Improvements in Geared Spring-mounted Traction and other Locomotive Engines.
Year: 1892

page_text: Date of Application, 26th Jan., 1892-Accepted, 27th Feb., 1892
Improvements in Geared Spring-mounted Traction and other
Locomotive Engines.
I, FREDERICK JOHN BURRELL of St. Nicholas Works, Thetford, Norfolk,
Engineer, 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 :-
In the Specification of a former Patent granted to me No. 5747 dated 20th April
1887, there is described a construction of geared traction or tramway engine
mounted on springs and driven from a counter shaft arranged over the main axle,
one end of the counter shaft being provided with a pinion gearing with a spur
wheel on the main axle and mounted in a vertically movable bearing coupled to one
of the main axle bearings and its other end being connected by a flexible coupling
with a toothed wheel driven from the engine crank shaft.
Now my present invention has reference to engines of the kind referred to and it
relates inter alia to improved constructions and arrangements of parts for trans-
mitting motion to the counter shaft whereby the travelling wheels of the engine
can be brought much closer to the horn plates or frames than is possible with the
construction described in my said former Specification thereby enabling an engine
of the type mentioned to be made much narrower than heretofore.
In the accompanying drawings,
Fig. 1 shews partly in vertical section, and partly in elevation, an engine of the
kind referred to constructed according to my present invention.
1 is the counter shaft provided at one end with a pinion 2 gearing with a spur
wheel 3 by which the main axle 4 is driven direct or through differential gearing
(as usually employed), and carried by a bearing 5 arranged to slide vertically in a
box 6 fixed to one of the horn-plates or frames 7. The bearing 5 is coupled by a
link 8 to one of the bearings 9 of the main axle. The two bearings 9 are free to
slide vertically in guides and carry rods 11 with plates 12 for supporting the
springs 13 upon which the horn or frame plates 7, 7 bear. The above mentioned
parts are arranged substantially in the manner described and shewn in my said
former Specification. Instead however of driving the counter shaft from the crank
shaft of the engine by a spur wheel mounted to rotate upon the outer end of a fixed
tube and directly connected to a flexible or universal joint or coupling also external
to the said horn plate and jointed to the counter shaft as described in my said
former Specification, I drive it. by a spur wheel 14 that is fixed upon a hollow
rotary shaft 15 jointed to the trunnions 16 of the gimbal-ring 17 which is connected
to the counter shaft as shewn and forms a flexible coupling similar to that shewn in
my above mentioned former Specification, the spur wheel 14 being at the inner
side and the flexible coupling at the outer side of the horn plate 7°.
wheel 14 may be driven from the engine crank shaft, or from an intermediate shaft
provided with a fly wheel as required. The hollow shaft 15 is mounted in
bearings 18, 18 fixed to the horn-plate 7 and box 6 respectively, or it can be
shortened and be carried by the bearing 18 only. 7 is a transverse plate serving
as a stay between the horn plates 7, 7º.
The spur
In the modified construction illustrated in Fig. 2 the spur wheel 14 is fixed to
the rotary shaft 15 as before, but outside the horn-plate 7, and the flexible
coupling 16-17 is journalled to the shaft inside the said horn-plate, the outer end
of the shaft and the boss of the spur wheel 14 being arranged. if desired to project
into the adjacent travelling wheel 19 of the engine as shewn.
In the further modified construction illustrated in Fig. 3, both the spur wheel 14

page_text: and the flexible coupling are arranged at the inner side of the horn plate 7ª. In
other respects the arrangements illustrated in Figs. 2 and 3 are similar to that
illustrated in Fig. 1.
Fig. 4 illustrates a construction of geared spring mounted engine of the kind
hereinbefore referred in which the flexible coupling is dispensed with. To enable
this to be done, the shaft 1" from which the countershaft 1 is directly driven, and
which may be the crank or motor shaft or an intermediate shaft, is mounted above
the counter shaft, so that the axes of these two shafts and that of the main shaft 4,
are in the same vertical plane or nearly so.
The counter shaft is formed near one
end with a spherical enlargement 1 that is carried by a corresponding spherical
bearing fixed to a horn-plate 7"; and the spur wheel 14 which in this arrangement
is keyed to the counter shaft, is formed and arranged as shown so that the centres
of the spur wheel teeth in gear with the pinion 1 on the driving shaft 1 are
normally over the centre of the spherical bearing. By this construction the spur
wheel 14 will be caused to move about the centre of the spherical bearing when
the countershaft, upon which it is keyed, rises and falls at the opposite end through
the action of the springs. The teeth of the pinion 1 are preferably made wider
than those of the spur wheel as shewn, so that the latter teeth can slide across the
face of the others with which they are in gear, to accommodate themselves to the
movement of the countershaft.
Either of the arrangements herein before described, or that described in my said
former Specification, can with advantage be applied to geared spring mounted
locomotives for railways and tramways wherein electricity is used as the motive
power. In such a locomotive according to this invention I employ one electric
motor carried by the spring mounted engine framing, to drive two pairs of travelling
wheels.
Fig. 5 illustrates in aide elevation one construction of such a locomotive in which
the armature shaft 20 of the electro-motor 21 is mounted to rotate in bearings
carried by the frame plates 7 and has fixed to it a spur wheel 22 that gears with
the two spur wheels 14 the motion of each of which is transmitted to its corre-
sponding counter shaft 1 and main axle 4 by one or other of the arrangements of
gearing hereinbefore described with reference to and shewn in Figs. 1, 2, or 3, or
by that described in my said former Specification as shewn in cross section in
Fig. 6. In this latter figure, 14 is the spur wheel mounted upon a fixed bearing 14
and connected to the Hexible coupling 16-17 which is also connected to the
counter shaft I as shewn. The electric motor, the counter shaft 1 and the
mechanism for driving this counter shaft may advantageously be carried by
additional frame plates 7, 7° as shewn, so that the toothed wheels 2 and 3 for
driving the main axle 4 may be situated between the horn plates 7, 7". This con-
struction also admits of the bearings 9 for the main axle being arranged close to
the travelling wheels 19".
Fig. 7 illustrates a modified construction in which only one of the pairs of
travelling wheels is driven from the armature shaft 20 through one or other of the
arrangements referred to, the other pair of travelling wheels being driven from the
first by cranks 22 and coupling rods 23 as shewn. In this case the armature
shaft 20 or the shaft by which the countershaft 1 is directly driven instead of being
arranged at the side of the countershaft as shewn in dotted lines in Fig. 7 may as
shewn in full lines be arranged above such shaft which can then be mounted and
driven in the manner hereinbefore described with reference to Fig. 4.
This figure
also shews the counter shaft and the means for driving it carried by additional
frame plates 7, 7%, and the gearing 2 and 3 inside the horn plates 7, 7ª, as- in
Fig. 6.
In each of the constructions shewn in Figs. 5 and 7 it will be seen that one
electro-motor only is used to drive two main axles, and the motor owing to its
being rigidly fitted between and to the spring mounted framing or horn-plates
will not, when the locomotive is running over irregularities in the road, be sub-
jected to the injurious shocks experienced by those motors which are mounted

page_text: upon or supported by one of the main shafts or axles and which motors have to
be specially constructed to withstand such shocks.
I am aware that it has been proposed to use a hollow revolving shaft
surrounding a counter shaft in a geared spring mounted engine, but only in con-
junction with road axles that did not revolve, thereby necessitating the use of
spur gearing for the last motion on both sides of the engine, and where the
counter shaft was connected at both ends to the main or road axle, motion being
transmitted to the counter shaft either by a toothed wheel fixed to the hollow
shaft and driving differential gearing placed upon the counter shaft, or by a
toothed wheel mounted to rotate upon a fixed bearing and jointed to a flexible
coupling that was also jointed to one end of the sleeve the other end of which
was connected to the counter shaft.
I am also aware that it has been proposed to construct engines of the kind
herein referred to with a counter shaft fitted with ball joints, but these joints
were arranged at each end of the shaft and the driving shaft was arranged at
one side of the counter shaft with which it was geared. Such arrangements
however are not so advantageous in practice as those herein before described.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of the said inven-
tion and in what manner the same is to be performed I declare that I do not
claim broadly the combination of a hollow rotary shaft with a counter shaft and
flexible coupling nor the mounting of the counter shaft in spherical bearings
but what I do claim is :-
1. In geared spring mounted traction and other locomotive engines of the kind
first herein referred to, the combination with the counter shaft 1, of a spur
wheel 14, rotary hollow shaft 15 and flexible coupling 16-17, these parts being
constructed arranged and operating substantially in the manner hereinbefore
described with reference respectively to and shewn in Fig. 1; in Fig. 2; and in
Fig. 3 of the drawings annexed.
2. A geared spring mounted traction or locomotive engine of the kind first
herein referred to, in which the driven end of the counter shaft is mounted in
a fixed spherical bearing and has fixed to it a spur wheel that is driven from a
shaft arranged above the counter shaft substantially as hereinbefore described
with reference to and shewn in Fig. 4.
3. A geared spring mounted locomotive engine of the kind first herein referred
to, in which the travelling wheels are driven from the armature shaft of an electric
notor carried by the engine framing, the armature shaft being either geared with
toothed wheels 14 whence motion is independently transmitted to each pair of
travelling wheels through a counter shaft situated over each main axle as shewn in
Fig. 5, or is geared to a single toothed wheel 14 on a counter shaft arranged above
one of the main axles for driving one pair of travelling wheels from which motion
is transmitted to the other pair by cranks and coupling rods as shewn in Fig. 7,
whether the shaft for driving the said counter shaft be arranged at one side of such
shaft as shewn in dotted lines in Fig. 7, or above such shaft as shewn in full lines
n Fig. 7 and in cross section in Fig. 4.
3211 J
T
1005
W. LLOYD WISE,
Per F. J. Brougham,
46, Lincoln's Inn Fields, London, W.C., Agent for the Applicant.