Improvements in and relating to the Construction of Wheels for Railway Cars and Locomotives.
Year: 1889

page_text: Date of Application, 19th Feb.; 1889
Specification Accepted, 30th Mar, 1889
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in and relating to the Construction of Wheels for
Railway Cars and Locomotives.
I, WILLIAM HENRY MELANEY, residing at the Corner of 46th and Davison Streets,
in the City of Pittsburg, County of Allegheny and State of Pennsylvania one of the
United States of America, Gentleman, 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:-
My invention relates to car and locomotive wheels, its object being to provide a car
wheel which has not only strength, tensile torsional and transverse, of the ordinary
steel casting, but has an exceedingly hard facing at the points where the surface of
the periphery and fringe are submitted to wear. It is a well known fact that in order
to obtain the necessary wearing powers in the car wheels it has been considered
necessary to make these wheels of chilling cast iron as in the casting of the wheel the
part of the chilling cast iron which comes in contact with the chill in the mold is so
contracted and hardened as to form an exceedingly hard facing on that part of the wheel
forming the wearing surface, and a facing which under ordinary circumstances gives
the best wearing properties to the car wheel, this class of car wheels having been for
many years in almost universal use. There are, however, some very serious objections
to these car wheels, as the iron which will chill or harden as above set forth is
necessarily weak and very liable to fracture, and as not only the body of the wheel is
formed of this material but also the body of the tire or rim including the flange, it
often occurs that where the wheel is subjected to a very severe shock, jar or blow the
wheel will break in the rim portion, or its flange, the principal breakages occuring in
the flange of the wheel which cannot be made very thick, and being formed of weak
cast iron when subjected to heavy strains or jars which are liable to occur even on the
slight misplacing of the track, or for some other reason, the flange breaking off and
often causing accidents, as well as rendering the wheels useless. The principal
objection therefore in the use of these chilled iron wheels is in the fact that the rim or
DQ27

page_text: tire and flange do not possess the required strength and tenacity. To overcome this,
wheels have been formed entirely of steel, and these wheels while having the
necessary strength to resist the different strains to which they are subjected have the
serious objection that they lack the desired wearing properties and under the ordinary
running wear on the tracks will not last nearly so long as the ordinary chilled iron
wheel, though the great objections to the chilled iron wheel have caused some railroad's
to employ the steel wheel even at the greater expense on account of the inferior
wearing properties thereof.
The object of my invention is to provide a wheel in which the advantages of the
two wheels above referred to are obtained, namely, the great strength and toughness
to resist the shocks, jars and sudden strains in the tire or rim portion of the wheel, as
well as in its body, and the superior wearing properties on the wearing surfaces
thereof, and to these ends my invention consists generally stated, in a car or
locomotive wheel having the tire or rim portion thereof formed of steel and a facing
of chilled cast iron formed on the wearing surfaces of the tire or rim portion. It also
consists in the car or locomotive wheel having the tire or rim portion thereof and its
flange formed of steel and a facing of chilled cast iron formed on the wearing surfaces
of the tire and its flange. It also consists in other improvements herein after
particularly set forth.
To enable others skilled in the art to make and use my invention, I will describe
the same more fully, referring to the accompanying drawing, in which, Figures 1 and 2
represent two different forms of car wheels embodying my invention; and Figure 3
represents a tire for locomotive wheel embodying my invention.
Like letters of reference indicate like parts in each.
My improved wheel may be of any desired form according as the different manu-
facturers consider the best form for giving strength or lightness to the wheel, the exact
shape of the wheel not forming any part of my invention. In the car wheel as shown
in Figure 1, the wheel is formed of the hub a and rim or tire b connected by the
plates d, e, which extend out from the hub a, being curved to the shape found to give
the greatest strength, and having beyond them the single plate f which unites them to
the rim or tire b. At the base of the rim or tire b is the flange g, this flange extend-
ing out beyond the periphery of the tire. These parts of the wheel are formed of
steel, a low grade or soft steel being employed for the purpose in order to obtain the
desired strength, tensile, torsional and transverse, to resist the jars, shocks or strains
which are brought upon the wheel body. For these parts of the wheel it is desirable
to obtain a metal as tough and strong as possible, and for that reason I may desire to
use, and I include under the term "steel" a steel or iron as low or free from carbon
as can be properly melted and cast in a mold. On the wearing surfaces of the tire or
rim b and its flange g is the facing h of the chilled cast iron, this facing being united
to the body of the rim and flange by fusion so as to form practically one solid mass
therewith. The chilled cast iron facing his made of a thickness suitable for the
purpose, such as say of one-half inch (½) or more, and this chilled cast iron facing is
thus supported by the tough and strong steel which forms the body portion of the rim
and its flange to which it is perfectly united. I thus obtain a car wheel which, while
it has the exceedingly hard wearing surface which can only be obtained by the
employment of the chilled cast iron and therefore possesses all the wearing properties
of the ordinary chilled cast iron car wheel, has at the same time, all the strength and
power to resist strains, shock or jars found in the steel wheels; and one in which the
chilled cast iron facing is supported by the steel in the body of the rim or tiro and
flange, so that practically all liability of breaking of the flange or tire portion of the
wheel is overcome and at the same time the entire body of the wheel outside of the
wearing surface is formed of tough and strong metal, which gives it power to resist
the strains by which the ordinary cast iron wheel is liable to be broken. In figure 2
is shown another and a simple form of car wheel, this wheel having the single
plate e uniting the hub a with the rim or tire b and the flange g and tire 6 having
thereon the chilled cast iron facing h.for the purposes above set forth. In Figure 3
is shown a tire for a locomotive driving wheel embodying my invention, these tires

page_text: being preferably formed separate from the body of the wheel and shrunken or other-
wise secured thereon, and in order to obtain the necessary strength and power to
resist strains, shocks or jars, it having been customary heretofore to employ only steel
tires for these wheels, the tires being replaced from time to time as their faces were
worn under the peculiarly severe strains brought on the driving wheels of the
locomotive. These locomotive wheel tires when formed according to my invention
have the tire portion band its flange g formed of the soft or low carbon cast steel
before referred to, and have the facing of chilled cast iron on the wearing surfaces
of the tire, and its flange, and I am thus enabled in these tires for the driving wheels
to obtain the necessary strength, etc. and at the same time to provide such wheels with
a very hard wearing surface suitable to withstand any wear to which the wheels are
subjected, and therefore I increase the life of such tires to double or treble that of
the ordinary locomotive tires.
In forming my improved car or locomotive wheels I take advantage of the fact that
the steel is of greater specific gravity than the chilling cast iron, and in forming the
mold, I employ the ordinary mold, except as indicated herein. In such mold the
parts are supported in any desired way, the mold being of any desired form and any
desired. form of chill being employed. I provide the mold with escape runners
leading up from the higher parts of the mold such as from the upper part of the hub
and rim or tire, and in casting the chilling cast iron is first poured into the mold,
entering through the base thereof as is usual in such castings, and the mold cavity
filled thereby and the chilled facing formed by contact with the mold chill, the .
chilled facing being preferably about one-half inch or more in thickness, the thickness
of the facing being regulated by the mixture of chilling cast iron employed as soon as
the mold is filled with the cast iron I pour through the same gate. molten steel of
proper quality, and as the steel is of greater specific gravity, it expels from the mold
all the molten or unchilled cast iron therein, the molten steel raising the molten cast
iron and floating it off through the escape runners in the top of the mold and the
molten steel filling the entire mold except that part occupied by the chilled shell or
facing h, and uniting by fusion with the inner surface thereof.
-
Instead of pouring the steel through the same runners as the chilling cast iron the
steel may be poured in the hub portion during the pouring of the cast iron in the rim
portion and the pouring thereof continued after the pouring of the cast iron ceases, in
which case the cast iron will fill the rim portion and the steel will fill the body
portion of the mold and the steel flowing forward into the rim portion will on account
of its greater specific gravity expel the fluid or unchilled portion of the cast iron
therefrom, thus saving in the labor of pouring an amount of cast iron employed. The
car wheel so obtained is thus formed of the body and rim or rim and its flange,
composed of steel of the desired quality and a chilled facing on the wearing surfaces
of the rim or rim and flange as above described. As the molten steel acts to expel
the unchilled or molten cast iron from the mold by displacing the same, it is evident
that there is no liability whatever of the oxidation of the inner surface of the chilled
facing formed in the mold, and consequently a perfect fusion or union is obtained
between the steel and the chilled facing, the chilled facing being thus perfectly united
to and supported by the steel rim. In forming this rim or tire for locomotive wheels.
such as shown in Figure 3, the operation is the same, except that the mold for the
body portion of the wheel is omitted and the inner face of the tire is given the desired
shape or shape best adapted to secure it to the body of the locomotive wheel.
thus obtain a car or locomotive wheel having the tire or rim thereof or such tire
with the flange which extends out therefrom formed of steel, and obtain in these parts
all the strength necessary to resist jars or strains, and provide on said rim or rim and-
its flange a facing of hard chilled iron which is perfectly united therewith and
supported thereby and as a consequence of this my improved car wheel possesses all
the wearing properties of the ordinary chilled iron car wheel which has been hereto-
fore in almost universal use, together with the strength of the steel car wheel, not
only in the body thereof, but in the tire and flange, and my improved car wheel has
therefore all the wearing qualities of the one wheel with the strength of the other.

page_text: 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
:
1st. A car or locomotive wheel having the rim or tire thereof formed of steel and a
facing of chilled cast iron formed on the wearing surface of the tire, said facing being
united to and integral with the metal of the tire, substantially as and for the purposes
set forth.
2nd. A car or locomotive wheel having the rim or tire and the flange thereof
formed of steel and a facing of chilled cast iron formed on the. wearing surfaces of
the tire and flange, substantially as and for the purposes set forth.
3rd. A car wheel having the body, the rim or tire, and the flange formed of steel,
and a facing of chilled cast iron formed on the wearing surfaces of the rim and
flange, substantially as and for the purposes set forth.
Dated this 19th day of February 1889.
WILLIAM HENRY MELANEY.
By Jensen & Son,
77, Chancery Lane, London, W.C.,
Patent Agents.