Im- DRAVEMENTO THEM DOWN WAY OF RATES A " BRAVEMPITS THY IN DODAO WANT OR DATE SAMO "
Year: 1853

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Thomas
Litchchurch, in the County of
Swingler, of Victoria Foundry,
Derby, for the Invention of "Im-
DRAVEMENTO THEM DOWN WAY OF RATES
A
"
BRAVEMPITS THY IN DODAO WANT
OR DATE SAMO
"
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Thomas Swingler
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition,
on the 14th September 1853.
I, THOMAS SWINGLER, of Victoria Foundry, Litchchurch, in the
County of Derby, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention
for "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE PERMANENT WAY OF RAILWAYS" to be as
follows:-
The improvements relate to the construction of switches and cross-
ings as applied both to iron and wooden roads..
The object of the Invention is to simplify and reduce the cost of
labor in the manufacture of switches and crossings; the principal
feature of the Invention consisting of an improved mode of fastening
the back rail of a switch, and of forming a switch so as not to require
any manipulation of the back rail, which cannot be readily done by the

page_text: rail layer on the railway, so that a back rail (which wears much faster
than a switch) being worn out on the upper surface it may be turned,
or a new one put in its place. For this purpose the rail is fixed on the
outer side by chairs with a wooden key, resembling ordinary railway
chairs, except at the first point of support from the end of the switch,
where the chair is constructed so as to support the rail on the bottom
and outer side only.
It is necessary to remark that the use of the chairs above mentioned
is not claimed as an Invention, but simply their combined use with a
chair supporting the bottom and side of the rail, which is necessary
to render the employment of a chair practically useful.
By this mode of fixing the back rail the drilling of the holes neces-
sary in the ordinary plan is avoided.
The chairs above described differ from ordinary chairs inasmuch as the
bearing surface on which the switch traverses is curved, so that a stone,
if it falls on it, will roll off, and the hazard of throwing a train off the
rails (to which the ordinary switches are liable from a stone getting
between the switch and the back rail, and preventing it closing,)
is avoided, and the switch is at the same time more steadily sup-
ported.
To prevent the further manipulation of the back rail by cutting a
notch, as is usual, to receive the switch, a new mode of forming
the end of the switch so as to prevent the necessity of the notch is
adopted.
To explain this part of the Invention it is necessary to describe the
modes of cutting the ends of switches which have been invented with
the view of avoiding the cutting or notching the back rail.
In Mr. Wild's plan the switch is cut so as to house under the head
of the rail. This mode is objectionable from the cost of manufacture,
and the liability of the thin edge when it first receives the weight of
the engine breaking away.
In Mr. Parsons' plan the outer side of the switch is inclined, and
the necessary strength is obtained by the width of the base of the
switch. This mode is also objectionable from the inclined side giving
a disposition to cause an engine or carriage to mount and get off the
road.

page_text: The improved method consists in cutting vertically the points of the
switch to the depth of only the flange of the wheel, leaving the lower,
three or four inches of the full width, by which the necessary strength
of the end of the switch is retained without being liable to either of the
objections above mentioned.
In the plans already employed for constructing cast iron roads two
or more chairs are cast in combination with one sleeper, which
in practice are found objectionable when employed for switches and
crossings, from the difficulty of perfect accuracy in the chairs, and also
from the fracture of one chair rendering useless an entire sleeper.
To avoid these objections it is proposed to cast the chairs separate,
and fasten them by bolts, rivets, or trenails to the cast iron plates or
sleepers, or to cast one chair only, and to fix the others on cach cast
iron plate.
Another part of the Invention consists of a mode of attaching rails
to chairs and sleepers by casting them on the rail. For this purpose
when applied to iron roads a rail of the following shape is used
for the side rail of the crossing and back rail of the switch, and the
rails and points, which may be of forged iron or steel, are attached
to the mould or moulds, being heated to the required heat; the upper
surface of rails being one and three quarter inch or thereabouts above
the surface of the mould or moulds for the cast iron plate or chair of
the crossing or switch.
The cast iron plate is a continuous plate when used in iron roads,
but for wooden sleeper roads separate chairs are cast on the rails and
point, and a rail of the following shape is, by preference, used
which has a hole drilled or formed in it where the chairs occur in
order that a more firm connection may take place.
Under some circumstances it may be advisable in crossings to attach
the point alone by casting it on the iron sleeper or chair, the side rails
being otherwise fastened, or the side rail alone may be attached by
casting, leaving the point to be otherwise fastened.

page_text: In cast iron roads the guide or check rail of the crossing is formed
of cast iron, and cast in connexion with the cast iron sleeper, instead
of using a piece of the rail fastened in chairs, as is usually done.
Sleepers having two chairs cast transversely, or four chairs (two
being transverse and two longitudinal), are used where there is not
width between the rails for ordinary cast iron sleepers.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Thomas Swingler in the Great Seal Patent Office
on the 14th March 1854.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I,
THOMAS SWINGLER, of Victoria Foundry, Litchchurch, in the County of
Derby, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Fourteenth day of September, in the
year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-three, in the
seventeenth year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and suc-
cessors, give and grant unto me, the said Thomas Swingler, Her special
licence that I, the said Thomas Swingler, my executors, administrators,
and assigns, or such others as I, the said Thomas Swingler, my execu-
tors, administrators, and assigns, should at any time agree with, and no
others, from time to time and at all times thereafter during the term
therein expressed, should and lawfully might make, use, exercise, and
vend, within the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, the
Channel Islands, and Isle of Man, an Invention for "IMPROVE-
MENTS IN THE PERMANENT WAY OF RAILWAYS," upon the condition
(amongst others) that I, the said Thomas Swingler, by an instrument
in writing under my hand and seal, should particularly describe and
ascertain the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the
same was to be performed, and cause the same to be filed in the Great
Scal Patent Office within six calendar months next and immediately
after the date of the said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Thomas Swingler, do hereby de-
clare the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same is

page_text: to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by
the following statement thereof (that is to say):
The improvements relate to the construction of switches and crossings
as applied both to iron and wooden roads.
The object of the Inventions is to simplify and reduce the cost of
labor in the manufacture of switches and crossings; the principal
feature of the Invention consisting of an improved mode of fastening
the back rail of a switch, and of forming a switch so as not to require
any manipulation of the back rail, which cannot be readily done by the
rail layer on the railway, so that a back rail (which wears much faster
than a switch) being worn out on the upper surface it may be turned,
or a new one put in its place. For this purpose the rail is fixed on
the outer side by chairs with a wooden key, resembling ordinary rail-
way chairs, except at the first point of support from the end of the
switch, where the chair is constructed so as to support the rail on the
bottom and outer side only.
It is necessary to remark that the use of the chairs above mentioned
is not claimed as an Invention, but simply their combined use with a
chair supporting the bottom and side of the rail, which is necessary
to render the employment of a chair practically useful.
By this mode of fixing the back rail the drilling of the holes neces-
sary in the ordinary plan is avoided.
The chairs above described differ from ordinary chairs inasmuch as
the bearing surface on which the switch traverses is curved so that a
stone, if it falls on it, will roll off, and the hazard of throwing a train
off the rails (to which ordinary switches are liable from a stone getting
between the switch and the back rail, and preventing it closing,) is
avoided, and the switch is at the same time more steadily supported.
To prevent the further manipulation of the back rail by cutting a
notch, as is usual, to receive the switch, a new mode of forming the
end of the switch so as to prevent the necessity of the notch is
adopted.
To explain this part of the Invention it is necessary to describe
the modes of cutting the ends of switches which have been invented
with the view of avoiding the cutting or notching the back rail.

page_text: In Mr. Wild's plan the switch is cut so as to house under. the head
of the rail. This mode is objectionable from the cost of manufacture,
and the liability of the thin edge when it first receives the weight of
the engine breaking away.
In Mr. Parsons' plan the outer side of the switch is inclined, and
the necessary strength is obtained by the width of the base of the
switch. This mode is also objectionable from the inclined side giving
a disposition to cause an engine or carriage to mount and get off the
road.
The improved method consists in cutting vertically the points of
the switch to the depth of only the flange of the wheel, leaving the
lower three or four inches of the full width, by which the necessary
strength of the end of the switch is retained without being liable to
either of the objections above mentioned.
In the plans already employed for constructing cast iron rods two
or more chairs are cast in combination with one sleeper, which in
practice are found objectionable when employed for switches and
crossings from the difficulty of perfect accuracy in the chairs, and
also from the fracture of one chair rendering useless an entire sleeper.
To avoid these objections it is proposed to cast the chairs separate,
and fasten them by bolts, rivets, or trenails to the cast iron plates or
sleepers, or to cast one chair only, and to fix the others on cach cast
iron plate.
Another part of the Invention consists of a mode of attaching rails to
chairs and sleepers by casting them on the rail. For this purpose when
applied to iron roads a rail of the following shape is used
for the side rail of the crossing and back rail of the switch, and the
rails and points, which may be of forged iron or steel, are attached to
the mould or moulds, being heated to the required heat; the upper
surface of rails being 14 inch or thereabouts above the surface of the
mould or moulds for the cast iron plate or chair of the crossing or
switch.
The cast iron plate is a continuous plate when used in iron roads,
but for wooden sleeper roads separate chairs are cast on the rails and

page_text: which has a hole drilled or formed in it where the chairs occur in
order that a more firm connexion may take place.
Under some circumstances it may be advisable in crossings to attach
the point alone by casting it on the iron sleeper or chair, the side rails
being otherwise fastened, or the side rail alone may be attached by
casting, leaving the point to be otherwise fastened.
In cast iron roads the guide or check rail of the crossing is formed
of cast iron, and cast in connexion with the cast iron sleeper, instead
of using a piece of the rail fastened in chairs, as is usually done.
Sleepers having two chairs cast transversely, or four chairs (two
being transverse and two longitudinal), are used where there is not
width between the rails for ordinary cast iron sleepers.
DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS.
The construction will be understood by the accompanying Drawings,
where Figure 1, is an elevation, and Figure 2, a plan of an improved
switch complete, with the chairs. Figures 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, and 8, are
sections and elevations; & Figures 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, and 14, aro plans
of the chairs. Figure 15, is a section of the switch, full size, at the
various points, numbered 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, on the plan.
The mode of cutting the switch will be understood from the Drawings
without further explanations; and it is only necessary to observe that
the rail from which the switch is manufactured is bent or deflected out
of the straight line (previous to its being cut or planed) at A, and B,
in order to obtain the various sections shewn in the Drawing. I do
not confine myself to these precise deflections, as the rail may be made
straight from C, to B, or deflected out of a straight line in an opposite
direction at A, if found advisable, to give room for the check of the
chair to support the back rail between its inner side and the switch.
Figure 16, is a plan, and Figure 17, is an elevation of one form of
my improved crossing, in which the crossing point is cast in, and the
side rail fastened in the ordinary way, which is made in combination

page_text: with my improved sleeper, having one chair cast on and the other loose,
as seen in the Drawing at a, and b, to admit of adjustment. Figures
18, 19, 20, and 21, are sections and elevations at the points A, B,
C, D, and E, F.
Figures 22, and 23, are a plan and elevation, and Figures 24, 25,
26, and 27, are sections and elevations of another form of my Inven-
tion, in which the side rails are cast on, and the crossing part fastened
in the ordinary way.
It has not been considered necessary to shew Drawings of two
simple forms of the Invention, viz., when the side rails and crossing
point are both cast on, as the same will readily be understood by an
engineer without the aid of Drawings; nor have I shown Drawings
of a crossing where the side rails and crossing points are both fastened
in the ordinary way, as the Drawings give sufficient information to a
workman to enable him to understand these circumstances.
What I claim is,-
First, the mode of fastening the back rail, as described.
Second, the mode of forming the switch so as to avoid notching the
back rail, and to give room for the checks of the chairs between the
back rail and the switch.
Third, the casting of longitudinal cast iron sleepers in combination
with one chair, the other being detached to admit of adjustment.
Fourth, the construction of crossings for railways by rails or bars
attached to or cast in combination with a cast iron plate, as described.
In witness whereof, I, the said Thomas Swingler, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, this Thirteenth day of March, in the
year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-four.
Witness,
JNO. ALCOCK.
B
TH SWINGLER. (L.S.)