Improvements in or relating to Life-guards for Tramway Cars.
Year: 1898

page_text: Improvements in or relating to Life-guards for Tramway Cars.
A communication from Rosco DITTRICK, of 13, Yonker Street, in the City of
Cleveland, County of Cuyahoga and State of Ohio, United States of America,
Trainway Foreman.
I, ALFRED JULIUS BOULT, of 111, Hatton Garden, in the County of Middlesex,
Chartered Patent Agent, 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 :—
The object of the invention is to provide a life guard or fender mechanism for
tramway cars, particularly for cars propelled by electric power, that will, upon
encountering an unusual object, drop down, and, scooping under the object, raise
and hold it off the surface of the roadway until the car is stopped; and that will,
when thrown into action, first cut the electric current off from the motor, then
reverse the motor, and finally turn the current. again onto the motor so that its full
force may be exerted to stop and retract the car after an obstacle has been
encountered.
The accompanying drawings show the invention in the best forms now known, but
many changes obvious to a good mechanic might be made in the details and relative
arrangements of the parts thereof, and some of the parts used without others or with
equivalent features without departing from the spirit of the invention as set forth in
the claims at the end of this specification.
Figure 1 is a perspective view of the front end of a street car with the improved
fender applied thereto, the parts being in the position assumed when the tripping
feuder has been struck by an obstacle and the guard or apron dropped to the surface
of the roadway to pick up the object.
Figure 2 is a side elevation of the same, partly in section, showing by full lines
the parts in their normal positions, and in dotted lines the positions assumed when
the trip has been actuated by contact with an obstacle, and the apron dropped to the
surface of the roadway.
Figure 3 is a diagrammatic perspective view of the invention.
Figures 4 and 5 are detailed views of the chain hooks and stud pins, by means of
which the apron guard is held suspended above the roadway, and of the device for
tripping the hooks off the pins.
Figure 6 illustrates the detaching hook in the chain connecting the apron to the
motor-reversing lever.
Figure 7 illustrates the same in the position assumed after the apron has fallen to
the level of the roadway, the motor having been reversed and the detaching-hook
disconnected so as to leave the motor-reversing lever free.
Figures 8 and 9 are detailed views of the detaching hook.
Figure 10 is a plan view of a modification of the invention in which the guard
fender is provided at its front end with a roller.
Figure 11 is a sectional view of the same on the line 11-11 of Figure 10.
The improved life guard fender is preferably applied beneath the car body A, and
in advance of the wheels B. The fender or apron C, consists of a rectangular frame,

page_text: enclosing a wire netting c. This apron is pivoted at its rear corners to bars I),
attached to and depending from the car frame and braced by diagonal bars D¹, also
depending from the car frame.
Between the bars D, D, at each side of the car there is a vertical wire netting d.
This is at the rear edge of the apron and serves to prevent any obstacle picked from
the roadway by the apron from rolling off its rear edge.
The forward edge of the apron may be sheathed with rubber in order to form a
yielding cushion c, that will not injure or bruise a man or animal taken up by the
apron. This cushion may consist of a rubber tube attached in any suitable fashion
to the apron.
When this sort of cushion is used, it is preferable to split a rubber
tube and lap over the front bar of the apron frame. Instead of this cushion there
may be placed a transverse roller V, (see Figures 10 and 11) along the front edge of
the apron to ease and facilitate the passage of the apron beneath an object on the
roadway to be picked up by it.
The front edge of the apron is normally held suspended by chains E, high enough
above the roadway to clear all of the ordinary inequalities on the surface between the
rails, but for the proper performance of its function as a life guard it is dropped
down to a position where it skims over the surface of the roadway, scooping under
and taking up every object of any material size in its path.
The chains E are provided at their upper end with hooks E¹, which, when the
apron is in its normal position, engage with stud pins or bolts E², projecting from the
sides of the frame timbers of the car body A.
These hooks project over and slightly below the plane of the top of the bolt, their
joints e, preventing their being accidentally displaced or jarred off the pins. They
are also provided with upwardly projecting lugs e¹, by means of which they may be
thrown off and disengaged from the stud pins, as will hereinafter be described.
At each side of the apron frame C, brackets F are attached, which carry rollers F1,
suspended above the rails when the apron is elevated, but contacting with and
rolling upon them when the apron is lowered to its operative position. These rollers
allow the front edge of the apron to skim over the surface of the roadway and serve
to prevent its digging into it, injuriously.
In order to securely hold the apron in its operative position and prevent its
accidentally rising when it has been dropped to catch an obstacle, locking bars or
dogs (+ are employed. These dogs are pivoted at g to the frame timbers of the car
body; they normally stand at an angle, with their lower ends resting upon the apron,
as shown in the several figures of the drawings. When the apron drops down into
operative position, the dogs G swing down with it into a more nearly vertical position,
"dead
their lower ends bearing on the apron above the rollers F¹, so as to form a
lock" which absolutely prevents the apron being raised until the dogs are swung
back out of the vertical line.
The roller V, at the front edge of the apron, may be mounted in suitable hearings
in the side bars of the apron frame, or as slown in Figures 10 and 11 it may be a
hollow cylinder mounted on a stay rod v, extending across the front edge of the
apron and held by nuts v¹, to the side bars thereof. If desired, several rollers may be
used at the front edge of the apron arranged one behind the other in series, but it is
thought that one is sufficient for all practical purposes.
When the rollers are used, it is preferable to employ an
bar W, extending across the frame just inside the rollers, to
the netting and also the safety chain L.
extra stay rod or frame
which may be attached
At the front end of the car and in advance of the apron, is provided a guard or
trip fender H, composed of a rectangular frame, covered with a wire netting h. This
guard fender extends across the full width of the track, so that any obstacle lying on
the roadway between the rails will be struck by it. The side bars of the frame
extend upwards, and are pivotally supported by bolts H¹, from the frame of the car
body. To the upper free ends of these side bars are connected links I, which are
also connected to sliding bars I', mounted in suitable supports or guide loops i, on
the car frame. These bars lie above the chain hooks E', and are provided with striker

page_text: blocks J, which, when the bars are moved forward, contact with the projecting
end e¹, of the chain hooks, and push them off their supporting pins E². When the
guard fender H is struck by an obstacle, it swings back on its pivots, allowing the
object to pass under it, and this movement causes the upper ends of its side bars to
swing forward carrying with them the slide bars I', whose striker blocks J will throw
the hooks E off their supporting pins E², and allow the apron C to drop into its
operative position near the surface of the roadway.
A link K, preferably of wood or some material that is a non-conductor of electricity,
is connected at one end to the rear end of one of the slide bars I, and at its other
end to a switch lever k, through which the electric current passes to the motor.
Normally this switch lever rests upon the contact point K¹, and the circuit is closed,
but when the guard fender H is swung back by an obstruction, and the slide bar I¹
drawn forward, the switch lever is drawn off the contact point and the motor circuit
broken, so that the power is shut off from the car until the guard fender drops back
to its normal position, when the motor circuit is again closed.
During the interval in which the current is cut off from the motor and before it is
again turned on by the return of the guard fender to its normal position, the lever by
which the direction of the motor is controlled, is drawn over to its reversing position,
so that when the current is again turned onto the motor its power will be exerted to
stop the car and reverse its motion.
To accomplish this, a light chain I, is attached to the front edge of the apron, from
whence it runs over guide rollers M, and N, mounted on spindles n, attached to the
car frame, through a hole O, in the floor of the platform, and thence over a guide
pulley P, carried by a bracket p, attached to the switch box Q, on the platform.
The end of the chain is attached to the reversing lever R on the switch box;
this lever being the one usually manipulated by the motorman in the operation of
the car.
It will be understood that when the apron C falls to catch an obstacle on the track, it
draws upon this chain L, and through it pulls the reversing lever from its forward to
its reversed or backward position, reversing the motor circuit, and that this reversal
of the motor circuit is accomplished while the current is entirely cut off from the
motor, by the action of the guard fender H, drawing the switch off the contact
point K¹, and that before the guard fender swings back to its normal position
and returns the switch k to the contact point again, the motor circuit has been
reversed.
It is necessary that the current should be cut off from the motor before it is
reversed, to prevent undue strain and the danger of burning out some of the electrical
apparatus.
In order to release the reversing lever from the pull of the chain L, and leave it free
for the motorman to manipulate even while the apron is down, the chain is made in
two sections Land L' and joined just above the platform floor by a detaching hook S.
This hook consists of a main shank 8, a curved tongue s¹, pivoted to the lower end of
the shank against the side of which it folds up, and a latch s², also pivoted to the
shank and projecting laterally therefrom, and taking over the end of the tongue and
locking it in position, as shown in Figure 6 of the drawings. The upper section L¹
of the chain is attached directly to the top of the shank, and the other section has a
link l, which fits over the tongue s¹, and is held in place while the latter is locked by
the latch 8. The chain then passes down through a hole O, in the floor, which hole
is only large enough for the passage of the shank s, and the tongue &', when they
are folded up as shown in Figure 6, and will not admit of the passage of the latch 8²
in the position shown in that figure.
It therefore follows that when the chain is drawn down through the hole, the
latch & will strike the floor and be arrested in its movement, while the rest of the
device continues on, and that in consequence the latch will be moved to a position
where it will release the tongue and allow the latter to swing down to the position
shown in Figure 7, when the link slips off from it, and the connection between the

page_text: apron and reversing lever is broken. This leaves the lever free to be worked by
the motorman as he may see fit.
The apron, and in fact all of the mechanism except possibly the guard fender in
front, is closely sheltered beneath the car body, where it does not disfigure the car
and is out of the weather. The life guard is thus out of the way of being damaged
by contact with vehicles, etc., and yet it is always in position for instantaneous
service when an obstacle is encountered which necessitates its use.
The entire device is automatic in operation; for the swinging of the guard fender,
upon encountering an obstacle, trips the chain looks to drop the apron and also cuts
off the electric current from the motor; the dropping of the apron, immediately its
hooks are tripped, reverses the motor circuits while the current is cut off; the reversing
lever is released by the action of the detaching hook which parts the chain, and the
apron is dogged or locked down in its operative position by the side bars or dogs G.
There is absolutely no part of the operation left to the presence of mind or quickness
of action of the motorman, who, if he were asleep at the time of running upon a man,
would awaken to find the victim safely on the apron and possibly his car running
backwards, which he would stop by shutting off the current with the lever T, on the
switch box, which is always under his control.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of the said inven-
tion, as communicated to me by my foreign correspondent, and in what manner the
same is to be perforined, I declare that what I claim is :-
.
1. The automatic life guard for tramway cars constructed and operating sub-
stantially as herein shown and described.
2. The method substantially as herein described of raising foreign objects from the
track of an electric railway when they are encountered by a motor car and auto-
matically cutting off the current from the motors of that car, substantially as herein
shown and described.
3. A fender mechanisin for electric railway cars which upon encountering an object
will dip down and scoop under the object and will then turn off the electric current,
then reverse the motor, and finally turn the current on again, substantially as herein
shown and described.
4. The combination of the apron located beneath the car, the pivotal supports at
its rear edge, the chain hooks and the stud pins with which they engage the trip
guard or fender pivotally suspended in front of the apron, and means whereby it may
trip the hooks of the apron chains off their supporting pins, substantially as set
forth.
5. The combination of the apron pivotally supported beneath the car, the chains
at its front edge having hooks which engage supporting stud pins, the trip guard
pivotally suspended in front of the apron, the sliding bars with their striker blocks
to engage the chain hooks, and the links connecting the bars to the trip guard, sub-
stantially as set forth.
6. The combination of the apron pivotally supported at its rear edge beneath the
car, means for supporting its front edge that will allow it to be lowered, dogging
levers pivotally supported above the apron with their free lower ends resting thereon,
substantially as set forth.
7. The combination of a car, and an apron suspended therefrom, the front edge of
which drops to the surface of the roadway to scoop under an object, with a roller or
series of rollers extending along the front edge of the apron, substantially as set
forth.
8. The combination of the apron located beneath the car and supported at its rear
edge while its front edge is supported by chains with trip hooks, the rollers secured
to the under side of the apron and located above each rail of the track, and the
dogging levers pivotally suspended above the apron with their lower ends resting upon
it, with means for tripping the chain hooks off from their supports, substantially as
set forth.
9. The combination of the apron located beneath the car body and supported sub-

page_text: stantially as described, the guard fender suspended from the car body in front of the
apron, the sliding trip bars connected to the guard fender and provided with means
for tripping the apron, and the electric cut off switch connected to the sliding trip-
bar, all arranged so that the movement of the guard fender which trips the apron
also cuts the current off from the motor, substantially as set forth.
10. The combination of the apron suspended beneath the car, with means whereby
its front edge may be tripped and allowed to fall to the level of the roadway, a lever
for reversing the motor circuits, with means for connecting it to the apron in such
manner that the fall of the apron reverses the position of the lever and the motor
circuits, and then disconnects the apron from the reversing lever so as to leave the
latter free, substantially as set forth.
11. The combination of the apron located beneath the car, with means for tripping
and allowing it to fall into operative position, and a motor-circuit reversing lever,
connected by a chain to the apron so that upon the fall of the apron the motor cir-
cuits will be reversed, with a detaching book in the chain which will open and part
the chain after the reversing lever has been moved sufficiently to reverse the motor
circuits, substantially as set forth.