Improved Means for Olosing and Looking Railway Carriage Doors.
Year: 1895

page_text: Improved Means for Olosing and Looking Railway Carriage Doors.
I, WILLIAM BROAD, Herbert Villas 125, Luton Road, Chatham, Gentleman,
do hereby declare the nature of this invention and in what mauner the same
is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the
following statement :-
The object of this invention is to provide means for permitting the guard in the
brake-van to close and at the same timo lock all the doors upon either side of a
train.
For this purpose I mount in the brake-van a vertical shaft operated by a hand-
wheel and having a toothed wheel or pinion at its lower end. This pinion geara
with two toothed wheels on either side and these latter with two other wheels which
gear into racks formed on sliding bars supported and extending along each side of
the van and connected to other bars carried on either side of each carriage and
jointed together between the carriages by flexible and sliding joints. In order to
operate the mechanism for closing the doors on either side of the train, the wheels
in gear with the operating pinion are so mounted that one or the other of them can
be forced out of gear with the said pinion by means of a quadrant lever provided
with arms for forcing down the said wheels when the lever is pulled over, springs
underneath forcing the wheels iuto gear again when the pressure of the arm is
removed. The sliding bars are provided with extensions which bear against a
plato or metal strip attached to ench door when the latter are closed or in the act
of closing.
When the projections on the sliding bars come opposite to each door they each
operate a lever pivoted to the door and connected, by means of pivoted bars, to a
small arm on the axis of the door haudle so as to turn the latter into its locked
position and keep it there until the sliding bars are drawn back for leaving the
doors free to be opened.
In the accompanying sheet of drawings
Fig. 1 shows in side elevation a portion of a guard's van and a railway carriage
fitted with my improved mechanism.
Fig. 2 is a cross section of the guard's van, and
Fig. 3 is a plan of the toothed gear operating mechanism and sliding bars.
Figs. 4 to 8 are details.
A is the guard's-van and B one of the carriages. In the guard's-van is mounted
the shaft a provided at the top with a hand wheel a' and at the bottom with a pinion a'.
This pinion gears with two toothed wheels b, b' loosely mounted on spindles &³, b³
fixed to the floor of the van and carrying spiral springs 6, 6 bearing against the
undersides of the wheels b, b'. In gear with these latter wheels are two toothed
wheels c, o turning on spindles likewise fixed to the flooring.
d is a quadrant lever provided with arms done or the other of which bears,
when the lever is in its looked position, upon one or the other of two pins or
bolts e, el passing through the floor of the van and connected to two horse-shoe
shaped plates resting upon the upper surfaces of the wheels b, b'. The
wheels c, c gear respectively with two racks g, g' formed on the end sections of
bars 9, 9' supported in and sliding on brackets or bearings 9', 9' on either side of

page_text: the carriage. The bars 9, 9 are provided with projections 9', 9' which, when the
mechanism is in position for keeping the carriage doors closed and looked, bear
against plates or metal strips h attached to the outside of each door h¹ and are
provided with friction wheels or rollers. Above this strip his pivoted at i¹ a
lever i connected by bars k, A' and a pivoted lever I to a small arm m fixed to the
axis m of the door handle m'. The bars 9'g' are connected together between each
carriage by flexible joints n (Figa. 7 & 8) to allow of transverse motion and by
joints o, o to allow of vertical motion, while the projections 9, g' clear the door
sufficiently to allow of the longitudinal motion of the bars due to any movement
between the carriages without affecting the working of the apparatus, but I may
provide a connection p which permits of longitudinal motion and consists of a
key p' attached to the sliding bar passing through a slot p² formed in the socket p
and a coiled spring p' is placed between the collar p* of the socket and a sliding
collar p bearing against the key p' thus permitting a sliding motion of the bars
within the sockets
P.
The operation of the mechanism is as follows:—
Should it be desired to close the doors upon one side of a train, as for instance
the side A (Fig. 2), the quadrant lever d is pulled over to the position shown, the
arm d' forcing down the pin or bolt e so as to put the wheel out of gear. The
guard then turns the hand-wheel a' in the direction for pushing forward the bar
by means of the pinion a³, gear wheels b', c' and rack g'. The movement of the
bar causes the projections g' to bear against the strips or plates h attached to
the outside of each door h' thus turning the doors that are opened upon their
hinges and forcing them into their closed positions. Upon referring to Fig. 4 it
will be seen that as the projection g' travels along the strip hits upper end will
raise the lower arm of the pivoted lever i which thus operates the bars k, k' and
lever so as to turn the axis m' of the handle m' into the latter's locked position,
in which position it is kept as long as the projection of remains underneath the
lower arm of the lever i. To allow the doors to be opened the hand-wheel a' is
turned in the reverse direction so as to draw back the bars g' and with them the
projections 9' clear of the doors, thus permitting the lever i to fall into the position
shown in Fig. 4 and the handles to be turned or unlocked.
When a self-locking or slam-lock handle is used the lever i and connection kk'
and can be dispensed with, and it is evident the said locking mechanism may
be fitted in the inside of the frame of the door instead of on the outside if
desired.
Fig. 6 shows to an enlarged scale a separate view of one of the gear wheels b
or and its connected parts and Fig. 5 shows a cross section of the lower end of a
door and of one of the sliding, bars g' or gª and projections 9ª or g′, with,
friction roller /³.
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 :-
1. In apparatus for closing and locking railway carriage doors the combination
with the operating shaft a and pinion a' of the gear wheels bb' and o, e' racks g, a',
Bliding bars, and projections 9, 9', substantiully as described and for the
purposes specified.
2. In apparatus such as above claimed the improved engaging or disengaging
gear consisting of the gear wheels b, 61, mounted loosely on spindles b², 6ª, spiral
springs,, quadrant lever d provided with arms d', d, pins or bolts e, e', and
plates f,f, substantially as described and shown in the drawings.
3. In apparatus for closing railway carriage doors as set forth in Claim 1 the
combination therewith of the door locking mechanism consisting of the lever i,
bars,, lever 1, small arm m, axis m', and handle m', substantially as described
and shown in the drawings.

page_text: 4. The improved apparatus for closing and looking railway carriage doors
substantially as described and shown in the accompanying sheet of drawings.
Dated this 1st day of March 1895.
F. G. CASSELL,
Of Cassell & Co.,
22, Glasshouse Street, Regent Street, London, W.,
Agent for the Applicant.