Overhead rail guidance and signaling system
OwnerJeremiah David Heatoninventor
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
An overhead railway and trolley for transporting miners out of a mine. The railway is formed by connected rails that are mounted to a roof of a mine. The trolley is mounted to a bottom flange of the rails and includes wheel assemblies having at least two wheels mounted side-by-side, and each is configured to engage and roll along a top surface of the bottom flange. The trolley has a clicker that is configured to engage protrusions extending away from the bottom flange. The clicker permits the trolley to travel out of the mine but prevents it from traveling into the mine. The trolley also includes a pair of handles that are configured to be gripped by a miner standing on a floor of the mine as he travels from the beginning of the railway to the ending (i.e., the egress direction).
Claims22
A guidance and signaling system comprising
- a trolley configured for human transport and configured to roll along a railway having an ingress direction and an egress direction, the trolley having:
- a base plate configured for placement below the railway and having a front end, a back end, and left and right sides;
- a rolling member mounted to the base plate and configured to engage and to roll along the railway;
- a clicker configured to engage a protrusion of the railway for selectively preventing the trolley from moving in the ingress direction, the clicker configured to move between a first position where the trolley moves past the protrusion in either the ingress direction or the egress direction and a second position where the trolley moves past the protrusion in the egress direction only and is stopped by the protrusion when moving in the ingress direction;
- a pair of handles configured to be gripped by a miner standing on a floor surface, the handles extending downwards proximate the front end of the base plate.
A guidance and signaling system comprising
- an overhead railway having an ingress direction and an egress direction, the railway mounted to a roof of a mine and having a plurality of rails connected together at ends, each rail of the plurality of rails having a substantially horizontal bottom flange and a protrusion extending away from the bottom flange of at least one of the plurality of rails;
- a trolley configured for human transport and configured to roll along the overhead railway, the trolley having:
- a base plate configured for placement below the bottom flange of the plurality of rails and having a front end, a back end, and left and right sides;
- wheel assemblies fixedly mounted proximate the left and right sides of the base plate and configured to engage left and right sides of the bottom flange, each wheel assembly having:
- a wheel mounting plate extending vertically upwards from the base plate;
- at least two wheels mounted side-by-side, each configured to engage and roll along a top surface of the bottom flange;
- a clicker configured to engage the protrusion for selectively preventing the trolley from moving in the ingress direction, the clicker configure to move between a first position where the trolley moves past the protrusion in either the ingress direction or egress direction and a second position where the trolley moves past the protrusion in the egress direction only and is stopped by the protrusion when moving in the ingress direction;
- a pair of handles configured to be gripped by a miner standing on a floor of the mine, the handles extending downwards proximate the front end of the base plate.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.