A New or Improved Brake for Railway Carriages and the like.
Year: 1895

page_text: Date of Application, 25th Mur., 1895-Accepted, 24th May, 1895
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
A New or Improved Brake for Railway Carriages and the like.
I, WILLIAM MELLOR 12 Geneva Road Winsford Cheshire 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 brakes for railway carriages and the like, the object
being to provide a brake which shall act upon the rails or surface upon which
the vehicle or carriage runs; instead of the wheels of the vehicle or carriage, and
the same is carried out as follows:-
Instead of the usual blocks which engage upon the wheels of the vehicle, I
provide a series of blocks which when required bear upon the rails upon which the
vehicle runs and thus owing to the friction acts as a brake. as the weight of
the carriages or vehicles is partially or wholly taken off the wheels and is supported
upon the blocks.
In order that my invention may be fully understood, I now refer to the annexed
drawings in which :-
Figure 1. is a sectional side elevation of my invention applied to a railway
carriage.
Figure 2. plan view to an enlarged scale of the arrangement of sliding blocks.
Figure 3. enlarged view of sliding block.
Referring to Figure 1. a are the sliding blocks which travel in suitable bearings
or supports attached to the frame of the carriage c. The blocks a are connected
together by the bar d which is pivoted at e to the lever f; this lever f is again
pivoted to the arm g which is operated by the arm h which is again pivoted to the
and
rod or connecting bar i. j is a lever pivoted at & and which operates the arm w,
is pivoted at m. to the bar i, and at 'n to the lever o which is pivoted at p. to the
bent lever g pivoted at y and connected movably at r to the screw rod s. through
a screw socket or such suitable means. This screw rod s. is operated by any
suitable motive power such as may be found most convenient, for instance by means
of a handle t. The rod u is pivotally connected at v to the arm w which is operated
by the lever, and at a to the sliding blocks a. It will be seen that any number of
sliding blocks may be operated at one and the same time, any suitable and well
known form of coupler being employed to connect the coupling mechanism between
the carriages. When the handle t is operated the blocks are depressed and thus
bear upon the rails 1, and according to the amount of depression, will bear upon
the rails, and take the whole or part of the weight of the vehicle or carriage
from the wheels, and thus act as a brake owing to the friction between the rails and
the blocks.
By this arrangement a great saving of wear and tear upon the wheels is effected,
as there is not the strain upon then caused by the application of the brakes to
the circumferences of the wheels. A stop piece or pin y is provided so that the
distance or amount of movement of the blocks a may be regulated.
In Figure 3. the projection or flange is for the purpose of preventing the
blocks a from leaving the rails, and plays a similar part to that of the flange 2 on
the wheel 4, the bearing surface of the block a being rounded so as to easily pass
over slight obstructions such as might be caused by the joinings or meetings of
the rails, when the blocks a are sliding upon the rails. Any well known and
convenient arrangement of levers or their equivalent may be employed to operate
Du 7

page_text: the blocks, as it will be readily understood that although I have shown one
system of connection between the blocks a and the motive power for operating
same, any well known and suitable means may be employed to raise or lower the
blocks a.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of my said inven-
tion and in what manner the same is to be performed I declare that what I
claim is :-
1. The combined construction and arrangement of the various parts substantially
as described and illustrated herein.
2. In brakes for railway vehicles an the like; blocks or sliding surfaces having
flanges or guides which may be caused to bear upon the rails or lines, through the
medium of levers operated when required by hand or other motive power;
said blocks or sliding surfaces taking the weight of the vehicles wholly or partially
from off the wheels upon which the vehicle runs, and owing to the friction
between said sliding surfaces or blocks and the rails or lines acts as a brake; said
blocks or sliding surfaces being removable so that they may be replaced when worn.
Stop pieces for regulating the amount of movement of said blocks or sliding surfaces
when in operation.
Dated this 25th day of March 1895.
E. EATON,
Agent for Applicant.