Patent ID: 6059199
Filing Date: 2000-05-09
Classification: B28B

Abstract:
A process for setting up a road transportable concrete railroad tie molding system, comprising the steps of:providing a substantially level plant area;providing foundation members along a selected stressing bed site at the plant area;providing a stressing frame comprised of individual road transportable elongated sub-frame segments that are convertible between inoperative transport conditions and extended operative conditions;converting the road transportable sub-frame segments to the inoperative conditions;transporting the road transportable sub-frame segments in the inoperative conditions to the stressing plant using a conventional roadway surface vehicle;converting the road transportable sub-frame segments to the extended operative conditions;mounting the road transportable sub-frame segments to the foundation members in end-to-end, alignment to thereby form the stressing frame with a live end and a dead end;providing the road transportable sub-frame segment at the live end of the stressing frame with reinforcing wire tensioners;providing the road transportable sub-frame segments at the dead end of the stressing frame with reinforcing wire anchors in axial alignment with the reinforcing wire tensioners;positioning a plurality of concrete tie molds having upwardly open elongated mold cavities oriented longitudinally within the stressing frame between the wire tensioners and wire anchors; andwherein the step of converting the road transportable sub-frame segments between the inoperative and operative conditions is performed by hinging the sub-frame segments to facilitate folding of portions of the segments about longitudinal hinge axes, and thereby effectively reducing the lateral widths of the sub-frames in the inoperative conditions and increasing the lateral widths in the operative conditions.