IM- PROVEMENTS IN LOCKING APPARATUS FOR CONTROLLING RAILWAY SWITCHES AND SIGNALS
Year: 1869

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said James I'Anson at
the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on
the 21st September 1869.
I, JAMES I'ANSON, junior, of Darlington, in the County of Durham,
Engineer, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IM-
PROVEMENTS IN LOCKING APPARATUS FOR CONTROLLING RAILWAY SWITCHES AND
SIGNALS," to be as follows:-
In carrying out my Invention I employ flat bars or plates capable of
sliding horizontally, and provided with slots or perforations in which
work pins, bolts, or their equivalents, mounted on vertical rods, plates,
or bars, and passing through the slots in the horizontal bars aforesaid.

page_text: The said vertical rods, plates, or bars are connected with the handles
or levers used to actuate the switches or signals (as the case may be) in
such a manner that the movement of either of the said handles or
levers by which the switches or signals are actuated causes the corre-
sponding vertical bar, rod, or plate to move in a vertical direction. The
pins, bolts, or their equivalents carried on one or more of the vertical
rods pass through inclined slots in one or more horizontal bars before
mentioned so that on one of said vertical rods being moved by the
operation of the lever handle with which it is connected, the horizontal
bar or bars will be traversed in a horizontal direction. This longitudinal
movement of the horizontal bar or bars causes the pins or bolts con-
nected with the handles required to be locked to be engaged in their
slots, which are rectangular or similar to a double bayonet slot in form,
in such manner that said handles or levers (and consequently the switch
or signal with which they are connected) cannot be moved until re-
leased by returning the hand lever and with it the horizontal bar or bars
to their former position.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said James I'Anson in the Great Seal Patent Office
on the 21st March 1870.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JAMES
I'ANSON, junior, of Darlington, in the County of Durham, Engineer,
send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Twenty-first day of September, in the year
of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-nine, in the thirty-
third year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors,
give and grant unto me, the said James I'Anson, junior, Her special
licence that I, the said James I'Anson, junior, my executors, adminis-
trators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said James I'Anson, junior,
my executors, administrators, and assigns, should at any time agree
with, and no others, from time to time and at all times thereafter
during the term therein expressed, should and lawfully might make,
use, exercise, and vend, within the United Kingdom of Great Britain
and Ireland, the Channel Islands, and Isle of Man, an Invention for

page_text: operated, and with it the horizontal bar or bars to its former position.
I further so arrange the holes or slots in the horizontul bars or plates
(if required) in such a manner that certain of the levers, cranks, or
other appliances cannot be moved until some other one has been
moved,
so as to release the first by the movement of the horizontal bars or
plates, and furthermore, if required, I cause the movement of the second
lever which has been released by the movement of the first to lock
the latter in its altered position, and I make (if I think fit) one hori-
zontal bar or plate effect two distinct and separate sets of locks, according
as it is moved to the right hand or to the left.
DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS.
In order to more clearly explain the nature and working of my
Invention I have, as an example, illustrated in the accompanying
Drawing the mode of effecting the various combinations of locks
required for a simple junction of two lines of railway.
Figure 1 is a front elevation, and Figure 2 a side view of the hand
levers and various parts constituting my Invention for operating and
controlling the switches and signals of the said junction, whilst Figure 3
is a plan of the junction itself. The letters and figures of reference
indicate corresponding parts, or parts directly in connection, the several
signals numbered from 1 to 8 (and the name of which is given in
Figure 3) being actuated by the levers referenced to correspond, as are
also the two pairs of points or switches lettered A and B respec-
tively.
C, C1, C2, C3, are the flat bars or plates (of which there are four in
this case,) sliding horizontally in suitable bearings a, attached to the
uprights or framing D. These horizontal bars are provided with slots
or openings 6, 6', in which work pins or bolts c, carried on vertical rods
E, working through guides E', and connected at the upper part with the
cranks F of the various lever handles, so that by the movement of either
of the latter to operate the switch or signal in connection the corre-
sponding rod E will be moved in a vertical direction. Some of the slots
6' through which certain of the bolts c pass are inclined as shown, so that
on one of the latter being raised or lowered with its rod E by the hand
lever as before described one of the horizontal bars will be traversed to 3
the right or left, according to the direction of the slot or the position of
the pin c therein, as shown by the red and blue lines at C, Figure 1.

page_text: movement of one of the bars C, C1, C2, C3, causes some or
all of the other slots in said bar to assume such a position in relation to
the pins c passing through them that the latter are caused to enter
the horizontal parts of said slots at top or bottom, according to the
previous position of said pins c, which are thus prevented from moving,
and so serve to lock the lever, crank, or other appliance with which
they are connected. The locking is thus effected by portions of the
slots in the horizontal bars being brought by the movement of
those bars over or beneath the pins or bolts c, of such of the vertical
rods E as are connected with the levers requiring to be locked.
I will now proceed to explain the manner in which the switches
and signals of the junction shown in Figure 3 are controlled by the
apparatus of my Invention. When the signal 1 is moved so as to
allow a train to pass down the main line the movement of the corre-
sponding lever handle 1 (Figure 1) raises the vertical rod E attached
thereto, which by the vertical movement of its pin c, working in the
inclined slot b₁ in the horizontal bar C traverses said bar towards
the left. This movement of bar C causes the pin c in connection
with lever handle A (which actuates the points marked A in Figure
3) to become engaged in the horizontal portion of the slot in said
bar C through which it passes, in which it cannot then be moved, thus
locking lever A. In like manner the handle marked 3, by which the
down branch signal 3 is actuated, is also locked. When the handle
marked 2 (which actuates the up main signal 2) is moved it locks by a
similar process the handles marked A, B, 6, 3, and 8 by the movement
to the left hand of the horizontal bar C₁. The handle 3 actuating
the down branch signal is prevented from being moved until the
handle A is moved, by which the points A are put in the proper
position for a train to pass down the branch line, and the handles
capable of giving contradictory signals, namely, 1, 2, 5, and 7 are
locked.
When the handle 3 is moved it locks the handle A in its
altered position, so that the points cannot be put right again for the
main line until the branch signal is replaced in the danger position.
In like manner the handle 4 which actuates the up branch signal cannot
be moved until the points B are put in the proper position, by which
operation the signals 2 and 7 are locked, the movement of handle 4 then
locks the points B in the proper position for the branch line, so that
they cannot be moved back and open the main line until the branch

page_text: signal 4 is returned to "danger." The series of locks effected by the
movements of the handles of the distant signals being the same as those
caused by their respective junction signals need not be particularly
described.
In some cases I prefer to dispose the horizontal bars C, C1, C2, C3,
(or some of them,) in front instead of below one another, as shown in
Drawing, with the whole series of horizontal bars between the two
plates forming the rods E. In this case the pins or bolts c would
pass
through the whole series of horizontal bars, suitable spaces being cut in
such of the horizontal bars as are not required to be actuated by any
particular pins, so as to allow those bolts or pins to work and to actuate
each of the other horizontal bars as may require to be actuated without
moving those bars which it is not desired they should move.
Having now described the nature of my Invention and the manner
in which the same is to to be performed, I wish it to be understood that
I make no claim to the arrangement of the levers, handles, cranks, or
other appliances by which the signals and switches are actuated, but
what I do claim as my Invention to be protected by the herein-before
in part recited Letters Patent is, the locking of such levers, handles,
cranks, or other appliances by means of a combination of veritcal bars or
rods with horizontal bars or plates moved by pins or bolts passing
through the same, and connected with the vertical rods and working
in slots or holes, substantially as described and illustrated in the
accompanying Drawings.
In witness whereof, I, the said James I'Anson, junior, have here- 2
unto set my hand and seal, this Sixteenth day of March, in the
year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy