Improvements in Expansion Joints for Railway and Tramway Rails, and Apparatus for the Manufacture and Fixing.
Year: 1892

page_text: Date of Application, 28th June, 1892-Accepted, 30th July, 1892
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
[Communicated from abroad by ARTHUR JAMES MOXHAM, of Johnstown,
Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, United States of America, Engineer.]
Improvements in Expansion Joints for Railway and Tramway Rails,
and Apparatus for the Manufacture and Fixing.
1, OLIVER IMRAY, of No. 28, Southampton Buildings, Chancery Lane, in the
County of London, Chartered Patent Agent, 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 expansion of railway or tramway rails resulting from elevation of
temperature is usually allowed for by leaving spaces between the ends of the
lengths of rails where they are joined by fishes or otherwise, and by giving certain
looseness in the jointings. The effect of the alternate expansion and contraction
ito cause a to and fro movement of the rail ends which tends to increase the
looseness of all the fixings for the joint, allowing the one rail end to become
depressed by the load below the other which then becomes damaged by the blow of
the wheel passing on to it.
The object of this invention is to provide rails at suitable intervals with expansion
joints such as will allow of the to and fro movement resulting from changes of
temperature, but will not permit the rail on the one side of the joint to be depressed
by the load below the level of the other, and consequently their junctions can be
made quite firm and unyielding vertically, so that the rails may be actually welded
together at their junctions.
Several forms of expansion joints according to this invention and apparatus for
their manufacture are described with reference to the accompanying drawings.
The
Fig. 1 is a plan, Fig. 2 a side view and Fig. 3 is an end view, with transverse
section of rail, of an expansion joint consisting of a block A of steel a number of
alternating saw cuts from the one side nearly through to the other side.
block A, thus cnt, is inserted between the ends of the rails to which it is welded
being also fixed by flanges F, which may be bolted, but are by preference welded
to the rail webs so as to be integral with the rails. The upper face of the block A
is made to the shape of the rail head so that the wheels pass over it, the saw cuts
being so narrow as not sensibly to affect the rolling of the wheels over them. The
extent to which the rails can expand is obviously determined by the width of each
cut multiplied by their number. The cuts instead of being directly across at right
angles to the rail may be more or less oblique as shewn in the plan Fig. 1ª.
Instead of a joint already proposed, consisting of two bars of steel which are bent
and attached by bolting or it may be by welding to the rail webs as shewn in
Fig. 4, to which form of expansion joint no claim is herein made, a single bar bent
zigzag as shewn in Fig. 5 may be employed. For manufacturing such a joint as
that shewn by Fig. 5 apparatus of which Fig. 6 is a longitudinal section and Fig. 7
is an end view is employed. It consists of two toothed rollers B by which the
steel strap S is corrugated as it passes between them and is forced into a guide
tube T of rectangular section and of such taper as to allow for the corrugated
strap occupying greater and greater depth as its corrugations become compressed
against the plunger head of a hydraulic cylinder C which yields as the strap is fed
forwards resisting with force adjusted to that required for closing up the corru-
gations. The strap thus folded up in zig zag shape is cut into suitable lengths
the ends of which are bent back to form the flanges F Fig. 5, to be fixed against
the web of the rail.
Instead of making expansion joints as above described of separate pieces welded
to the rail, the web of the rail itself may be so treated as to act as an expansion

page_text: joint as will now be described. As shewn in the plan Fig. 8 a portion of the head
of the rail is cut out obliquely and then as shewn in Fig. 9 by giving the web a
double bend, the two oblique ends of the bend are brought nearly together. In
some forms of rails, such as that shewn in Fig. 8, only the sides of the head and
base may be cut away as indicated by the dotted lines leaving a web the whole depth
of the rail. Fig. 10 is a longitudinal section and Fig. 11 is a transverse section of
apparatus for effecting the bending of the rail web. The web W is clamped in
two screw clamps S₁ S which are fitted to slide freely towards one another and
which are insulated from the machine and from one another but are connected by
suitable conductors to a generator supplying a current of electricity large in
quantity but moderate in tension. To the framing of the machine are fixed
obliquely two hydraulic cylinders CC the plunger heads II H2 of which may be
also insulated from one another and connected to the electrical conductors. The
plunger heads 11111 being retracted quite away from the rail web the part of this
web between the clamps S S is heated by the electrical current passing through
it, the heads H'Hare then advanced by admitting water under pressure to the
cylinders C C and the electrical current passing from the one head to the other
through the web farther heats it while it becomes doubly bent to the desired form.
Although the heating of the rail is described as being effected by electricity, it is
obvious that the part of the rail to be bent might be heated in a furnace, the rail
then being brought to the machine to be operated on as described.
When the expansion joints are made in pieces separate from the rails as described
with reference to Figs. 1, 1, 4 and 5, it is necessary, for their secure fixing to weld
them to the lengths of rail between which they are interposed, and the welding may
be effected not only at the sides of the expansion joints Figs. 1 1^ and 5 where
the ends of the rails abut against them but also when the flanges bear against
the webs of the rails. In the case of the joint shewn in Fig. 4 the welding is
necessarily confined to the fixing of the flanges to the web. As it would be
inconvenient, in many cases impossible, to transport a great length of rail consisting
of a number of lengths with their joints welded to the place where the rails are to
be laid a machine on a truck is provided which can be run along rails already laid
to effect welding of successive lengths to their expansion joints as they are placed
in position. Fig. 12 is a side view, Fig. 13 is a plan, Fig. 14 is a half end view
and Fig. 15 is a half transverse section of the machine for this purpose. A truck A
has four wheels W which can be run along the rails R as they are laid, to a position
such that two clamps B and C have between them the expansion joint J. The one
clamp consists of an inner jaw B' fixed to the truck and an outer jaw Bat the end
of a lever B which can be moved by a setting screw B³ so that the web of the
rail R is firmly clamped between the two jaws B 13. The other clamp has its
jaws CC, lever C, and screw C³, all mounted on a slide D having linked to it one
end of a lever D₁ the other end of which is linked to the piston rod of a hydraulic
cylinder D. The jaws B B C C¹ of the clamps are faced preferably with copper
which is a good conductor of electricity, each of the facing pieces being insulated
from the rest of the machine but connected by a suitable conductor with a dynamo
electric machine or other source of electricity and transformer, which may be
carried on the truck A with suitable switches so that currents of electricity large
in quantity but of moderate tension can be transmitted to and through the clamp.
When it is desired to weld the ends of the two rails R R to the joint J between them,
both the faces B B¹ of the one clamp are connected to the one terminal and both the
faces CC of the other clamp are connected to the other terminal so that the current
has to pass from the one clamp to the other through the ends of the two rails R R
and the joint J between them, heating those parts to a high temperature especially
at the imperfect contacts of the ends of the rails with the joint J. While the
parts are thus heated the piston of the hydraulic cylinder D is subjected to
pressure so that the slide D and the clamp C which it carries are forced
towards B. The portions of heated metal at the ends of the heated rails R and
at the sides of the joint J being thus forced together become welded together

page_text: so that the joint is rendered integral with both rails. When it is desired to
weld the flanges F of joints such as those shewn in Figs. 11 and 5 to the
webs of the rails R, or to weld the joint shewn in Fig. 4 by its flanges to the rails
then the two faces B B or C C' of each clamp are connected to opposite terminals
so that the electric current has to pass through the flange of the joint and the web
of the rail and these being thus highly heated are press!ribly together by
turning the screws B³ or C³ causing them to become welded together. Although
in the above description electricity has been mentioned as the agent for heating
the parts to be welded, obviously the apparatus is applicable when the heating is
effected by other known means such as blow pipe flames directed on the metal.
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 :-
1. An expansion joint for a railway or tramway rail consisting of elastic metal
cut bent or folded in zig zag form and attached between the rails substantially as
described with reference to Figs. 1, 1, 2, 3 and 5.
2. The apparatus substantially as described with reference to Figs. 6 and 7 for
corrugating steel strap and folding it together in zig zag shape to form expansion
joints for rails of the kind illustrated by Fig. 5.
3. An expansion joint for a railway or tramway rail formed by cutting out part
of the rail head and base if necessary and corrugating the web substantially as
described with reference to Figs. 8 8 and 9.
4. The apparatus substantially as described with reference to Figs. 10 and 11.
for bending the rail web to form an expansion joint such as is illustrated
by Fig. 9.
5. The apparatus substantially as described with reference to Figs. 12. 13. 14
and 15 for welding expansion joints to rails laid in position.
Dated this 28th day of June 1892.
ABEL & IMRAY,
Agents for the Applicant.