RAILWAY MAINTENANCE SYSTEM

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

This invention relates to railway maintenance systems, and more particularly to a system of removing sleepers and peta bone from the side of a railway track after being extracted. BACKGROUND TO THE INVENTION

Railways periodically require maintenance in order to repair broken sections and to replace worn and outdated rail components. There are many projects currently underway to replace timber, steel and concrete sleepers with new concrete sleepers which improve the smoothness of the travel of the train over the railway.

Currently, during rail maintenance, crews of at least three wheeled loaders and four labourers remove the sleepers with the loaders and collect the associated peta bone, by-hand. Peta bone (also known as "jewellery") are the metal rail components which secure the rails to the sleepers, including clips, pins, anchors and plates.

A problem with prior art rail maintenance systems is the stow, labour intensive process of removing sleepers and peta bone. The object of the invention is to substantially ameliorate some of the stated deficiencies in the prior art. SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

According to the present invention, there is provided a rail maintenance vehicle, said vehicle comprising: (a) powered means for lifting and moving sleepers and peta bone; and (b) at least one storage container.

Preferably the vehicle is a truck with associated trailer that has integrated within the trailer, the at least one storage container for the temporary storage and haulage of sleepers and/or peta bone.

More preferably, the vehicle is a forwarder, modified as required. Preferably, the powered means of lifting and moving the sleepers comprises a hydraulically powered grapple on a mechanical arm of the vehicle.

More preferably, the means of collecting the peta bone comprises an electro-magnet as an attachment to the powered grapple.

It is preferred that the electromagnet is detached from the powered grapple when not in use, and stored within the bunk, but not directly within the storage container.

In a preferred form, the storage container includes a tail gate for ensuring the peta bone and sleeper stay within storage container during rail maintenance recovery, and for the removal of the peta bone and sleepers from the storage container when the storage container is full and being tipped or pushed out.

Preferably, the transport vehicle comprises controls for operating the means of collecting the sleepers and peta bone.

More preferably the controls for operating the grapple, electro-magnet and mechanical arm are located inside the cabin of the vehicle.

In an alternative embodiment of the invention the controls for operating the grapple, electro-magnet and mechanical arm are located outside the cabin of the vehicle.

In another preferable embodiment of the invention, the controls for operating the grapple, electro-magnet and mechanical arm are located both outside and inside the cabin of the vehicle.

In a further embodiment of the invention there is provided a method for lifting and moving sleepers and peta bone using a rail maintenance vehicle of the present invention, the method comprising the steps of:

(a) driving the rail maintenance vehicle alongside an area where there are sleepers and peta bone to be collected;

(b) stopping the vehicle;

(c) positioning a mechanical arm over peta bone or a sleeper and activating either a electro-magnet or grapple arm to secure the material to be collected; (d) raising the mechanical arm such that the material to be collected is over one of at least one storage container or compartment thereof; (e) disengaging the grapple or turning off the power to the electro-magnet such that the material secured falls or is placed into the at least one storage container or compartments thereof; (f) driving the rail maintenance vehicle to the place where the collected material is wanted;

(g) activating powered ejection means within the storage container; (h) opening the at least one tail gate to the at least one storage container or compartments thereof; and (i) emptying the storage container.

Preferably the powered ejection means comprises one or more hydraulic tipper rams which tilt the vehicle's at least one storage container so that the contents of the at least on storage container are biased toward the tail gate. The powered ejection means may also comprise rams which push a moveable or sliding wall to eject the sleepers.

The powered ejection means may comprise any other tipping, pushing, sliding means of unloading the storage container;

Preferably the sleepers are aligned across the back of the storage container such that when the storage container that contains the sleepers is raised or ejected, and the tail gate opened, the sleepers roll or slide out of the vehicle with or without further assistance from any person or machine. Preferably only two persons are required to accompany the rail maintenance vehicle in order to carry out the method, in addition to the operator of the rail maintenance vehicle. SUMMARY OF THE FIGURES

In order that the invention may be readily understood and put into practical effect, reference will now be made to the accompanying drawings, in which:

Fig. 1 is a perspective view of a railway. Fig. 2 is a side view of the rail maintenance system according to the present invention, Fig. 3 is a front view of the system of Fig. 2,

Fig. 4 is a perspective view of the closed storage device of the system of

Fig. 2, and

Fig. 5 is a perspective view of the open storage device of the system of Fig. 2. DETAILED DESCRIPTION As shown in Fig. 1 , a railway 1 typically comprises sleepers 2 which may be made of timber (as shown in Fig 1 ), steel or concrete.

The rails 3, rest on chairs 4 which are affixed to said sleepers 2. The rails 3 are held in position on the chairs 4 by means of clips 5. Two rails are held together using fishplates 6, as shown in Fig. 1. Other peta bone which is not shown in Fig. 1 may include anchors, spikes, pins, plates and insulator pads.

Figs. 2 and 3 show the railway maintenance system 7 of the present invention which comprises a transport vehicle 8 such as a forwarder or truck for pulling the trailer 9 which has affixed thereto the storage device 10.

Also affixed to the trailer 9 is a mechanical arm 11 (also known as a 'crane' in the industry) which has connected at its end a grapple 12 and a detachable electro-magnet 13, both of which are controlled by a user (not shown) within the cabin of the transport vehicle 8.

The grapple 12 is capable of picking up sleepers 2 discarded during rail maintenance, and the electro-magnet 13 can pick up extracted peta bone, which includes the metal chairs 4, clips 5 and fishplates 6 shown in Fig. 1.

Fig. 2 shows electromagnet 13 detached from the mechanical arm 11 , and stored on the side of storage device 10. Fig. 3 shows electromagnet 13 about to be attached to the mechanical arm 11. In one embodiment of the present invention the electromagnet 13 may be supported and held in place by the grapple 12.

The retrieval of the sleepers may be performed simultaneously with the retrieval of the peta bone, but preferably the peta bone is retrieved at a separate time to the retrieval of the sleepers.

Both the sleepers 2 and the peta bone 4, 5 and 6 may be placed, using the mechanical arm 11 , within the storage device 10 via the open top 15 or open side 21 , shown in Fig. 4.

The storage device 10 should be of a width greater than or equal a wide gauge sleeper, so that sleepers may be stacked within the container in a direction perpendicular to the direction of movement of the vehicle. This allows the sleepers to be stacked in an orderly and space saving arrangement within the storage device 10, so as to maximise the available storage volume therein, and facilitate the removal of the sleepers.

The bunk 16 of the storage device 10 is structurally supported by a various frames 17.

The bunk 16 may feature a gully 18 in order to allow for the vertical movement of the wheels 18 of the trailer 9 over rough terrain adjacent to the railway. The internal base of the bunk 16 may be lined with timber boards or rubber matting to protect the bunk 16 from damage by falling peta bone released from the electromagnet 13 or sleepers released from the grapple 12.

The storage device 10 features a tail gate 19 which is supported by a hinge system 20 (shown in Fig. 4), which may have a locking latch fitted thereon.

Once the bunk 16 is full with sleepers 2 and peta bone 4, 5 and 6, it may be unloaded by remotely releasing the tailgate latch and opening tail gate 19, and then raising the rear section of storage device 10 around the pivot 20 to tip the load from the storage device 10, as shown in Fig. 5, by means of one or more hydraulic tipper rams 14 (which is shown in Fig. 2). Fig. 5 shows an alternative embodiment of storage device 10, which does not feature the open side 21 shown in Fig. 4.

Alternatively, the storage device 10 may have powered ejection means to eject the contents therein, which may include a ram (which is not shown in the figures) acting on a horizontal plane within the storage device 10, so that the storage device 10 does not have to be raised at an angle in order to tip the contents out. The ram may be driven in forward and reverse directions by a hydraulic cylinder connected to a pump powered by the motor of the vehicle 8.

The hydraulic tipper rams 14 are fitted underneath the storage device 10, in a similar way to the way in which hydraulic rams are mounted on articulated dump trucks. The hydraulic tipper rams 14 are controlled from within the cabin of the transport vehicle 8.