Improvements in Railway Carriage and Waggon Couplings.
Year: 1892

page_text: Date of Application, 12th Apr., 1892-Accepted, 4th June, 1892
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in Railway Carriage and Waggon Couplings.
I EDUARD KOERSCHGEN of 10 Schönebecker-strasse, Barmen, in the Empire
of Germany, Machine Maker, 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 and accompanying drawings :-
My said invention relates to improvements in couplings for connecting together
railway vehicles as is well understood.
The said improvements enable the coupling to be effected without the operator
requiring to go between the vehicles and the same mechanism which connects the
central and main coupling also and simultaneously connects the two side or
auxiliary couplings. I also provide means whereby one of the draw bars of the
centre coupling is drawn up so as to tighten the coupling.
The accompanying two sheets of drawings clearly illustrate the invention.
disconnected..
Figs. 6 &:7 are enlarged views of the couplings in different positions.
On referring to the drawings it will be seen that the heads of both the main and
auxiliary couplings consist of draw-hooks a a and a' a'. The staple links bb' are
pivotted to the hook. shanks and it will be observed that the links b' of the
auxiliary, couplings are somewhat longer than the links 6 of the main coupling.
Beneath the draw-hooks at each end of each waggon a shaft g extends carrying
levers. d. which are pivotted to struts c the said struts being connected to the
links 66 by, studs which project from the sides of the said links and occupying
slots in the ends of the struts. The foot of each strut carries a face or flange m
the object. of which will be hereinafter explained. It will now be evident that
when. the shaft g is turned the links b.b will be raised towards the horizontal
position..
This turning, of the shaft g is. effected from the side of the waggon by means of
as hand wheel. h. keyed on the end of the shaft. Therefore when the waggons are
approaching each other the operator turns the hand wheel h on one of the waggons
and lifts the links 6 6¹ into the position for example shown in Fig. 4.
When the
waggons touch, the ends of the links brun up the inclined faces of the hooks
(the slots on the struts: c permitting of this further lift) and then drop into the
hooks thereby coupling the vehicles together. The shaft g carries a cams and
above. the cams is pivotted a pawl k with a handle k¹. A spring keeps the pawl
pressed against the cam. When the shaft g and cam s have been turned sufficiently
to bring the links b b into the horizontal position the pawl k drops in front of the
abutment on the.cam.s and maintains, the links. in their horizontal position; or by
continuing, the rotation of the shaft g, the links can be further raised.

page_text: As has been already said the links when thus raised to a horizontal position
strike on the inclined faces of the hooks when the waggons come together and
sliding up the faces drop into the hooks. I will now show how the central
coupling a, b is tightened up so as to brace the waggons together. The shanks of
the main draw-hooks a are squared and pass through the ends of the waggon
frames. These hooks are therefore always held in their proper position. The end
of each shank is turned to receive a revolvable muff u which is prevented from
leaving the end of the shank by a key or ruff.
The reduced end of the muff is keyed to a bar w which extends to about the
centre of the length of the waggon and is there screwed to engage with a nut fl
forming part of a central gibf the said gib being secured to the lower frame of the
waggon and carrying a nut f¹ on each side. The bar w carries a toothed wheel t¹
the said wheel t¹ being secured upon the bar by a slip feather and groove n so that
the bar while being rotated by the wheel may yet slide therethrough. A box
bracket bolted to a cross bar of the frame confines the wheel and prevents it
from shifting horizontally with the bar as it revolves. The wheel t' engages with
a similar wheel t on a short shaft q supported in bearings from the framework and
the said short shaft carries a bevel wheel pl which engages with a similar bevel
wheel p on the inner end of a shaft o which extends at right angles to the shaft q
and terminates in a hand wheel whereby the shaft is rotated. It will now be
seen that by turning the hand wheel the shafts o and q are rotated and also the
bar w, so that when the staple link b has dropped into the hook a, by turning the
hand wheel the bar w is screwed into its nut thereby drawing the hook a inwards
and bracing the waggons tightly together. The auxiliary hooks a¹ are simply
secured directly in the frame ends and have no bracing arrangement.
When it is wished to disconnect the vehicles, the bracing arrangement is released
by turning the wheel in the opposite direction. The hand wheel h is then
operated to lift the links clear of the hooks a a¹ at the same time lifting the
pawl k so as to release the cam 8. The links can now fall free of the hooks.
If however it should happen that the operator finds himself on the opposite side
from the wheel h which directly operates the links b then engaging the hooks, my
invention permits him to raise these links by operating the other hand wheel / on
that side upon which he happens to be. By operating the said other hand wheel h
the pendent links bb' are raised towards the horizontal position. In the act of
rising, these links strike against the surfaces m of the opposite struts c and lift
these struts with their corresponding links so as to enable the latter to clear the
hooks. Thus I am enabled to disengage the couplings from either side of the
train. It will be noted from a reference to Fig. 2 that the hand wheels h and
are diagonally opposite to each other so that on either side of the train the operator
has a hand wheel and a hand wheel at his command enabling him to perform all
of the operations requisite to couple and uncouple the vehicles without any
necessity for getting between them. If the main coupling should chance to break,
the auxiliary couplings come into play and prevent the train from parting.
The auxiliary links bb being slightly longer than the links bb are not called
upon to take any of the strain until the main coupling parts. The whole arrange-
ment constitutes a simple, effective and safe method of coupling which can be
carried out by the operator from either side of the train without risk to life
or limb.
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 general arrangement construction and combination of parts constituting
my improved railway coupling together with the mode of operating the same,
substantially as herein before described and shown.
2.) The improved means for coupling railway vehicles from either side of the
train in which the coupling links are connected by suitable parts to a cross shaft

page_text: operated from the side by a hand wheel or handle and acting so as to raise the
links into or towards a horizontal position so that when the vehicles are brought
into contact, the links engage automatically with the draw-hooks; in combination.
with the revolving screw draw bar operated as herein described for bracing the
vehicles closely together substantially as described and shown.
3.) In the indicated coupling, providing the struts c with faces m opposed to the
opposite draw links so that in uncoupling, the links not in use are operated to lift
the engaged links free from the hooks and so disconnect the vehicles substantially
as described and shown.
4.) The means for bracing the coupled vehicles more closely together, said means
consisting in connecting a revolvable screwed bar to the shank of the main draw-
hook the inner end of the said screwed bar engaging with a nut and capable of
being rotated by gearing and a shaft operated from the side of the vehicle sub-
stantially as described and illustrated.
$11000
E. K. DUTTON & Co.,
5, John Dalton Street, Manchester, Agents.
патт отта помест
E. K. DUTTON & Co.,
5, John Dalton Street, Manchester, Agents.