摘要 |
Rail handling apparatus for automatically seizing, gripping, raising, carrying, lowering and releasing a rail comprising angularly pivotable vertically elongated tong arms connected near their lower ends by a pivot pin and each having means forming a support aperture in its lower end, a toggle link or shackle linking each support structure with an overlying crane ring supported by a crane, and slim tapered tong jaws protruding downward from the lower ends of the tong arms beneath the pivot pin, having converging outer jaw surfaces and inner jaw tip surfaces diverging at an acute angle surmounted by upwardly facing rail-supporting surfaces positioned to embrace and support the ball of a rail flanked by the tong jaws in crane-suspended rail-carrying position. The tong jaws are preferably removable and interchangeably bolted to the lower ends of the tong arms. The narrow tapered jaws may be provided with rotatable rollers facing each other to provide the rail-supporting surfaces, permitting self-hooking and continuous threading of continuous welded rail as the crane advances along the roadbed.
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