New or Improved Moveable Floors for Railway and similar Wagons.
Year: 1896

page_text: Date of Application, 2nd Dec., 1896-Accepted, 13th Feb., 1897
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
New or Improved Moveable Floors for Railway and similar
Wagons.
We JOHN PEART of 14 Queen Street Darlington Civil Engineer and FRANK
WILLIAM CHARLES HAWKER of 74 Westmoreland Street Darlington in the
County of Durham Draughtsman 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 :-
The primary object of our invention is to dispense altogether with the fixed
hopper floor at present in use in railway and similar wagons used for carrying coke
coal ore &c. and in its place to provide moveable floors which may be raised to
form a hopper when required: and secondly to provide ordinary flat bottomn
wagons with similar moveable floors in order to increase the facilities for
discharging.
Our invention consists of two hinged floor plates, of iron steel or other suitable
material which may be raised to form an angle of 40° (or as may be desired) with
the underframe of the wagon and lowered at will by any convenient mechanical
means. These floor plates are made in two pieces so arranged that when lowered
to their normal position in the wagon they form the floor and allow practically the
full capacity of the wagon body to be used for carrying when raised they form
one inclined plane and so facilitate the discharging.
In order that our invention may be properly understood we will proceed to
describe it in detail reference being had to the accompanying drawing in which
similar letters refer to similar parts throughout. Figure 1 is a side sectional
elevation of one end of a railway wagon with the apparatus fitted, and Figure 2 is
an end sectional elevation on the line X Y. The frame of the wagon is represented
by the letter A while B indicates the body CC are rails for carrying coke or
other freight and D are the wooden packings under the floors the bottom doors
being marked E the wheels F and the axles G.
Referring now to the parts which illustrate our invention, the floor plate which
is in two pieces jointed at J is marked H H' and at I the part H is hinged to the
wagon frame upon which it lies horizontally, the part H' being inclined at an angle
at the end of the wagon and being fitted with a rubbing bead hand runners h¹ on
the ends and 2 on the sides of the wagen body, also with guide bars K which pass
through the holes L, for use when the floor is being raised, R are stops for
preventing overlifting. The gearing which we employ for raising the floor plates
is represented by the quadrants M secured to H as shewn into which the pinions N
carried by the cross shaft O engage, this shaft is fitted with bearings in the wagon
frame and is turned by the handles P and may be held in any desired position by
an ordinary ratchet and pawl Q: we do not however confine ourselves to the
gearing shown, as, extra gearing may be added or it may be otherwise modified to
suit circumstances.
The operation of our invention is as follows, when the wagon is empty the
quadrant M is lowered and the floor plates lie in their normal position in the
bottom of the wagon as shewn thus practically the full carrying capacity of
the body may be utilised; when it is to be unloaded the bottom doors E having
been opened the handles P are turned and the floor plates are raised by means of
he gearing above described, the part H' opening out from the hinge J being

page_text: guided by the bars K the bead remaining on the runners until the floor
plates H H form one continuous inclined plane or hopper as indicated by the
dotted lines in Figure 1 when they come into contact with the stops R. Thus the
contents of the wagon are pushed forward and discharged as readily as with a
fixed hopper, which is dispensed with and its space utilised. When our moveable
floor is fitted in ordinary flat bottom wagons the ease and speed of unloading is
greatly increased.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of our said inven-
tion and in what manner the same is to be performed we declare that what we
-claim is
1. In railway and similar wagons the hinged and jointed floor plates as and for
the purposes described.
2. In railway and similar wagons the hinged and jointed floor plates combined
with the gearing for raising and lowering them, or its mechanical equivalent and
for the purposes described.
Dated this Second den of Dusomban 1906
A. H. REED,
Agent for Applicants.