Improvements in Joint Chairs or Fish Plate Chairs for Railway Permanent Way.
Year: 1898

page_text: Date of Application, 24th Oct., 1898
Complete Specification Left, 19th July, 1899—Accepted, 26th Aug., 1899
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in Joint Chairs or Fish Plate Chairs for Railway
Permanent Way.
I, FREDERICK GEORGE WRIGHT, of 12, Park Lane, New Swindon, in the County
of Wiltshire, Engineer, do hereby declare the nature of this invention to be as
follows:-
This invention relates to an improved joint chair for connecting and sup-
porting the ends of rails used on the permanent way of railways.
The joint chair is constructed in two halves, each portion being made to fairly
conform to the shape of the side and foot of the rail, the upper portion however
should not be of sufficient height to come in contact with the under part of head
of rail, a flange projects from the lower portion of each half chair as an extension
of the base for forming the foot of the chair, the part of the flange of chair which
passes under foot of rail is made of an increased thickness to that portion of
flange which is on the outside, so that as the half chairs are placed in position on
each side of the rail, and secured to the rail by bolts, their base is also connected
by bolts to the sleepers on each side of joint; the foot of the half chairs pro-
jecting under foot of rail, carry the weight and act as a girder suspended at
the two ends and would ensure an unyielding joint.
The purpose of the bolts which connect the half chairs, is not to support the
rails, but to secure the half chair, and also to anchor the rails to the sleepers,
so tending to prevent the creeping of the rails so common with existing methods
of connecting the rail joints by fish plates.
Dated this 21st doy of October 1808
Improvements in Joint Chairs or Fish Plate Chairs for Railway
Permanent Way.
I, FREDERICK GEORGE WRIGHT, of 12, Park Lane, New Swindon, in the County
of Wiltshire, Engineer, do hereby declare the nature of this invention and in
what manner the same is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascer-
tained in and by the following statement:-
My invention relates to an improved joint chair for connecting and supporting
the ends of rails used on the permanent way of railways.
The joint chair is constructed in two halves, each portion being made to fairly
conform to the shape of the side and foot of the rail, the upper portion however

page_text: should not be of sufficient height to come in contact with the under part of head
of rail, a flange projects from the lower portion of each half chair as an extension
of the base for forming the foot of the chair, the part of the flange of chair which
passes under foot of rail is made of an increased thickness to that portion of
Hange which is on the outside. The half chairs are placed in position on each
side of the rail and secured to the rail by bolts, their
also connected by bolts to the sleepers on cach side of joint; the foot of the half
chairs which project under foot of rail, carries the weight and act as a girder sus-
pended at the two ends, and would ensure an unyielding joint.
base is
The purpose of the bolts which connect the half chairs, is not to support the
rails, but to secure the half chair, and also to anchor the rails to the sleepers,
so tending to prevent the creeping of the rails so common with existing methods
of connecting the rail joints by fish plates.
The sleeper, on which the joint chair is secured, has an inclined recess cut
in its upper surface so that when the joint chair is secured, with the rail between
it, the necessary inclination would be given to the rail, a wedge, or filling up
piece can be placed between the joint chair and the sleeper for the same purpose.
In the accompanying drawings are shown the construction and methods of
applying the joint chair to different forms of rails.
Fig. I is an end elevation of the improved joint chair shown as carrying a rail
of the bullhead section. Fig. 2 side elevation, and Fig. 3 plan in which a and a¹
represents the two halves of the joint chair formed so as to fairly conform to the
section of the rail, the part which accommodates the foot of the rail is made so
as to leave a clearance between the halves of the joint chairs at b, and also between
the chair and the side and upper part of the foot of the rail so as to allow of the
rail taking its full bearing at the foot of each half of the joint chair, the foot of
the half chair being made of increased thickness and strength for this purpose.
The clearance between the halves of the chairs also allow the halves of the chair
to be drawn close to the web of the rail by the bolts c. The halves of each chair
in addition to being bolted together at the joint of the rail have to be supported
at their ends, and bolted or otherwise secured to each sleeper adjacent to the
joint; so that each half chair forms a suspended joint or girder for carrying the
rail.
The bolts c connecting the two halves of the chair to the rail should be a loose
fit in their holes, as otherwise there is a possibility of a shearing strain coming
on the bolts in case the rail should not be properly bedded in the joint chair.
The sleeper can be cut away on its upper surface so as to admit of the proper
angle being given to the joint chair and consequently to the rail as shown in the
end elevation in Fig. 1, or a block of metal or of wood d can be placed on each
sleeper adjacent to the rail joint so as to give the proper angle to the rail as
shown in Fig. 4, instead of these methods however, the proper inclination may be
given to the two halves of the joint chair as shown in Fig. 5 when the section is
rolled.
The section of iron or steel from which the joint chair is made is rolled so as
to conform to the shape of the rails, used, as specified or to other shapes than
those specified, so long as the essential feature of the rail taking its bearing only
at the base of each of the half joint chair is adhered to in combination with
the suspension of the joint chair at the ends and the anchoring of the joint chair to
the sleepers adjacent to the rail joint.
Fig. 6 is an end elevation of the improved joint chair showing method of apply-
ing a joint chair to a rail of the Vignole" section.
"
Fig. 7 side elevation, and Fig. 8 plan. The same description applies, as is
given for Figs. 1 to 5, with the exception that instead of having the whole of
the width of the foot of the rail to rest on the foot of chair, a portion of the
width of foot of rail is cut away so as to avoid rolling the half chairs of such a
depth as it would be necessary to accommodate the foot of flange of the rail
where it is not cut away as shown.

page_text: In some instances I roll the section of iron or steel for the half chair with a flat
ridge, at point Z on Fig. 4, on its outer surface at a distance from the bolt hole to
correspond with the depth of a square or polygonal shaped bolt head or bolt, so
that when using bolts or heads of these shapes, the bolts would be prevented from
turning by the heads resting on the ridge of the joint chair.
The side of the chair on which the nut would occur, would have a washer so as
to keep the nut off the ridge.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of my said
invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed, I declare that what
I claim is
1. The herein before described rail joint chair constructed, and arranged sub-
stantially as described from rolled sections so that the rail takes its bearing by
its base resting on the flange situated in the base of the joint chair, the half
sections being secured to the rails and to the adjacent sleepers substantially as
and for the purpose herein before described with reference to the accompanying
drawings.
2. A rail joint chair constructed and arranged substantially as herein de-
scribed and set forth with reference to the accompanying drawings.
Dated this 18th day of July 1899.
FREDERICK GEORGE WRIGHT.