Patent ID: 7647871

Claim:
A railway anchor applicator for applying an anchor to a rail of a railroad track, the anchor being of a type that extends underneath the rail from a field side foot of the rail to a gage side foot of the rail, the railway anchor applicator comprising: a frame configured for movement in a specified direction of travel along the track; a workhead assembly movably mounted on the frame for movement toward and away from a rail, said workhead assembly including: an anchor receiving mechanism configured for movement between a first position receiving at least one anchor from an anchor input and a second position placing said anchor in a position away from said anchor input; an anchor positioning mechanism configured for movement between a retracted position and an extended position for positioning said anchor adjacent to the rail; and an anchor clipping mechanism for positively engaging said anchor onto the rail by applying pressure on said anchor from at least one of a field side and a gage side and compressing said anchor between components of said anchor clipping mechanism, wherein said components are positioned on both the field side and the gage side of the rail such that compressive forces from said components act on said anchor generally transversely across the rail to engage said anchor onto both the field side foot of the rail and the gage side foot of the rail, wherein all said components that compressively act on said anchor to clip said anchor to the foot of the rail approach the foot of the rail from only one of the field side and the gage side of the rail.