Stone metering system for railroad track maintenance vehicle

An improved track maintenance vehicle having a superstructure adapted to travel along a railroad track, at least one workhead carried on said superstructure, a plurality of blow tubes carried on said workhead, a main hopper containing ballast stones carried on said superstructure, a means for moving the ballast stones from the main hopper to the workhead, wherein the improvement comprises:

• said means for moving said ballast stones from said main hopper to said workheads including a stone metering apparatus supported upon said track maintenance vehicle, said stone metering apparatus comprising:
• a surge hopper having an outlet opening,
• a means for metering and conveying stone having an input end in proximity to said surge hopper outlet opening and an output end, said metering and conveying means including a stone metering auger including a casing having inlet and outlet openings and an auger screw having longitudinally opposite inlet and outlet ends rotatably housed within said casing, said stone metering auger disposed such that said casing inlet opening is aligned with said surge hopper outlet opening, said auger screw including flights that increase in pitch as they extend longitudinally along the screw away from said inlet end, said auger screw further including flights that decrease in diameter at said outlet end,
• an outlet gate mounted over said casing outlet opening and a gate control means for actuating said outlet gate between a first open position in which stone may be expelled from said metering auger through said casing outlet opening and a second closed position in which stone is prevented from being expelled from said metering auger through said casing outlet opening,
• a splitter for dividing and distributing the stone conveyed by said metering and conveying means to said plurality of blow tubes,
• a splitter mounting means for mounting said splitter in proximity to said output end of said metering and conveying means whereby stone expelled from said metering and conveying means passes into said splitter, and
• a stone replenishing system mounted on said superstructure for moving stone from said main hopper to said surge hopper, said stone replenishing system including a main auger mounted within said main hopper for moving stone out of said main hopper, a cleat conveyor in proximity to said main hopper for receiving and conveying stone moved out of said main hopper, a stone scalper in proximity to said cleat conveyor for receiving stone conveyed by said cleat conveyor and screening out excessively large stones, a horizontal conveyor having a first end in proximity to said stone scalper and a second end in proximity to said surge hopper for receiving scalped stone from said stone scalper and conveying the scalped stone to said surge hopper, a control means for activating and deactivating said stone replenishing system, and a plurality of stone level sensors mounted within said surge hopper.

A railroad track maintenance vehicle for working railroad track in a railroad track bed, the railroad track having a cant and a grade, said maintenance vehicle comprising:

• workhead means for delivering stone to the railroad track bed, said workhead means including a pair of stone delivery devices;
• storage means for storing a quantity of stone to be delivered to said workhead means, the stone having a plurality of characteristics;
• a conveying means for conveying stones from said storage means to said workhead means, said conveying means including an inlet and an outlet for receiving and discharging stone, respectively;
• splitter means positioned between said conveying means and said stone delivery devices for dividing stone exiting said conveying means outlet between said pair of stone delivery devices, said splitter means including a splitter wall having a horizontal offset with respect to said conveying means outlet, whereby said splitter wall can be moved to change the proportional division of the stone between said stone delivery devices;
• and
• a control including an actuator means for selectively controlling the offset of said splitter wall as a function of at least one of the track cant, the track grade, and the stone characteristics, thereby providing a desired distribution of stones between said pair of stone delivery devices.