Patent ID: 6877671

Claim:
Apparatus comprising a roadway at a road-rail crossing, wherein: the apparatus includes a set of N strips, where N is a number greater than two; each strip is of a long, thin configuration; the N strips reside lengthwise, adjacent to each other in parallel rows, resting on the cross-ties; the apparatus includes a eat of N-1 strip-side-connectors, which are effective to create respective mechanical connections between adjacent strips; the strip-side connectors, and the mechanical connections created thereby, extend lengthwise along the side edges of the strips, whereby the length of a side-edge of one strip is connected to the length of a side-edge of the adjacent strip; the nature of the mechanical connection between adjacent stripe, as created by the side-strip-connectors, is such that the mechanical connections are effective to ensure that, when one of the strips undergoes vertical movement, up or down, the strip or strips adjacent to the one strip are constrained, by the side-strip-connectors, to follow that vertical movement, substantially without slack or free-play; the arrangement of the strip-side-connectors in the apparatus is such that, in respect of each one of the strips, any up/down movement undergone by the one strip is transmitted to, and reproduced, without slack or free-play, in, the strip or strips adjacent to that one strip, substantially all along the length thereof; the arrangement of the side-strip connectors in the apparatus is such that, in respect of all the N strips taken together, the N stripe, thus connected, form an integrated unitaly whole roadway, in supporting road traffic passing over the crossing; at least some of the strips are formed of a hard elastomeric material, and have a cross-sectional profile characterisable as thick and chunky, and the strips are so dimensioned and arranged that the set of strips as a whole is able to support the weight of traffic passing over the crossing; the set of N strips includes a locking-strip, and a set of P primary-strips; the primary-strips are so profiled that, when all the primary-strips are resting on the cross-ties, a gap is created between a pair of adjacent primary-strips, and the locking-strip is profiled to fit into that gap; the locking-strip is so structured as to be capable of being driven, from above, downwards into the gap; the apparatus includes a latching means; the latching means is so disposed as to act between the locking-strip and at least one of the adjacent primary-strips; the latching means includes a latch-lever and a latch-ledge, one on the locking-strip and the other on the said one of the adjacent primary-strips, and the latching-means is so structured and arranged that, upon the locking-strip being driven down into the gap, the latch-lever snaps over a lip of the latch-ledge, and thereby locks the locking-strip to the said one of the adjacent primary-strips.