Railway

Abstract

Railway comprising sleepers and rails supported thereby, wherein each sleeper has a holding piece anchored in or to the sleeper, and a clip or spring is connected to the holding piece and simultaneously presses on the rail to provide a downward holding force to the rail and maintain it on the sleeper. The holding piece and the clip or spring are supplemented with a mounting body and a mounting piece, which mounting body is placed over or adjacent to said holding piece, and which mounting body is arranged to cooperate with said mounting piece.

Claims

1. A railway comprising sleepers and rails supported by said sleepers, wherein each sleeper is provided with a holding piece anchored in or to the sleeper, and wherein a clip or spring is connected to the holding piece and simultaneously presses on the rail to provide a downward holding force to said rail and maintain it on the sleeper, wherein the holding piece and the clip or spring are supplemented with a mounting body and a mounting piece, which mounting body is placed over or adjacent to said holding piece, and which mounting body is arranged to cooperate with said mounting piece wherein said mounting piece is equipped with a first mounting part which is dimensioned for connection to the holding piece, and wherein the mounting piece is further equipped with a second mounting part equipped with screw thread that extends above the mounting body, and the clip or spring is mounted directly or indirectly on top of the mounting body with its opposite extremities positioned on the rail and indirectly on the sleeper respectively, and wherein the second mounting part of the mounting piece extends above the clip or spring, and a nut is provided on the screw thread to fix the clip or spring in position, wherein the mounting body is provided with a slit to receive the mounting piece and enable the mounting piece to connect to the holding piece anchored in or to the sleeper, and the mounting piece is embodied as a hook with a rod portion for connection with the holding piece anchored in or to the sleeper, and a screw thread portion extending at substantially right angles with respect to the rod portion.

2. The railway according to claim 1, wherein the holding piece is provided with wings and the mounting body is dimensioned to fit underneath said wings with at least part of the mounting piece snugly fitting between the mounting body and the holding piece anchored in or to the sleeper.

3. The railway according to claim 2, wherein the clip or spring is mounted directly or indirectly on top of the wings of the holding piece anchored in or to the sleeper, which clip or spring has its opposite extremities positioned on the rail and on said wings of the holding piece respectively.

4. The railway according to claim 1, wherein the second mounting part is at substantially right angles with said first mounting part.

5. The railway according to claim 1, wherein an intermediate mounting plate is positioned between the nut and the clip or spring.

6. The railway according to claim 1, wherein the nut is actuated so as to elastically deform the clip or spring.

7. The railway according to claim 1, wherein the mounting body is provided with an upstanding side adjacent to the rail to delimit displacement of the rail and accommodate that the rail can be mounted at a variable distance with respect to the sleeper.

8. The railway according to claim 1, wherein the mounting body is provided with an upstanding side which has grooves to cooperate with corresponding grooves or protrusions of a pad or pads positioned between the rails and the sleeper to restrict movement of the pads in the longitudinal direction of the rails.

9. The railway according to claim 1, wherein the clip or spring is mounted directly or indirectly on top of the mounting body with its opposite extremities positioned on the rail and the mounting body respectively.

Description

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE SEVERAL VIEWS OF THE DRAWINGS

[0019] The accompanying drawings, which are incorporated into and form a part of the specification, illustrate one or more embodiments of the present invention and, together with the description, serve to explain the principles of the invention. The drawings are only for the purpose of illustrating one or more embodiments of the invention and are not to be construed as limiting the invention. In the drawings:

[0020] FIG. 1 shows a side view of a first embodiment of a railway according to the invention;

[0021] FIG. 2 shows a top view of the first embodiment shown in FIG. 1;

[0022] FIG. 3 shows an exploded view of the first embodiment shown in FIG. 1;

[0023] FIG. 4 shows an exploded view of the constituent elements of a second embodiment of the invention; and

[0024] FIG. 5 an assembled view of the second embodiment according to FIG. 4.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0025] There are several embodiments possible for the railway of the invention.

[0026] In one embodiment the holding piece anchored in or to the sleeper is provided with wings and the mounting body is dimensioned to fit underneath said wings with at least part of the mounting piece snugly fitting between the mounting body and the holding piece anchored in or to the sleeper. In this embodiment it is preferred that the clip or spring is mounted directly or indirectly on top of the wings of the holding piece that is anchored in or to the sleeper, wherein the clip or spring has its opposite extremities positioned on the rail and on said wings of the holding piece respectively.

[0027] In another embodiment wherein the mounting body is provided with a slit to receive the mounting piece and enable the mounting piece to connect to the holding piece anchored in or to the sleeper as known from WO-A-2009/004274, the invention provides that the mounting piece is embodied as a hook with a rod portion for connection with the holding piece anchored in or to the sleeper, and that a screw thread portion extends at substantially right angles with respect to the rod portion. In that situation it is preferred that the clip or spring is mounted directly or indirectly on top of the mounting body with its opposite extremities positioned on the rail and the mounting body respectively.

[0028] The construction of the invention has several benefits.

[0029] A first benefit of the invention is that the combination of features of the main claim makes it possible to set a variable height or distance of the rails with respect to the sleepers. A second benefit relates to the feature that it is preferred that the nut is actuated so as to elastically deform the clip or spring. The elastic deformation of the clip or spring secures that an accurate holding force can be applied and maintained to keep the rail in position on the sleeper. A third benefit is that the construction of the invention enables that the mounting body can effectively also be provided with an upstanding side adjacent to the rail to delimit displacement of the rail and accommodate that the rail can easily be mounted at a variable distance or height with respect to the sleeper.

[0030] It is further preferable that the mounting body is provided with an upstanding side which has grooves to cooperate with corresponding grooves or protrusions of a pad or pads positioned between the rails and the sleeper to restrict movement of the pads in the longitudinal direction of the rails. The pads can be applied for instance in the form of wedges as taught by EP-A-2 339 068 to maintain the rails on the sleepers at a desired elevation or distance with respect to such sleepers.

[0031] The invention will hereinafter be further elucidated with reference to the drawing of exemplary embodiments of a railway according to the invention that is not limiting as to the appended claims.

[0032] Whenever in the figures the same reference numerals are applied, these numerals refer to the same parts.

[0033] As the skilled person knows a railway comprises sleepers 2 and rails 4 supported by said sleepers 2; see FIGS. 1-3. In the following reference will be made to said figures showing a railway 1 of the type in which each sleeper 2 (see in particular FIG. 3) is provided with a holding piece 3 anchored in or to the sleeper 2, and wherein (as will be explained hereinafter) a clip or spring 5 is (indirectly) connected to the holding piece 3 and simultaneously presses on the rail 4 to provide a downward holding force to said rail 4 and maintain it on the sleeper 2.

[0034] In all embodiments of the invention, and in particular in the first embodiment now discussed with reference to FIGS. 1-3, the holding piece 3 and the clip or spring 5 which as such are known from the prior art, are supplemented with new components, in particular a mounting body 6 and a mounting piece 7. The mounting body 6 is placed over or adjacent to said holding piece 3 as depicted in FIGS. 1 and 2 (because of which the holding piece 3 is no longer visible in these FIGS. 1 and 2), and said mounting body 6 is arranged to cooperate with said mounting piece 3. For this purpose said mounting piece 7 is equipped with a first mounting part 7 which is dimensioned for connection to the holding piece 3 (see again FIG. 3), wherein the mounting piece 7 is further equipped with a second mounting part 7 which is in this embodiment at substantially right angles with said first mounting part 7 which is equipped with screw thread 8 that extends above the mounting body 6 which can be best seen in FIG. 1. The functionality hereof will become apparent from the following disclosure.

[0035] In this embodiment of FIGS. 1-3 the clip or spring 5 is mounted directly or indirectly on top of the mounting body 6 with the opposite extremities 5, 5 of the clip or spring 5 positioned on the rail 4 and (indirectly via the mounting body 6) on the sleeper 2 respectively. This can be best seen in FIGS. 1 and 2. As FIG. 1 shows the second mounting part 7 of the mounting piece 7 extends above the clip or spring 5, and a nut 9 is provided on the screw thread 8 that is provided on the second mounting part 7 to fix the clip or spring 5 in position. It is also shown that an intermediate mounting plate 10 is positioned between the nut 9 and the clip or spring 5. Preferably the nut 9 is actuated so as to elastically deform the clip or spring 5.

[0036] Particularly FIG. 1 and FIG. 2 show the preferential arrangement that the mounting body 6 is provided with an upstanding side 6 adjacent to the rail 4 to delimit displacement of the rail 4 and accommodate that the rail 4 can be mounted at a variable distance or height with respect to the sleeper 2 when one or more pads 11 are provided between the rail 4 and the sleeper 2. The pads 11 can be of rectangular shape or be formed as cooperating wedges as disclosed in EP 2 339 068.

[0037] Preferably the upstanding side 6 of the mounting body 6 is further provided with grooves (not shown) to cooperate with corresponding grooves or protrusions of a pad or pads 11 positioned between the rails 4 and the sleeper 2 to restrict movement of those pads 11 in the longitudinal direction of the rails 4. The way how this can be implemented is entirely clear to the skilled person so that a further elucidation with reference to the drawing can be dispensed with.

[0038] Returning now to FIG. 3 it is shown that the mounting body 6 is provided with a slit 6 to receive the mounting piece 7 and to enable that the mounting piece 7 can be connected to the holding piece 3 anchored in or to the sleeper 2. As this FIG. 3 shows in this embodiment the mounting piece 7 is embodied as a hook with a rod portion 7 for connection with the holding piece 3 that is anchored in or to the sleeper 2, and that the screw thread portion 8 extends at substantially right angles with respect to said rod portion 7. Further the clip or spring 5 is mounted directly or indirectly on top of the mounting body 6 with its opposite extremities 5, 5 positioned on the rail 4 and the mounting body 6 respectively, as is best seen in FIGS. 1 and 2.

[0039] An entirely different embodiment in which the principles of the invention are applied is shown in FIGS. 4 and 5.

[0040] FIG. 4 shows an exploded view of the elements that are used to anchor the rails 4 of a railway to its sleepers 2 (as shown in FIG. 5), using a clip or spring 5 that is connected to a holding piece 3 which is fixed to a sleeper 2 and which provides a downward holding force to the rail 4 and maintain said rail 4 on the sleeper 2.

[0041] Like the first embodiment, this second embodiment also supplements and completes a known holding piece 3 that is fixedly mounted to a sleeper (depicted with reference 2 in FIG. 5) and a clip or spring 5 that will be connected to said holding piece 3 for holding a rail 4 on the sleeper 2, with a mounting body 6 and a mounting piece 7. The mounting body 6 is placed over or adjacent to said holding piece 3, and is arranged to cooperate with said mounting piece 7 wherein said mounting piece 7 is equipped with a first mounting part 7 which is dimensioned for connection to the holding piece 3. Actually the holding piece 3 is in this embodiment and for this purpose provided with wings 3, 3 and the mounting body 6 is dimensioned to fit underneath said wings 3, 3 with at least part(s) 7 of the mounting piece 7 snugly fitting between the mounting body 6 and the wings 3, 3 of the holding piece 3 anchored in or to the sleeper 2.

[0042] The mounting piece 7 is further equipped with a second mounting part 7 comprising a (releasable) screw 8 with screw thread 8 that in the mounted condition extends above the mounting body 6, so that when the clip or spring 5 is mounted directly or indirectly on top of the wings 3, 3 of the holding piece 3 anchored in or to the sleeper 2, the clip or spring 5 has its opposite extremities 5, 5 positioned on the rail 4 and on said wings 3, 3 of the holding piece 3 respectively. Accordingly the clip or spring 5 is thus mounted directly or indirectly on top of the mounting body 6 with its opposite extremities 5, 5 positioned on the rail 4 and (indirectly) on the sleeper 2. The screw 8 extending from and forming part of the second mounting part 7 of the mounting piece 7 extends further to above the clip or spring 5, and as is shown in FIG. 5 is provided with a nut 9 on the screw thread 8 to fix the clip or spring 5 in position. FIG. 5 also shows that an intermediate mounting plate 10 is positioned between the nut 9 and the clip or spring 5. The nut 9 is preferably actuated so as to elastically deform the clip or spring 5.

[0043] Turning back to FIG. 4 it is shown that the mounting body 6 is provided with an upstanding side 6 which is intended to be adjacent to the rail 4 (see FIG. 5) to delimit displacement of the rail 4 and accommodate that the rail 4 can be mounted at a variable distance with respect to the sleeper 2.

[0044] FIG. 4 further clearly shows that the mounting body 6 is provided with an upstanding side 6 which has grooves 6 to cooperate with corresponding grooves or protrusions of a pad or pads 11 positioned between the rails 4 and the sleeper 2 to restrict movement of the pads 11 in the longitudinal direction of the rails 4.

[0045] Although the invention has been discussed in the foregoing with reference to exemplary embodiments of the railway of the invention, the invention is not restricted to these particular embodiments which can be varied in many ways without departing from the gist of the invention. The discussed exemplary embodiments shall therefore not be used to construe the appended claims strictly in accordance therewith. On the contrary the embodiments are merely intended to explain the wording of the appended claims without intent to limit the claims to these exemplary embodiments. The scope of protection of the invention shall therefore be construed in accordance with the appended claims only, wherein a possible ambiguity in the wording of the claims shall be resolved using these embodiments.