;
a sensor mounted to said spiker carriage frame and having a sensor output representative of the distance between a pair of rails at a gauge point;
a gauging mechanism operable in a first direction and in a second direction to change the distance between the pair of rails, said gauging mechanism including inboard pushing means for increasing a separation between the rails and outboard pushing means for decreasing the separation between the rails;
a gauge setter for setting the desired gauge of the rails;
a feedback control circuit operable to receive said sensor output and operable to compare an actual gauge of the rails with the desired gauge of the rails as set on the gauge setter and operable to control said gauging mechanism to automatically bring the rails into the desired gauge;
and
a spiker for spiking at least one rail into position after the gauging mechanism has brought the rails to the desired gauge;
and
wherein said spiker is mounted on said spiker carriage frame.

6 more elements

A railroad measuring, gauging and spiking apparatus operable to bring a distance between rails to a desired gauge comprising:

a frame;
a sensor mounted on said frame having a sensor output representative of the distance between a pair of rails at a gauge point;
a gauging mechanism operable in a first direction and in a second direction to change the distance between the pair of rails, said gauging mechanism including inboard pushing means for increasing a separation between the rails and outboard pushing means for decreasing the separation between the rails;
a gauge setter for setting the desired gauge of the rails;
a feedback control circuit operable to receive said sensor output and operable to compare an actual gauge of the rails with the desired gauge of the rails as set on the gauge setter and operable to control said gauging mechanism to automatically bring the rails into the desired gauge;
and a spiker for spiking at least one rail into position after the gauging mechanism has brought the rails to the desired gauge;
and
wherein said feedback conrol circuit outputs to OK TO SPIKE signal when the rails are at gauge and said spiker will not spike until the OK TO SPIKE signal has been output.

5 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.