Six aspects of the invention are defined by claims 1, 4, 6, 12, 15 and 16. In the accompanying drawings, which show examples in accordance with the invention:-

Figure 1 shows a front elevation of a first anchoring device,

Figure 2 shows in elevation the left side of the anchoring device,

Figure 3 shows in elevation the upper part of the right side of the device,

Figure 4 shows a cross-section of the lower part of the device, taken as indicated by the arrows IV in Figure 1,

Figure 5 shows an elevation of an assembly including the anchoring device, and

Figure 6 shows a corresponding view of an assembly using a different anchoring device. Figures 1 to 4 show an anchoring device 1 which has been made by casting malleable steel, the device having a head part 2 and a tail part 3. The head part is formed with a passageway 4 through it, the maximum width of the passageway, measured horizontally in Figure 1 (which shows the device approximately in the orientation which pertains when the device is in use), which is at least 50% greater than its maximum height, measured vertically in Figure 1. The passageway 4 is bounded on its left side by a vertical wall 5 in which there is formed a recess 6 which extends outwardly from the passageway 4. On its right side the passageway is bounded by an inclined wall 7, the walls 5 and 7 being joined by curved walls 8 and 9 to an upper wall 10 which is inclined to the horizontal. A recess 11 is formed in the upper wall 10 and in the curved wall 8 in order to save material and there is a step having a vertical face

12 at the junction of the walls 9 and 10.

At its lower side, the passageway 4 is bounded by two flat surfaces 15 and 16, which are inclined to one another by an angle X which is much greater than 90° and much less than 180°, for example about 135°. The surfaces 15 and 16 are joined by a curved surface 17 and externally the head part has two downwardly-facing flat surfaces 18 and 19 at the front of the device and similar surfaces 20 and 21 at the rear of the device.

The tail part 3 of the device consists of a single vertical rod 21 from which project, near its bottom, two projections 22 which extend from the rod in opposite directions at right angles to the length of the passageway, which is from left to right in Figures 2 and 3 and vertical in Figure 4. Below the projections 22, at the extreme lower end of the rod 21, there project from the rod 21 two projections 23 which extend from the rod in opposite directions, again perpendicular to the length of the passageway 4. Over substantially the entire distance from the tops of the projections 22 to the bottom of the head part 2, the rod 21 is of cruciform cross-section, as shown in Figure 4, so that it has two vanes 26 extending in opposite directions from a central zone 27 and two shorter vanes 28 also extending in opposite directions from the central zone 27. The vanes 26 extend along the underside of the head part 1, as shown at 26A and 26B, and likewise the vanes 28 extend across the underside of the head part 1 as shown at 28A and 28B.

The tail part 3 of the device is intended to be incorporated in a concrete railway sleeper. Four of the anchoring devices are suitably supported in a mould and each of them is prevented from rotating by suitable members engaging the vertical face 12 and a projection 29 extending from the wall 5. The concrete envelops and grips the parts 21 to 26, 26A, 26B, 28A and 28B and engages the surfaces L8 to 21. When the concrete has set and the four anchoring devices 1 are used to anchor

railway rail-fastening clips, the projections 22 and 23 resist forces tending to pull the anchoring devices vertically out of the concrete and the vanes 26 and 28 resist forces tending to rotate the anchoring devices about vertical axes.

Figure 5 shows a concrete railway sleeper 50, an anchoring device 1, according to Figures 2 to 4, which has its tail part embedded in the sleeper with the passageway 4 above the concrete and a bushing 51 of electrically insulating material which is inserted in the passageway 4 and fits it snugly, with the two ends of the bushing projecting beyond the front and the rear of the device 1, i.e. beyond its left-hand and right-hand extremities, considering Figure 2. The bushing is formed with a projection 52 at its left-hand side which projects into the recess 6 in the wall 5 of the device 1 to locate the bushing, i.e. to fix the bushing to the anchoring device 1. The bushing also has a passageway 53 extending though it, the shape of cross-section of the passageway being substantially the shape of a conventional athletics race track, with two parallel sides 54 and 55, inclined by a small angle to the horizontal and two semi-circular ends 56 and 57. A substantially e-shaped clip 60, made by bending a steel rod of circular cross-section, has the centre arm 61 and the upper arm 62 of the e driven into the passageway 53, which they fit nicely, and the lower arm 63 of the e bearing downwardly on the flange 65 of a railway rail 66. The flange 65 lies on a resilient pad 67 in a recess 68 in the sleeper, the pad having upstanding side portions 69 at the tops of which there are sideways-projecting portions 70 formed with recesses, one of which receives a part 71 of the clip which joins the arms 62 and 63 to each other.

Figure 6 shows a somewhat similar assembly, corresponding parts of which are similarly numbered, but here the anchoring device 70 is made by bending a strip of sheet steel which has a constant width and is

imperforate from the top 71 of a tongue 72, of reduced width, to the tops 73 of two arms 74 and 75, of which arm 75 is behind arm 74 and spaced from it so that an opening is formed into which the projection 52 of the bushing extends. In this example the bushing must be assembled with the clip-anchoring device 70 before the latter is placed in the mould which is used to make the concrete railway sleeper: this is not necessary in the case of the assembly shown in Figure 5. The principle of having a bushing with a passageway 53 through it and a locating projection 52 on it, substantially as shown in the drawings, the bushing fitting into a clip-anchoring device having a recess or opening into which the locating projection extends, can also be applied in the case where the rail rests on a steel railway sleeper to the top of which the anchoring device is welded or otherwise fixed; in such a case there will be no tail part or only a much shorter tail part than is shown in the drawings. In all cases the bushing can be secured to the clip-anchoring device by two or more than two locating projections projecting into openings in the clip-anchoring device and/or by at least one locating projection on the clip-anchoring device projecting into an opening or openings in the bushing. In addition to or instead of one or more projections projecting into one or more openings, an adhesive can be used to fasten the bushing to the clip-anchoring device.