Device for manually coupling and uncoupling railway vehicles

Abstract

 Device for coupling or uncoupling a railway vehicle, consisting of a rotatable shaft (2) that is suspended over the width of the railway vehicle by means of hinges (3) on the towing link side (4) of the railway vehicle, which is folded in the middle as a supporting bracket (5), and is connected at both ends at a right angle to two levers (6,7) provided with handles (8) that are outside the width of the railway vehicle, and whereby upon rotation, the supporting bracket (5) moves a towing link (9) upwards when the levers (6,7) are moved upwards for uncoupling, or downwards when the levers (6,7) are moved downwards for coupling the railway vehicle.

Description

[0001] The present invention relates to a device for manually coupling and uncoupling railway vehicles.

[0002] Railway vehicles are traditionally equipped with a towing hook and towing link on both sides, whereby one of the towing links must be hung over the towing hook of the other railway vehicle in order to be coupled and pulled along. The towing vehicle can be a locomotive, but also a preceding vehicle in a train composed of a number of railway vehicles that are coupled together. -

[0003] More specifically, the invention is intended for manually raising a towing link of a railway vehicle whereby the railway vehicle can be uncoupled by one person, without him having to go between the two railway vehicles that have to be uncoupled.

[0004] In the reverse, the invention is also intended for manually lowering a towing link of a railway vehicle in order to couple it to a towing hook of a towing railway vehicle, whereby the person who does this coupling does not have to go between the railway vehicles to be coupled.

[0005] Traditionally the towing hook and towing link are coupled and uncoupled by railway workers, whereby these workers are located at the position of the towing hook and link between the buffers of both railway vehicles in order to manually handle the link.

[0006] The coupling is done after the railway vehicles that have to be coupled together are positioned against one another by having their buffers make contact with one another.

[0007] It goes without saying that a person located between the two vehicles is exposed to considerable danger. Not only can he end up under the rolling railway vehicles, but he can also be hit by the heavy couplers, such as the towing hook and link, whereby very serious accidents, even with fatal outcomes are known.

[0008] The same applies when uncoupling the railway vehicles, whereby the railway workers must go between the railway vehicles and often lift the heavy link out of the towing hook, which is physically very burdensome and also hazardous as explained above.

[0009] The purpose of the present invention is to provide a solution to the aforementioned and other disadvantages by providing a device that enables the towing link of a railway vehicle to be coupled or uncoupled without touching this towing link directly, and without having to go between the railway vehicles to be coupled or uncoupled.

[0010] To this end the invention concerns a device that consists of a rotatable shaft that is suspended over the width of the railway vehicle by means of hinges on both sides of the railway vehicle, which is folded in the middle in a shape that acts as a supporting bracket, and is connected at both ends at a right angle to two levers that have handles at their ends, and which are outside the width of the railway vehicle, and whereby when the shaft rotates, the supporting bracket moves a towing link upwards when the levers are moved upwards, or downwards when the levers are moved downwards, resulting in the uncoupling or coupling of the railway vehicle.

[0011] An advantage of such a device is that the coupling or uncoupling of a railway vehicle can be done manually by workers without them having to go between the two railway vehicles, between the buffers of the railway vehicles to be coupled.

[0012] Another advantage is that the manual operation of the device can be done from one side of the vehicle train, or from the other side, or even from both sides simultaneously by two workers who each operate a handle of the levers, but always from a point that is outside the space between the two railway vehicles.

[0013] Preferably the force required to move the levers is reduced by dampers.

[0014] An advantage of such dampers is that the workers have to exert substantially less force to bring about the coupling or uncoupling so that this operation can also be done by a single railway worker.

[0015] Preferably the dampers comprise gas springs or springs of another type.

[0016] An advantage of such springs is that they are suitable for this application because they slow down the movement of the supporting bracket and towing link so that unexpected movements are prevented.

[0017] Such springs are also suitable for reducing the work that the railway workers must exert on the links to be moved.

[0018] Preferably the damping level of the dampers is chosen such that the supporting bracket stays in the raised position or in the lowered position after it has been put in this position by the action of the levers and the supporting bracket.

[0019] Preferably the towing link can be positioned by the manual movement of only one of the two levers that is provided with a handle.

[0020] An advantage of this device is that it enables the coupling or uncoupling to be done by only one worker, whereby he must exert a relatively light force to obtain the required movements of the towing link.

[0021] With the intention of better showing the characteristics of the invention, a preferred embodiment of a device according to the invention is described hereinafter by way of an example, without any limiting nature, with reference to the accompanying drawings, wherein:

figure 1 schematically shows a perspective view of a device according to the invention;

figure 2 shows a top view of figure 1;

figure 3 shows a front view of figure 1;

figure 4 shows a side view figure 1.

[0022] Figure 1 schematically shows a device 1 according to the invention, consisting of a rotatable shaft 2 that is suspended by means of hinges 3 on the towing link side 4 of a railway vehicle, that is folded in the middle in a shape that acts as a supporting bracket 5, and is folded at both ends at a right angle and continues as two levers 6, 7, which are provided with a handle 8 at their ends. The supporting bracket 5 is under the towing link 9 that is in the centre between the buffers 10 of the railway vehicle. The towing link 9 consists of two hinged components, whereby a first component 9a forms the eye of the towing link, while a second component 9b is supported by the supporting bracket 5 and can be lifted or lowered by the latter. The rotatable shaft 2 is connected to the railway vehicle by two anchor points 11a, 11b by means of two dampers 12a, 12b, in this case by two gas springs.

[0023] Figure 2 shows a top view of the device 1 according to the invention, in which it can be seen how the rotatable shaft 2 is fastened by means of hinges 3 to the supporting beam 13 that spans the width of the railway vehicle and supports the two buffers 10 of the towing link side 4 of the railway vehicle.

[0024] Figure 3 shows a front view of the device 1 according to the invention, in which the positions of the dampers 12a, 12b are shown that connect the rotatable shaft 2 to two anchor points 11a, 11b that are fastened to the supporting beam 13.

[0025] Figure 4 shows a side view of the device 1 according to the invention, in which the angle of rotation α of the lever 7 can be seen, and the anchoring of the dampers 12a, 12b at the anchor points 11a, 11b is shown.

[0026] The operation of the device 1 is very simple and as follows.

[0027] Two railway vehicles are placed together, and this by bringing the buffers of the two vehicles together. This is generally done in marshalling yards where the trains are put together using a shunting engine.

[0028] Both railway vehicles must now be coupled together.

[0029] The levers 6, 7 are now moved from the top position downwards by manually pushing the handles 8 on the levers downwards. The supporting bracket 5 thereby rotates downwards, such that the towing link 9 moves to a horizontal position and falls over the towing hook of the towing railway vehicle. Both railway vehicles are thereby coupled together.

[0030] When the railway vehicle has to be uncoupled again, the levers 6, 7 are manually moved upwards using the handles 8. The supporting bracket 5 is moved upwards by rotating the shaft 2, such that the supporting bracket 5 comes against the towing link 9 of the towing hook. The gas springs 12a, 12b hereby move away from their rest position and exert an upward force on the towing link section 9b. When the railway vehicles are placed together, the towing link section 9a is lifted from the towing hook by the force of the gas springs 12a, 12b, which keep the towing link in this raised holding position, and whereby the railway vehicle is uncoupled.

[0031] The railway vehicle can now be coupled again to another railway vehicle by again pushing downwards on the handles and repeating the method described above.

[0032] The device according to the invention can be operated by a person who does not have to be between the two railway vehicles to be coupled, which substantially increases the safety of the person during operation.

[0033] The present invention is by no means limited to the embodiment described as an example and shown in the drawings, but a device for coupling and uncoupling a railway vehicle according to the invention can be realised in all kinds of variants, without departing from the scope of the invention.

Claims

1. Device for coupling or uncoupling a railway vehicle, whereby the device consists of a rotatable shaft that is suspended over the width of the railway vehicle by means of hinges on the towing link side of the railway vehicle, which is folded in the middle in a shape that acts as a supporting bracket, and is connected at both ends at a right angle to two levers that have handles at their ends, and which are outside the width of the railway vehicle, and whereby when the shaft rotates, the supporting bracket moves a towing link upwards when the levers are moved upwards, or downwards when the levers are moved downwards, resulting in the uncoupling or coupling of the railway vehicle characterised in that the force needed to move the levers is reduced by means of dampers.

2. Device according to claim 1, characterised in that the dampers consist of gas springs or springs of another type.

3. Device according to claim 1, characterised in that the force and position of the dampers are chosen such that the supporting bracket remains in the raised or lowered position after it has been placed in this position by the levers.

4. Device according to claim 1, characterised in that the towing link can be positioned by manually moving only one of the two levers that are equipped with a handle.

5. Device according to claim 1, characterised in that its operation can be done by a person who is not located between the two railway vehicles to be coupled.

Drawing