Rail tie plate placing vehicle and method
AssigneeHolley Engineering Company, Inc.
InventorJohn D. Holley
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A railroad tie plate placing vehicle uses a crawler track to place plates upon rail ties. The crawler track is meshed to a magnetic wheel which holds tie plates to the crawler track until the tie plates have actually contacted a tie. The crawler track at least partially propels the vehicle down the railroad track when the vehicle is placing plates. A tie detector switch is used to control gates which gate tie plates onto the conveyor and magnetic wheel upon detection of a tie such that a tie plate released by the gates will reach a release point in the closed loop of the conveyor at the same time as the release point reaches the tie whose detection triggered the gating of the tie plate.
Claims30
A rail tie plate placing vehicle comprising:
- (a) a main frame;
- (b) a moving conveyor extending in a closed loop, said conveyor supported by said main frame and operable in a plate placing mode to place tie plates upon ties of a railroad track as the vehicle moves down the railroad track;
- (c) a first gate for gating the conveyance of tie plates by said conveyor, said first gate disposable in a blocking state wherein it blocks the conveyance of a leading tie plate and disposable in an open state wherein it allows passage of a leading tie plate for conveyance by movement of said conveyor;
- (d) holding means for holding tie plates against said conveyor and allowing the release of tie plates at a common predetermined release point on said closed loop for immediate disposal upon a tie;
- and
- (e) a tie detector supported by said main frame for detection of ties at a detection point forward of said release point;
- and
- wherein said tie detector causes said first gate to open for passage of a tie plate corresponding to the detection of a tie such that the tie plate which was allowed passage by said first gate arrives at said release point when said vehicle has moved said release point over the detected tie.
A rail tie plate placing vehicle comprising:
- (a) a main frame;
- (b) a moving, closed loop, flexible conveyor supported by said main frame and operable in a plate placing mode to place tie plates upon ties of a railroad track, and wherein said conveyor includes a plate conveying surface having an upwardly facing portion, a downwardly facing portion and a transitional portion between said upwardly facing portion and said downwardly facing portion;
- and
- (c) holding means cooperating with said conveyor for holding tie plates against said transitional and downwardly facing portions of said plate conveying surface and for releasing tie plates at a release point from said downwardly facing portion for placement upon ties, and wherein said conveyor is disposed such that it contacts a tie plate at the same time as the tie plate contacts a tie.
A method of placing rail tie plates upon ties from a tie plate placing vehicle, the steps comprising:
- (a) moving the vehicle along a railroad track;
- (b) detecting ties on the railroad track;
- (c) automatically gating a tie plate by way of a first gate for movement with a closed loop, moving conveyor for each detected tie, each gating of a tie plate resulting from a corresponding detection of a tie;
- (d) moving each gated tie plate to a release point of said conveyor such that the gated tie plate is at the release point when the vehicle has moved sufficiently that the release point is immediately over the detected tie whose detection caused the gating of that gated tie plate;
- and
- (e) releasing each gated tie plate from further movement with the vehicle when it arrives at said release point.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.