IMPROVEMENTS IN CERTAIN PARTS OF RAILWAY CARRIAGES FOR OBTAINING A COMMUNICATION PLATFORM FROM ONE CARRIAGE TO ANOTHER OF A TRAIN
Year: 1879

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Theodore Brooke Jones at the Office of
the Commissioners of Patents on the 14th October 1879.
THEODORE BROOKE JONES, of Harrogate, in the County of York, Accountant.
"IMPROVEMENTS IN CERTAIN PARTS OF RAILWAY CARRIAGES FOR OBTAINING A
COMMUNICATION PLATFORM FROM ONE CARRIAGE TO ANOTHER OF A TRAIN."
My Invention relates to connecting separate railway carriages by means of
platforms fitted to the carriage frames and connected to the platforms of the
carriages, by which means the separate and several carriages forming a train are
connected together, and a complete line of passage communication is obtained from
carriage to carriage from one end of the train to the other, thereby placing the
whole of the carriages in safe, easy, and direct communication with each other and
under the supervision of the guard appointed for that purpose. For this purpose
I securely fix brackets on the ends of the carriage frainework which are made with
hinges, and in which are hinged small loose foot boards, by preference of the width
of the carriage platforms; one of the foot boards is placed over the other, which
allows for the in and out motion given by the carriages in stopping or otherwise;
the top foot board works on a roller or rollers fitted to the bottom foot board.
The footboards are also fitted with iron rods or bars to which are fixed hand rails;
these bars and the hand rails are so fitted that they slide passing and clearing each
other with the motion of the carriages, and sufficient space is left between them to
allow a side motion when passing or turning curves, and the hand rails fill up the
space between the carriages to give support to the person passing from one
carriage to another, and also protection against falling from the carriage on to
the rails.
The foot boards with the hand rails lift up and throw back to give a free passage
to the person securing or detaching one carriage from the other. The foot board
brackets on which rest the foot boards have projecting plates which secure the
foot boards in their platform positions.
Or I employ brackets fixed to the ends or sides of the carriage frame-work
which have projecting plates in which are made V grooves or any other suitably
shaped sliding grooves in which work slide projections made or fitted on the foot
boards, which allow the sliding in and out of the foot boards with the movement
of the carriages, and also the sliding back of the foot boards when a free passage
is required for securing or detaching the carriages.

page_text: The foot boards are fitted with band rails and connect one carriage with the
other, and still the foot boards of one carriage are independent from the other, and
one set of the boards works over or under the others, and I may have slot holes
made in the plates of the brackets instead of grooves and slides, and in the slot
holes work studs fitted to the foot boards.
I also prefer to have all the platforms or foot boards of railway trains fitted to
a given height or gauge, and also all the landing platforms of railway stations to
an uniform and equal level to prevent those fatal accidents which often occur on
entering or leaving railway carriages, and I purpose fitting hand rails to the
present platforms or foot boards of railway carriages to prevent passengers falling
from the platforms on to the rails.
The connecting foot boards may be fitted to goods or other trains.