IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR ACTUATING, LOCKING, AND REGULATING RAILWAY SWITCHES, POINTS, AND SIGNALS
Year: 1868

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by John Saxby at the Office of the
Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 2nd April
1868.
I, JOHN SAXBY, of the Firm of Saxby and Farmer, Railway Signal
Engineers, Kilburn, W., do hereby declare the nature of the said
Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR ACTUATING, LOCKING, AND
REGULATING RAILWAY SWITCHES, POINTS, AND SIGNALS," to be as follows:-
Instead of any of the mechanical contrivances or appliances heretofore
employed for locking or unlocking railway points and signal levers
and their connections mounted, applied, or fitted within the pointsman's
or signalman's box, I actuate, lock, and regulate the position of railway
points and switches and the signals used or employed on railways by
the interposition of mechanism or apparatus herein-after described
between the points and the actuating rod and between the signal wires
and the signals and also between the signals and the points and between
the points and the signals, when the points and the signals in con-
nection therewith are combined together and worked through or by
the movement of the same wire or rod. I employ a sliding plate or
bar of a suitable shape or form as hereafter described working or
sliding back and forth in guides, and cause it to act against and move

page_text: or change the position of and afterwards by a further action to firmly
secure or hold for a time in the required position another sliding plate
or bar as herein-after described which may be directly connected to or
with the points or switches or to the signals (day or night) which
require to be acted upon separately or conjointly. By the use or
employment of such apparatus the changes in the length of the wire
or rod used to transmit motion to them which arise from usual or
accidental causes will not affect the correct movement or action of
the points or signals when they are pulled over. For actuating and
locking a pair of points worked from a distance by means of a lever
and a connecting rod or bar, I fit to the end of the point rod a plate
having an angular or diagonal groove or recess ther ein, the opposite
points of the projecting portions of the plate within the groove being
cut so as to form a flat face or square shoulder at right angles with
the point rod and to the direction of its travel, so as to permit of the
passage of a bar or rod across the angular or diagonal groove in the
sliding plate. To the end of the actuating rod or between it and
the balance weight I connect an angled or diagonally shaped bar or
plate formed to the same angle and width of the groove or recess in
the plate before described, and the shank or parallel portion of the
plate or bar by which it is connected to the actuating rod is of such a
width as will traverse in the groove or recess formed by the removal of
the corners of the angular or diagonal groove in the sliding plate. I
mount both these sliding pieces upon a plate or bed piece having
guides at right angles to each other for the purpose of enabling them to
slide freely back and forth therein. When only one movement or one
locking movement is required the sliding piece fitted to the actuating
rod has one parallel straight and one angled piece, but where a second
locking is required a second angular piece is formed in conjunction
with the first at a suitable interval, and by means of a second or a
third shoulder and straight and parallel connecting pieces a second or
further locking is effected. When the points are worked by a switch
lever close to them they need not be held over by the pointsman, as
they cannot be moved until the rod (and its connections) herein described
working at right angles to the point bar is pulled over or caused to
slide through the groove or recess in the plate attached to the point
bar. For working and locking a pair of siding points which are
actuated by means of the distant signal connections, I fit to each of
the point bars a similar apparatus to that herein-before described, and

page_text: connect them together by means of rods. In this case the angles of
the grooves or recesses and of the angled bars or bevelled pieces sliding
therein are reversed. By the use or employment of this apparatus
one man can lock a pair of points worked by another man and thus
prevent the points being moved until the requisite permission to do so
has been obtained from another signalman, and also by reason of thé
points being locked it is impossible for the man to work or change
the position of his signal as the point lever is made to lock the signal
connect them together by means of rods. In this case the angles of
the grooves or recesses and of the angled bars or bevelled pieces sliding
therein are reversed. By the use or employment of this apparatus
one man can lock a pair of points worked by another man and thus
prevent the points being moved until the requisite permission to do so
has been obtained from another signalman, and also by reason of thé
points being locked it is impossible for the man to work or change
the position of his signal as the point lever is made to lock the signal
Tever.
In applying a similar arrangement of apparatus to the working of
signals, I apply the bed plate or carriage vertically to the side of
the signal post, the bent or angled bar or plate in connection with
the actuating wire or rod being caused to traverse back or forth
horizontally in guides provided for the purpose, whilst the plate having
the angular groove or recess therein is fitted to the lower end of the
signal rod at the side of the post and slide vertically up and down in
guides provided for the purpose upon the carriage or bed plate. Thus
upon the wire being pulled by means of the hand lever or wheel
within the signal box, the parallel portion of the horizontally sliding
bar is drawn through the parallel groove in the plate formed therein
as before described and by which the signal rod has been locked down;
the angled portion of the same bar is then brought in contact with the
angled face of the groove or recess in the plate, and by the continued
force applied to the signal wire the signal rod is raised and the
semaphore arm depressed, and by further continuing the action of
the wire and the sliding movement of the bar a second parallel and
straight portion thereof is drawn through between the square shoulders
in the recessed plate fitted to the lower end of the signal rod, and it is
thereby locked up and the semaphore arm locked "down," or it may
be in an intermediate position or angle of 45 degrees signifying
"caution." By this means, as in the case of its application to the
working of points and switches, the expansion and contraction of
the connecting wires will not affect the position of the signals. In
applying the present Invention to signal posts displaying three lights
the horizontally sliding bar should have two inclined or angular portions
and three horizontal or square shoulders for the purpose of locking
the signals before the first angular movement between the second and
first angular movement, and after the second angular movement has.

page_text: "
been performed by which the signal rod and the signal in connection
therewith is twice acted upon and three times held securely at rest
to indicate all right," caution,' or stop." For the purpose of
enabling two or more signalmen to act upon the same signal from
different positions so that the signal cannot be lowered or put to
"all right" without their joint concurrence, I form upon the
face of the horizontal sliding bar a projecting lug sufficiently long
to be acted upon by one end of the bent lever, upon which a balance
weight is fitted; thus two or three bent levers with their weights
may be mounted upon the same stud or pin below in close proximity
to each other; then the signal being at caution, should either
signalman put his lever back the signal will fly to "danger,"
but both (or all) the signalmen must agree to put the signal to
"caution" before it can be moved (by either separately) from the
position indicating "danger." For working a station signal the
horizontally sliding bar with its bent or angled or wedge-shaped
slide may be operated by hand without the intervention of any rod
or wire connection, and thus the semaphore, disk, or other day signals,
whether for regulating the traffic on railways or common roads, may
be actuated and locked or secured in any of the required positions
necessary to indicate "safety," "caution," or "danger." In like
manner I adapt and apply mechanical apparatus as herein-before
described for the working of repeater as well as distant signals, as by
its use it will admit of any amount of travel of the rod or wire to
actuate the repeater signal after it has performed the required action
upon the distant signal.
For some purposes I prefer to form suitable grooves in the bed
plate or carriage, and by giving thereto the necessary angles and
straight junction and terminal pieces to effect the necessary movement
or movements of the point bars or signal rods, I cause a stud pin
with or without a friction roller to traverse the groove so formed, and
by its change of position whilst being moved back or forth communicate
the necessary movement to the point or signal or to lock or secure
them as herein-before described.