A New or Improved Brake for Railway Carriages, Railway Waggons, Tram-cars, and other similar Vehicles.
Year: 1890

page_text: Date of Application, 1st July, 1890
Complete Specification Left, 1st May, 1891-Accepted, 6th June, 1891
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION.
A New or Improved Brake for Railway Carriages, Railway Waggons,
Tram-cars, and other similar Vehicles.
We, LUKE ROBERTS, of Union Foundry, Cutler Heights, Tong in the County
of York, Engineer, and JAMES WHEATER, of Exeter Street, Bradford aforesaid,
Engineer, do hereby declare the nature of this invention to be as follows :-
This invention relates to a new or improved brake for railway carriages, railway
waggons, tram-cars and other similar vehicles moved by traction, and its object is
to provide such vehicles with simple and effective automatic brake mechanism.
The said improvements consist in utilising the weight of the load or body of the
vehicle to keep the brake applied and providing mechanism in connection with the
draw bar coupling or the like to take off the brake as soon as power is applied
thereto to move the vehicle.
For this purpose we connect the body of the vehicle to the brake blocks in such
a manner that the whole or a portion of its weight is utilised to apply the brake,
and we arrange cams, eccentrics, inclined planes or their equivalent operated by
longitudinal motion of the draw bar, coupling or the like to lift the body of the
vehicle and take the brake off.
Dated this 30th day of June 1890.
DRACUP & NOWELL,
Bradford, Agents.
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
A New or Improved Brake for Railway Carriages, Railway Waggons,
Tram-cars, and other similar Vehicles.
We, LUKE ROBERTS, of Union Foundry, Cutler Heights, Tong in the County
of York, Engineer, and JAMES WHEATER, of Exeter Street, Bradford aforesaid,
Engineer, do hereby declare the nature of this invention and in what manner the
same is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the
following statement :---
This invention relates to a new or improved brake for railway carriages, railway
waggons, tram-cars and other similar vehicles moved by traction, and its object is
to provide such vehicles with simple and effective automatic brake mechanism.
The said improvements consist in utilising the weight of the load or body of the
vehicle to keep the brake applied and providing mechanism in connection with the
draw bar coupling or the like to take off the brake as soon as power is applied
thereto to move the vehicle.
For this purpose we connect the body of the vehicle to the brake blocks in such
a manner that the whole or a portion of its weight is utilised to apply the brake,
and we arrange cams, eccentrics, inclined planes or their equivalent operated by
longitudinal motion of the draw bar, coupling or the like to lift the body of the
vehicle and take the brake off.
To fully describe our invention reference is made to the accompanying sheet of
drawings forming a part of this Specification, in which similar letters of reference
indicate corresponding parts in each of the figures.
Figure 1, is a side elevation of such parts of a tram or railway vehicle as are
necessary to illustrate our improvements. Figure 2, is a plan view of the same.
And Figure 3, is a sectional view on the broken line a b Figure 1.
Figure 4, is a longitudinal section of a bogie for a tram or railway vehicle

page_text: showing the application of our improvements. Figure 5, is a plan view of the
same, and Figure 6, is a detail of certain parts of the brake mechanism.
Referring firstly to Figures 1, 2 and 3 the framework or body of the vehicle A
is of any ordinary form and is mounted on wheels B in the usual manner but the
axle boxes C are made with their inner and outer sides D and D' projecting above
the others so as to form bearings to receive the journals a of the cam b, one of
which is thus mounted above each axle box. Said cam consists of a short shaft d
having two projections e, e on either side between which the antifriction rollers f, f
are mounted and an arm g rigidly attached to said cam extends up beneath the
framework A. The arms g on each side are connected together by the rods E to
which their upper ends are pivoted and the rods E are fixed at each end to stiff
cross pieces F to which the draw-bar G is rigidly fixed at each end. The draw
bar G passes through a slot H in the frame at each end of the vehicle and is
capable of a limited longitudinal motion defined by the play or distance between
the cross-pieces F and the inner ends of the frame A.
The springs J instead of resting directly upon the axle boxes in the ordinary
manner are mounted upon independent vertical slides K fitted between the horns L
above each axle-box and supported just clear of such boxes by the brake shoes M
secured to their upper inner ends and normally resting upon the peripheries of the
wheels B so that practically the whole weight of the body of the vehicle rests upon
such shoes. The slides K of opposite sides of the vehicle are shown in the
drawings connected together by the cross-pieces N (upon which the brake shoes
are mounted) extending from one to the other but this is not necessary particularly
in the case of light vehicles.
When there is no tension or pressure on the draw-bar G the full weight of the
brake is upon the wheels, but as soon as sufficient power is applied to the draw-bar
the latter is moved longitudinally thus inclining the whole of the arms in the
direction of the motion which turns the cams until one of the antifriction rollers f
of each cam bears against the underside of the slides K and lifts them vertically
so as to raise the brake blocks clear of the wheels and leave the vehicle free to be
moved or drawn along.
The bogie shown in Figures 4, 5 and 6 may be of any ordinary form and the
seat O is provided with a hollow vertical slide P to receive and support the body
of the vehicle. A cam similar to the cam b, before described, is fixed on the
rocking shaft R mounted between the side frames A. and arms g', g' rigidly fixed
to said shaft extend up through the slots in the framework and are pivoted by
their upper ends to the fork ends i of the draw-bar G'. Said draw-bar is shown
broken off but it may be of any required form and supported at its outer end in
the usual manner. The remainder of the brake mechanism is of a well known
l
type consisting of a cross shaft j operated by the levers or arms (Figures 4 and 6)
mounted thereon, and levers m, m fixed at each end connected by the rods n, n to
the brake shoes M hung by the links p to the side frames.
The brake is normally kept on by the shoulders r of the vertical slide P bearing
upon the anti-friction rollers s, s carried by the arms but when power is applied to
the draw-bar the rocking shaft R is turned through the medium of the arms g¹ so
that one of the anti-friction rollers fis raised and bearing against the bottom t of
the slide P lifts such slide clear of the arms and thus takes off the brake.
It will be evident that in case our improved brake is required at both ends of a
vehicle constructed on the bogie principle a special attachment will be required to
be fitted to hold the brake off at the opposite end to that at which the power is
applied but we prefer to employ the arrangement for connecting the brakes of the
two bogies for which Luke Roberts, one of the present applicants, has made
application for Letters Patent No. 7,386, dated the 29th of April 1891.
It is obvious that equivalent mechanical devices such as inclined planes may be
employed instead of the cams described for taking off the brake but we find cams
efficient.

page_text: Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of our said
invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed, we declare what we
claim is:
Brake mechanism put into action by the weight of the vehicle and out of action
through the medium of the draw-bar, substantially as herein shown and described
and illustrated in the accompanying drawings.
Dated this 29th day of April 1891.
DRACUP & NOWELL,
Bradford, Agents.