Railway rolling stock – Locomotives – With land engaging wheel
Reexamination Certificate
2000-03-09
2001-12-04
Morano, S. Joseph (Department: 3617)
Railway rolling stock
Locomotives
With land engaging wheel
C105S215200
Reexamination Certificate
active
06324994
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention generally relates to transportation. More particularly, the invention relates to the transportation of people or goods in transit corridors made up of both railway and roadway sections, by means of vehicles that are equipped to operate with equal facility on railway rails and road surfaces, and that are propelled using a traction wheel system. The invention also relates to other conveyances, such as bicycles, which can be propelled using a similar traction wheel system.
The need exists for a transportation system that provides efficient, flexible and ecologically sound carriage of persons and goods between various locations. As an example, people work in cities but live in the suburbs, typically commuting along known routes and at known times, yet no flexible, efficient transportation system exists to fill even this common need. Private vehicles on roadways offer good flexibility in the choice of routes, departure points and destinations, but they are not fuel efficient when compared with other forms of transportation, and their use, en masse, causes traffic jams, environmental problems, and other undesirable consequences.
Railroad vehicles have the advantage of very high fuel efficiency, the result of the low rolling friction between the vehicle's steel wheels and the steel rails, an efficiency that is enhanced by the use of electricity for propulsion. Unfortunately, railroad routes are not flexible, offering few opportunities for route changes or the altering of departure points and destinations. The railway commuter is forced to use some other means of transportation to get to or from the fixed railway system. The usual other means is a motor vehicle, bus, taxi or the commuter's own car, making parking and transfer facilities necessary at access points along the rail line, and reducing the overall efficiency of the rail commute. Another disadvantage of railroad operation is that the low rolling friction between the steel wheels and steel rails is accompanied by limited traction as well, limiting acceleration, braking and grade climbing ability. Such low traction limits railway grades to about 3%, meaning that, to replace a grade crossing with a 15 foot clearance overpass, the railway approach ramps on each side must be 500 feet long. The 3% limit prevents new rail commuter lines from being placed on the medians of existing highways.
Buses, by contrast, offer considerable flexibility, being able to change routes, destinations and departure points according to roadway conditions and changes in ridership. Unfortunately, because the engine and drive train of a bus must produce enough power to counter high tire rolling friction while maintaining highway speeds, most buses are substantially over powered and inefficient for the slower speeds of downtown or suburban routes. Busways give buses a railway type of right of way to avoid highway traffic and delays, but they do not offer the ‘low-friction, high-efficiency’ railway advantage. Also, busways cannot, generally, make use of highway medians. While vehicles guided by and confined to tracks require a right of way about 10 feet wide, buses require somewhat more width to allow for variations in steering through confined areas.
Bikeways are being promoted in some areas, the bicycle being the most efficient mode of transportation in terms of energy expended per passenger mile. Bicycles could at least reduce the need to use a motor vehicle to get to a railway station or a hybrid vehicle “station stop”. If bicycle carrying trains and buses become available, bicycles could also reduce downtown motor vehicle usage as well. Although going to the office on a bicycle may never become popular, any means or mechanism that helps the increasing number of bicycle users “carry home the groceries” or “make it up that hill” is welcomed.
Transportation systems that combine rail and road operation exist in some cities of the world. Generally their rubber road tires simply act against the steel rails to provide traction on the railway sections of a route. Although providing greater traction than steel on steel, rubber on steel does not generate as much traction as rubber on paved surfaces. Therefore, vehicles utilizing rubber wheels on steel rails for traction realize only moderate increases in acceleration, braking and grade climbing ability when compared to conventional railway vehicles.
A number of devices have been devised to apply, or increase the traction needed to propel vehicles on rails and roads. One such device is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 1,889,241, to Gibson et al, wherein a roller, when moved into frictional engagement with a vehicle's drive wheel, serves to rotate a traction wheel, the traction wheel having some freedom to follow a road's surface while providing auxiliary, intermittent, traction on rough or icy roads.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
Briefly stated, the invention in one preferred form comprises a hybrid transit system having a transit corridor linking a departure point with a destination using railway sections, roadway sections and junctions therebetween. The hybrid transit system includes a hybrid vehicle that is able to operate on the rails of railway sections and on the pavement of roadway sections using dual mode wheels. The hybrid vehicle is propelled by a traction wheel on both railway and roadway sections of the transit corridor. Railway sections are conventional railway lines which have been modified by the addition of a traction strip of road paving material laid central to the rails to provide a traction surface equal to that of existing roads. Power to the traction wheel is conveyed through a traction wheel system which, while rotating the traction wheel against a traction surface, also acts to generate a normal force between the traction wheel and the traction surface, a force that varies with the traction being produced in a fixed, preset ratio, thus insuring generation of the traction needed to propel the vehicle.
Another preferred form of the invention incorporates the traction wheel system in an auxiliary power unit for a bicycle, the traction wheel acting against the rear wheel of the bicycle to add motive power. This embodiment takes advantage of the traction wheel system generating only enough contact pressure between the traction wheel and the bicycle tire to provide the traction needed, thereby reducing energy wasting tire contact pressure and conserving battery power.
The transit corridor for the hybrid vehicle includes any number of railway sections connected by junctions to any number of roadway sections, affording passengers continuous transit between various departure points and destinations. Old freight lines form important links because track-side room is not needed for stations and parking with the inventive hybrid transit system. Instead, existing grade crossings are converted into junctions, allowing hybrid vehicles to turn onto the roadway section to make a “station stop” and return to the railway section; to continue on the road to a destination; or simply to drive across the crossroad to enter the next railway section of the transit corridor. Because the traction wheel system gives hybrid vehicles grade climbing ability equal to that of road vehicles, grade crossings that must be eliminated are replaced by overpasses with short approach ramps. Switches that cannot be remove are paved as back-to-back junctions, much like streetcar track switches.
The hybrid vehicle is propelled by a power source, acting through a traction wheel system, to rotate a traction wheel against a traction surface present in both railway and roadway sections of a transit corridor. The traction surface in railway sections is constructed of road paving material preferably laid central to the rails and substantially level with the tires of the dual mode wheels when the flanged sections are on the rails. At junctions, the traction surfaces merge smoothly into the conventional road surface of the roadway section.
The traction wheel system propelling the h
Alix Yale & Ristas, LLP
Morano S. Joseph
Olson Lars A.
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