Abstract:
A fastening system or apparatus for securing a rail to the underlying railroad tie includes a pad, two insulators attached to the pads and two shoulders attached to the ties. An interference fit is formed between the insulators and the shoulders to capture the pad between the shoulders. The insulators are pre-attached to the pad. The mating protrusions of the shoulders and pad allows for ease of insertion such that the pad assembly can be shipped together with the underlying tie.

Description:
RELATED APPLICATIONS 
     None 
     BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
     A. Field of Invention 
     This invention pertains to a rail support assembly for supporting the rails of a railroad track. The assembly includes shoulders preferably attached or mounted on a precast concrete tie and a pad disposed on top of the tie and captured between the shoulders so that the whole assembly can be stored and shipped to a track installation/repair site as a single unit. 
     B. Background of the Invention 
     Generally speaking, the present invention pertains to the art of securing the rails forming railroad tracks to transversal ties. Typically, a rail support assembly is used that includes a pair of shoulders, somewhat flexible clips engaging the shoulders and shaped to secure the lateral flange of the rail to the tie and a generally electrically insulating pad. The pad is positioned between the two shoulders and under the rail. The elements of rail support assembly are often tied together and shipped to the installation site. For some types of railroads, for example light rails, the shoulders are imbedded into the ties as they are being cast, for example, from concrete and thus are not transported to the site together with the rest of the elements of the support assembly. As a result, the rest of the assembly or some parts thereof, can easily separate, get lost, or stolen. Thus, shipping and installing these support assembly create a logistic and economic nightmare. 
     It has been suggested by some references (see for instances, U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,367,704 and 7,669,779) that the assembles be provided that used captive elements. The assemblies are attached to the shoulders together with the clips to the ties prior to their shipping. However, the previously suggested concepts were only useable with split clips and not with convoluted or S-shaped clips that are now used almost universally. Moreover, the suggested solutions required elements with complex shaped that are difficult and expensive to make; required a complex installation requiring the use of a heavy hammer; and required the rail clip to be part of the assemblies to hold the rail pad in place. 
     SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
     According to the present invention there is provided a railway rail fastening assembly for fastening a railway rail to an underlying rail foundation (e.g., a cast concrete tie). The assembly includes two railway shoulders. Each shoulder is formed with a protrusion on the rail facing. A pad is sized and shaped with or attached to two lateral insulators. The insulators have lateral sides for mating with the posted pad assembly; the pad assembly comprising of either a single or composite pad and insulator; where the insulators face the shoulders and having protrusions or ribs mating with groves on the shoulders to retain pad in a captive position. The protrusions on the insulators also serve as seals or covers against dirt and debris—runoff in between insulator and/or pad and shoulder and/or rail seat. Additionally, the insulator protrusions are angled to guide the rail into the rail seat area aiding the process of placing the rail into the rail seat, further having the posted pad assembly allows the dunnage to be reduced by an amount equal to the pad thickness plus the compression amount of the pad due to external forces to the system such as crosstie stack height, storage temperature, etc.; the pad assembly is being held captive in the assembly against unintentional removal from the rail seat whereby the pad is pre-attached to the side post insulators located in a mirror image of each other with the pad in the middle, and the pad is of preferably of a softer material to attenuate rail seat loads and the insulators in a stiffer material to resist rail seat lateral loads and together the pre-attached, insulators and pad, represents the posted pad assembly of which they together electrically insulates the rail from the underlying foundation, the said insulators are pre-attached to the pad, preferably overmolded, as an assembly of which can be hand-inserted or utilizing a 0.5″ or higher gravity drop of posted pad assembly into the rail seat. The gravity drop requires the posted pad assembly to be centered above the rail seat to within a 0.25″. The mating protrusions of the shoulders and posted pad allows for ease of insertion and so that the posted pad assembly can be shipped together with the underlying foundation. The preferred method to remove the posted pad assembly, from inserted and captive position, is to compress the pad slightly, preferably, against either of the two shoulders in order to vertically disengage the shoulder and insulator protrusions from each other; the rail clip, preferably with a pre-attached electrically insulating plastic toes installs into the shoulders, after rail has been put in the rail seat, to fasten the rail on the pad and in between the two insulators whereby the clip bears against the base of the rail and anchored to the shoulders that are secured by embedment into underlying foundation; a clip is not required to retain the pad assembly in pre-assembly position. The clip used with the assembly preferably has a plastic toe pre-attached electrically insulating the clip from the rail. 
    
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
         FIG. 1  shows a side view of a rail fastened to a tie in accordance with this invention; 
         FIG. 2A  shows a plan view of a pad used supporting the rail in  FIG. 1 ; 
         FIG. 2B  shows an orthogonal view of the pad of  FIG. 2A ; 
         FIG. 2C  shows a side view of the pad of  FIG. 2A ; 
         FIG. 2D  shows a side sectional view of the pad of  FIG. 2A  taken along lines A-A; 
         FIGS. 3A and 3B  show isometric views of the insulators attached to the pad of  FIGS. 2A-2D ; 
         FIG. 4  shows an elevational view of the shoulder used in  FIG. 1 ; and 
         FIG. 5  shows an enlarged partial side view of the shoulder, plate and track used in  FIG. 1 ; 
         FIG. 5A  shows how the plate engages the shoulder. 
     
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION 
     Referring now to  FIG. 1  a railroad assembly  10  constructed in accordance with this invention includes a rail  12  having a foot  14  with two sections  14 A,  14 B. The rail  12  is supported on a tie  16  by a fastening assembly  18 . 
     Fastening assembly  18  includes a pad  20 , and two shoulders  22 ,  24 . The two shoulders  22 ,  24  are imbedded in a conventional concrete tie  25 . The rail  12  is secured to the fastening assembly  18  by two conventional clips, such as e-clips available from Pandrol. These clips have been omitted from the figures for the sake of clarity. 
     As shown in  FIGS. 2A-2D , the pad  20  includes a generally rectangular central portion  30  with a top surface  32  and a bottom surface  34 . Both surfaces  32 ,  34  are formed with a plurality of circular indentations  36  as shown. The central portion includes two longitudinal sides  38 ,  40 . These sides are sized and shaped to mate with two insulators  42 ,  44 . In one embodiment, the insulators  42 ,  44  are made separately and joined to the central portion  30  by an interference fit and/or by an adhesive. In one embodiment, the two insulators  42  and  44  and the central portion  30  are a single piece made by molding or other well known-techniques. 
     The central portion  30  and insulators  38 ,  40  are sized and shaped to insure that two vertical inner surfaces  46 ,  48  of the insulators are oriented perpendicularly to the top surface  32  and in parallel to each other and are separated by a distance W. W is also width of the foot  14  so that when the rail  12  is placed on the pad  20  it fits snugly between walls  46 ,  48 , as shown in  FIG. 1 . 
     As shown more clearly in  FIGS. 3A, 3B , insulator  44  is formed with a generally vertical body  50  and a wing  52 . The wing  52  is formed so that it leans or extends away from wall  48 . Wing  52  terminates with a horizontal profiled edge  54 . 
     Insulator  44  is also formed with an outer vertical wall  56  disposed below and inwardly of profiled edge  54 . 
     Insulator  42  similarly has an inner vertical wall  46  (discussed above), an outer vertical wall  60  and a horizontal edge  62  disposed on a wing  64  (see  FIGS. 5, 5A ). 
     Referring to  FIG. 4 , shoulder  24  is formed with a leg  70  extending downwardly as shown. The leg  70  is connected to and is integral with a body  72 . Body  72  is formed with a round horizontal bore  74 . The body  72  further includes an external surface  76  formed with a lip  77  and an external horizontal groove  78  disposed below lip  77 . Below grove  78  there is a vertical wall  80 . Grove  78  is sized and shaped so that it is complementary to edge  62 . Shoulder  22  has the same shape as shoulder  24 . 
     The fastener assembly  18  is produced as follows. First, the concrete tie  16  is formed in a conventional manner. As part of this step, the shoulders  22 ,  24  are imbedded in the tie so that their legs  70  are completely disposed within concrete and only the bodies  72  are exposed, as shown in  FIGS. 1 and 5 . It should be noted that two sets of shoulders are used, on a tie, one for each rail. 
     The pad  20  with insulators  44 ,  46  are created independently of the tie  16 . As discussed above, the pad  20  are either formed simultaneously with the insulators  42 ,  44 , or separately. If the second technique is used, then the insulators  42 ,  44  are then attached to the pad  20  along sides  38 ,  40 . 
     Note that the various components described above are sized and shaped so that when the pad  20  with its insulators  42 ,  44  are assembled the distance between the outer vertical walls  56 ,  66  are the same or just slightly less than the distance between the inner vertical walls  80  of the shoulders  22 ,  24 . However the wings  52 ,  64  with their edges  54 ,  62  extend outwardly of these vertical walls. As a result, if the pad  20  with the insulators  42 ,  44  is placed above of the shoulders, edges  54 ,  62  rest on top of lips  77 , as seen in  FIG. 5A . 
     In order to attach the pad  20  and insulators  22 ,  24  (forming a pad assembly  90 ) to the tie  16 , the pad  20  is dropped from about 0.25-0.5 inches As the pad assembly is falling, as indicated by arrow A in  FIG. 5A , the bottom surfaces of the edges  54 ,  62  come into contact with the lips  77 . The insulators  42 ,  44 , or at least their wings are sufficiently elastic so the wings  52 ,  64  flex slightly inward until they clear the lips  77 , and the edges  65 ,  62  then snap into grooves  78 . In this manner, the pad assembly  90  is secured or captured between the shoulders  22 ,  24 , as shown in  FIGS. 1 and 5 , but of course, without the rails  12 . The pad assembly and the shoulders are thus held together by an interference fit between the wing edges of the insulators and the grooves of the shoulders. If necessary, the pad assembly can be separated from the shoulders by bending one or both wings inwardly and then placing a sharp object between the pad  20  and the tie  16  and forcing the pad  20  upward until the insulators disengage from the grooves in the shoulders. 
     The tie with the shoulders  22 ,  24  and the pad assembly  90  is now ready to be stored or shipped out to the field. The ties with the pad assembly and the shoulders are placed in position, the rails  12  are placed on the ties, as shown in  FIG. 1 , and conventional clips (not shown) are inserted into the holes  74  to fasten the rails down. 
     In an alternate embodiment, the shoulders are made with profiled edges to fit into matching groves in the insulators. 
     Obviously, numerous modifications may be made to this invention without departing from its scope as defined in the appended claims.