HUP0203439A2 - Rail vehicle for transporting large dimension freight - Google Patents

Abstract

NCS = (57) The subject of the invention is a railway vehicle, primarily for the transport of railway wagon road unit loads, such as road vehicles, containers or mobile wagon cabinets. According to the invention, the bottom (4) of the loading platform (3) of a railway vehicle is up to the limit of the standardized space section or beyond, a few centimeters above the ground, and the width of this bottom (4) is at least equal to the maximum gauge allowed for the vehicle on the road. The invention is of particular importance to manufacturers and users of railway carriages, especially carriages traveling on public roads or carrying goods transported by public transport. HE

Description

74.413/DO

S. B.G.&K.

Szabadaiui Attorney's Office H-1062 Budapest, Ándrássy út 113. Telephone: 461-1000, Fax: 461-1099

PUBLICATION

COPY

Railway vehicle for transporting large cargo

The invention relates to a railway vehicle for transporting unit loads, in particular road vehicles, containers or movable wagon bodies, the main feature of which is that its clearance height is very low above the ground.

To ensure that railway rolling stock can travel without problems in tunnels or under bridges, railway companies define one or more gauges that limit the contour or envelope within which the rolling stock must be located. Compliance with this gauge ensures that the rolling stock never encounters a fixed obstacle.

European railway companies have agreed on a common gauge called the "UIC gauge" (UIC = Union Internationale des Chemins de fér, International Union of Railways), which takes into account the requirements of each national railway company. Rolling stock that complies with this UIC gauge can travel risk-free on almost all European railway networks.

The difference between the lower part of the different gauges of different railway networks is small, but on some railway networks (Germany, Austria, etc.) the gauge is larger than the UIC gauge for historical reasons. On these railway networks, freight wagons, such as boxcars - which when empty correspond to the UIC gauge - can be loaded with goods in such a way that they exceed the UIC gauge, but - if the transport only takes place on the given railway network - they comply with the gauge of the railway network in question.

The situation is as follows: there is an international UIC gauge, which is adhered to in the exchange of rolling stock between countries, but there are also national gauges, the upper part of which differs from country to country, while the lower part of the gauge is in most cases identical to the UIC gauge.

Due to the development of combined transport and the arrival of large sea containers, some railway companies, including the French railway company, have increased the upper part of the gauge on some lines to allow the transport of these large containers and thus adapt to the larger gauge of the neighboring countries where these lines continue.

In order to transport European-sized road vehicles (maximum 4 m high when loaded) on flatbed wagons, railway companies had to consider increasing the upper part of the gauge. This involved raising the arches of tunnels and bridges. These works are very expensive and take a very long time, because the work in tunnels is complicated (poor accessibility, diverting train traffic to one track instead of two, etc.).

European railway companies have always studied and implemented the increase in the upper part of the gauge - and never the lower part. There were several reasons for this:

- If the load exceeds the upper part of the gauge, the empty wagon still complies with the UIC gauge, so it can travel everywhere; however, a wagon whose structure exceeds the lower part of the gauge will be a "prisoner" of the adapted lines, and this is a very disadvantageous constraint when transporting standard loads.

- The wagons in circulation must be able to pass through the marshalling centres. The wagons are marshalled by gravity, by pushing the disconnected rows of wagons onto a "rolling hill", from where they roll down under the influence of gravity, while the wagons are guided onto the appropriate track by switches. The radius of curvature of this rolling hill is very small, and therefore the minimum height below the floor must not be too small, so that the middle part of the wagon does not rub against the curved rails following the hill. In addition, modern rolling hills have "track brakes". These are fixed devices on the ground that brake the wagons by means of moving shoes acting directly on the wheel sides. When raised to their maximum height, these shoes must not hit the bottom of the wagons.

- The most common obstacles on the lower section are platforms. Exceeding the gauge on the lower section requires the adjustment of all lower platforms on the railway line. There may be many such platforms on the line, so this adjustment is a lot of work. On lines where the platforms are modified, there are still “captive” cars.

The space section is in principle formed by two 45° inclined sides at the bottom. In order to load a European truck or a large container or two stacked containers onto a railway wagon, the surface on which the truck's tires stand or the container's base rests must be approximately 2.5-2.6 m (at least approximately equal to the distance between the outer sides of the tires). Due to the 45° inclined sides, such a wide surface is at most 15 cm above the minimum level permitted for the bottom of the railway vehicle. This loss of usable height makes it impossible to transport a vehicle or container four meters high.

One of the tasks set for our invention is the rail transport of a four-meter-high vehicle train without requiring extraordinary transportation.

Another objective of our invention is to lower the point of contact between the load and the bottom of the wagon as much as possible.

A further objective of our invention is to lower the ground clearance to the floor of the car.

This problem is solved according to the invention in such a way that the surface of the load that is in contact with the base of the supporting structure of the railway vehicle is at least at the height of the baseline of the standardized gauge, or below it, and that the width of the gauge of the railway vehicle is greater than the largest existing gauge for an unaccompanied [so-called non-oversized] road vehicle permitted for free, normal traffic, i.e. for an extraordinary vehicle train.

Our invention, other features and advantages of the invention are described in more detail in connection with exemplary embodiments thereof with the help of our drawings, of which the

Figure 1 is a cross-section of a railway vehicle according to the invention loaded with a train consisting of a locomotive and a trailer, on which the standardized gauge is shown in a thick line, the lower part of this gauge in an even thicker line,

Figure 2 is an enlarged view of the detail circled in Figure 1,

Figure 3 shows the general shape of the standardized space profile according to the reference contour,

Figure 4 is an enlarged outline of the lower part of the space section shown in Figure 3,

Figure 5 is a similar outline to Figure 4 of a space profile corresponding to a railway vehicle with very low headroom and a maximum width supporting structure according to the invention.

The invention relates to a railway carriage 1, more generally a railway vehicle, which has a supporting structure 2, for example a chassis. The body of the supporting structure 2 defines a loading platform 3 at the bottom, which has a bottom 4. This is, for example, flat and movable so that one end, by being rotated and/or lowered to the ground, allows self-loading and self-unloading of the carriages.

Of course, other loading and unloading methods are also possible for the railway vehicle. The invention is not concerned with the specific method of loading and unloading.

The lower boundary of the loading platform 3 with a flat bottom 4 can be inscribed in the lower part of the standardized space section. In one embodiment, the width of the flat bottom 4 of the loading platform 3 is equal to the width of the standardized space section.

The railway vehicle 1 according to the invention is used for transporting road unit loads, for example a road vehicle train consisting of 5 tractors and 6 semi-trailers, but also for transporting one or more containers or movable wagon bodies or other loads travelling on public roads or transported on public roads.

The general shape of the outline of a standardized railway gauge is shown in Figure 3. It can be distinguished by a substantially rounded upper part 7. This is formed by a flat roof 8, which is continued downwards by a connecting part 9 on each side. The connecting parts 9 are located between the roof 8 and the side panels 10. Each connecting part 9 is of a broken line: it consists of three straight sections 11, 12 and 13, the inclination of which increases downwards until it joins the corresponding vertical side panel 10. The distance between the two side panels 10 determines the maximum width "d max" of the gauge.

The space section continues downwards with 14 first indentations directed inwards on both sides. This forms a shoulder 15 for a first height platform, thereby reducing the maximum width of the distance corresponding to the two first indentations 14.

The space section then continues downwards on each side with a small side panel 16. These are followed by a second indentation 17 which further reduces the width of the space section to a width “d min”.

Both second indentations 17 are connected by a 45° inclined line to a base line 18. The inclined line, extending inwards, defines an indentation which forms another shoulder, a corner shoulder 20, for the platform of the lower part.

The lower limit indicated by the baseline 18 is in this example 13 cm from the ground.

It goes without saying that the entire space profile is symmetrical to the axis of the tracks, which is indicated by 21 axes of symmetry perpendicular to the plane of the tracks and intersecting it in the middle.

One of the tasks set for our invention is to ensure that the contact surface between the load and the supporting structure is as low as possible in the gauge, even a few centimeters from the ground, for example 8-10 cm “e” from the ground. Due to the necessary width of the floor, approximately 2.5-2.6 m, the external dimensions of the railway vehicle exceed the gauge. However, if we do not exceed the upper point of the 45° inclined line 19 (side) (the height dimension of 400 mm and the half-width of 1250 mm according to the contour of the UIC gauge), then there is no collision with the very widespread 385 mm high platforms, which are located in this corner. The 550 mm high platforms required in newer facilities are further from the axis of the tracks and therefore do not interfere. Only 300 mm high platforms would hinder the passage of such railway vehicles. However, these platforms are very old and practically no longer occur on main lines, because during the major reconstruction of the tracks and trackbeds they were demolished to allow the passage of mechanized track-laying equipment. These platforms were then rebuilt to a height of 385 or 550 mm. Other types of obstacles - which can occur in zones where the gauge is exceeded - are electrical junction boxes in zones in front of stations where there are many crossings. In this case, the work to be carried out is much less expensive than modifying the arches of the tunnels. There are no such types of obstacles on main lines (except for large stations).

For this purpose and to achieve one of the objectives of the invention, the loading platform 3 of the railway vehicle is designed so that its flat bottom 4 is as low as possible, i.e. very close to the ground, for example 8-10 cm away. In this case, the clearance height of the railway vehicle will be very small.

Specifically: the contact surface between the load and the bottom of the rail vehicle body 4 is at or below the height of the baseline 18 of the standardized gauge.

The width of the gauge of the railway vehicle in question is, by the way, greater than the largest existing gauge for an unaccompanied road vehicle authorized for free, normal traffic, i.e. for an extraordinary vehicle train.

As regards the width of the loading platform 3 carrying the load, its maximum usable dimension "d lim" is in all cases at least equal to the track gauge of the largest road vehicle authorised on the road network, for example a combination of a tractor and a trailer or a tractor and a semi-trailer or other vehicle, and at most slightly greater. It goes without saying that this width is smaller than the width of the rail vehicle gauge.

The side structures 22 and 23 on both sides ensure the safe transfer and side protection of the road unit load on the railway vehicle.

These bordering side structures 22 and 23 are directed outwardly and obliquely upwards and, together with the bottom 4 of the loading platform 3, define an open obtuse dihedral, one of the two planes of which is the loading platform 3 and the other is the plane of the adjacent side structure 22 or 23.

On the upper part, these structures are within the standardized railway gauge to be compatible with all high platforms.

As shown in Figure 1, the tires, such as the tires 24 of the tractor 5, are on the edge of the dihedral on the loading platform 3, and the inclined planes of the side edge increase the space in width upwards to provide free space for the bottom of the body of the transported road vehicles.

The bordering side structure 22 or 23, reaching the width of the space section, continues vertically upwards to a small height, as shown in Figure 1.

This connection to the vertical side panels 10 of the space section eliminates the second entry 17 for low-height platforms. The lower corner shoulder 20 of the lower part of the conventional space section, shown in bold lines in Figures 1 and 2, is omitted. This is replaced by a protruding corner 25 of approximately 20 mm.

Comparative figures 4 and 5 show the differences in shape of the lower parts of the two space profiles, on the one hand, between the reference contour of the conventional space profile (Figure 4) and on the other hand, between the reference contour of the space profile according to the invention (Figure 5).

If the maximum width "d max" is maintained over a large part of the height, the aim is to have the base line 26 as close to the ground as possible, and at this level the width increases significantly to a limit width "d lim". The inclined sides of the joint 27 connect the base line 26 to the vertical side panels 10.

The omission of the 17 second jumps is not detrimental to the railway vehicle according to the invention, which in shuttle service only has to travel on certain lines of certain axes, where there are no problems of compatibility of platforms or others, and does not have to pass through traditional railway marshalling centers, but through tracks between specialized loading and unloading terminals.

Under such conditions, it is not an operational obstacle that only certain lines are suitable for the lower part of the gauge. Truck loads, loads consisting of large containers or movable wagon bodies are particularly suitable for this type of shuttle operation, where the wagon flows are regrouped on common lines.

This type of operation is particularly appropriate in view of the current needs, which require the relief of highways and roads from heavy goods traffic by loading road vehicles onto railway vehicles of special trains and transporting them by rail over shorter or longer distances. This way, they are not harmful to the environment and road safety is improved.

Claims (6)

PATENT CLAIMS 1. A railway vehicle, primarily a railway wagon, for transporting at least one motorized or non-motorized road unit load, such as a road vehicle, container, moving carriage or other, on railway traffic axes between two railway terminals, characterised in that the surface of the load which is in contact with the bottom (4) of the supporting structure (2) of the railway vehicle is at least at the height of the baseline (18) of the standard gauge or below, and that the width of the gauge of the railway vehicle is greater than the largest existing track gauge for a free, normal traffic vehicle, i.e. for an extraordinary vehicle train, for an unaccompanied road vehicle. 2. Railway vehicle according to claim 1, characterized in that it has a loading platform (3) with a flat bottom (4), the lower boundary of which can be inscribed in the lower part of the standardized gauge. 3. Railway vehicle according to claim 2, characterized in that there is a side edge structure (22, 23) on each longitudinal edge of the loading platform (3). 4. A railway vehicle according to claim 3, characterized in that the side skirting structure (22, 23) is directed outwards and upwards. 5. Railway vehicle according to claim 2 or 3, characterized in that the width of the flat bottom (4) of the loading platform (3) is equal to the width of the standardized gauge. 6. A railway vehicle according to claim 1, characterized in that the base line (26) of its gauge is lowered below the base line (18) of the standardized railway gauge. (The authorized representative) Katalin Dónusz Mészárosáé —-patent attorney' :abadalnii Attorney's Office pesC^ndrássy út 113. the S.B.O. & ΚΓ H-M162 Telephone/ 461-1000 Fax: 461-1099