ALEXANDRIA, Va., Oct. 8 -- United States Patent no. 12,435,475, issued on Oct. 7, was assigned to Herzog Railroad Services Inc. (St. Joseph, Mo.).
"Rail tie distribution system" was invented by Steven R. Walton (Olathe, Kan.), Jacob D. Herzog (St. Joseph, Mo.), Tony Shirk (Clarksdale, Mo.), Daniel T. Marshall (Leavenworth, Kan.) and Damon Bailey (Rosendale, Mo.).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A system for distributing rail ties along the side of a track from a rail car and consist of the rail cars is disclosed. Each rail car includes a floor conveyor conveying rail ties to a singulating conveyor assembly which advances rail ties individually to a dealer having an indexing mechanism which selec...