Mobile apparatus for continuously measuring the resistance of track rails to lateral pressures

Claim 1

A mobile apparatus for continuously measuring the resistance of track rails to lateral pressures tending to increase the track gage, comprising 1. a rail test car mounted for mobility on the track rails for advancing in the direction of track elongation, 2. a leading track gage carriage coupled to the car, 3. a trailing track gage carriage coupled to the car and spaced rearwardly of the leading track gage carriage in the direction of advancement of the car along the track, a. each track Gage carriage having means for measuring the track gage and for emitting a signal indicating the measured track gage, and b. the track gage measuring means of one of the carriages being adapted to measure the track gage with a defined lateral pressure of a magnitude different from that of the track gage measuring means of the other carriage, at least one of the defined lateral pressures being sufficient to increase the track gage, 4. a computer, and 5. an electrical circuit for transmitting the signals indicating the measured track gage from each of the carriages to the computer, the circuit including a. means for delaying the transmission of the signal from the leading carriage for a time corresponding to the spacing between the carriages and the concomitant distance traversed during the advancement of the car and b. means for instantaneously transmitting the signal from the trailing carriage, and 6. means in the computer for comparing the two signals and determining the increase in the track gage under a defined lateral pressure as the difference between the two signals, the determined track gage increase under the defined lateral pressure being a measure of the resistance of the track rails to lateral pressures.