IMPROVED FASTENING OR CONNECTION FOR ATTACHING THE RAILS OF RAILWAYS
Year: 1884

page_text: I BENJAMIN GREEN MARTIN of 60 South Mall in the City of Cork Ireland
Engineer do hereby declare the nature of my invention for IMPROVED FASTENING
OR CONNECTION FOR ATTACHING THE RAILS OF RAILWAYS to be as follows:-
The object of my invention is to simplify and render more effective the means of
fastening together or connecting the rails of railways.
.
For this purpose I dispense with the bolts and nuts usually employed to connect
the ordinary fish plates which serve to connect one rail to another on railways by
being passed through the fish plates and the rail and screwed up tightly to hold
them in position and I construct my improved fastening or connection for attaching
such rails, of a plate on each side of the abutting ends of the rails to. bo joined and
these plates are on their sides next the rails formed more or less to fit to those *
rails whilst on their outer sides or sides away from their rails, they are formed
with a double taper or incline, towards the middle of each plate being formed
thicker than the ends, and these tapered plates being placed against the sides of
the abutted ends of two rails have passed on to them at each of their thinner ends
a chair which is formed also with inclined inner sides to coincide with the inclines
or wedge edges of the plates and these chairs boing forced towards the centres of
the plates and the joint of the rails until the whole become sufficiently tightly
joined and wedged together, the spikes for securing the chairs to the sleepers
are applied in the ordinary manner and the retention of the chairs and plates
relatively to the rails to be joined thereby may be further secured by means of rods
or connections passing through or from one chair to the other and secured by nuts
taking into screw threads on those connections and these serve to hold the parts of.
the joint for the rails in proper relative position.
According to a modification of the foregoing arrangement the supports or chairs
of the rails on the one side may be formed with parallel sides and on the other side
of the rails with inclined sides to engage with or abut against the inclined sides of

page_text: a double inclined taper piece such as already described, and on the sides of the
abutting rails to which the parallel sides of the chairs are, I apply a straight flat
fish plate between the rails and the chairs..
The sleepers at the joints of the rails thus may be laid double for a short
distance one on either side of each rail and the corresponding ends of each pair of
chairs being fastened to each sleeper or one sufficiently broad longitudinal sleeper
may be substituted for these double sleepers. The sleepers supporting the rails
intermediate of the longitudinal lengths referred to may be of the ordinary cross
sleeper kind or of the longitudinal kind.

page_text: COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
I. BENJAMIN GREEN MARTIN of 60 South Mall in the City of Cork Ireland
Engineer do hereby declare the nature of my invention for "IMPROVED FASTENING
OF CONNECTION FOR ATTACHING THE RAILS OF RAILWAYS" and in what manner.
the same is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and
by the following statement:-
The object of my invention is to simplify and render more effective the means of
fastening together or connecting the rails of railways.
For this purpose I dispense with the bolts and nuts usually employed to connect
the ordinary fish plates which serve to connect one rail to another on railways by
being passed through the fish plates and the rail and screwed up tightly to hold
them in position and I employ in lieu thereof an improved fastening means
consisting of a plate 8r plates at the side of the abutting ends of the rails to be
joined formed more or less to fit those rails, the side of the plate or plates being
formed with double tapered or inclined face from the middle, these wedges .or
tapered parts fitting into corresponding chairs, Plane faces with parallel sides
may be given to one plate on one side of the rails and inclined surfaces to the other
and the chairs will be formed to suit.
Rods or connections passing through or from one chair to the other and secured
by nuts taking onto screw threads on those connections and these serve to hold the'
parts of the joint for the rails in proper relative position.
The accompanying drawings indicate the form and manner of application of my
improved fastening or connection attaching the abutting ends of rails together and
to the sleepers by means of the chairs. Figures 1 and 2 show by sectional plan
taken at the line of the lower part of the rail head and by plan respectively one
form according to which I construct my improved fastening or connection for
attaching such rails a a of a plate bhaving its inner side next the rails a formed
more or less to fit those rails a and the outer face of the plate b is tapered or
inclined each way from the centre thereof b₁ to the ends 62 and this tapered
plate b being placed against the rail, the chairs c are passed onto it and the
correspondingly formed sides c¹ of the chair c serve to engage and to retain the
parts in position when properly spiked or secured to the sleepers aided by a flat
plate inserted between parallel jaws of the chairs c³ and the rail if required.
Figure 3 shows by a like sectional view to Figure 1 and Figure 4 by a like plan
to Figure 2 and Figure 5 by cross sectional view of Figure 4 an arrangement in
which a plateb is employed on each side of the rails a a at their abutting ends to
be joined and these plates 6 are each formed on their outer sides, or sides away
from the rails a, with a double taper or incline from b' to 6' the part 6' being
thicker than the ends 63, and the tapered plates b being placed against the sides of
the rail ends a the chairs c c are passed theroon.over the thinner ends b² the
inclined inner sides c¹ of these chairs being made to corresponding inclinations,
when forced tightly home thereon and towards the centres b' of the plates and the
joint of the rails aa the whole becomes sufficiently secured and wedged together }

page_text: the spikes through the chairs c into the sleepers below in the ordinary manner
of applying such spikes serve to hold the rails a and the other parts firmly together.
This holding of the chairs c and plates b relatively to the rails a a' I further secure,
according to the arrangement shown by Figure 10, when required by means of
rods d d passing through openings for them at d in the chairs and passing from
chair to chair c and secured therein by nuts d engaging threads d³ thereon at one
end and by heads d' at the other end of each rod d or nuts may be used at both
ends. The nuts d² being caused to draw the rods d and thereby bring the chairs c
closer to one another the inclined surfaces c¹ b₁ serve to tighten the connection of
the rails a and the spikes serve to fix the connection to the sleepers which may as
shown be longitudinal at the part where the connection is made and in pairs, one
sleeper e at each side or one broad sleeper may be employed or other form of
sleeper used.
13
L
Figure 6 shows an end view and Figure 7 a plan view of a chair adapted to
operate with two double inclined or tapered oplates b and Figures 8 and 9
respectively show an upper edge and a side view of a plate b separately..
Figure 10 as well as serving to illustrate the mode by which chairs c may be
drawn and secured tightly on the wedges b also serves to illustrate the arrange.
ment of connection in which are employed to connect two rail ends a, two sleepers e,
one double wedge piece or plate band one plain or straight sided plate (shown
separately by Figure 11) the chairs c'on their sides next the parallel sided plate f
being formed straight and on their sides next the double inclined plate b being
inclined accordingly.
"
The sleepers intermediate of the longitudinal portions of sleepers at the joints of
the rails may be of "cross or other suitable form or the whole may be uniform.
The invention is also applicable to various forms of rails and other parts.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of my said
invention and in what manner the same is to be performed I declare that what
I claim is
The improved fastening or connection for attaching the rails of railways
constructed and operating substantially as set forth.