US3128723A - Railway skate - Google Patents

Description

April 14, 1964 H. H` SM'HH 3,128,123

RAILWAY SKATE u uli INH Filed Oct. 20, 1961 United States Filed Oct. 20, 1961, Ser. No. 146,430 Claims. (Cl. 1041-260) This invention relates to a new and improved railway skate for use with mine cars and similar vehicles used on railway tracks.

There is a need today in mines and service car locations for a railway skate that can be used for a protracted period of time without requiring frequent repair or replacement.

Many railway skates of this general type are currently available on the market, but they are either too complex in design, or they make no allowance for use beyond minimal wear. Such a skate is normally employed in mines and similar establishments where the cars are not equipped with brakes. Because the customarily employed mine car is not equipped with brakes, the locomotive must furnish all braking effort. When operating on relatively at ground few problems are encountered, but when the train is descending a slope, the engine is frequently unable to control the downhill speed of the train. To assist in braking the train, a skate is mounted on a track adjacent the Wheel. The wheel then rides up onto the skate and the skate is pushed along the track. The friction between the track head and the skate augments the braking effort of the locomotive. The abrading effect of the track head on the skate skid surface is the principal cause of the short life of the skate. The wear on the skate by the railhead and the heat generated by the skate sliding along the rail results in the warping and distortion of the skate bar due to a loss of strength in the skate bar per se, thereby causing the bar to be prematurely discarded. Further, if the skid bar is wider than the rail, undesirable projections on the skate skid surface are formed at the side of the worn surface.

It is therefore the primary object of this invention to provide an improved skate for railway use which allows for wear of the skid surface without creating undesirable projections that have a deleterious effect on the functioning of the skid.

It is another object of this invention to provide a skate for railway use having at least two upwardly facing surfaces adapted for engagement with a wheel of a rail vehicle, the underside of the skate being recessed along one edge to allow for wear of the surface and to provide for heat dissipation.

Another object of this invention is to provide a railway skate bar having a wheel bearing surface of greater lateral width than that of its rail bearing skid surface in order to compensate for loss of strength during operation due to the presence of heat and cumulative wear on the skid surface. Still another object is to provide an improved skate for railway use which not only maintains its resistance to deformation but also improves its rate of heat dissipation.

These and other objects will become more apparent from the following description and claims in which:

FIG. l is a plan view of a skate embodying the invention;

FIG. 2 is a side view of a skate embodying the invention;

FIG. 3 is an end View of a skate embodying the invention;

FIG. 4 is a perspective view of a skate embodying the invention in engagement with the wheel of a rail vehicle;

FIG. 5 is a vertical section of a worn skate of conventional design;

Patent O FIG. 6 is a vertical section taken along line VI-VI of FIGS. 1 and 2;

FIG. 7 is an end view of a skate embodying the invention mounted on a railhead in engagement with a wheel.

FIG. 8 is a fragmental side elevation of a modified skate conforming to the invention.

Referring to FIG. l, the skate as shown has a skid bar 2, handle portion 4, and abutment post 6 integrally formed. The upper end of abutment post 6 has an upwardly facing abutment surface 8 adapted to receive a car wheel in abutting relationship. Extending outwardly from the handle portion 4 is the skid bar 2.

The skate on its obverse side has a ridge 10 that has its longitudinal axis oriented transverse to that of the skate. In the preferred embodiment the ridge has a surface 12 on the handle side curved concavely about the same center of curvature as abutment surface 8. By curving these two surfaces at approximately the same radius of curvature as the tread surface of the wheel on the car, full surface-to-wheel contact is obtained along both surfaces 8 and 12 to firmly hold the wheel in engagement with the skate. Thus the surfaces 8 and 12 are both longitudinally and laterally inclined with respect to the plane of the skid surface. In FIG. 7 the full surfaceto-surface engagement of the wheel with surface 12 is clearly shown. A similar result can be achieved by leaving these surfaces, as illustrated in FIG. 8, and wedging the wheel into engagement with the skate.

The underside of the skate is characterized by a depending side fiange 14 extending along the length of a skid surface 16. When mounted on the track, the flange 14 is disposed beneath the wheel between the railhead and a wheel flange 17 as shown in FIGS. 4 and 7 so that the skate is maintained in position on the rail. The skid bar 2 is relieved or recessed as at 18 on its underside along the edge thereof opposite to that of flange 14. The width of recess 1S relative to fiange 14 and skid surface 16 can best be seen in FIG. 3. Recess 18 is defined by a substantially vertical surface Ztl and a top surface 22 which extend along the full length of the skid bar. It is the purpose of this recess to allow skid surface 16 under abrading action to be worn down to the level of surface 22 of the recess without forming a projection on the underside of the skid bar. In addition, a flange 21 formed by the recess 18 and the top of the skid bar 2 provides for rapid heat dissipation. It has been found from experience that the rapid heat dissipation provided by the cooling function of the flange 21 increases the service life of the skate substantially.

FIG. 5 illustrates a typical `skate which has been worn until a projecting ridge 23 has been formed. The dotdash line in FIG. 5 indicates the position of skid surface 16 prior to use. Once formed, the projecting ridge 23 presents serious problems in the use of the skate. The worn skate shown in FIG. 5 cannot be used where there are switches in the track because the projection 23 will frequently cause derailment of the associated rail vehicle.

It would not be possible to preclude the formation of projection 23 on the underside of the skate merely by constructing the skate with a narrower skid and obverse side portion. The full width of the skate is necessary to enable the upwardly facing obverse side to fully engage the wheel of the car. Thus, there is provided an alternative to reducing the width of the skid surface to that wear pattern as herein disclosed.

After extended use under adverse conditions, it has been found that the end of the conventional skid bar opposite from that of the handle has a tendency to curl, upwardly toward the wheel. By curling upwardly, the frictional resistance between -the skate and railhead is reduced due to a loss in surface area of the skate in contact with the railhead. In addition, it becomes more difficult to dissipate the friction-generated heat. Thus, by increasing the width of the obverse side of the skid bar while maintaining the skid surface at a lesser width, such as that of a railhead, the cross sectional area of the bar located between the obverse side and the skid surface is maintained at a level providing satisfactory strength and heat dissipation. Further, to overcome this tendency of the skid bar to curl, the ridge is so positioned on the skate that it functions as a wedge between the wheel and skid bar. Thus, the wheel by abuttingly engaging surfaces 8 and 12 forces the ridge 10 outwardly to assist in maintaining the full length of the skid bar in contact with the railhead.

The upper surface of the skid bar has been modied over prior art constructions by the addition of two concavely curved surfaces adapted for full surface-to-wheel engagement. By thus curving these surfaces, it is possible for movement between the wheel and the skate to be minimized and thereby reduce wear on the skate and the wheel. With this movement minimized, the skate can function not only to brake a train of cars when descending a slope, but can be used to fix a car, or a train, in one position on a relatively flat section of track to function as a parking brake.

FIG. 8 illustrates an alternative embodiment of the invention wherein wheel-engaging abutment surfaces, i.e., surfaces 8a and 12a are planate or at and inclined relative to the longitudinal direction of the skate. By having the surfaces flat, the wheel of a mine car can be wedged into position on the skate and thereby minimize movement between the mine car wheel and the skate. This alternative form of construction is deemed to be within the scope of the invention herein disclosed.

What has been disclosed herein is a simple way to make a railway skate that increases its use for an extended period of time over existing skates by making provision for wear on the skid surface, and by providing improved skate-to-wheel contact.

The terms and expressions which have been employed are used as terms of description and not of limitation and there is no intention of excluding such equivalents of the invention described or of the portions thereof as fall within the scope of the claims.

What is claimed is:

1. A railway skate comprising: a skid bar having a skid surface on the underside thereof adapted for engagement with a railhead, a depending rail-engaging flange along one edge of said surface, and a top wheelengaging surface; said top surface of the bar being substantially wider in a direction away from said flange than the combined widths of the flange and said skid surface, and the width of the skid surface conforming substantially to the Width of a railhead; said top surface being wider than the skid surface to provide good wheel-supporting and heat-dissipation characteristics of the skate.

2. A railway skate comprising: a skid bar having a downwardly-facing skid surface adapted for engagement with a railhead; a depending rail-engaging flange adjacent one edge of said surface, and a top wheel-engaging surface; the skid bar having a recess along an edge thereof opposite said one edge of said skid surface and parallel to said flange; said top surface of the bar being wider in a direction away from said flange than the combined Widths of the flange and said skid surface by a difference approximately equal to the lateral width of said recess, and the width of the skid surface conforming substantially to the width of the railhead.

3. The railway skate of claim 2 wherein: the skid bar comprises an upstanding abutment and a wheel-engaging ridge in longitudinally spaced relation to said abutment extending the full width of said top surface, said ridge and said abutment adapted for engagement with a wheel of a rail vehicle in wedging relationship therewith.

4. The railway skate of claim 2 wherein: the skid bar comprises a laterally extending ange having a width substantially equal to the lateral width of said recess thereby forming a marginal portion of said top surface and partially forming said recess adjacent said skid surface.

5. The railway skate of claim 1 wherein: the skid bar comprises an upstanding abutment and a ridge longitudinally spaced from said bar, said abutment and said ridge providing portions of said wheel engaging surface both longitudinally and laterally inclined with respect to the plane of said skid surface for substantial contact with a wheel having a tapered or conical tread surface.

References Cited in the tile of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 834,298 Harris Oct. 30, 1906 1,343,614 Buell June 15, 1920 2,170,523 Wilcox Aug. 22, 1939 2,290,505 Summerour July 21, 1952

Claims (1)

1. A RAILWAY SKATE COMPRISING: A SKID BAR HAVING A SKID SURFACE ON THE UNDERSIDE THEREOF ADAPTED FOR ENGAGEMENT WITH A RAILHEAD, A DEPENDING RAIL-ENGAGING FLANGE ALONG ONE EDGE OF SAID SURFACE, AND A TOP WHEELENGAGING SURFACE; SAID TOP SURFACE OF THE BAR BEING SUBSTANTIALLY WIDER IN A DIRECTION AWAY FROM SAID FLANGE THAN THE COMBINED WIDTHS OF THE FLANGE AND SAID SKID SURFACE, AND THE WIDTH OF THE SKID SURFACE CONFORMING SUBSTANTIALLY TO THE WIDTH OF A RAILHEAD; SAID TOP SURFACE BEING WIDER THAN THE SKID SURFACE TO PROVIDE GOOD WHEEL-SUPPORTING AND HEAT-DISSIPATION CHARACTERISTICS OF THE SKATE.

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