An Improved Railway Chair and New or Improved Means for Attaching the same to Railway Sleepers.
Year: 1897

page_text: An Improved Railway Chair and New or Improved Means for
Attaching the same to Railway Sleepers.
We, SYDNEY LEONARD SMITII, Inventor, Permanent Way Inspector, and
CHARLES CLEMENT POLLARD, both of 51, Grove Road, Hoe Street, Walthamstow,
in the County of Essex, do hereby declare the nature of this invention to be as
follows:
-
Our invention has for its object an improved railway chair and means for attach-
ing the same to the railway sleepers, whereby the necessity of boring
or spiking the sleepers, as is generally the case when adopting the
method usually employed for securing chairs to sleepers at the present time, is
avoided, and thus the full strength of the sleepers is utilized, wear and tear on the
sleepers greatly reduced, and their life consequently prolonged. By the use of
this invention a considerable saving in labour and tools required in laying or
repairing the permanent way is also effected.
In carrying our invention into practical effect we take an ordinary chair having
a rectangular base. Across the upper surface of each end of the chair and in a
direction parallel to the rail when laid, we make a groove. When it is required
to fasten the chair to a sleeper, we place a rod or bar of iron or other suitable
substance in each of these grooves, the said rods or bars being of rather greater
length than the width of the sleeper, so as to slightly overlap the latter at each
end when placed in the said grooves. The spaces underneath the ends of these rods.
or bars, and between the sides of chair and the edges of the sleeper, are occupied
by blocks of metal or the like (which may be attached to or made in one with
the said rods or bars), so that each rod or bar, when in position, is supported
throughout its entire length with the exception of a short overlapping piece at
each end thereof. The surface of each of these blocks coming in contact with the
sleepers may be toothed, corrugated, or otherwise roughened. The overlapping
piece at each end of each rod or bar has a hole or its equivalent bored vertically
therethrough for a purpose hereinafter described.
We now take a bolt having one end thereof turned up at right angles thereto,
and having a sharp upwardly projecting point at its extremity, or a suitable length
at this end of the bolt may be turned round in any other convenient manner and
have a sharp upwardly projecting point, so as to form a hook or grapnel. The
other end of this bolt is screw threaded for a convenient distance.
In securing a chair to a sleeper, one of the said bars or rods is placed as described
in each of the said grooves in the chair and the screw threaded end of one of the
said bolts is passed through the vertical hole or opening in each of the overlapping
ends of the said rods or bars, the hooked or grapnel end of each bolt being placed
underneath the sleeper. A screw nut is now affixed to the screw threaded end of

page_text: each bolt and screwed up tight, thus causing the hook or grapnel to grip the under-
side of the sleeper and the bars and blocks to hold the chair firmly to the sleeper.
In situations where there is likely to be a severe strain on the chairs, we may if
necessary employ bolts each having one screw threaded end as already described,
but having their other ends forked and having each arm or prong of such fork
formed into a hook or grapnel, so that each bolt may have two or more such hooks
or grapnels according as there are two or more prongs or arms to the said forked
end.
Dated this 29th day of July 1897.
An Improved Railway Chair and New or Improved Means for
Attaching the same to Railway Sleepers.
We, SYDNEY LEONARD SMITH, Inventor, Permanent Way Inspector, and
CHARLES CLEMENT POLLARD, both of 51, Grove Road, Hoe Street, Walthamstow,
in the County of Essex, 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:—
Our invention has for its object an improved railway chair and means for attach-
ing the same to the railway sleepers, whereby the necessity of boring or spiking
the sleepers, as is generally the case when adopting the method usually employed
for securing chairs to sleepers at the present time, is avoided, and thus the full
strength of the sleeper is utilized, wear and tear on the sleepers greatly reduced,
and their life consequently prolonged. By the use of this invention a considerable
saving in labour and tools required in laying or repairing the permanent way is
also effected.
In carrying our invention into practical effect, we take an ordinary chair having
a rectangular base. Across the upper surface of each end of the chair and in a
direction parallel to the rail when laid we make a groove. When it is required to
fasten the chair to a sleeper, we place a rod or bar of iron or other suitable sub-
stance in each of these grooves, the said rods or bars being of rather greater
length than the width of the sleeper, so as to slightly overlap the latter at each
end when placed in the said grooves. The spaces underneath the ends of these
rods or bars, and between the sides of chair and the edges of the sleeper, are
occupied by blocks of metal or the like (which may be attached to or made in one
with the said rods or bars), so that each rod or bar, when in position, is supported
throughout its entire length with the exception of a short overlapping piece at
each end thereof. The surface of each of these blocks coming in contact with the
sleepers may be toothed, corrugated, or otherwise roughened. The overlapping
piece at each end of each rod or bar has a hole or its equivalent bored vertically
therethrough for a purpose hereinafter described.
We now take a bolt having one end thereof turned up at right angles thereto,
and having a sharp upwardly projecting point at its extremity, or a suitable length
at this end of the bolt may be turned round in any other convenient manner and
have a sharp upwardly projecting point, so as to form a hook or grapnel. The
other end of this bolt is screw-threaded for a convenient distance.
In securing a chair to a sleeper, one of the said bars or rods is placed as
described in each of the said grooves in the chair and the screw-threaded end of one

page_text: the said ports 18 passed through the vertical hole or opening in each or the
overlapping ends of the said rods or bars, the hooked or grapnel end of each bolt
being placed underneath the sleeper. A screw nut is now affixed to the screw-
threaded end of each bolt and screwed up tight, thus causing the hook or grapnel
to grip the underside of the sleeper and the bars and blocks to hold the chair
firmly, to the sleeper.
.
In situations where there is likely to be a severe strain on the chairs, we may if
necessary employ bolts each having one screw-threaded end as already described,
but having their other ends forked and having each arm or prong of such fork
formed into a hook or grapnel, so that each bolt may have two or more such hooks
or grapnels, according as there are two or more prongs or arms to the said forked
end.
We will now proceed to further describe our invention in connection with the
accompanying drawings, in which the same letters of reference indicate like parts
in the various figures.
Fig. 1 is a plan view from above,
Fig. 2 is a side elevation,
Fig. 3 is a plan from below, and
Fig. 4 is an end elevation, of a railway sleeper with the chairs and rails attached
thereto, according to our invention.
Fig. 5 is a perspective view of a chair.
Fig. 6 is a plan from below of a bar hereinafter referred to.
The chair a is constructed according to the well known form and has a groove b
formed across each end thereof. When it is required to fasten one of these chairs
to the sleepers, a bar c, having the blocks c¹ formed thereon or attached thereto
and being of somewhat greater length than the width of the sleeper, is placed in
each of these grooves. The said bars c being of such size and configuration that
the corrugated or otherwise roughened surfaces of the blocks c¹ (see Fig. 6) now
come in contact with the surface of the sleeper.
The extremities of the bars c, which overlap the sleeper, have perforations or
the like (Fig. 6) formed in them. The grapnel shaped bolts e are now placed
with their pointed ends under the sleeper and their screw-threaded ends through
the perforations or the like d in the bars c, and nuts g are screwed on to the threaded
ends of the bolts e and tightened up, thus forcing the pointed ends of the bolts e
into the under side of the sleeper and the corrugations or points on the under
surface of the blocks c¹ into the upper surface of the sleeper, and securing the chair
firmly in position. Four grapnel bolts being thus required to secure each chair
to its sleeper.
The rails are fixed to the chairs in the usual way.
If required forked grapnel. bolts such as el may be employed, or forked grapnel
bolts having more than two arms or grapnels.
Washers are placed beneath the nuts g and a strip of felt or other suitable sub-
stance may be placed in the grooves between the chairs and the bars c, to lessen
vibration or hammering.
It is obvious that instead of using horizontal grooves such as 6 we may use
vertical grooves such as b¹ (Fig. 5) in the chairs a; in the latter case, the blocks c¹
fit into the vertical grooves. Or both horizontal grooves such as 6 and vertical
grooves such as 61 may be employed.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of our said inven-
tion and in what manner the same is to be performed, we declare that what we
claim is:-
(1) The herein described method of and means for securing railway chairs to
sleepers.
Railway chairs having grooves formed therein substantially as described.
Bars such as c with blocks such as c¹ and grapnel bolts for securing railway
chairs to sleepers substantially as described.

page_text: (4) Grapnel bolts for securing railway chairs to sleepers substantially as
described.
(5) Bars such as c with blocks such as c¹ for securing railway chairs to sleepers
(4) Grapnel bolts for securing railway chairs to sleepers substantially as
described.
(5) Bars such as c with blocks such as c¹ for securing railway chairs to sleepers
substantially as described.
تيمم
1000
CASTLE SMITH,
"Invention" Office, Mitre Court, Fleet Street, London, E.C.,
Agent for the Applicants.