Patent GB-1119965-A (GB)
Title: Railroad car pushing apparatus
Inventor: LUDWIG CARL
IPC: B61J3/08
Filed: 1965-09-10
Abstract: 1,119,965. Propelling railway vehicles. McDOWELL-WELLMAN ENG. CO. 10 Sept., 1965, No. 38790/65. Heading B7L. Gondola-type railway cars 10, Fig. 1, coupled together by known central rotary-type couplings 13 to form a train are pushed, one or more, e.g. two, at a time, into a known rotary car dumper apparatus 12 for emptying without uncoupling ears, by a railway car pushing apparatus comprising a wheeled carriage 15 movable along a fixed trackway 16 parallel to the railway track 11, the carriage having thereon an elongated arm 14 provided with a lateral portion 70 provided at its outer end with a pusher head 74, Fig. 5, which arm is rotatable by a motor means 18 to position the head between a pair of cars for pushing engagement centrally of at least one car and to act substantially along the central longitudinal axis of the coupling. The carriage has a body 60 having at its ends pairs of vertical wheels 61, 63 and pairs of horizontal stabilizer wheels. 65, 67 which wheels engage runners 44, 50 and 46, 52, Fig. 4, forming the trackway 16 and mounted in spaced pedestals 17. Vertical sheaves 86, 88 at the ends of the carriage are connected by advancing and retracting cables 20, 21 which respectively pass round horizontal sheave pairs 24 and 25, carried by stationary frames, to a cable winding drum 26 driven by a motor 27. The sheaves 25 are adjustable in the direction parallel to the track 11 to tension the cables as described with reference to Fig. 12 (not shown). Fixed bumpers 28, 29, Fig. 1, limit the movement of the carriage 15 in either direction. The carriage is connected to a power line 82, Fig. 6 (not shown), by a power track arm 81 and strikers on the carriage are engageable with limit switches on the trackway to control the movement of the carriage. The rotary arm 14 is carried by a shaft 71 mounted for slight longitudinal movement on the carriage to allow for slack between cars as described with reference to Fig. 19 (not shown) and the motor means 18 comprises a reversible motor 77 connected to the shaft through gearing. During dumping of cars the car next adjacent to the dumping apparatus 12 is held stationary by stop means 30 provided with retractable chocks 31 engaging in nips fore and aft of wheels and between the latter and the track 11. The means 30 coact with the dumper 12 and carriage moving machinery 27 and 18 for proper programming of the operation of these parts. The pusher head on the arm portion 70 is engageable between striker plates on adjacent cars and acts in a vertical plane containing the longitudinal axes of the couplings and just above those axes. The head has resiliently mounted prober pads and is guided into position between the cars all as described with reference to Figs. 14 and 15 (not shown). Alternative forms of pusher heads having downwardly directed pins adapted to embrace the rotary coupling between cars and apply a push directly thereto are described with reference to Figs. 1.6 to 18 (not shown). The rotatable arm 14 is " zeroed " for its longitudinal position with respect to the carriage body 60 by a pin 214 on the carriage coacting with a centring guide 213, Figs. 20 and 21 (not shown), on the arm portion 69.