Magnetic pick up system for rail beds and method

摘要

A magnetic pick up system for tie plates uses a pick up head having a rotatable wheel with a plurality of fingers pivotably attached to the wheel. The fingers, which are magnet pole pieces adapted to magnetically grip tie plates and lift them from the ground, are pulled outwardly by centrifical force and serve to extend the effective distance of a magnetic circuit including block magnets mounted within the head. Tie plates lifted by the magnetic pick up head are deposited upon a conveyor belt which lifts them to a hopper upon a rail vehicle. An operator control adjacent to the pick up head provides easy and quick movement of the pick up head both vertically and horizontally allowing an operator walking along beside the pick up head to insure that the pick up head satisfactorily picks up any tie plates upon the roadbed.