Railways – Traction – Pusher
Reexamination Certificate
2000-04-11
2002-05-21
Morano, S. Joseph (Department: 3617)
Railways
Traction
Pusher
C104S172500, C104S178000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06389984
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
I. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to train handling equipment, more particularly, to railway car spotting or indexing systems used to position cars in a trip precisely along a track to be addressed by loading and unloading operations at fixed stations. One type of system of the class commonly employs alternating left and right indexing devices, each of which includes a carriage having a pair of opposed pivotally retractable ruggedly constructed car-engaging pusher devices known as “dogs” which push against the bogey carriage frames or axles of the car. In addition to being used as pushers, the dogs are normally employed in detecting the presence of a car by advancing the indexer with the dogs up until a dog is deflected by a bogey frame or axle. This invention focuses on providing improvements in the operation of a bogey frame pushing system by eliminating the need to use the dogs, themselves, to detect the presence of a car and providing a system that allows separate control for each dog in a reversing dog carriage assembly associated with a car-spotting setup.
II. Related Art
Freight-hauling railway cars need to be positioned proximate freight or cargo handling equipment during loading and unloading operations. Freight, in the form of bulk cargo such as grain, coal, iron ore or the like, is typically dumped or emptied out of railway cars by dumping the cars themselves or by using stationary freight-handling equipment such as chutes and conveyor equipment located in pits beneath the tracks. Coal gondolas and cars for transporting grain or other finely divided dry bulk agricultural material may be covered and provided with a plurality of spaced bottom discharged hopper bins or chutes accessing the main storage volume enclosed by discharge gates. As discussed below, these gates may be operated more easily by using tripper rods which extend outward from the sides of the cars to allow easy access and gate operation. These cars are also designed to be positioned for discharge over dedicated recessed receiving facilities situated at fixed stations such as grain or coal bins and conveyors which are positioned beneath the railroad track.
In the discharge operation, a locomotive roughly positions one end of a string or trip of cars to be unloaded over the receptacle. Locomotives, of course, are not well suited for indexing or precisely positioning individual cars or even sets of cars along the track, let alone over individual cargo receiving bins. To this end, positioning devices known as railway car spotters, indexers or positioners have been built and operated at fixed stations.
Railway car indexers of interest here include at least one car-engaging dog for engaging at least one railway car in a string or trip of cars and moving the string a given distance along the railroad track. The engaging member is often situated and operated along an auxiliary indexer track or guideway juxtaposed in a parallel relation to the railroad track itself in the fixed receiving facility. Fluid-operated linear actuators, such as hydraulic cylinders may be connected to chains, or chains and sprockets driven by hydraulic or electric motors may be used to supply power for moving the dogs and hence, the railway cars.
In one type of indexing apparatus, dogs in the form of heavy vertically pivoting car-engaging arm members are used which are designed to engage either the railway bogey wheel truck frame or an axle. The dogs are smaller than car coupler engaging arms and are carried on dog carriages situated either between the rails of the track to engage the axle or next to the track to engage the bogey truck frame. Bogey frame-engaging dog systems may be further divided into two types. One type that includes “low dogs” which are dogs that engage the lower portion of the truck frame below axle height; the other employs “high dogs” which engage the frame at or above the height of the axles. One such system using high dogs is described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,709,153 to Brandt, the inventor of the present invention, and is assigned to the same assignee as the present invention.
These car moving systems typically include left and right indexers which, in effect, operate alternately to hand off consecutive sequentially connected cars in a trip of cars so that the entire trip may be advanced and unloaded, one car at a time. Each indexer is designed with the ability to stop at any point during an alternating stroke. Traditionally, indexer carriages have been hydraulically operated and designed to travel forward with spaced oppositely directed dogs which, in the case of bi-directional or reversing systems, are pivotally mounted (bottom pivoted) to drop toward each other and are raised facing each other to sense and engage a railcar. In this manner the back side of a dog will initially strike an interfering object enabling the struck dog to pivot or deflect downward away from the object. The event of a dog contacting the bogey frame can be sensed by a resulting change in system hydraulic pressure produced by the deflection of the dog. This has become a trusted and reliable method for sensing the presence of and then engaging a car. Using this method, the first dog encountering the bogey frame of a car is pushed down from behind and the second dog in the pushing posture engages the bogey frame of the car as the indexer continues to move. While these systems work quite well with conventional cars, tripper rods which have since been added to the outside of many types of railcars have introduced a problem. These devices extend outward from the lower portion of the side of the railcars and are used as a convenient method for one standing along side of the car to operate the bottom discharge mechanisms in gondolas, hopper and other bottom discharged cars. These devices are not compatible with bogey carriage engaging dogs, however, because the rods are positioned such that they can be struck and damaged or destroyed by a raised dog further possibly resulting in catastrophic damage to the railcar hopper opening mechanism.
Devices utilizing sprockets and continuous chains have been devised which can be used to lower both dogs of an indexer or carriage simultaneously during the car finding or engaging operation to prevent interference with car tripper rods. These devices, however, do not allow operation with a single raised dog in contact with the bogey frame once sensed and operating as a pusher dog.
Accordingly, there exists a definite need to provide a mechanism to sense cars that does not require contact with the dogs thereby eliminating the possibility of tripper rod damage.
Accordingly, it is a principle object of the present invention to provide an improved car spotting system having dogs which operate on the bogey carriage when moving the cars but which do not interfere with the existence of any tripper rods or other protruding devices on the cars.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide an indexing system that does not use the dog devices to sense the presence and location of a railway car.
Another object of the invention is to provide such an indexing system in which the forward and rearward dogs of each carriage on the left and right indexers are individually controllable.
Other objects and advantages of the invention will become apparent to those skilled in the art upon familiarization with the specification, drawings and claims contained herein.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention provides a railway car indexing or spotting system capable of detecting bogey frames in the presence of interfering devices such as tripper rods. The system is useful for both high or low dog indexers, whether una-directional or reversing. The system features independent bogey frame detection devices that do not require direct contact between the dogs and the bogey frame to detect the presence of a railcar. This eliminates the need for the indexers to travel forward with dogs raised to engage a railcar. Such sensing devices may include limit switch dev
Calbrandt, Inc.
Jules Frantz F.
Nikolai & Mersereau , P.A.
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