WO1995033098A1

WO1995033098A1 - Device for removing rails

Info

Publication number: WO1995033098A1
Application number: PCT/SE1994/000513
Authority: WO
Original assignee: Ab Sjölanders Smides & Mekaniska Verkstad
Priority date: 1993-04-26
Filing date: 1994-05-30
Publication date: 1995-12-07

Abstract

A device for removing rails (9, 10) which are placed on an embankment (8) alongside a railway track (3). The device comprises a trolley (1) which is movable along the railway track (3) and supports telescopic arms (11, 12). These are each pivotable by means of a first cylinder assembly (15) about a first pivot pin (14) which is parallel to the longitudinal direction of the trolley, and each laterally extendable by means of a second cylinder assembly (19). A gripping member (23) at the outer ends of the telescopic arms (11, 12) is by means of a third cylinder assembly (5) pivotable about a second pivot pin (24) which in the normal working position of the gripping member (23) is parallel to the first pivot pin, and is designed to engage with a special rail part, such as the rail foot (28), for the purpose of lifting one end of the rail from the embankment (8) to a position for insertion into guide means on a rail vehicle which is also movable along the railway track (3).

Description

DEVICE FOR REMOVING RAILS

The invention relates to a device for removing rails placed on a railway embankment alongside a railway track, said device comprising a rail vehicle, such as a trolley, which is adapted to be moved along the railway track and supports at least one telescopic arm which, by means of a first cylinder assembly, is pivotable about a first pivot pin extending in parallel with the longitudinal axis of said trolley and, by means of a second cylinder assembly, is laterally extendable and which at its outer end com- prises a gripping member which, by means of a third cylinder assembly, is pivotable about a second pivot pin, which in the normal working position of the gripping mem¬ ber is parallel to the first pivot pin, said rail vehicle being adapted to remove from the embankment one end of the rail to a position for insertion into guide means arranged on at least one further rail vehicle which is also adapted to be moved along the railway track.

In exchanging rails, new rails are in many cases first placed along the embankment and are then, by means of a rail exchanging train, mounted on the sleepers of the railway track instead of the old rails, which, by the rail exchanging train, are placed on the embankment to be collected later.

Since the rails now preferably used are very long (50-400 m, preferably 360 m), it is not practically pos¬ sible to lift a rail in its entirety by means of, for instance, a crane mounted on a rail exchanging train. Use is therefore made of guides which are mounted on the train and which, as the train advances along the track, guide the rail in the desired direction. Some sort of lifting device with a gripper is still required in order to, at least initially, lift a rail placed on the embank¬ ment to the level of such a guide, so as to enable the rail to be inserted into the guide. Usually, a rail to be inserted into a guide should be arranged in such a manner that the rail head is directed upwards and, thus, the rail foot is directed downwards. In most cases, rails that are placed on an inclined embankment or on the embankment in a curve are, however, not correctly directed since the rail foot is too narrow to counteract a tilting tendency which is further enhanced by the comparatively heavy head of the rail. Rails that have fallen down must of course be turn- ed over before being inserted into the guide.

This is mostly carried out manually by means of an iron-bar lever or some other aid, by means of which the rail can be affected while resting on the embankment. However, since rails are relatively heavy (40-75 kg/m), this is not a satisfactory solution from the point of view of working environment. Besides, the rails may be twisted about their own longitudinal axis owing to their great length, which implies that by means of the above- mentioned aids it is rarely possible to turn the entire rail the right way round at once. This involves a risk that the rail is turned in the wrong way again as soon as one releases one's hold to catch hold again, if the ini¬ tially effected turn was not sufficient for the gripper of the lifting device to be used. Up to now, this problem has been solved by letting a number of people help in the manual turning of the rail, which in view of today's staff costs is not very rational.

For this reason, it is becoming more and more com- mon to use, in addition to a crane arranged on a rail exchanging train and lifting the correctly turned rails on a level with said guides, for instance, tractor exca¬ vators provided with a gripper or bucket, which thanks to their mobility may be useful to turn or move rails far enough to make it possible for a lifting device mounted on a train to take over. Unfortunately, this work is seldom managed completely without manual efforts, espe- cially when the rail is lying on an inclined embankment, the rail head facing outwards and downwards, or when the space around the track is restricted.

GB-A-2, 160, 919 discloses a device which in some ope- rations can replace the above-mentioned tractor excava¬ tor. The object of the device according to GB-A-2, 160, 919 is to permit removal of rails which are placed on an embankment alongside a railway track. To this end, the device comprises a gripping member with movable jaws which are intended to grip a rail head. However, the use¬ fulness of the device is restricted by the fact that the rail head must always face the gripping member. If the rail head faces away from the gripping member, manual efforts are required to turn the rail. The problem that the present invention is intended to solve thus remains. In view of what has been said above, the object of the present invention is to provide a device which enables turning and lifting of rails that are placed on an embankment alongside a railway track, so that they can be inserted into the guides of a rail exchanging or rail loading train, the possibly required manual efforts being most restricted and physically not too heavy.

This object is achieved by means of a device which is of the type mentioned by way of introduction and is characterised in that the gripping member is rigid and has an undercut groove that is designed to engage with a special rail part, such as the rail foot.

The advantage of the inventive device compared with a common tractor excavator is that thanks to its design, which is especially adapted to the purpose, it can engage with and turn rails that are placed on an embankment alongside a railway track, no matter how the rails are turned, and that thanks to its rolling on the railway track, it is usable also where the space is laterally restricted by, for example, rock faces.

The advantage of the inventive device compared with the device according to GB-A-2, 160,919 originates in the rigid gripping member, which, in contrast to the gripping member of the prior-art device with its movable jaws, is extremely rugged and thus well suited to "dig" in the macadam of an embankment after the rail part, preferably the rail foot, with which it is intended to cooperate. Quite contrary to the invention, the gripping member according to the above-mentioned publication besides com¬ prises jaws suspended in slots in order to precisely avoid "digging" in the macadam of the embankment. To be able to turn rails in a construction compris¬ ing a single-type gripping member, whether the rail heads face the railway track or face away therefrom, the grip¬ ping member is pivotable about a third pivot pin which is perpendicular to the first pivot pin and the longitudinal axis of the telescopic arm.

The gripping member of the inventive device prefer¬ ably comprises, for engagement with a rail foot, a groove undercut on two sides and having open ends, a groove opening whose width is smaller than the width of the rail foot, and a groove bottom whose width is greater than the width of the rail foot and is substantially planar, but has a slightly deeper portion on one side. The advantage of this design is that a rail carried by the gripping member is still movable, which may facilitate, for instance, the insertion into the guides of the rail vehicle, and that the gripping member becomes very simple and robust and thus does not risk being damaged when it is to dig in under a rail in the macadam of the embank¬ ment. A preferred embodiment of the invention will now be described in more detail with reference to the accompany¬ ing drawing which is a front view of a rail vehicle, such as a trolley, and, mounted thereon, telescopic arms in different working positions. The drawing shows a trolley 1, which is included in the device according to the invention and which on its wheels 2 is movable along a railway track 3 comprising rails 5 attached to sleepers 4 and being laid on an embankment 6 whose top layer consists of macadam. The embankment 6 has inclined sides 7, 8 which at the top are united by a plateau for the railway track 3 and on which rails 9, 10 are loosely laid. The rails 9, 10 can either be new rails which are to change places with the rails 5 of the railway track 3, or old rails which have already changed places with the rails of the railway track and now are to be carried away. Nowadays, use is preferably made of concrete sleepers on which up to 400-m-long rails can be mounted. Such long rails cannot be lifted in their entirety and therefore they are moved up gradually by means of guides onto a train which rolls along the railway track and which can be a rail exchanging train for carrying out the above-mentioned rail exchange, or a rail loading train for carrying away the exchanged rails. The trolley 1 is adapted to be coupled to a train of either type and to be driven up to the ends of one of the rails 9, 10. Then these ends should be lifted from the embankment by means of the inventive device, be turned the right way round and inserted into the guides of said train.

The preferred embodiment of the invention as illu¬ strated in the drawing comprises, in addition to the trolley 1, two laterally extendable telescopic arms 11,

12 which are arranged at the front and at the rear of the trolley 1. Since the telescopic arms 11, 12 are identi¬ cal, the description below concerns the front telescopic arm 12. The telescopic arm 12 comprises an outer tube 13 of substantially rectangular cross-section. The inner end of the outer tube 3 is pivotally suspended from the trolley 1 about a first pivot pin 14 which extends in the longi¬ tudinal direction of the trolley 1 and is arranged at the front of the trolley 1 on the left side as seen in the

Figure, i.e. the side facing away from the side on which the telescopic arm 12 is extendable. The outer tube 13 is pivotable about the first pivot pin 14 by means of a first cylinder assembly 15 which is hingedly suspended at the front of the trolley 1 from a stub shaft 16 arranged below the outer tube 13 and from a stub shaft 17 substan- tially in the middle of the outer tube 13, these stub shafts being horizontally arranged and parallel with the pivot pin 14.

The outer tube 13 accommodates an inner tube 18, which is also of substantially rectangular cross-section and is telescopic relative to the outer tube 13 by means of a second cylinder assembly 19 supported by a lug 20 at the top of the inner end of the outer tube 13 and by a lug 21 at the top of the outer end of the inner tube 18. By means of the second cylinder assembly 19, the tele- scopic arm 12 becomes extendable laterally on the trolley 1 to about twice the width of the trolley.

The inner tube 18 supports at its outer end a down¬ wardly directed gripping member holder 22 arranged per¬ pendicular to the telescopic arm 12 and having at its lower end a gripping member 23 which is pivotally sus¬ pended from the gripping member holder 22 about a second pivot pin 24 of the telescopic arm 12, said pin being parallel with the first pivot pin 14 in the normal work¬ ing position of the gripping member as described below. The gripping member 23 is pivotable about its pivot pin 24 by means of a third cylinder assembly 25 which is supported by the gripping member holder 22 at a hinge 26 and whose extendable piston hingedly engages with a lever 27 connected to the gripping member 23. As is clearly seen from the Figure, the gripping member 23 is intended to engage with a rail foot 28, i.e. the wide rail flange having a flat underside by which a rail 5 rests on the sleepers 3 either directly or on bearing plates.

In order not to need a further cylinder assembly for opening and closing the gripping member 23, this is rigid and instead has a groove 29 which is undercut on two sides and which has open ends, such that a rail 9, 10 arranged with its rail foot 28 in the groove 29 can be freely moved therein in its longitudinal direction. The opening 30 of the groove 29 is, owing to the undercut, slightly narrower than a rail foot 28, whereas the bottom 31 of the groove 29, owing to the undercut, is wider than said rail foot 28 and besides is substantially planar so as to reliably support a rail foot 28 arranged therein.

To render it possible on the whole to insert a rail foot 28 into the groove 29 via the opening 30, the bottom 31 of the groove 29 is, in connection with its planar portion, formed with a slightly deeper or countersunk portion in the undercut arranged on the suspension side of the gripping member 23. As is clearly seen in the Figure at the rail 10 resting to the right on the embank- ment, the countersunk portion makes it possible first to insert one edge flange of the rail foot deeply into the groove 29 in the gripping member 23 and then, by a simple pivoting motion (anticlockwise in the indicated case) of the gripping member 23 around the pin 24, have the rail foot 28 completely inserted into the groove 29, such that it abuts against and is supported by the bottom 31 of the groove in the manner appearing from the positions of the telescopic arms 11, 12, that are indicated by dashed lines. In the last-mentioned positions, the rail ends pick¬ ed up from the embankment 6 have, by retraction and lift¬ ing of the telescopic arms 11, 12, been placed in a posi¬ tion in which they can be inserted, turned the right way round, into guides (not shown) of a rail loading train which then takes care of the rails 9, 10 by moving in the longitudinal direction of the rails from the picked-up ends towards to the opposite ends, which owing to the great length of the rails also after lifting of the first-mentioned rails ends still rest on the embankment 6, the guides guiding the rails 9, 10 up onto the machine. The great length of the rails 9, 10 also implies that the rails placed on the inclined sides 7, 8 of an embankment 6 can be twisted several times about their longitudinal axis, and thus that a rail along its lon- gitudinal axis can occupy, for example, a position in which the rail head faces the groove (to the left in the

Figure) and a position in which it faces away from the groove (to the right in the Figure) . To be able to grip the rail, independently of its turning, by means of the illustrated gripping member, this is manually pivotable about a third pivot pin 22 which is perpendicular to the first pivot pin 14 and the longitudinal axis of the tele¬ scopic arm. The gripping member 23 is arranged on the rod-shaped gripping member holder 22, which is pivotable about the third pivot pin 32, at such a great distance from the underside of the telescopic arm that also facing the trolley 1, as shown to the left in the Figure, it can support a rail placed under the telescopic arm. It would of course also be possible to make the gripping member 23 pivotable about the third pivot pin 32 by some sort of drive means, such as a cylinder assembly, which is arranged on the telescopic arm 11, 12 and by means of a lever or rack engages with the gripping member holder 22, but in consideration of the small advantage this would imply and the cost that would be involved, such a solution does not seem to be reasonable at present.

The inventive device is useful not only for picking up the ends of rails 9, 10 which are placed on an embank¬ ment 8, but also for turning in order a rail portion, for instance, a portion in the middle of the rail, twisted about the longitudinal axis of the rail, for the purpose of reducing the load exerted on said guides in the rail exchanging or rail loading train.

Finally, it would also be conceivable to combine a gripping member with a guide which is fitted with rollers, thereby making it possible to move the gripping member/guide combination a longer distance along a rail without being affected by any great amount of frictional forces.

Claims

1. A device for removing rails (9, 10) placed on a railway embankment (8) alongside a railway track (3) , said device comprising a rail vehicle, such as a trolley ( 1 ) , which is adapted to be moved along the railway track (3) and supports at least one telescopic arm (11, 12) which, by means of a first cylinder assembly (15), is pivotable about a first pivot pin ( 14) extending in parallel with the longitudinal axis of said trolley ( 1 ) and, by means of a second cylinder assembly (19), is laterally extendable and which at its outer end comprises a gripping member (23) which, by means of a third cylin- der assembly (25), is pivotable about a second pivot pin (24) , which in the normal working position of the grip¬ ping member (23) is parallel to the first pivot pin, said rail vehicle being adapted to remove from the embankment (8) one end of the rail (9, 10) to a position for inser- tion into guide means arranged on at least one further rail vehicle which is also adapted to be moved along the railway track (3), c h a r a c t e r i s e d in that the gripping member (23) is rigid and has an undercut groove (29) designed to engage with a special rail part, such as the rail foot (28).

2. The device as claimed in claim 1, c h a r a c ¬ t e r i s e d in that the gripping member (23) is pivot¬ able about a third pivot pin (32) which is perpendicular to the first pivot pin ( 14) and to the longitudinal axis of the telescopic arm (1, 12).

3. The device as claimed in claim 1 or 2, c h a r ¬ a c t e r i s e d in that the groove (29 ) for engaging with a rail foot (28) is undercut on two sides and has open ends, a groove opening (30), whose width is smaller than the width of said rail foot (28), and a groove bottom (31), whose width is greater than the width of the rail foot (28) and is substantially planar, but has a slightly deeper portion at one end.