CA1131600A - Rail clip - Google Patents

Abstract

ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE
A fastener for fastening a rail to a rail support comprising a retaining lug upstanding from the support and having a downwardly facing reaction surface. A U-shaped clip has one end of its lower limb bearing down on the rail foot, the other end of its lower Limb bearing down on the rail support and its upper limb bearing upwardly against the downwardly facing reaction surface of the lug. Usually the toes bear down the rail foot and the heel on the support but the clip can be used the other way around.

Description

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This invention relates to a rail fastener and clip (or cleat) which is suitable for retaining a rail foot to a tie (sleeper), base plate or the like.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
5. Rail clips (cleats) of many configurations have been proposed heretofore, and several configurations have been proven to be generally successful, but, as far as is known, each has certain shortcomings. There are many requirements to be met, and these include the provision of means whereby 10. a clip is of low cost (there being four clips per tie), and also of not occupying a large height.
Most clips formed from resilient plate which have been used heretofore have had one end bearing against the tie and the other against the rail foot, while a pin, bolt head or 15. the like loads the central part of the clip. With this arrangement however, the clip size is considerable and its stress is very high for a given spring rate. Some designs have reduced the spring rate to the clip by imparting the loading to a clip having a return configuration (something 20. after the style of a "hairpin"), and thus for example in the U.S. Patent 3,451,621 De Splinter there is shown a generally hairpin shaped clip which bears against the foot of the rail at one end, the pressure being applied by a pin for example against the return end. However, the height of the clip is 25. considerable and interferes with the use of ballast regulators,

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snow ploughs and the likeA Furthermore the clip involves the use of secondary fixing means, and one object of this invention is to provide a clip which requires no secondary fixing means but is a simple knock-on clip.
5. The U.S. Patent 4,067,495 issued to Portec illustrates an arrangement wherein a single knock-on clip is used, but this extends in a direction longitudinal to the rail and con-sequently is subject to serious disabilities upon rail creep.
Another of the objects of this invention is to provide an 10. improved clip which will be unll~ely to be displaced upon rail creep, and will therefore tend to resist rail creep. Another problem with the Portec device is that it is made of rod having a substantially constant cross-sectional shape, and the strain is much greater at the centre than near the ends, 15. such that optimum use of material is not achieved. A still further problem is that the clip can be relatively easily dislodged, for example by vandals, with consequential hazard with respect to rail displacement.
Another disclosure from which the present invention is 20. distinguished is the Tanura U.S. Patent 3,831,~42, but in that disclosure use is made of a threaded member close to the intermediate portion of a hairpin type clip. Although the clip is of the general hairpin shape, it really functions in much the same way as the so called ~lat plate clips.
25. Other problems which have been encountered with clips in general use are:-~13~

(a) the danger of a clip being overdriven and thereby overstressed, where no stop is provided;
(b) the danger of a clip becoming partially or fully displaced where it is subjected to excessive vibration;
5. (c) the inability of a clip to prevent rail overturn when the rail is subjected to extreme lateral forces.
The main objects of this invention are to provide a simple clip which is easily affixed to a tie, which will resist longitudinal creep of the rail, and which is not of excessive 10. height. A further object is to avoid the use of tertiary fixings.
BRIEF SUMMARY OF THIS IN~ENTION
According to one aspect of this invention provides a rail fastener for fastening a rail to a rail support, com-15. prising a clip of spring steel having a general 'U' shape which forms an upper limb and a lower limb, slot forming walls extending inwardly from an end of said lower limb and thereby bifurcating the lower limb to form a pair of toes, a respec~
tive rail engaging surface at the projecting end of each said 20. toe, a heel at the other end of the lower limb and a cam surface at the projectlng end of the upper limb which slopes downwardly towards said projecting end of the lower limb, said cam surface merging into depression surfaces which con-stitute lug _ngaging sur.aces of the clip.

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According to another aspect, this invention further provides that the clip has been formed from flat spring steel plate to said general U-shape, further slot-forming walls extending inwardly from the upper limb bifurcating 5- said upper limb also and arranged so that projecting bifurcate portions of the upper limb directly overlie pro-jecting bifurcate portions of the lower limb, and are adjacent thereto so that upon upward deflection of the lower limb bifurcate portions, the upper limb bifurcate portions are 10. engaged thereby.
There are a number of advantages with this arrangement.
Firstly, it is a simple knock-on arrangement which is knocked on to the stud in the direction transverse to the direction of the rail, so that the rail itself does not interfere with 15. the affixing of the clip. Secondly, since the clip engages walls of the lug adjacent the rail, and the bottom limb of the clip engages the lug, there is a considerable resistance to displacement in the direction of the rail so that creep of the rail is thereby inhibited. Thirdly, the loading of 20. the rail engaging surface against the rail is in a vertical plane and in some embodiments of the invention this can be quite close to the vertical plane of bearing of the toe or toes on the rail, so that the reaction of the heel of the clip against the tie or base plate is relatively small and 25~ therefore the clip can be of much smaller dimension, and use 6~30 much less metal, than the so called plate type clips. Still further, no special tool is re~uired for the application of the clip. In contrast with the Portec clip (4,067,495) the overall width of the clip can be much greater at the locality 5. of the heel than at the locality of the lower or the upper limb, so that there can be arranged a minimal variation from tolerable stress throughout the whole length of the clip and this still further reduces the amount of metal required, causing the clip to be relatively inexpensive, and relatively 10. small for a relatively large stress, while at the same time achieving a low spring rate so that toe pressure is not lost, for example if an insulating pad supporting the rail "settles".
Still further, the lugs, in some instances, can be adjacent the edges of the rail foot and hold gauge, and in those 15. instances gauge is not necessarily maintained by the clip.
Still further, the absence of pins, bolt heads or the like ensures that it is feasible to provide a satisfactory clip the overall height of which is not excessive, and thereby the clip offers only a relatively minor interference with ballast 20. regulators, snow ploughs or the like.
According to another aspect, the invention provides a rail retaining fastener clip of spring steel comprising a general 'U' shape which forms an upper limb and a lower limb, slot-forming walls extending inwardly from an end of said 25. lower limb and thereby bifurcating the lower limb to form a ~3~

pair of toes; a respective rail engaging surface at the pro-jecting end of each said toe, a heel at the other end of the lower limb; and a cam surface at the projecting end of the upper limb which slopes downwardly towards said projecting 5. end of the lower limb, said cam surface merging into depression surfaces which constitute lug engaging surfaces of the clip.
In use, the lug engaging surfaces bear against an inner surface of the stud, thereby to inhibit withdrawal, withdrawal requiring use of a special tool thereby reducing danger of 10. removal of the clip by vandals.
A serious problem which is sometimes encountered s the problem of rail overturn. This can occur under varying circumstances for example, when braking of a locomotive is more effective than braking of the towed vehicles, and a train 15. "buckles" throughout its length. Thus, according to another aspect of this invention it is possible to arrange the upper limbs of the clip to overlie the lower limbs, so that the spring rate sharply increases after initial deflection of the lower limb, and rail overturn is inhibited.
20. According to this aspect, the invention provides a rail retaining fastener clip which has been formed from flat spring steel plate to a general U-shape, having a heel, an upper limb and a lower limb, the width of said clip at each one of the extremities of the limbs being less than the width at the 25. heel, a portion of the upper surface of the upper limb being ~31~i0~

an inwardly and downwardly sloping cam surface which merges into depression surfaces, the end of the upper limb being spaced from, but adjacen-t to, and directly overlying the end of the lower limb, so that upon upward deflection of the lower 5. limb, the upper limb is engaged thereby.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
Embodiments of the invention are described hereunder in some detail with reference to, and are illustrated in, the accompanying drawings, in which:
10. Eig. 1 is a plan view of a rail, supported by a base plate, and fastened by fasteners according to a first embodi-ment, Fig. 2 is a view taken on line 2-2 of Fig. 1, Fig. 3 is a plan view of a fastener according to a 15. second embodiment, Fig~ ~ is an end elevation of Fig. 3, Fig. 5 is a view corresponding to Fig. 4, but showing a spacer which is used when a smaller rail is used, Fig. 6 is also a view corresponding to Fig. ~, but 20. showing the clip used in conjunction with a fish plate, Fig. 7 is a fragmentary view of a fastener used with a concrete tie, Fig. 8 is a fragmentary perspective view of a clip removing tool, useful for quick removal of the first embodi-25. ment clips, ~3~

Fig. 9 is an end elevation of a clip removal tool, illustrating a first stage in the removal of a second embodi-ment clip, Fig. 10 is a corresponding view illustrating a second 5. stage, and Fig. 11 is a perspective view of a modified form of the removal tool of Figs. 9 and 10.
In the first embodiment of Figs. 1 and 2, a base plate 10 has welded thereto lugs consisting of a pair of studs 11 10. of square section projecting upwardly therefrom (or alter-natively the stud is welded to a steel tie or moulded into a concrete tie). As illustrated, each stud 11 has a stem which is of square section throughout its length, and is surmounted by a rectangular head 12. In other instances where the lug 15. is upstanding from a base pla-te, the stem of the lug can con-veniently be circular and the head of the stud may be of rectangular section, although circular section heads may also be used.
A clip 13 is formed of a general hairpin shape to have 20. an upper limb 14s a lower limb 15, and a curved heel 16 there-between. In this embodiment both the upper limb and lower limb are bifurcate, the lower limb 15 being arranged to straddle the lower portion of the stud 11 and the two toes 17 bear against a rail foot 18 at a locality inwardly by a short dis-25. tance from its outer edge. The upper limb 14 is also bifurcate _ g ,~

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and straddles the stem of the stud 11, being located by the stem of the stud 11 against rotation, and bearing upwardly against the downardly facing reaction surfaces of the head 12.
As seen best in Fig. 2, the rail ends of the bifurcate 5. portions of the upper limb 14 commence with inwardly and downwardly sloping cam surfaces 20. The clip is of resilient steel, and when it is driven transversely, inwardly towards the rail, the cam surfaces 20 bear against the reaction sur-faces of the head 12, straining the clip such that, when the 10. clip is in the position shown in Fig. 2, its consequential stress causes the toes 17 to bear downwardly on the rail foot.
The closer the stud 11 is to the rail foot, the greater the proportion of the downwardly bearing load is imparted by the toes 17. It will immediately be seen that no tertiary fixings 15. are required, and that the clip is of simple configuration and can be produced for low cost~ The overall height is small compared to the rail height, and danger of damage to the clip is thereby reduced.
As seen in Fig. 1, the slot 22 which bifurcates the upper 20. limb 14 has an end 23 which can function as a stop to prevent overdriving (and thus overstressing) of the clip 13.
The cam surfaces 20 merge into depression surfaces 25 of the bifurcate portion of the upper limb 14, and these sur-faces are the stud engaging surfaces which engage the reaction 25. surfaces of the head 12 of the stud 11. The depression sur-~3~

faces 25 merge into an upwardly and outwardly sloping surface 26, so that any possible movement of the clip 13, that is, inward movement towards the rail or outward movement from the rail, or rotational movement (due for example to rail creep) 5. is resisted by the resilience of the clip. Vibratory movement will also result in the clip tending to locate itself accurately. As indicated hereunder, a tool is required for removal.
As can be seen in the drawings, the lower slot 28 is 10. deeper than the lower slot 22, such that the reduced bending moment in the limbs is associated with a reduced cross-sectional area of metal (compared with the heel 16), and consequently a large toe deflection is associated with a smaller variation of toe loading, since the spring rate is 15. reduced (ratio of loading over deflection).
As can be seen from Fig. 1, the bifurcate portions of the upper limb 14 directly overlie the toes 17, and as can be seen from Fig. 2, only a small upward deflection of the toes 17 can occur before they encounter the upper limb 14, Upon 20. rail dislodgement, therefore, the spring rate greatly increases and rail overturn is inhibited in this embodiment of the in-vention. This is a matter of very great practical importance, particularly on curves.
Reference is now made to the second embodiment, illus-25. trated in Figs. 3 and 4 of the drawings.

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In this embodiment a stud 31 is welded to and is upstanding from a steel tie 32~ The stud 31 is contiguous with a rail foot 18, and contains an aperture 33 which receives a tongue 34, the tongue 34 being a projecting portion of an upper 5. limb of a clip 35. The lower limb 36 is bifurcate, having two toes 37 which bear down on the rail foot 18 upon deflection of the clip. As in the first embodiment, the cam surface 20 of the ton~ue 34 merges into a depression surface 25 which in turn merges into an upwardly and outwardly sloping surface 10. 26, so that any inward or outward movement of the clip 35 is inhibited by its own resilience. The curved heel 16 functions as in the first embodiment. The two toes 37 straddle the stud 31, and bear against its side walls upon rail creep, or any other force which tends to rotate the clip 35. The 15. stud 31, being contiguous with the rail foot 18, holds the rail to gauge.
Fig. 5 corresponds to Fig. 4, and illustrates the use of a spacer 38 to hold a smaller rail 39 to gauge.
Fig. 6 corresponds to Fig. 5, and illustrates the manner 20. in which the stud 31 holds a smaller rail 39 to gauge, when use is made of a fish plate 40.
The fastener of Fig. 7 is suitable for use on a concrete tie having an inverted 'U' shaped lug 41 upstanding from its upper surface. The clip 42 has an end elevational shape 25. similar to the clip 13 in Figs. 1 and 2, but its upper limb , ., : .: - :, ,, :

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43 and lower limb 44, although of less cross-sectional area than the intermediate portion are not bifurcate. The under surface of the bridge portion of lug 41 is the downwardly facing reaction surface against which the depression surface 5. of the upper limb of clip 42 bears.
Whlle the invention makes possible easy insertion of clip9, it also provides an assembly wherein removal of clips is difficult to achieve, other than with the use of a special tool, this being a valuable feature to avoid removal by 10. vandals. The tool illustrated in Fig. 8 is an assembly tool ~ich is useful for pushing on the clips 13 of Figs. 1 and 2.
The tool comprises a handle 44, a base 45 and a hook 46. The front of the base 45 has a pair of abutment pads 47 thereon, and the back carries on it a spring 48. A pivot 15. pin 49 hinges the hook 46 to the base 45. The inner end or "heel" of the hook has two flat surfaces 50 and 51 thereon, selectively engageable against a face of the spring 48.
When it is desired to use the tool to position a clip 13 in place, the hook 46 is lowered over a stud 11 and the 10. handle 41 swung to cause the abutment pads 47 to drive the clip 13 into place.
In many instances the tool of Fig. 8 is unsuitable for removal of clips, and use is then made of the removal tool illustrated in elevation in FigsO 9 and 10 that tool has a 150 handle 55 with a base 56 thereon. The base 56 has two ~L~3~L6~1~

spaced pins 57 and 58 thereon, and an abutment bar 59 at one end. The tool of Figs~ 9 and 10 is useful for removal of all the clips illustrated in Figs. 3, 4, 5, and 6 of this specification. As shown in Fig. 9, a first stage of removal 5- comprises depressing the upper limb of the clip and moving it a small amount. ~f the tool is then reversed, the clip can be levered away from its stud, as illustrated in Fig. 10.
With the tool of Figs. 9 and 10, the fastener clip is restrained from rapid movement through the air upon release.
10. Without this feature, a serious accident hazard exists.

The tool of Fig. 11 embodies two sets of pins, the pins of the first set being designated 61 and 62, and of the second set 64 and 65. Each set of pins is comprised in a single bar formed to a 'U' shape. However, the base 56 is 15~ asymmetrical with respect to the sets of pins, so that end 66 or end 67 can selectively be made to bear against an edge of a rail base plate. The tool is thereby useful for removing clips on the types shown in Figs. 1 and 2 from base plates of varying widths.

Claims (5)

THE EMBODIMENTS OF THE INVENTION IN WHICH AN EXCLUSIVE
PROPERTY OR PRIVELEGE IS CLAIMED ARE DEFINED AS FOLLOWS:

1. A rail retaining fastener clip of spring steel comprising a general 'U' shape which forms an upper limb and a lower limb;
slot forming walls extending inwardly from an end of said lower limb and thereby bifurcating the lower limb to form a pair of toes;
a respective rail engaging surface at the projecting end of each said toe, a heel at the other end of the lower limb; and a cam surface at the projecting end of the upper limb which slopes downwardly towards said projecting end of the lower limb, said cam surface merging into depression surfaces which constitute lug engaging surfaces of the clip.

2. A rail retaining fastener clip according to claim 1 which has been formed from flat spring steel plate to said general U-shape, the width of said upper limb being less than the width of the heel so that the upper limb is a projecting tongue, said tongue having said cam surface at its end.

3. A rail retaining fastener clip according to claim 1 which has been formed from flat spring steel plate to said general U-shape, further slot-forming walls extending inwardly from the upper limb bifurcating said upper limb also and arranged so that projecting bifurcate portions of the upper limb directly overlie projecting bifurcate portions of the lower limb, and are adjacent thereto so that upon upward deflection of the lower limb bifurcate portions, the upper limb bifurcate portions are engaged thereby.

4. A rail retaining fastener clip according to claim 1, the width of said clip at each one of the extremities of the limbs being less than the width at the heel, said cam surface being an inwardly and downwardly sloping cam surface which merges into said depression surfaces, the end of the upper limb being spaced from, but adjacent to, and directly overlying the end of the lower limb, so that upon upward deflection of the lower limb, the upper limb is engaged thereby.

5. A rail fastener for fastening a rail to a rail support, comprising:
a generally U-shaped resilient fastener clip according to claim 1, and a retaining stud secured to and upstanding from the rail support and adjacent an edge of the rail and having an upper edge wall, said stud having two side edge walls and a lower edge wall defining an aperture therethrough, said upper edge wall being a downwardly facing reaction surface of the stud which engages the tongue depression surfaces, and wherein the toes of the clip are contiguous with the side edge walls of the stud thereby constraining the clip against rotational move-ment around the stud and against translational movement of the longitudinal direction of the rail while engagement of the tongue with the reaction surface of the stud strains the clip so that consequential stress in the clip causes the rail engaging surfaces of the toes to bear downwardly on the rail and the heel to bear downwardly on the rail support.