Patent GB-748986-A (GB)
Title: Improvements in or relating to apparatus for measuring variations from linearity in a horizontal plane of a railway track rail
IPC: B61K9/08
Filed: 1954-03-09
Abstract: 748,986. Recording-apparatus. MATERIEL INDUSTRIEL SOC. ANON., and CONSTRUCTIONS MECANIQUES SOC. ANON. March 9, 1954 [March 12, 1953; Dec. 10, 1953], No. 6803/54. Class 106 (4). [Also in Group XXX] For measuring and recording the variations from linearity in a horizontal plane of a railway. track rail by measuring the variations in height of the arc of the curvature of the rail cut off by a given chord, a vehicle 7 moves with it, at a distance in front of and behind it, two trucks 5, 6, Fig. 3, adapted to be displaced laterally relative to the vehicle as it moves along the line, the relative movements between the vehicle and trucks being transmitted to a recording apparatus by feeler elements on the trucks and vehicle resiliently laterally pressed against the rail heads. As. shown, four-wheel trucks 5, 6, pivoted at 10 to one end of a bar 9 pivoted at its other end 8 to the end-of a vehicle 7 carry in members 16 feelers 11 pressed by spring 12 against the sides of the heads of the rails 17 and the movement of each member 16 relative to the vehicle 7 is transmitted by an L-lever 15 pivoted at 14 on the vehicle frame 7 to a cable 18, the two cables 18 associated with the members 16 on the same rail being connected through a block-and-tackle pulley multiplying apparatus 20, 22, Fig. 5, so as to apply to the output cable 23 the same amount of movement as the feelers. The cable 23 passing over pulley 22 is fixed at one end 24 and the other end is applied to act on one end of a cable 28 in opposition to a spring 25, the other end of the cable 28 being connected to act on a recording stylus 26 in opposition to a spring 27. The vehicle feeler 4 laterally resiliently pressed against the rail head is connected by cable 19 to operate in opposition to a spring 31 on one end of the sheath 30 enclosing the cable 38, the other end of the sheath being secured to the recording table 29, to vary the curvature of the sheath and hence effects a displacement of the cable 28 which is added to the displacement caused by the cable 23 to move the stylus to give the distance of the feeler 4 from the chord between the feelers 11. The trucks 5, 6, may be uncoupled from the vehicle and carried beneath the frame 7 for transportation when not in use. In a modification, each truck is coupled to the ends of the vehicle by two tubular rods forming the sides of a triangle with the ends of the vehicle, the rods being slidably coupled near the apex to the truck. The tubes may be pivoted on the vehicle so that when the truck is dismantled, the tubes may be turned over and accommodated along the sides of the vehicle. In another modification the trucks roll on the feelers and each truck is coupled to the vehicle by two equal rods forming with the truck an isosceles triangle pivoted at the apex to the vehicle and tubes fixed to the vehicle as the base of a triangle provide at the apex a point relative to which the movements of the truck feelers may be measured. In these two modifications the transmission apparatus shown in Fig. 5 is modified accordingly. The vehicle 7 has three axles 1, 2, 3, of which axles 2 and 3 form a bogie on which the vehicle frame can pivot.