US1951727A - Method of repairing rail joints - Google Patents

Description

March 20, 1934. c. A DALEY 1,951,727

METHOD OF REPAIRING RAIL JOINTS Filed Sept. 24. 1932 a B Y A TTORNE Y Patented Mar. 20, 1934 PATENT OFFICE METHOD OF REPAIRING RAIL JOINTS Charles A. Daley, Hornell, N. Y., assignor to Air Reduction Company, Incorporated, New York, N. Y., a corporation of New York Application September 24, 1932, Serial No. 634,664

6 Claims.

My invention relates to the correcting or repairing of a bad condition of a rail joint or connection resulting from the wear between the under side of a rail head or fishing surface and the joint bars due to the movement of trains over the joint.

If this loose condition of the joint bars is allowed to remain, the bolts will soon become loose, the rails will batter more rapidly and joint ties will be shattered, and poor riding and unsafe track will result.

This unsatisfactory condition may be corrected by replacing worn joint bars by reformed or new bars, or by sawing off the ends of the rails to secure new fishing surfaces and then applying new bars, or by applying shims at the points of greatest wear.

All these methods are costly since they require removal of the bars and replacing the same with new or reformed bars, and in the case of sawing off the rail ends new or fit rails have to be laid and the old rails have to be taken up and transported to a central point where they can be sawed .off and bolt holes drilled.

My method of correcting this condition is to loosen the joint bar bolts a small amount so as to permit a small gap to exist between the fishing surface of the rail and the joint bar, then heat one side of the rail head within the length of the joint bar sufficiently so that it can be forged in and down at the same time to fill the gap between the rail and the loosened bar, and then perform this forging operation. This operation is repeated on both sides of the two rails within the extent of the joint bars.

Since the amount of wear is comparatively small in relation to the mass of metal in the rail head, this operation will not affect the running surface of the rail.

A special tool to fit over the edge of the ball of the rail is desirable when using a sledge to force the rail head in and down.

The same results can, to a certain extent, be accomplished by exerting the pressure horizontally on the side of the ball of the rail, and therefore is accomplished partly by my method of reforming rail ends, disclosed in application Serial No. 574,554, filed November 12, 1931.

In the accompanying drawing, forming part hereof:

Fig. l is a side elevation of a rail joint, indicating wear between the fishing surfaces of the rail heads and the joint bars, showing a portion of a forging tool applied to one of the rails; and

Fig. 2 is a vertical transverse section, illustrating in full lines the heating of one side of the rail head and, in dotted lines, the forging operation, showing how the heated metal of the head is forced to form a new fishing surface in tight contact with the top of the joint bar.

I The drawing illustrates portions of two railroad rails 2-, 2, at the joint, and the joint plates 3, 3, which are drawn by bolts 4 between the flanges of the rail and the under surfaces or fishing surfaces of the rail heads 5. Wear takes place either in these fishing surfaces or at the tops of the joint bars, but usually in both, and

it may extend substantially throughout the length of the joint, or it may be localized or be more pronounced at certain regions, as illustrated in Fig. 1.

It is desirable to loosen the bolts as previously stated, though this may not always be required. One side of the ball of one of the rails is heated by the fiame of an oxyacetylene torch 6 or by another suitable heating agency, to a proper forging heat. In doing this, it is advisable to apply the heat more especially to the lower part of the ball. However, the heating may be more general. Then a suitable tool 7 is applied to the ball and hammered by a sledge 8, so that the metal of the rail head is forged in and down. Naturally, the force may be applied in other ways. The dotted line 9 in Fig. 2 illustrates, in a somewhat exaggerated manner, how sufficient metal is displaced, without impairing the tread surface, to close the wear space between the top of the bar and the under part of the rail head. The new fishing surface thus formed is marked 10.

The heating and forging are repeated as often as is necessary along one side of the joint, after which the other side is treated in a similar manner. Finally, the bolts are tightened if any looseness remains.

It will be perceived that the method is quite flexible, and that, by acting at different regions within the length of the joint, irregular spacings between the tops of the joint bars and the bottoms of the rail heads can be easily dealt with. It would be difficult to restore as good a fit by merely removing and reforming the joint bars. However, it will be evident that my method and the method of reforming joint bars may be combined, and that there may be advantage in so doing if the wear is severe.

In such a case, the joint bars are removed and reformed in the known manner, and are then replaced, after which the rail heads are heated and worked in the manner that has been described to complete the adjustment between the joint bars and the fishing surfaces. In this application of the invention, the joint bars may be reformed substantially to the extent that they would be if this were the only method of correcting the condition of the joint, in which event comparatively little forging of the rail heads will be required to insure excellent results, or the extent to which the bars are reformedv may be approximate or slight, leaving more work to be done on the rail heads.

A less satisfactory procedure would be to forge the rail heads first, and then remove the joint bars and reform them to some extent. This might be done if it should be found, after working the rail head as much as would be permissible, that sufficient adjustment'had not been effected.

The term joint bars includeslvarious forms of-joint pieces, known as joint bars, angle bars, joint plates, fish plates, etc.

I" claim:

1. A method of repairing; rail joints to correct a -conditionof wear between the joint bars and the, rail heads, which comprises heating the rail head, and applying force to substantially adjust the-under side of the rail head to the top of the jointzbar.

2. A method of repairing rail joints to correctacondition of wear between the joint bars andqthe rail heads, which comprises applying heat to the side of the rail head and force to produce permanent downward displacement of the under side of the head to substantially take up space between the head and the joint bar.

3. A method of repairing rail joints to correct a condition of wear between the joint bars and the rail heads, which comprises loosening the joint bar bolts, heating the rail head, and forcing metal of the rail head downward substantially to close the gap between the fishing surface of the rail head and the top of the joint bar.

4. A method of repairing rail joints to correct a condition of wear between the joint bars and the rail heads, which comprises heating the rail head, and forging it in and down, without impairing the running surface of the rail, into substantially close relation to the joint bar.

5. A method of repairing rail joints to correct a condition of wear between the joint bars and the rail heads, which comprises applying heat to the side of the rail head, and driving metal of the rail head in and down into substantial adjustment with the joint bar.

6. A method of repairing rail joints to correct a condition of wear between the joint bars and the rail heads, which comprises removing and reforming the joint bars, replacing them, heating the rail heads, and by a forging operation on the rail heads bringing the under sides of the rail heads into substantially close relation to the tops of the reformed joint bars.-

CHARLES A. DALEY;

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