Patent GB-1131961-A (GB)
Title: Rail element for inclusion in a toy building set
IPC: A63H33/08
Filed: 1967-01-11
Abstract: 1,131,961. Rail element for toy building set. A. FISCHER. 11 Jan., 1967 [19 Jan., 1966; 3 Feb., 1966], No. 1588/67. Heading A6S. A rail element comprises a web portion, both opposite longitudinal edges of which are beaded to form the running surfaces of the rail, and apertures in the web portion to engage re-entrant tenons of building bricks. The element forms part of a toy building set with basic building bricks interlocking by means of re-entrant tenon and groove connections. The rail element 1, has apertures 4, which may be in the nature of keyhole slots and comprise a wider section,. 4a, through which a re-entrant tenon can be introduced, and a narrower adjacent section 4b, for retention of the tenon by engagement in the re-entrant portion thereof. The dimension of each section of the aperture in the longitudinal direction may be greater than that in the transverse direction. The apertures near to the ends of a rail may comprise two narrower sections (20a, 20c) arranged on opposite sides of a wider section (20b). Building bricks may have tenons of a front surface diameter less than the width x of the wider portion 4a, and re-entrant portions of diameter equal to y, so that bricks can be attached to the rails by inserting the tenon at one end of a brick into 4a, and sliding it along the web until the re-entrant part of the tenon engages the narrower portion 4b. Two rail elements 1, may be joined in this way by bricks 5, 6, with re-entrant tenons 7, to form a railway track. The rail elements (13) may be curved, to form a curving track. The crosssection of each headed edge may be such that, as well as running surfaces 3a, 3a' provided at the outermost opposite longitudinal edges of the rail for wheels 8 above the rail and/or 10 below the rail, two running surfaces (3b, 3c), for wheel (14) are provided at the inner edges of each beading, on opposite sides of the web and extending in a plane substantially perpendicular to the latter. This enables the rail to be used as an overhead monorail. The relative rail and brick dimensions may be such that the beaded edges of the rail element 1 can interlock with re-entrant groove 12 of brick 6 to make a single rail track, useful, for example, as a vertical guide rail for a lift. The building set may include electrically conducting rail elements (21), comprising a central lamina of insulating material (22) provided on its two opposite surfaces with electrically conducting material (23) and (24) held with insulating connecting rivets (25). Electric current leads (29) may be suspended above the rails (18 and 18') by a supporting element (27) engaged in the re-entrant groove (28) of a basic building brick (16), so that the rails can be used to carry trolley buses. The rails (31, 31') may be of a flexible material to form part of a points system (30) in which the rails (31, 31') are moved manually by means of the attached brick (16), and pivot relative to fixed rails (36, 36') about the hinge joint of the brick (33) arranged longitudinally between the rail elements (36, 31 and 36', 31') to connect rail assemblies (36, 36' and 31, 31'). The two adjacent diverging track sections (36, 36' and 35, 35') may be held in position relative to one another by two or more building bricks (37, 16, 5) connected end to end between the adjacent rail elements of the track sections, one (37) of which may be triangular. Reference has been directed by the Comptroller to Specifications 1,097,108 and 1,103,645.