Patent ID: 11858541
Assignee: HERZOG RAILROAD SERVICES, INC.
Field: Transport (Mechanical engineering)
Classification: CPC B  E | IPC B

Claim 21:
22. A method for transporting a plurality of ribbon rails along a railway, the method comprising:
providing a plurality of articulated rail-transport cars positioned end-to-end on a railway, each of the rail-transport cars including a plurality of longitudinally extending segments that are pivotably coupled together end-to-end and supported on shared trucks, each of the shared trucks having a common pivot assembly connected to and supporting adjacent respective ends of longitudinally adjacent segments, first and second longitudinal ends of each rail-transport car being supported on first and second dedicated trucks respectively wherein each of the first and second dedicated trucks includes a coupler configured to couple with an adjacent rail car and wherein the plurality of longitudinally extending segments, supported at adjacent respective ends on respective ones of the plurality of shared trucks, extend from the first dedicated truck to the second dedicated truck;
providing on the plurality of longitudinally extending segments of each of the rail-transport cars a number of rail stands that are spaced apart from the shared trucks such that a ratio of the number of rail stands to a total number of shared trucks plus dedicated trucks is greater than 1:1;
providing a tie-down car disposed between adjacent ones of the rail-transport cars and including a clamping unit configured to secure a section of ribbon rail against longitudinal movement; and
coupling adjacent ones of the rail-transport cars and the tie-down car together using their respective couplers at the longitudinal ends thereof to form a rail-transport train.