Improvements in and Connected with Railway Sleepers.
Year: 1887

page_text: COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in and Connected with Railway Sleepers.
We ROBERT MORRELL and EDWARD FAITOUTE CONDIT YOUNG of Summit and
Jersey City respectively in the State of New Jersey one of the United States of
America Gentlemen 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 :-
Our invention consists of improvements in and connected with the contrivance of
composite metallic and wood railway sleepers or ties for surface roads and also for
elevated roads whereby these or their equivalent substances may be combined for the
advantages of the elastic wood bearing seats for the rails, and for the strength of a
metallic retainer for the seat in such manner as to enable the metallic portion to be
constructed of thin rolled metal in such form as to afford the maximum of strength
with the minimum of metal and so as to be constructed in the simplest and most
economical manner, and also so that the elastic wood seats for the rails may be most
readily shifted and changed in position without removing the whole tie, particularly
in tunnels and on bridges where the walls and trusses greatly interfere with the
changing of ties of full length, all as hereinafter fully described reference being made
to the accompanying drawing in which:
Fig. 1, is a diagram of a metallic plate showing the essential features of the form
of the blank for the metallic portion of the tie.
Fig. 2, is a diagram of a plate for a tie of essentially the same character to be used
in reverse of the other in respect of its upper and lower sides.
Fig. 3, is a plan of the complete tie in its preferred form for surface roads.
Fig. 1, is a perspective view of the complète tie as it may be contrived and used
for surface roads, that is, inverted as compared with fig. 2.
Fig. 5, is a perspective view of the complete tie as adapted to be used in the position
of fig. 2, for elevated roads, bridges and such other structures and places as have
Price 8d 1

page_text: the ties placed on and attached to metallic stringers instead of being placed on the
ground.
Fig. 6, is a perspective view of the complete tie as adapted to be used in the
position of fig. 3, for elevated roads with extension of one of the wood or other
elastic rail bearing seats for carrying a side walk or platform outside of the rails.
Fig. 7, is a plan view of a modified form of construction of the tie for elevated
roads, with extension of the metallic portion for the sidewalk or platform supports.
Fig. 8, is a transverse section of the tie as in fig. 2, on a larger scale, with a
re-enforcing cap that may be used if desired in some cases to prevent the metallic
portion from spreading in especially hard service or where the tie is not well bedded
in the ground.
of
The metallic portion of my improved composite tie consists of a thin sheet a,
rolled metal first produced in the blank form represented in fig. 1, about the length of
an ordinary tie, and about as wide as the bottom and two sides of the same, with four
narrow extension flaps or webs, projecting from each edge. The blank in then bent
up at right angles along the dotted lines c, and the extension webs or flaps h, are bent.
down flatwise along the line d, over the rest forming the complete metallic portion.
comprising the bottom, two sides and top flanges, making a shell or case for a bearing
seat at each end and constituting a substantial base support and retainers with which
we combine two elastic bearers e, for the rails, consisting of wood or equivalent elastic
blocks fitted to slide into the spaces under the top flanges, either from the outer ends
or from the middle space between the flanges as most convenient or as may be required
by the position of the tie, for instance, in tunnels and on bridges, the tunnel walls,
and the bridge trusses interfere with the inserting and removal of the blocks at the
ends. In such cases the contrivance for inserting the blocks from the middle space is
an important advantage.
The flange webs b, are grouped near each end of the metallic body so as to constitute
two outside and two inside flanges to each rail, which rails are seated on the bearers e,
in the spaces h, between said outside and inside flanges, and the rail spikes g, are
driven through notches or holes k, of said flanges into the wood and the bearers may
also be spiked through said flanges at i, if desired for further security of the bearers
and of the flanges and the sides of the metallic body as well, which are thus prevented
from spreading apart as they might in case the ties are not well bedded in the
earth. The rails may be spiked directly to the wood between the flanges if preferred
as at n.
The flanges furnish a substantial backing to the edges of the rails and to the rail
holding spikes when driven in notches k, and effectually prevent them from being
forced laterally away from the edges of the rail flanges to which they are subject in
the ordinary ties, the wood being crushed behind the spikes by the lateral thrusts of
the rails against the spikes.
The bottom of the metallic portion may have holes j, for the escape of rain
from the interior. We propose in some cases to reenforce these ties with caps 1, fitted
down over the top or open side, one or both sides of the rails as in fig. 8, the caps
being secured by spiking through the sides into the wood in which case the flanges h,
may be used or not as preferred.
Instead of making the notches h, for the rail bases in the flanges b, and placing
said flanges uppermost as in fig. 3, we may make said notches in the bottom of the
metallic part and arrange that side uppermost as in fig. 4 which may be preferred
in some cases.
In the use of this improved tie for elevated roads in which the ties are mounted on
girders o, we make other notches p, in the lower side, besides the rail notches h, in the
upperside, to overlap the edges of the girders and thus utilize the ties for staying the
girders transversely as well as the rails and in this use of the ties we extend
the bearing blocks e, on one or both sides of the track as at e; or the side plates of
the metallic shells as at e², to support the side walks or platforms q, and guard rails s,
for the trackmen and thus economise in the cost of these supports as compared with
the common arrangement of extra beams or the extension of the entire ties.

page_text: When it may be desired to avoid the obstruction of light as much as possible we
make the ties with an open space through the bottom as at t, between the bearing
blocks, and also in the extension if desired which admits the light below in greater
measure and also affords better circulation of air.
When we extend the side plates for the side walk supports we secure the guard
rail posts between the plates by placing the lower end between the plates and bolting
them together as at e; and we similarly bolt the side plates and bearing blocks
together at, when we make the openings t, through the ties.
The metallic portion of the tie is much more lasting than the ordinary wood tie and
owing to the thin light material which by our improved construction we are able to
use, is, together with the bearing pieces, not more expensive to begin with, the
bearing pieces are more lasting in the metallic portions than the ordinary wood ties
are laid directly in the earth and said bearing pieces may be made more lasting by
chemical treatment less expensively than treating whole ties and they may be cheaply
renewed from time to time.
These metallic retaining shells may be produced in and by any of the well known
methods of the manufacture of such articles, as for instance long sheets may be rolled
in about the width of the extreme breadth at the flanges b, the sheets may be fed
intermittently to cutting dies adapted to cut out the form of the blanks and the
cutting machine may transfer the blanks to benders adapted to automatically effect
the bending of the sides and flanges as required.
We will use iron steel or any approved rolled metal that is capable of being bent as
required in the production of the metallic part of the tie and will probably employ
wood for the elastic rail bearing seats, but various substances may be substituted for
the wood as compressed or vulcanized fibre, paper stock and the like some of which
productions may be made much more lasting than plain wood.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of our said invention
and in what manner the same is to be performed, we declare that what we claim is :
1st. The improved composite sleeper or tie comprising a metallic base or retainer
and elastic bearing seats for the rails said metallic base consisting of a rolled metal
plate having the sides bent up and also having retaining flanges bent inward over
and forming a shell or case at each end confining the bearing seats in their position
and the rails thereon substantially as described.
2nd. The improved composite sleeper or tie comprising a metallic base or retainer,
and elastic bearing seats for the rails said metallic base consisting of a rolled metal
plate having the sides bent up also having the retaining flanges bent over and forming
a shell or case at each end confining the bearing seats in their positions and the rails
thereon and also forming stays to the rail base edges and back supports to the rail
holding spikes substantially as described.
3rd. The improved composite sleeper or tie comprising a metallic base or retainer
and elastic bearing seats for the rails, said metallic base consisting of a rolled metal
plate having the sides bent up and provided with re-enforcing caps for retaining the
bearings and the rails, said caps being placed over and spiked through the sides of the
retainer to the bearing seats substantially as described.
4th. In a rail road sleeper or tie consisting of metallic shells or cases made of a
rolled and bent metal plate and elastic bearing seats for the rails located in said shells
or cases, the metallic portion constructed with the joint edges meeting or nearly so
along the bottom of the tie, the continuous solid top at each end, and with the bearing
openings for seating the rails on the wood, cut through said continuous solid top
substantially as represented in fig. 4.
5th. In a rail road sleeper or tie consisting of metallic shells or cases made of a
rolled and bent metal plate and elastic bearing seats for the rails located in said shells
or cases, the metallic portion constructed with the bearing notches for seating the
rails made in the top of the shells or cases and with the bearing notches in the bottom
of said shells or cases for seating on and tying the girders substantially as represented
in figs. 5 and 6.

page_text: 6th. The improved rail road sleeper or tie consisting of the metallic shells or cases,
elastic bearing seats and the side walk supporting extensions in combination
substantially as represented in figs. 6 and 7.
7th. The combinations of the metallic shells or cases, elastic hearing seats,
extensions of said plates beyond the hearing seats, and the side walk guard rail ?
posts, said posts being fitted between and bolted to the plates and forming stays to
the plates, and the plates forming supports for the posts substantially as described.
Dated this 17th by of June 1887
ROBERT MORRELL.
EDWARD FAITOUTE CONDIT YOUNG.