IMPROVED MEANS FOR TRANSPORTING LOADED WAGGONS AND OTHER VEHICLES ON TRAMWAYS
Year: 1879

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Silas Nicholls, of Parliament Street, in the City of
Westminster, for the Invention of "IMPROVED MEANS FOR TRANSPORTING
LOADED WAGGONS AND OTHER VEHICLES ON TRAMWAYS."
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Silas Nicholls at the Office
of the Commissioners of Patents on the 29th October 1879.
SILAS NICHOLLS, of Parliament Street, in the City of Westminster. "IMPROVED
MEANS FOR TRANSPORTING LOADED WAGGONS AND OTHER VEHICLES ON
TRAMWAYS."
This Invention consists in the employment of carrying trucks or trolleys, having
each a single pair of flanged wheels fitting the gauge of the tramway, and capable
of being coupled together to form a train which would be drawn by a small
locomotive engine. Each truck or trolley consists of a frame of suitable construc-
tion supported on a pair of wheels, which may be on the same or different axles,
and the axles may either turn in suitable axle boxes or they may be fixed, and
either straight or cranked, and the wheels turn upon them like those of a common
road vehicle.
The frame carries two small platforms, one at each side, outside the wheels and
within a few inches of the ground, upon which platforms the wheels of the cart,
waggon, or other vehicle to be transported rest, the truck or trolley being tilted
up if necessary to facilitate the wheeling of the vehicle onto these low platforms.
The frame of the truck or trolley is provided with a forward or rearward extén-
sion resembling the trail of a field gun carriage, by which the trucks or trolleys
may be coupled to one another, the coupling being effected by means of a spring
perforated slide and a vertical bolt.
By my Invention tramways laid in roads and streets are rendered available for
the conveyance of heavily loaded vehicles (such as contractors', coal merchants', and
market gardeners' carts and waggons) whose wheels do not correspond to the gauge
of the tramway, it being intended that such vehicles, with or without their horses,
shall be transported along tramways between the running of the passenger cars or
at night when the ordinary traffic is suspended.
For the conveyance of a pair wheeled cart and horse, or for the conveyance of a
four wheeled waggon without its horses, two such trucks or trolleys would be used,
but any number of them may be connected together to form a train of convenient
length carrying a number of loaded vehicles.
The trucks or trolleys used for the conveyance of the horses or other live stock
would be fitted with fixed and portable sides.

page_text: shown in dotted lines in Figure 3. N is a small winch mounted on the perch H
for drawing the vehicle to be transported onto the truck or trolley by means of a
chain. The platforms E are slightly curved or hollowed in the fore and aft
direction, as shown, to retain the wheels of the cart or vehicle upon them, and they
are provided with wings or plates e hinged to the ends of the platforms to form
inclines for the wheels of the cart or vehicle to run on in wheeling it on or off the
trolley. These wings e may be drawn up by chains close against the wheels of the
cart to assist in keeping it in place on the platforms. In wheeling a cart onto the
platforms the wings e would be let down onto the ground and the trolley tilted
until the platforms assume the inclined position shown in dotted lines in Figure 1.
The cart may then be readily drawn onto the platforms by means of the winch N
or otherwise, after which the trolley is brought to its horizontal position and
coupled to another one similarly loaded, the shafts of the cart resting on a cross
bar P pivoted on the perch H. The leverage obtained by means of this perch H
enables the trolley to be readily tilted and returned to the horizontal position with
the laden vehicle upon it.
For transport of a four wheeled waggon two such trucks or trolleys would be
used back to back, the front wheels of the waggon being first run onto the platforms
of the one trolley and then the hind wheels onto those of the other trolley, the two
trolleys being then connected together by a chain.
Having described the nature of my Invention and the manner of performing the
same, I declare that what I claim as my Invention to be protected by the herein-
before in part recited Letters Patent is,―
1st. A two wheeled truck or trolley adapted to travel on the rails of a tramway,
and provided with platforms outside the wheels near the ground for the wheels of
a cart or other vehicle to be transported to rest on, substantially as and for the
purpose specified.
2nd. A two wheeled truck or trolley provided with outside platforms and with a
central longitudinal extension or perch, substantially as and for the purposes shown
and described.
3rd. The combination of two such pair wheeled trucks or trolleys, each provided
with outside platforms for the transport of a four wheel waggon, substantially as
described.
4th. The particular construction of truck or trolley, substantially as herein shown
and described for the purpose specified.
5th. In a truck or trolley as described, the concavely curved platforms with
hinged wing pieces, substantially as and for the purpose specified.
In witness whereof, I, the said Silas Nicholls, have hereunto set my hand
and seal, this Twenty-eighth day of April, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and eighty.
STTAN NICHOLLS Gol
SILAS NICHOLLS. (L.S.)