US1836033A - Rail joint bar - Google Patents

Description

Dec. 15, 1931. LANGFQRD 1,836,033

I RAIL JOINT BAR Filec June 12, 1931 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 15, 1931. LANGFORD 1,836,033

RAIL JOINT BAR Filed June 12, 1951 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 five/2 202? Gegyelazlaflrd M, MM,

Patented Dec. 15, 1931 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE GEORGE LANG-FORD, OF J OLIET, ILLINOIS, ASSIGNOR TO MCKENNA PROCESS COMPANY OF ILLINOIS, OF JOLIET, ILLINOIS, A CORPORATION OF ILLINOIS RAIL JOINT BALR Application filed June 12,

in a rail joint having features and advantages which I claim as new.

In my Patent No. 1,799,381, issued April 7, 1931, I disclose the teaching of accelerating the inward movement of end portions of a bar to the rail ends as central wear of the joint occurs, by narrowing or reducing the bars rail fishing contact surfaces at the end portions. The purpose of this was to hasten end wear of the joint to keep pace with the wear ofthe central portion, thereby avoiding wholly, or in part, the necessity of bending the bars in at center, as wear occurs,

in order to maintain tight fishing contact with the rail ends at the center portion of the joint. Inasmuch as extreme wear at the central portion and little or no wear at the end portions in ordinary joints is well known, further explanation of central wear is believed unnecessary, and as the teaching of accelerated end wear is fully disclosed in the above named patent, it need only be said that a particular application of this teaching of end fishing surface reduction comprises the substance of the present invention.

The hard, laterally rigid bars now in use cannot be bent in at the center to take up central wear of the joint against the end resistance to wear, nor can the center of an ordinary rigid bar successfully accomplish any other movement inward, because of the non-wearing and resistant ends. The particular movement with which this application deals is rotative, the bottom of the bar moving while the top inner fillet is held in contact with the rail head-web fillet. Due to end resistance, such rotative movement of the central portion of the bar to take up wear, subjects the bar not only to in-bending, but also to twisting strain at center. In a rigid bar, rotative movement of the center against end resistance is difiicult or impossible to accomplish by center bolt tension, the only means available. The present invention has as its main object a reduction of end rail fishing contact surface particularly applied so 1931. Serial No. 543,760.

as to overcome end resistance to center rotative movement to take up wear when the bar is in a joint. Another object is to secure a much longer life in the ordinary type of head contact bar now in general use. Another object is to apply my novel teaching to all types of bars within wide limits. Still another object, of great value from a practical point of view, is the application of my invention to bars of substantially uniform section throughout their length, this applying to rolled steel bars, these being the most economical to manufacture. These and other objects will become apparent from the following description and from the. drawings, in which:

Fig. 1 is an end view of a worn out rail joint showing relatively the wear and position of the bar at center and ends;

Fig. 2 is an end view similar to Fig. 1 showing theoretically the problem to be solved;

Fig. 3 is an end View of a rail fitted with a head contact bar embodying my invention;

Fig. 4 is a plan view of the top fishing surface of the bar of Fig. 3;

Fig. 5 is an underneath view of the bottom fishing surface of the bar of Fig. 3;

Fig. 6 is a plan view of a bar fishing surface embodying my invention;

Fig. 7 is an end view of a head free bar emgmdying my invention applied to a rail en Fig. 8 is an end View of a full head contact bag1 embodying my invention fitted to a rail en Fig. 9 is an end View of another type of bag embodying my invention fitted to a rail en Fig. 10 is a plan view of a bar head fishing surface with portions intermediate the center portions and ends modified according to my invention; and

Fig. 11 is an end view of a flange free bar embodying my invention fitted to a rail end.

In Fig. 1 a worn bar 1 is shown in full lines in its final worn out position relative to the rail web 2, the rail head and base being numbered 3 and 4, respectively. The original unworn bar is indicated at 5 in dotted lines, spaced in its original relation to the rail. The original unworn top fishing contact of bar and rail is represented by the dotted line 7, the unworn bottom contact being on the dotted line 9. When these bar and rail contacts are Worn out, the bar head has moved a distance 10 to the rail web 2 and the bar foot has moved to the rail web a distance 11. These distances 10 and 11, which may be called rail web clearance, but which are usually defined as take-up or draw space, are equal in Fig. 1 and determine the life of the bar. The worn bar 1 is shown in contact with the rail web 2 at top and bottom and all of the draw space 10' and 11 is used up. The joint can no longer be kept tight and so its life is ended.

In Fig. 1 the worn bar and rail top fishin contact line is the, full line 6, the combine wear of bar and rail being represented by the shaded area between 6 and 7, approximately of a length 12. The bottom worn bar and rail fishing contact line is the full line 8, the combined bar and rail wear being the shaded area between lines 8 and 9, approximately of length 13. Due to the fact that the wear of the joint, denoted by the shaded areas at top and bottom, is at the center portion of the joint with very little at the ends, the ends of the worn bar do not use up much of the space 10 and 11, and so the ends of the worn bar are positioned to the rails according to the dotted line position 5, a nd the center according to the full line positlon of bar 1. I This means that/the bar has been bent to the rails at center to take up the center wear, moving laterally in the direction of the arrow 1 1 by wear and center bolt tension. Actually, the wear is slightly greater at top than at bottom, and there is also a slight movement of the bar upward.

The bar of Fig. 1 is of the angle type and is what is called a head contact barbecause it has fishing contact with the underside of the rail head, and draw space at 10. It also has fishing contact with the rail base or flange, and draw space at 11.. This shape of bar was once very extensively used unhardened and it was therefore quite possible to bend it in at center as figured and described. In Fig. 1, the top draw space 10 equals the bottom draw space 11, but this is not generally true of bars now used on heavy rails, the various bar sections usually having the inner bottom toe so designed as to stand farther away from the rail web, the bottom draw space 11, or rail web clearance being made greater than the top draw space 10. Fi 2 represents a modified form of angle bar t eoretically positioned to a rail, new 111 dotted lines 5a and worn out-in full lines 1a. This bar is of angle type modified so as to be an approach to the I-beam type, the outwardly extending flange being retained but an outer giving the bar more vertical, also more laterhead reinforcement 15 added quite rigid laterally. The bar of Fig. 2 has a feature now in common use, known as flange easement. The base of the flange is depressed an amount 16 for a substantial portion of its outer length so as to restrict the width of bar fishing contact with the rail flange.

In Fig. 2, the take-up space 11a at bottom is considerably more than space 10a at the top. This is an ordinary head contact bar, and it moves to the rail in the direction of arrow 14 as wear occurs until space 10a is used up.

There being still substantial clearance left at the bottom, because space 11a is not all used up, the bar ordinarily to be considered as worn out at its central portion might have considerably more life if the foot portion were free to move farther inward, as shown, after the top of the bar has come into contact with the rail head-web fillet, more commonly known as the rail head fillet. The ends of the bar, reluctant to wear and move inward, would have the position shown in the dotted lines, while the central position desired to' use the extra take-up space at bottom would be represented by the full lines. It can be seen therefrom that it would be necessary to not only bend in the bar at center but to also twist it at center, a thing very diflicult to accomplish by bolt tension in a flexible angle bar, and more so. in the case of a hardened bar with laterally reinforced head, such as the bar of Fig. 2.

If the central portion of the bar were free from end restriction, it would first move to the rail laterally until space 10a was used up, then with bolt tension and wear, the foot portion would tend to move inward until the clearance 11a was used up, this latter movement being an inward rotation of the bar base from a pivoting point at the upper inner fillet of the bar where it contacts the rail head fillet. Wear of the top bar and rail fishing contact would then be deeper for the inside width 17 than on the outside width 18. On-

the 'bottom fishing surface this condition would be reversed, the greater depth of joint fishing wear being on the outside at 20, and less on the inside at 19. Lateral inward movement of the bar at center as shown in Fig. 1, although accompanied by slight upward movement due to the greater wear at top, results in comparatively even depth of fishing surface wear in the joint. However, the supplementary rotative movement at center results in uneven depth of wear as the inside top margin and outside bottom margin of the respective top and bottom fishing dig hard into the rail fishing surfaces, hastening too wear there and giving the center portion of v per inner corner of the bar moves upward as it wears into the rail head fillet. Similarly the lower outer corner of the bars bottom fishing surface wears into the upper surface of the rail base. The result is uneven depth of joint wear shown in Fig. 2. The shaded areas at top and bottom represent the wear of the combined inward and bottom rotative movement at the central portion of the joint, but as the ends of the joint have little or no fishing wear, either the center and ends of the bar must be brought to the relative positions of the full and dotted figures, respectively, or there can be no such combined inward and rotative action at center as described.

The desired inward lateral movement initially may be secured by using the teaching of my Patent No. 1,799,381 previously referred to, the end portions of the bar having their fishing surfaces narrowed so as to accelerate wear at the ends of the joint so that the ends of the bar will take up more equally with the center. This insures more even lateral movement of the bar as a whole to the rails until the upper clearance a is usedup, but does not insure the additional rotative movement at bottom to use up the extra clear ance, 11a minus 10a. This requires some provision at the end portions of the bar to overcome the resistance of increased depth of end wear required at 17 top and 20 bottom.

Fig. 3 shows how this may be accomplished. The bar 56 is placed in its unworn position to the rail. The outer flange extension, which may or may not be cut off, is here shown cut off, making with the head reinforcement 15 a much nearer approach to an I-beam bar than the bar of Fig. 2. This bar has greater rail web clearance at 11a than at 10c, also rail base clearance at 16. The head fishing surface width CH at cen ter is narrowed to EH at the ends, and the foot fishing surface widt-h CF at center is narrowed to EF at the ends. These narrowed end fishing surfaces of the bar hasten end wear of the joint and inward lateral movement of the ends of the bars to the rails, thereby permitting inward movement of the center portion of the bar at top and bottom to the rails.

There remains the desired supplementary rotative movement of the bar base to use up the extra draw space at bottom. requiring reduced end resistance at the inner part of the top fishing and the outer part of the bottom fishing, at the end portions. To accomplish this, the top fishing surface is longitudinally narrowed at the end portions on the inside. and the bottom fishing surface is longitudinally narrowed at the end portions on the outside. as shown in Fig. 3, the end portious of the bar thereby having their resistance. to rotation removed at the inner top and outer bottom fishing surfaces of the bar. these being the particular places where end resistance must be removed to secure the desired supplementary inwardly rotative movement of the lower fishing surface of the bar. It may be thought that this is merely a particular application of the teach ing disclosed in my Patent No. 1,799,381, and so it is, but with a novel and desirable result not disclosed in the above named patent. An ordinary head contact bar is not only given increased life, but also a second llfe'when end resistance to rotative movement is overcome in the novel manner described.

Fig. 4 is a plan view of the top fishing surface of the bar of Fig. 3, and Fig. 5 is a plan view of the bottom fishing surface. These show only one of several forms of re duced end fishing surface, areas 23 and 24, respectively, at the end portions being depressed out of rail fishing contact. As the ends of a bar in a joint take little of the train wheel loads, the ends are extremely reluctant to wear and move inward, and end portion fishing reduction on one side only, as. shown at 23 in Fig. .4, may not be enough to accelerate end wear sufliciently, and so the end fishing surface may be further nar- Ii)W6Cl as at 25 in Fig. 6, so that they are reduced on both sides instead of only on one side, this added reduction being to facilitate lateral inward movement of the end portions of the bar according to the teaching of my Patent No. 1,799,381. The selection of the top or bottom fishing surface, or both, for this increased end portion reduction may be determined by a consideration of the bars rigidity. There being inigeneral more wear at the top of a rail joint than at the bottom, the end portions of the bar must cause more wear or movement of metal at the top of the joint than at'the bottom. In a soft and flexible bar whose fishing surfaces wear more than the corresponding fishing surfaces of the rail ends, the extra. end portion fishing reduction as in Fig. 6, may be applied to the bottom of the bar on the inside as the ends will yield vertically, more so than in a hardened rigid bar, which does not yield at the ends and which would cause more rail fishing wear than would a soft bar. In the case of the hard unyielding bar, the extra reduction of end portion fishing surface may then be advantageously applied to the top fishing surface and on the outside. The fishing surface pattern shown in Fig. 6 is merely illustrative. Any pattern may be used which insures reduced width of rail fishing contact surface at the end portions of a bar.

It can be seen from the preceding figures and description that any kind of head contact bar with rail web clearance at top and bottom, and with more at the bottom than at the. top, may be given an unusuallylong and useful life in a joint by rendering it possible for the center portion of the bar to follow its natural tendency to, first; move laterally to the rails until its top rail web clearance is used up, and, second; to then move rotatively to the rails at its bottom portion until the bottom rail web clearance is used up. Heretofore, end resistance to wear and inward movement has prevented this natural tendency of the center portion of the joint, a difficulty which I have overcome in the manner described. The severe wear restricted to a short central length of a joint, is 'not severe at first in a newly fitted jo nt, but increases rapidly after looseness begins, subjecting the joint to batter under train wheels. By keeping the center portion of the joint tight, I prevent, or at least greatly delay, .the battering action for the first period of the bars inward lateral movement andalso for the second period of inward rotative movement at the bottom. The result is greatly increased length of life in ordinary head contact bars.

It might be thought that by making a bar withtop and bottom rail fishing contact at its center portion only, leaving the end portions out of top or bottom fishing contact, or of both, that this would accomplish the desired lateral and supplementary rotative movement. However, it has been found in practice that a bar must have suflicient moment length for strength as a simple beam in a joint,and this length ranges from 14 to 20 inches, so that the bar must have rail fishing contact for part of the lengths of its end portions, although not necessarily all of the lengths. It will therefore be understood that my invention is directed to a bar in a joint having fishing contact at its center portion and at its end portions, or at its center portion and sufficient of its end portions to give at least suflicient bending moment length.

There are several types of bars proposed or in use which have little lateral movement as a whole, their action depending mainly upon the bottom rotative movement previously described. One of these now in use is the head free Bar 21, shown in Fig. 7. This bar has rail web clearance at the'lower part only of the bar at 1111, tlw top-being in fishing contact with the rail head fillet only and not at the top of the bar which has clearance 22 from and, therefore, no fishing contact with, the under side of the rail head. In this type of bar the top fishing contact is so small that end reduction to EH may not be absolutely essential although end reduction on the outside of the base is necessary.

In Fig. 8 is shown a full head contact bar 23 of the general type disclosed in my Patent No. 1,759,458 for rail joint and bar, dated May 26, 1930. This bar has contact with the rail head fillet but has no head clearance, the top of the bar being in full contact with the rail head although not covering the full contact while wearprogresses, .as in the full.

lines of Fig. 2 and as the bottom of the bar is drawn inward and slightly upward. The

application of my invention to the various types of bars of Figs. 7, 8 and 9 is the same as in the head contact bar of Fig. 3. A form of head intermediate between those of Figs. 7' and 8 may be used; one in which there is some fishing contact between the under surface of the rail head and the top of the bar from the inside outward, there being some rail head clearance on the outer part of the top of the bar.

In the past, rail oint bars have been made of steel of considerably lower carbon than the rail steel, also the bars were not hardened by oil quenching. This made the bars much softer and more subject to fishing wear than the rails. The higher carbon steel bars now used, hardened by oil quenching, place more of the fishing wear of the joint upon the rails than formerly, so that in the bars of Figs. 3, 8 and 9 as the base of the bar rotates into therails at bottom, the upper inner fillet of the bar wears the rail head-web fillet, and in effect slightly decreases the fishing angle of the under side of the rail head, so that the top of the bar head remains in fishing contact with the under side of the rail head in addition to rail head-web fillet fishing contact. This insures the desirable feature of the fullest possible fishing 'width at the top of the central portion of the bar Where the fishing surface should be greatest to provide for wear of the joint.

In Figs. 3, 7, 8 and 9 the bars are shown with their outer faces vertical, but these faces may be inclined with the top inward and the bottom outward originally, so that as the bottom is rotated inwardly by wear, the outer face of the bar becomes vertical, and finally inclined with bottom inward. The various inward movements, of the bar as described, result from fishing wear of the joint, the bolts functioning merely to take up the wear of the joint and not to force the bars into position as ordinarily occurs. The reduction of end fishing resistance to inward movement of the bar enables the bars to be kept in snug fishing engagement with the rails without placing undue strains upon the bolts.

From a practical standpoint, the present invention has great value in that it may be easily applied to bars of uniform section throughout their length, these being rolled bars now generally used because of economy of production. It can be seen from the various figures that very small amounts of metal need be displaced to secure the desired reductions of end fishing surface, and so the rolled bar so modified may be considered for all practical purposes as being of substantially uniform section throughout its length as compared with forged or cast bars which provide large amounts of extra metal at their center portions for strength. Although my invention may be applied to forged or cast bars, it is not concerned with strengthening the bar at center or making it more flexible at the ends, the slight displacements or removals of metal where indicated being for the purpose of accelerating wear at the end portions of the joint in relation to the ordinarily greater wear of the center portion, so as to secure bottom rotative movement inward of the whole bar to the rails.

In Fig. 10 is a view of a head fishing surface of a long bar the flange of which is provided with a similar reversed fishing as in Figs. 4 and 5, in accordance with the teaching In Fig. 10, the central por-- of my invention. tion is of greatest width, and end portion fishing reduction is made at I but not all the way to the ends. The outer end portions are of full width E, or at least substantially greater width than I, although they may be slightly narrower than at C. This arrangement is more applicable to long six hole bars than to short fourhole bars, and While it is not the ideal construction, the narrowing of the fishings intermediate the central portion and ends, serves the purpose of greatly increasing the span of curvature required for bending in the bar to take up central wear of the joint by lengthening the central joint wear. While I do not consider this partial reduction of end fishing surfaces as satisfactory as complete reduction to the ends of the bar, nevertheless it is an advance over present practice.

My invention is applicable to all types of bars which have provision for top and bottom rail fishing contact at the end and center portions when the baris in a joint. Normally, when used on new rails the bars would be of uniform fishing height but they may be crowned at their central portions for use on worn or unworn rails, the ends being flexed in when necessary to make a proper fit. They may also be incurved. of normal or abnormal fishing height, the incurvature being altered or unchanged when the bar is bolted in a new or in a worn joint. The incurvature may be only at the central portion of the bar, without crown or it may be supplemented by crowning. The bars may be of angle or I beam type or forms intermediate between angle and I-beam, the latter including shapeswhich may be vertically although not absofore do not wish to be limited to any shape'or type of bar as long as I keep within the scope of my invention. The latter is particularly directed to rolled bars for reasons of economy in simple and rapid production, such bars as a rule being rolled to uniform section. The

end fishing may be reduced after rolling by bull-dozing or pressure in dies, or they may be reduced during the rolling operation by the use of eccentric grooves in the rolls. The present art of reforming is particularly well adapted to the practice of my invention, as the end fishing surfaces of a worn bar may be reduced by depressing the required fishing areas out of the plane of rail fishin contact while the worn fishing surfaces are eing restored in dies under pressure. Worn head contact bars may be reformed into head free, full head contact and other types of bars. Head free and full head contact bars may be reformed into head contact bars. These are merely examples used by way of illustration. Reforming worn or new bars of any form or type into bars of any other form or type are mere varieties of application and do not alter the teaching of my invention when it is applied to them. My invention may be applied to a bar, also to a bar in a joint including the rail ends, the Wear of the latter in relation to the wear of the bar in various forms and hardness of bars not being always constant, and being an important factor in the movement of the bar to the rail ends. Reforming methods and means other than press and dies may be used, as long as they accomplish my purpose. I wish to again point out that in a rolled bar of uniform section throughout its length, my invention incorporated in it makes such slight changes in its cross-section that for all practical purposes my modified bar may be considered as of substantial uniform cross-section throughout its length, although I do not restrict the bars of my invention to such uniformities where departures from them are desired for any particular reasons. The same is true, although to slightly less extent, of worn bars reformed according to my invention. As worn bars have lost some of their metal on the central fishing surfaces, the reformed bar may be slightly thinned at its central portion, which with the prescribed reductions of end portion fishing surfaces would result in slight thinnings at the central portion variously applied on the bar members in addition to the required slight longitudinal depressions in the end portion fishing surfaces. That I can accomplish so much of importance with such slight movements of metal is, I believe, new in the art There is another type of bar to which my invention may be applied. This bar 25 is shown in end view in Fig. 11, in itsv position in an unworn rail joint. Its movement in a joint is in reverse to the bar of Fig. 7. Clearance between the rail web and bar is at the top, and not at the bottom where the inner bottom toe of the bar has its lower fillet rounded for fishing contact with the baseweb fillet of the rail. Here the bar pivots and the upper part of the bar rotates inward until space 106 is used up, and then the 'bars life is ended. In this case, the end portions of the bar have their top fishing surfaces narrowed longitudinally on the outside, and their bottom fishing surfaces narrowed .longitudinally on the inside to remove end resistance to inward rotation of the top portion of the bar, as indicated. Although not a particularly desirable form of bar, it contains the substance of my invention which generically includes the bar of Fig. 11 together with the other species previously described.

All of the bars figured and described may be considered as providing for top and bottom fishing contact with the rail ends, even though' in the case of Figs. 7 and 11, one of these contacts is merely with the rail Web fillet Where it joins the head or base of the rail. Head contact means fishing contact between the top of the bar and the under surface of the rail head. Base contact means fishing contact between the bottom of the bar and the upper inclines surface of the rail base. The center portion of a bar is taken as representing the length in which greater wear occurs,

the end portions being .at either side of the center portion.

What I claim is 1. A rail joint bar providing for top and bottom rail fishing contact and for rail web clearance for at least one of its top and bottom members, and being designed for a predetermined rotational movement for some of its life at least when in a joint, said bar having at least one of its top and bottom fishing surfaces wider at the center portion than for a substantial length intermediate said center portion and each end, each of said intermediate lengths of said fishing surface being narrowed on at least the one of its two sides which is more resistant than the other side to said predetermined rotational movement, and being narrowed independently of the intermediate portions of the included bar member.

2. A rail joint bar providing for top and bottom rail fishing contact and for rail web clearance for at least one of its top and bottom members, and being designed for a predetermined rotational movement for some of its life at least when in a joint, said bar having at least one of its top and bottom fishing surfaces of less width at its end portions than at its center portion, each of said end portions of said fishing surface being narrowed on at least the one of its two sides which is more resistant than the other side to said predetermined rotational movement, and being nar rowed independently of the end portions of the included bar member.

3. A rail joint bar providing for top and bottom rail fishing contact and for rail web clearance at top and bottom, and being designed for rotational movement to the rail ends for some of its life at least when in a pivoting at the top, and said bar having its top fishing surface of less width at its end portions than at its center portion, each of said end portions of said fishing surface being narrowed on its inner side, and belng narrowed independently of its included bar member.

4. A rail joint bar providing for top and bottom rail fishing contact and for rail web clearance at top and bottom, and being designed for rotational movement to the rail ends for some of its life at least when in a joint, said rotational movement consisting in the bottom of the bar moving inward while pivoting at the top, and said .bar having its bottom fishing surface of less width at the end portions than at the center portion, each of said end portions of said fishing surface being narrowed on its outer side, and being narrowed independently of its included bar member. I

5. A rail joint bar providing for top and bottom rail fishing contact and for rail web clearance at its bottom only, and being designed for rotational inward movement of its bottom to the rail ends while pivoting at its top when in a joint, said bar having its top fishing surface of less width at its end portions than at its center portion, each of said end portions of said fishing surface being narrowed on its inner side. v

6. A rail joint bar providing for top and bottom rail fishing contact and for rail web clearance at its bottom only, and being designed' for inward rotational movement of its bottom to the rail ends while pivoting at its top when in a joint, said bar having its bottom fishing surface of less width at its center portion than at its end portions, each of said end portions of said fishing surface being narrowed on its outer side.

7. A rail joint bar providing for top and bottom rail fishing contact and for rail web clearance at its top only, and being designed for rotational movement to the rail ends when in a. joint, said rotational movement consisting in the top of the bar moving inward while pivoting at the bottom, and said bar having at least one of its top and bottom fishing surfaces of less width at its end portions than at its center portion, each of said end portions of said fishing surface being narrowed on at least the one of its two sides which is more resistant than the other side to said rotational movement.

8. A rail joint bar providing for top and bottom rail fishing contact and for rail web clearance at top and bottom, and being designed for rotational movement to the rail ends for some of its life at least when in a joint, said rotational movement consisting in the bottom of the bar moving inward while pivoting at the top, and said bar having its top and bottom fishing surfaces of less width I at its end portions than at its center portion, each of the end portions of the top fishing surface being narrowed on its inner side, and

'each of the end portions of the bottom fishing surface being narrowed on its outer side, said end portions of each top and bottom fishing surfaces being narrowed independently of the end portions of the included bar member.

9. A rail joint bar providing for rail head fillet contact at least and for rail base contact and for rail webclearance at its bottom only, and being designed for inward rotational movement of its bottom to the rail ends while pivoting at the top when in a joint, said bar having each of its top and bottom fishing surfaces of less width at its end portions than at its center portion, each of the end portions of the top fishing surface being narrowed on its inner side and each of the end portions of the bottom fishing surface being norrowed on its outer side.

10. A rail joint bar providing for rail' fishing contact with at least the under side of the rail head and with only the inner upper surface of therailbaseandforrail web clearance at its bottom at least for the first part of its life when in a joint, and being designed for the latter part of its life for inward rotational movement to the rail ends at its bottom while pivoting atits top with said top of the bar in contact with the rail head fillet and the under side of the rail head, said bar originally having one at least of its top and bottom fishing surfaces of less width at its end portions than at its center portion, said end portions each being narrowed on at least the one of its two sides which is more resistant than the other side to said rotational movement, and being narrowed independently of the included bar member.

In witness whereof, I hereunto subscribe my name this 8th day of June, 1931.

GEORGE LANGFORD.

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