Improvement relating to Underground Railways.
Year: 1898

page_text: Date of Application, 23rd July, 1898-Accepted, 27th Aug., 1898
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
Improvement relating to Underground Railways.
I, KARL WEBER, Engineer, of 10, Bornestrasse, Dusseldorf, Germany, 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 underground conduit railways and more especially to
narrow gauge railways, suitable for the transport of goods, as illustrated by the
accompanying drawing, which represents a vertical section of a railway and con-
duit embodying my invention.
The rails are laid in a tubular conduit of oval or ovoid section, similar to that
of large sewage conduits.
The conduit is preferably made of concrete, and depends in size on the nature
of the vehicles or of the goods to be transported, but will generally not be less
than 70 centimeters wide and 105 centimeters high.
The line of rails mounted in this conduit has a gauge equal to about one third
of the clear height of the tube and is supported on lateral projections e provided for
this purpose in the lower part of the conduit. The rails may be fixed by various
means, preferably by Lewis bolts or stone screws b inserted into suitable holes
which are afterwards filled up with fusible cement.
To avoid accidental widening of the rail gauge, the spaces between the rails and
the corresponding walls of the conduit are filled up with concrete.
In the case of cable traction, the necessary guide rollers may be conveniently
mounted in the base of the conduit by means of Lewis bolts or other known
devices, as represented by the drawing.
The trucks or wagons for such an underground railway may be of various types,
such as tip-wagons adapted to tip sideways or forward, or platform wagons, with
or without end walls, box wagons or barrel wagons.
The shape of the vehicles corresponds to that of the tube, as illustrated by the
drawing, and they are drawn by cables, electro-motors or other mechanical means.
In case of a double line railway, two conduits may be made side by side, or two
lines of rails may be laid side by side in a large conduit of suitable cross-section.
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. In underground conduit railways suitable for the transport of goods, a tubular
conduit made of concrete or similar material and of oval or ovoid cross-section,
the lower part of the conduit being provided with internal projections adapted to
support and hold the rails, substantially as described and illustrated by the
drawings.
2. An underground narrow gauge goods railway having a tubular conduit of
oval cross section provided in its lower part with inside projections, rails mounted

page_text: on the said projections as described, rolling stock corresponding in shape to that
of the conduit, and means for traction by cable or other mechanical power,
substantially as described and illustrated.
Dated this 02nd day of T1 1808
FAIRFAX & WETTER,
Agents, 37 and 39, Essex Street, Strand, London.