Patent GB-191016293-A (GB)
Title: An Improved Token System or Apparatus for Controlling the Traffic on Single Line Railways.
Inventor: SMITH EDWARD WYTHE
IPC: B61L23/24
Filed: 1910-07-08
Granted: 1911-07-06
Abstract: 16,293. Smith, E. W. July 8. Staff and t i c k e t systems. - Sub-section staffs are issued to permit trains in opposite directions to cross at an intermediate loop and a following train to enter the section before the first has cleared. If alternating current is used for the additional instruments, the same line wire is used for the main instruments and the additional ones. Fig. 2 shows the apparatus at two stations X, Y at the ends of a section by which sub-sectional staffs are issued. A sectional staff A, obtained in the usual way from instruments as described in Specification 9858/04 or 16,294/10, is inserted into the drawer A of the apparatus at station X. This drawer is interlocked by the pawls 83 and the sliding latchpiece 40 with the two drawers containing the sub-sectional staffs B, D, so that only one staff may be withdrawn at a time. The staff B controls a section of track from station X to one passing loop, the remainder b e i n g controlled by a staff C stored at the station Y. The staffs D, E control the section in two parts divided at a second passing loop. W h e n the staff A is inserted and moved to the right, either staff B or D is withdrawn and contacts 3 or 4 are closed to send a current in one direction or the other through the switch 6, along the line wire 45 to the polarized magnets 9, 8 which release either staff C or E according to the staff withdrawn at the station X. The trains proceed to the passing loop, and the staffs are exchanged and returned to their proper station. When the sub-sectional staffs are again inserted in their instruments, the dummy slider K at station Y is pulled out and closes a circuit to the lock magnet 10 to release the staff A, which may then be withdrawn and replaced in its instrument. If a second train is to follow another into the section before the first has passed clear, additional instruments are provided at the ends of the section and at a point in the section, and corresponding subsectional staffs B, C are withdrawn at stations X, Y in the manner above described. If the trains are proceeding from X to Y the staff B is given to the driver of the first train and the staff C is inserted in the additional instrument. This makes contacts so as to permit the driver to withdraw from the intermediate instrument a staff for the second portion of the section, and by inserting the staff B into the instrument he gives permission for a second staff to be withdrawn for the second train. In order to ensure that the first train gives permission for the second train, an apparatus described as an "automatic operator " shown in Fig. 3 is used at the intermediate station. The armature 11 closes a circuit through either magnet 12, 14 to which it is moved and is thereby held until the circuit is broken. The instrument S at the intermediate station with indicator I and release magnet M is of the known form. In the normal position the armature 11 makes contact in the circuit of the magnet 12, and a current from the end station passes over the line wire 60 to the intermediate station, through the contact 13, bell 93, and indicator I. The magnet 12 draws the armature 11 until the circuit is broken at the end station, whereupon the spring contact 13 moves the armature 11 to break the contact 13 and make the contact 15 and close a circuit from the battery 17 through magnet 14 to the line and the distant station to release a staff. The withdrawal of a staff breaks the line current, and the armature 11 returns to its normal position.