APPARATUS AND METHOD FOR REPLACING RAIL FASTENING ELEMENTS AND, OPTIONALLY, RAILS

摘要

ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURETrack rails fixed to ties with old rail fasteners arereplaced by track rails fixed to the ties with new railfasteners at gauge with an assembly line of a series ofindividual operating mechanisms arranged spacedly and sequen-tially on a train of a plurality of track-bound cars and in-cluding a carrier frame. Each operating mechanism includesvertically movable tools centered over their work and theassembly line comprises, in sequence, a first operatingmechanism mounted on the carrier frame for lifting the railsat gauge and for spreading the lifted rails beyond the trackgauge after the old rail fasteners have been detached fromthe ties, the detached rail fasteners leaving holes in theties, an operating mechanism for plugging the holes in theties and an operating mechanism for adzing the ties mountedon the carrier frame, an additional operating mechanismmounted on the carrier frame for placing the track rails onthe plugged and adzed ties at the gauge, and a further opera-ting mechanism for applying the new rail fasteners to fix thetrack rails to the plugged and adzed ties.