Rail Shifter
Type – Electric
The purpose of this machine is to lift temporary railway track in sections, and build them onto bolster bogies for transport to a new site.
The machine consists of a lightly constructed main frame, supported on two bogies, and an overhead lattice work beam, supported from the main frame on open super-structure to allow the passage of the rail sections through the machine.
One of the bogies is powered by an electric motor driving through a worm gear reduction box and chain drives to both its axles.
The main frame is supported on the powered bogie by two rollers on either side of the bogie centre swivel pin. It is supported on the other bogie at the centre swivel pin only.
The overhead hoist beam is cantilevered over the bogies at each end sufficiently to allow lifting and lowering the rail sections.
An electric hoist unit remotely controlled for lift and travel, runs along the lower member of the lattice beam.
The railway sections are disconnected as the machine passes them, the electric hoist unit is run to the extreme rear end of the beam, while the hoist rope with beam and hooks is lowered. The hooks are attached approximately at the centre of each rail and with manual guidance the section is hoisted and conveyed to the other end of the beam where it is lowered onto a pair of bolster bogies which are pushed ahead by the machine. When seven sections have been built on the bolster bogies, they are hauled away by a locomotive and replaced by two more, which are in readiness along the track and are manhandled onto the track.