US2472446A - Railway rail joint - Google Patents

Description

June 7, 1949.

ca. A. STANDFAST RAILWAI RAIL JOINT Filed Sept. 19, 1947 GEORGE A. sum-745T Patented June 7, i949 UNITED STATES" PATENT OFFICE BA B L O V George A. Standfast, eiferson City, Mo.

Application September 19, 1947, Serial No. 775,100

This invention relates to arailway rail joint, and particularly to such joints of the type known as a scarf joint. A I

Scarf and lap joints for railway construction have been heretofore proposedior the purpose of minimizing the jolting which .occurs at common butt joints when one rail has moved to a position slightly higher or lower than the rail to which it is joined.

Although such constructions have long since been proposed, they have not proved to be satisfactory in service for many reasons. They have tended to weaken the rails at a critical point, and where it has been sought to remedy this fact by introducing reinforcing elements at the joints, the construction has become complicated, and the cost prohibitive. For these and other reasons, the common butt joint has remained the standard practice in railway construction.

It is among the objects of the present invention to overcome the difficulties heretofore encountered in railway rail joints of the type to which the invention relates, and provide a joint of the scarf or lap type which is simple in construction, and which will leave the rail at the joint fully as strong as the common butt joint.

The foregoing and other objects and features of the invention will be made fully apparent to those skilled in the art from a consideration of the following detailed description taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, in which:

Figure 1 is a perspective view of a rail joint constructed in accordance with the present invention;

Figure 2 is a longitudinal cross-section through a rail joint;

Figure 3 is a top plan view of the same;

Figure 4 is a transverse cross-section taken on the line 4-4 of Figure 3;

Figure 5 is a detail top plan view of a fragmentary portion of the rail joint showing the manner of dressing the pointed ends of the rail head;

Figure 6 is an elevation of a fragmentary portion of a rail further showing the manner of dressing the flange end of the rail head; and

Figure 7 is a transverse cross-section on the line l---! of Figure 3 showing the manner in which a car or locomotive wheel contacts the improved rail joint.

In the drawings, reference numerals l0 and II indicate rail sections which are joined in accordance with the present invention. The rail sections In and II are common type T-rails, each having a flange l2, 9. web 13, and a head M. The

1 Claim. (01. 23 -230) ends of each rail are out 01f at an angle of approximately 45 in a plane substantially perpendicular to the bottom surface of the flange, the

cuts being always made in the same direction, so,

that if one of the rails, for example II, .were turned around, its opposite end would still match with the end of the rail ID, as shown. The two railsections so out are joined by means of a pair of conventional fishplates l5, one on each side of the web I3, and bolts It extend through the fish plates and through suitable openings in the'web I3 to be secured at their threaded endsby nuts 11. It will be observed that at the center ofthe rails, the gap between the two rail sectionslies equidistant between the two adjacent inner'bolts andthat at the outer surfaces ofjthe web I3 the ends of the gap, while lying closer the inner bolts [6, will nevertheless be well spaced from such bolts. Each of the bolts It extends through only one of the rail sections 10 or II and the 45 degree or miter cut on the ends of the rails keeps the tension forces on bolts I5 within safe limits under rail expansion conditions since at least half of the expansion force is carried directly by the rail ends.

The tip of each rail head I4 is dressed off, as indicated at l8 to an inwardly tapered condition. The taper extends for a distance of about fiveeighths inch in the direction of the length of the rail head at its deepest portion, and is about oneeighth inch deep at the end of the rail head. The taper extends around the curved edge of the top of the rail head, as illustrated in Figure 5, and downwardly along the side of the head M to, but not below, the inwardly curving oval edge at the bottom thereof as illustrated in Figure 6, the broken line in this figure indicating the original extent of the toe portion of the rail head end before inwardly tapered as shown in full lines. Figure 7 illustrates the manner in which the wheels and wheel flanges cooperate with the improved rail joint. The inwardly tapered portions IB prevent the pointed end or toe a. of one rail end from projecting outwardly beyond the heel b of the adjacent rail end, even when the rails are under a condition of maximum expansion, so that the tips of the toe portions are not bent or chipped by the pressure of the wheel flanges c thereon, as is clearly shown in Figure 7. The taper thus provided on the toe portion of a rail head end extends around the upper rounded edge and down the inner side of the head over the area of the head tip subject to contact by the wheel flange, but does not extend beyond this area in order that the taper will not require the removal of any more 3 meta1 than is absolutely necessary from the rail head.

While, for convenience in assembling the rails, all of the rail head toe portions may be tapered, it is necessary to taper only those toe portions at that side of a connected rail assembly facing the parallel rail assembly of a two-rail track.

The toe or corner portions of the rail flanges I 2 are cut back for about one inch to remove the sharp points and render the rails easier and safer to handle.

In use, the construction above described presents numerous advantages over rail joints of the scarf type, as heretofore proposed. By making the cut at the end of each rail section at an angle of about 45, the lapping portions of the two rail sections are much shorter than in prior constructions. The cut does not extend through any of the bolt holes in the webs of the rails, and thus the rails are not weakened at this critical point. When the rails expand in hot weather, the two rail sections may come into abutment with little or no wedging action of the overlapping portions against the fish plates. made at a higher angle, the lapping portion of one rail functions as a wedge, acting to pry the fish plate outwardly from the rail. In the present construction, the angle at which the cut is made is sufficient to attain the advantages of lap on scarf joints, but is below the angle at which the rails will slide upon each other after expansion into abutting relation, and thus the objectionable wedging action is reduced. At the same time wheel pressure and other factors may cause adjacent rail ends to move laterally relative to each other and by inwardly tapering the toe portions Where these cuts are of the rail heads the tips of the toe portions are made stronger and do not at any time project outwardly beyond the adjacent rail head heel portions and are thus protected from damage by the wheel flanges regardless of the direction of trafiic on the rails.

Having thus described the invention, I claim:

In a scarf-joint, railway rail comprising a flange, a web and a rail head having upper and lower rounded edges, said rail having its end surfaces disposed in respective planes substantially perpendicular to the bottom surface of said flange and inclined substantially 45 to the longitudinal center line of the rail, and said rail head havin at each end thereof an acute toe and having on its outer side at the end of each toe a surface inclined upwardly and inwardly from the bottom curved edge of said side to a location disposed inwardly of the adjacent upper curved edge and inclined outwardly from the end of said toe to the surface of'said side ata location spaced from the end of said toe.

GEORGE A. STANDFAST.

REFERENCES CITED The followi ngreferences are of record in the file of this patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Italy Dec. 13, 1937

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