Third-rail Underground Electric Railway System.
Year: 1898

page_text: Date of Application, 22nd Feb., 1893-Accepted, 6th Aug., 1898
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
[Communicated from abroad by LOUIS EDWARD WALKINS, of 16, Melrose Street,
Springfield, Massachusetts, Civil Engineer, and GEORGE MANNYPENNY JEWETT,
of Glenville, Harford County, Maryland, Gentleman, both in the United
States of America.]
Third-rail Underground Electric Railway System.
I, WILLIAM HUMPHREY WHEATLEY, of the Firm of Wheatley and Mackenzie,
Engineers and Patent Agents, of 40, Chancery Lane, London, W.C., do hereby
declare the nature of this invention and in what manner the same is to be per-
formed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following
statement:
This invention relates to what may be characterized as a third-rail under-
ground, electric railway system, the object of the invention being to support the
third-rail, used as a conductor for the motor current, within an underground, top-
slotted conduit, all in such manner that the rail is readily accessible to be reached
and contacted upon by an under-running trolley or shoe of the motor car, that the
rail is stably and firmly supported and perfectly insulated; so that the rail is
maintained away from any water accumulations in the conduit, and so that the
insulating material for the rail constitutes a shed for any water which may enter
the conduit.
The invention consists in the combination with the underground conduit of
the supporting and insulating means for the third rail; and other and further
devices all substantially as will hereinafter fully appear and be set forth in the
claims.
Reference is to be had to the accompanying drawings in which:
Figure 1 is a cross sectional view of the railway inclusive of the underground
third rail and its enclosing conduit and the supporting and insulating means
therefor.
Figure 2 is a plan view of the same.
Figure 3 is a cross sectional view substantially like Figure 1, but showing the
current-conducting rails and supporting and insulating means therefor.
Figure 4 is a side elevation of the current-conducting "third" rail on a larger
scale, and of the shoe or trolley in running contact thereon, and
Figure 5 is an end elevation of the same.
Similar characters of reference indicate corresponding parts in all of the views.
In the drawings, A represents the roadbed of a railway, B B being the usual
car-track rails and C represents the central, longitudinally running, top-slotted
underground conduit, supported in a usual manner in the cast iron yoke
frames E, provided at suitable intervals and D represents the third rail, located
within the conduit, the same being supported below the slot or mouth a thereof
and above the bottom b thereof.
The conduit as shown is oval or approximately that form and comprises the
outer section d of hard cement, and an inner section f of an insulating material

page_text: hard in its nature, and also a good insulator, which closely adheres to and is as
one with the outer cement conduit section. The conduit has, midway between its
base and top, at opposite sides, the rests, sockets or ledges g g on which are sup-
ported the transverse ties h, of wood, preferably. On these ties is supported the
longitudinally running trough which has preferably a lining of mica. The
conductor rail D is mounted with its base in this trough i, its tread portion being
somewhat above the top edges of the trough side.
The top edges of the trough side, as seen at 10, 10, are downwardly and out-
wardly beveled. There is a filling of cement or concrete placed in the trough i
and covering the base and neck of the rail D and extending up under the tread
portion thereof, and as seen in the cross sectional view the outer sides of. this
cement filling as well as the edges of the trough are downwardly and outwardly
inclined, whereby a water-shed is constituted and a provision also for the falling
away from the third rail conductor of any dirt or other substances. This conduit,
as usual in underground conduits, is provided with an outlet or drainage passage,
such as indicated by the dotted lines m.
In Figure 3, substantially the same equipments are illustrated as in Figure 1,
with the exception that two longitudinally running current-conducting rails are
shown, instead of one, together with the corresponding troughs and cement or
concrete flank bases for the rails.
In Figures 4 and 5, I have illustrated an improved shoe or under-running trolley
for contact on the underground third rail conductor which embodies features of
improvement and advantage in that the shoe which receives the current, from the
rail, or conveys the current to the rail, as the case may be, is in a sense inde-
pendent of the arms or carriers by means of which the shoe derives its support
from the motor car or truck, provision being made for the more direct connection
of the current wires with the shoe than has heretofore been practiced where the
current had connection with the shoe through the supporting arms for the latter.
And referring to the drawing, Figures 4 and 5, 20, 20 represent the supporting
arms understood as having supporting connections with the motor car or truck,
and having pivoted thereto and between their depending ends at 22, 22, the plate
or shoe-holder 23, the shoe 24 being yieldingly supported by and suspended through
said plate. The shoe has the upstanding squared shank 25 which passes through
a squared aperture therefor in the holder-plate 23, and said shank is further up-
wardly continued in the stem 25.
The holder-plate has the pillars 26, 26 supporting the top plate 27 above the
holder-plate 23, through which the stem 25, extended above the shoe, has a sliding
fit. The spring 29 is provided under pressure between the top-plate 27 and the
shoulder 30, provided on the stem, which imparts the yielding pressure to the shoe.
The shoe is connected to its shank 25 through the medium of insulation indi-
cated at 32.
This shoe has at its ends the contact posts or terminals 33, 33, to connection
with which the wires 34, 34 are brought. These wires, as is understood, being
covered with insulating material, and they may in approaching the binding posts
or terminals 33 have their running support thereto down on the aforesaid arms 20,
or they may be brought to their connection with the shoe entirely independently
of said arms.
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 a third-rail electric railway system, the combination with the usual track
rails and the conduit between them, of the third-rail conductor supported in the
conduit intermediate between the top slot and the base thereof, substantially as
described.
2In a third-rail electric railway system, the combination with the usual track.
rails and the underground top-slotted conduit between them, having cross țies sup-

page_text: ported therein at intervals, between the base and top of the conduit, and the third-
rail conductor supported on said cross ties, substantially as described.
3-In a third-rail electric railway system, the combination with the track rails
and the top-slotted conduit, of the cross ties supported in the conduit above the
base thereof, the trough mounted on said ties, the rail 1) set in the trough and
the filling of insulating material provided in the trough and covering the base and
neck of the rail, the same being downwardly and outwardly inclined, substantially
as and for the purpose set forth.
4 In a third-rail electric railway system, in combination, the track rails B B and
the underground top-slotted conduit C, of cement, comprising the inner wall thereof
composed of an insulating substance and moulded with the rests or ledges 9 9,
the wooden cross-ties, supported on said ledges above the base of the conduit,
the trough, having its top edges downwardly and outwardly inclined,
and the third-rail conductor supported in the trough, together with
the cement or concrete filling covering the base and neck of the rail, which
together with said trough edges by being downwardly and outwardly inclined
constitutes a watershed and guards the rail, substantially as described and shown
and for the purposes set forth.
5-In combination with a rail conductor, an under-running trolley or shoe
having terminals or binding posts, a holder-plate for the shoe, on which the same
is vertically yieldingly supported, arms for the holder-plate, whereby the same
may be supported from the motor car or truck, and wires running to connection
with the binding posts of the shoe, independent of the holder-plate and its sup-
porting arms, substantially as described.
G-In combination with the third-rail conductor of the shoe 24, having the
squared shank and stem 25, and having the connection posts or terminals 33, the
arms 20, and holder-plate 23, having the pillars 26 and top-plate 27, the squared
shank of the shoe playing through a socket therefor in the holder-plate and
having its stem guided through the top-plate, the spring 29, between the top-plate
and said collar, and an independent current conductor running to one of said con-
nection posts, substantially as described.
noted this 92nd day of February 1898.
WHEATLEY & MACKENZIE,
40, Chancery Lane, London, W.C., Agents.