Patent ID: 7549611

Claim:
A hinged derail assembly for derailing a wheel of a wheeled railed vehicle, the derail assembly being mounted on railroad ties and beings electively positioned adjacent one rail for accomplishing said derailing of desired movement of the wheeled vehicle, said derail assembly comprising: a base rigidly secured to said rail ties; a derail shoe pivotally mounted on said base for manual movement between an operative, derailing position and an inoperative position, said derail shoe having a derail member positioned on said rail when in the operative position on said rail for deflecting said wheel from rolling on said rail and for thereby derailing said wheeled vehicle; and a biasing member operatively secured to both said base and said derail shoe for biasing said derail shoe in a substantially upward rotational direction for forcibly assisting in the manual lifting movement of said derail shoe both from the inoperative position to the operative derailing position and from the operative derailing position to the inoperative position, said derail shoe, when in a substantially upright position, being in a substantially unstressed condition from said biasing member.