Importance

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Abstract

A train or a significant portion thereof comprising coupled freight or passenger cars or a close coupled multi-car 'pack' of cars, including one or more with defective running gear are diverted to a service track, having a first work station incorporating a working 'gap' overlying a lateral trench. The rails of the track, at the trench, are reinforced, and pivotted as swing rails, for lateral retraction alongside the trench. A track having a trolley thereon can move along the bottom of the trench between the first work station and a second similarly, equipped work station. The trolley has a low-boy, high capacity jack capable of raising the axle together with the associated car end or ends, to be blocked-up in-situ. The pivotted swing rails are retracted permitting tile defective wheel set to be lowered clear of the car, and the trolley then moved back along the trench to the second work station, which has a second service track extending parallel with the first service track and also has swing rails there across. At the second work station the defective wheel set is replaced by a replacement set from the second service track. The procedure is then reversed to substitute the replacement wheel set beneath the car, which is then returned to service with the still coupled train, all within a matter of a few hours. Actual wheel set replacement can be reduced to one hour, operated by one man, and eliminates the three day break down and reassembly time for a train.

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First Claim