Year: 1887

page_text: Date of Application, 8th Aug., 1887
Complete Left, 2nd May, 1888
Complete Accepted, 8th June, 1888
I, THOMAS ENGLISH, of The War Office, Whitehall, in the County of Middlesex
Major in the Royal Engineers, do hereby declare the nature of this invention to be
as follows:-
My invention relates to means of securing rails to metallic sleepers in such a manner
that the rails can be readily placed or removed and shifted a little for variation of gauge,
the keys used for fixing them being all equal and similar.
For this purpose, I form or fix on the sleeper two jaws, which are both inclined or
have their upper parts inclined towards the rail, but are sufficiently wide apart at the
top to admit the rail between them. For the normal gauge, I prefer that the rail
should occupy such a position that its flanger or under head bears against the base of
the inner jaw, in which position it is secured by two wedge keys, of similar form and
dimensions each having a section which is au elongated irregular hexagon. In the
normal position of the rail, the inner key has its longest dimension vertical or nearly
while
so, its opposite sides bearing respectively against the web of the rail and the jaw,
one of its lower faces bears against the flange or lower head of the rail. The outer key,
under these circumstances, lies with its longest dimension nearly horizontal, two of its
end faces opposite to one another bearing against the web of the rail and the outer
jaw respectively, while one of its sides bears on the flange or under head of the rail.
When the rail has to be laid to a wider gauge, the positions of the keys are inverted.
By making the jaws inclined at suitable angles relatively to the faces of the rail
flanges and making the angles of the keys to suit that inclination, the keys fit in both
positions, and for both rails.
1007
ABEL & IMRAY,
Agents for the Applicant.

page_text: Improved Means of Securing Rails to Metallic Sleepers.
I, THOMAS ENGLISH, of The War Office, Whitehall, in the County of Middlesex,
Major in the Royal Engineers, 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 means of securing rails to metallic sleepers in such a manner
that the rails can be readily placed and removed or laid at slight variations of gauge,
the keys used for fixing them being all equal and similar as I will describe referring
to the accompanying drawings.
Fig. 1 is a transverse section of a rail shewing the means of fixing it according to
my invention to the normal gauge. Fig. 2 is a similar section shewing a slight
modification in the form of the jaws and keys.
On the sleeper S I form or fix two jaws J with a suitable draft to hold the keys
firmly.
These jaws have their upper parts inclined as shewn in Fig. 1 and Fig. 2 towards
the rail R, the section of the lower parts being preferably arranged to correspond with
the section of the rail so that it may be readily laid to the normal gauge by causing
its flange or under-head to abut against the nearest corner of the inner jaw. The two
jaws J J are preferably sufficiently wide apart at the top to admit the introduction of
the rail R between them without requiring it to be turned in.
The rail is secured between the jaws by two wedge keys K K of similar form and
dimensions each having a section which may be an elongated irregular but symmetrical
hexagon as shown in Fig. 1 or may be an elongated irregular pentagon as shewn in
Fig. 2. The inner key has its longest dimension nearly vertical its opposite sides
bearing respectively against the web of the rail and the inner jaw while one of its
lower faces bears on the flange or lower head of the rail; the outer.key under these
circumstances lies with its longest dimension nearly horizontal, two of its opposite end
faces bearing respectively against the web of the rail and the outer. jaw, whilst one
of its sides bears on the flange or under head of the rail.
When the rail has to be laid to a somewhat wider gauge the keys are inverted in
position, the inner key having in that case its greatest dimension nearly horizontal
whilst the outer key has its greatest dimension nearly vertical.
By making the jaws inclined at suitable angles relatively to the faces of the rail
flange, and making the angles of the keys suitable to that inclination, the pentagonal
keys shewn in Fig. 2 fit in both positions for both rails, and the horizontally lying

page_text: hexagonal keys shewn in Fig. 1 also fit when turned upside down but have less width
of bearing against the rail web than the pentagonal keys.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of this inven-
tion and in what manner the same is to be performed I declare that what
I claim is
Securing rails to metallic sleepers by pairs of equal and similar polygonal keys
driven between inwardly inclined jaws the one key of each pair having its greatest
dimension nearly vertical and the other having its greatest dimension nearly horizontal
substantially as described.