US1094769A - Railway cross-tie. - Google Patents

Description

W. H. ALEXANDER.

RAILWAY GROSS TIE,

APPLICATION FILED JAN. 8, 1914.

Patented Apr, 28, 1914.

2 SHEETS-SHEET 1.

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RAILWAY GROSS TIE.

APPLICATION FILED mum, 1914.

Patented Ap1128, 1914.

2 SHEETSSHBET 2.

mwymgo 0 u {J g WILLIAM H. ALEXANDER, 0F PITTSBURGH. PENNSYLVANIA.

RAILWAY CROSS-TIE.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Apr. 28, 1914.

Application filed January 8, 1814. Serial No. 811.031.

To all Ic/w/n'it may Ounce/72.

Be it known that l. 'ILLIAM H. ALEX- axm-zn. a citizen of the li'nited States, re-l siding at Pittsburgh. in the county of Alle- This invention relates to railway crossties. and has for its object, among others, to provide a one-piece tie which'may be attached to the rails without the use of spikes, bolts or other separate t'astenings. knother object to provide a tie which strong and durable and yet possesses the resiliency necessary to withstand the poundin; of heavy rolling-stock and "prevent injury to the mechanism of locomotives, etc. Thetie contemplated is made of sheet-metal and is designed to be pressed into the desired shape with a concave under surface which forms an air cushion between it and the roadbed. whereby the resiliency or adaptability of the tie to recoil under the pound-' ing of heavy traffic is increased. Being made of sheet-metal. preferably steel, the tie will not require near as much ballast as the old wooden tie or the more recent I-beam metal tie. for the reason that the present tie will lie upon the top of the ballastwhereas when the prior forms mentioned are used the ballast must be laid eight or ten inches deeper or thicker in order to fill up around the sides and ends of the ties, even when. the thickness of the ballast below the ties is the same as under my present form of tie.

further object or the invention is to provide a tie which although it requires no separate fastening 's to secure it to the rails.

yet may be connected or fastened thereto and a so detached or disconnected therefrom without separating. the rails at their joints. Thus. if a tie should become corroded or accidentally broken, it may be readilyremoved for recoating with a preservative preparation and returned to its place in the track or a new tie substituted without materially disturbing the track or unfastening the joints of the rails. Woreover, the construction of the tie of one piece of metal, in- (:ltltlinfl' the rail-fastening means, will greatly reduce the danger of accidents due to spreading rails or the decay of wooden ties. It is a matter of serious concern that the railway tracks in this and other countries have not been strengthened anywhere near in proportion to the increase in Weight of the locomotives and rolling-stock put into use in recent years. The'use of the ordinary wooden ties which years ago were capable to a certain degree of withstanding the light tratiic of that day, is obviously inadequate for the immense locomotives and heavy steel cars used today, and the percentage of accidents will continue to increase as long as the wooden tie is used and the size and weight of the locomotives and rolling-stock is increased. The tendency of the rails being spread in ordinary trafiic today, espe; cially on sharp curves, will be immediately apparent- When one considers the terrible im pact and strain upon the spikes of the out side rails on such curves when said rails are, struck by rapidly moving heavy engines and heavily loaded cars. This terrible impact due to the weight and momentum of the trains as their course is changed by the curve in the track, will press the outside spikes a little bit at a time from the rails, until the gage is partially destroyed, so that each heavily loaded train that passes Widens it, until finally the wheels drop in and there is a fearful wreck. An important object of this invention is to prevent this spreading of the rails and consequently reduce the number of wrecks on railways.

My invention also has as one of its objects to lessen the cost of construction and maintenance of a track. While the metal ties made in accordance with the present inVl1 tion may cost more than wooden ties, when the extra expenses incident to the use of the wooden tie, including. spikes, chairs, tieplates, ballast and cost of labor in adjusting said separate devices and extra thickness of ballast, are considered, and also the much greater durability of the metal tie over the wooden one, it will be seen that the metal tie is much cheaper in the long run, as well as a real necessity in order to prevent accidents.

The invention will be hereinafter described in connection with the accompanyinn drawings. which constitute a part of this specification, and then more specifically defined in the claims at the end of the description.

in the accompanying drawings. wherein no called key-ties. Fig. 5 is a transverse hallast of the track being indicated in dotted lines. hi 6 is a perspectire view of one end of one of the gage-ties. '7 is a similar view of one end of one of the key tifes. Fig. 8 is a sectional View taken transversely of the rail and longitudinally ot the tie, shorvi on an en larged scale how a separaoic clai may he applied to the tie, although it she-aid he distinctly understood that such separable fastening is not necessary and need only he used in case of accidental injury to the tie and "the rail must he temporarily sect; such injured tie until it can be rnerv one substituted. l VlEW showing the same ap separahle clamp, and. a so, the of a snail l side of the rail,

ties and lrcy ties plan "View oil n how the sea gerails Without separating 'jfllll'ils,

its alre dy intimated, ti f emplates the use of one losing exactly l' and shape and difier other simply in the locatio ctal irei d downrvarcly turner l 7 respectively,

section 01 a tie drawn to larger scale, the

tongues not to make them too wide and thereby Weaken the tie, hut at the same time they are made amply Wide to give them the necessary strength, the Width of the top of the tie being considered. it will also he noted that in forming these tongues the taco thereof which is presented to and abuts against the edge of the base 01": the rail is straight, as seen clearly in Figs. 3 and 8, and indicated by the reference character a. This straight hearing face gives a very firm hold upon the rail and causes the tie to snap into place when adjusted. The hearing faces a of the two tongues or lugs on the gage-tie are spaced the proper distance apart to give the rails the desired gage when engaged by or fitted below said tongues. it points opposite said hearing faces and spaced therefrom a distance equal to the width of the base of the rail, there are formed shoulders a designed to abut against the inner sides of said rail-bases. 'lthese shoulders are formed by pressing up per tions of the top of the tie, as best shown in ii Q1. and 5, The shoulders are ight on. their faces which abut against the inner edges of the eases oi the rail in mi. hohl firmly and the desired snap in place. The other faces and top of V raised portion or shoulder as at so that the base of the easily orer the same preparatory t s apping into place between the llat or sir i and a and below the tongues .lhe hey-ties are similarly for with outwardly extending tongues or lugs Z) hav 1 straight races (3 abutting a inst the s of the has-es oi the rails on are inside and filtii rzised lt illflGiS Z lnwing rounded b for the same purp' as descrihed in conn ction with the e res l) tend n the corre. lers i) lace the oppothe bases id m the es of the upon c then f so that rails are said key-ties taking over the inner sides of the bases of the rails and forcing the said rails to proper gage as determinedby the spacing of the tongues on the gage-ties. In thus applying the key-ties, .it will be observed that the bases of the rails ride easily over the rounded faces of the raised shoulders and snap into place with the bearing faces of said shoulders abutting against'the outer edges of the bases of the rails. After the ties are attached to the rails, the track is lowered onto the ballast by removing the blocks D, and the first train passing over the line will force the flanges of the ties down into the ballast E as indicated in Fig. 5. The embedding of these flanges in the ballast prevents either lateral or endwise movementor shifting of the ties and also causes an air cushion to be formed below each tie which cushion adds to the elasticity of the roadbed as hereinbefore explained.

When it is desired to remove one of the gage-ties from a laid track, it is only necessary to take outtwo or three of the key-ties, which can readily be done by turning them to an inclined position, slide the gage-ties alon of the rails sufliciently long to permit of springin said rails inward slightly, which may be done by use of the tool illustrated I in Fig. 11, whereupon the gage-tie sought to be removed will drop off of the rails. The tool I have shown for this purpose consists of two hook-shaped plates 18 adapted to engage the outer sides of the bases of the rails,

two rods 19 connected to said plates 18 and extending inwardly toward each other, the inner end portions of said rods being screw threaded, and a turn-buckle 20 engaging the inner ends of said rods. It is obvious that by turnin the turn-buckle in one direction, the hook-s aped plates 18 and rails engaged thereby will be drawn inward as desired.

In some instances, as on sharp curves, it may be preferred to lay the key-ties in alternate pairs, as illustrated in Fig. 10, but as a rule said ties are laid singly in alternation as shown in Figs. 1 and 2.

Perforations or holes'15 may be formed in the ties, as illustrated in Figs. 8 and 9, to provide for attaching separable clamps 16 when necessary or desirable, as in case of accident occasioned by a broken axle and resulting in an unavoidablefracture, such clamps being secured by bolts 17 passed through the holes 15, but the provision for these separable fastenings is not essential to the present invention. as previously stated, and this should not be taken in any sense to modify the statement that I have provided a one-piece tie capable of attachmentto the rails of a. track without any separable fastening means.

It will be observed that my tie is very simple in construction and is adapted to be the rails far enough to leave a section sirable.

gage-ties and stamped out of a sheet metal at a single operation, so that it can be manufactured ata very low cost and great saving of time as compared with the majority of metal ties heretofore known.

The lrinimum weight of my tie, considered with its strength and shape, as well as its integral rail-fastening devices capable of holding both rails of a track, at once appeal to railroad engineers.

Ha vingthus described my invention, What I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent of the United States is 1. A one-piece sheet-metal tie having a tongue forholding one side of the base of a rail, and a shoulder pressed up from the top of the tie and arranged directly opposite the tongue for engaging the edge of the other side of the base of the rail, sald shoulder having a straight face presented to the edge of the base of the rail and its upper surface rounded laterally for guiding the rail-base into position substantially as described.

2. A one-piece tie having rail-holding tongues to overlap one-edge of each of the two rails of a track, said tie, also having means arranged at the sides of said tongues for attaching a separate clamp for holding the rail to the tie when necessary or de- 3. A. one-piece tie having rail-holding tongues tooverlap one edge of each of the two rails of a track, and shoulders to abut against the opposite edges of the rails from those which are overlapped by said tongues, said tie also having means arranged at the sides of said shoulders for attaching a separate clamp for holding the rail to the tie when necessary or desirable.

l. A one-piece tie having rail-holding tongues to overlap one edge of each of the two rails of a track, and shoulders to abut against the opposite edges of the rails from those which are overlapped by said tongues, said tie also having means arranged at the sides of said tongues and shoulders for attaching separate clam s for holding the rail to the tie at either or 0th sides of said rail when necessary or desirable.

5. The combination with one-piece sheetmetal gage-ties, each having a substantially flat top and downwardly turned side and end flanges to engage the ballast of a roadbed, the top of each of said gage-ties having inwardly extending tongues for overlapping and holding the outer edges of the bases of the two rails of a track to proper gage, of key-ties, each made of one piece of sheet-metal shaped like the gage-ties, the top of each key-tie having outwardly extending tongues for overlapping and holding the inner edges of the bases of the rails noeegree engagement with the tongues of the gageties loot-h kinols of ties halving raised shoul" ders facing their respective tongues and designed to engage the eclges of the opposite sides of the bases of the rails from those overlapped by the adjacent tongues.

In testimony whereof I have signed my name to this specifieeti'on the presence of two attesting Witnesses.

WILLIAM, ll. ALEXANDER.

Witnesses:

E. YVILLIAMS A, M. PARKINS.

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