The present invention relates to a device for laying railway track. consisting of a mobile, self-correcting conveyer incorporating a roller mounted in a cradle, which is free to pivot in a base.

Rails are now available in considerable lengths (360 metres at present). When laying railway track, the rails are pulled out to the desired position on the roadbed prior to final mounting on the sleepers. This operation can be facilitated by the use of conveyers which permit the rail to move forward easily over the roadbed into the said position. The position of the rail relative to the run of the track must be controlled and, as required, corrected in the lateral direction. No equipment capable of meeting this requirement is available. The invention meets this need.

AT, B1, 337749 describes a rail lifting implement where rails rest freely on supports which are raised by an upward pivotal movement of an arm. The rail can move in all directions because of balls that are freely rotatably mounted in cages on the supports.

FR, B1, 1159359 discloses an arrangement consisting of rolls on which rails can be moved in a longitudinal direction. Said arrangement can be moved in transverse direction in relation to the railway line. This is possible as the arrangement itself is supported on rolls extending in the longitudinal direction thereby permitting transverse movements.

The purpose of the invention is to make the laying of railway track simpler and more efficient. A number of devices in accordance with the invention is placed along the roadbed at equal intervals in the longitudinal direction of the rails. When the rail is then pulled out over these devices, its position relative to the sleepers is automatically controlled and, if necessary, corrected, which is of major importance to the achievement of fast and efficient tracklaying. Once the rail has been pulled out and is in the correct position relative to the sleepers, it can be transferred easily from the invention to the sleepers. The most important characteristic of the invention is that the roller over which the rail is drawn is free to turn relative to both the rail and the roadbed.

Fig. 1 shows the invention in elevation and plan.

The invention consists of a roller (1) mounted in a cradle (2) provided with a journal (5), which is movably mounted in a base (7) provided with a carrying handle (6) and with twin stops (4), which limit the turning movement of the cradle and, therefore, that of the roller relative to the rail and the base, and in which the cradle arms (8) are either fixed, partly to prevent the rail from slipping off the roller and partly to permit the rail to pull the cradle with it in the direction of travel of the rail, thereby changing the direction of the centre line of the roller in relation to the longitudinal direction of the rail, an effect which is achieved if the cradle arms are semicircular in section, with the rounded part facing the roller, or can be lowered (3 and 3A) to facilitate removal of the rail from the roller.

The mobile, self-correcting device is used in the following way: an unspecified number of devices is placed in advance at equal intervals along the stretch of a roadbed over which new or used rails are to be pulled, each such device being provided with a roller which, in addition to its capacity to facilitate movement of the rail by turning freely, is free to pivot horizontally relative to both the longitudinal direction of the rail which is pulled over it and to the ground on which the device is placed, thereby enabling compensation to be applied for curvatures of different types in both the rail and ground, due to the fact that if the rail tends to move sideways when pulled forward and, as a result, moves outward towards either of the cradle arms, it will, for a short time, bear against and pull with it the said cradle arm in the direction of travel of the rail, whereupon the alignment of the centre line of the roller relative to the longitudinal direction of the rail will be changed, causing the rail to return towards the centre of the roller and, as a result, towards the centre of the device and remain there until another correction is required, an occurrence which cannot be predicted but which, due to the free movement of the roller relative to both the rail and the underlying surface, occurs automatically at all times as the rail is pulled over the device.