Improvements in Fishing or Jointing Railway Rails.
Year: 1898

page_text: Improvements in Fishing or Jointing Railway Rails.
We, PERCY HULBURD, of The Hulburd Engineering Company, of 150, Leaden-
hall Street, in the City of London, Railway Contractors, and ROBERT WEATHER-
BURN, of 93, Highgate Road, in the County of London, Engineer, do hereby
declare the nature of this invention to be as follows:-
-
This invention relates to the fishing or jointing of railway rails.
It is well known that with the present mode of fishing or jointing railway
rails it is very difficult to obtain the necessary rigidity, and that the stronger and
heavier the rails the greater is the difficulty, as the weight of a rail is generally
due to the depth of section of the head of the rail and not to the height of rail
or width of head, the result being that the heavier the rail the smaller is the
space available for the fish plates and the weaker the fishing in proportion.
The object of this invention is to overcome this difficulty and to this end it
consists in combining with the fish plates which enter the channels of the rails
in the usual way, two hangers and a wedge piece which is supported in the said
hangers against the foot of the rail and tightened up against the same as desired.
In carrying out the invention we provide the fish plates, which are intro-
duced into the channels of the rails, with lips or ledges upon which hangers
may be supported. These hangers have bevelled or inclined adjacent surfaces
upon which a wedge strip is supported, the lower extremities of the said hangers
being adapted to receive bolts for drawing the hangers together in such a manner
that as the inclined surfaces of the said hangers approach one another the wedge
shaped strip which lies upon and between them is forced up against the foot of
the rail thereby making the joint solid and immoveable under wheel pressure.
Natal the 2nd dow of Tul 1808
G. F. REDFERN & Co.,
4, South Street, Finsbury, London,
Agents for the Applicants.
Improvements in Fishing or Jointing Railway Rails.
We, PERCY HULBburd, of The Hulburd Engineering Company, of 150, Leaden-
hall Street, in the City of London, Railway Contractors, and ROBERT WEATHER-
BURN, of 93, Highgate Road, in the County of London, 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:
This invention relates to the fishing or jointing of railway rails.
It is well known that with the present mode of fishing or jointing railway

page_text: P
rails it is very difficult to obtain the necessary rigidity, and that the stronger and
heavier the rails the greater is the difficulty, as the weight of a rail is generally
due to the depth of section of the head of the rail and not to the height of rail
or width of head, the result being that the heavier the rail the smaller is tho
space available for the fish plates and the weaker the fishing in proportion.
The object of this invention is. to overcome this difficulty and to this end it
consists in combining with the fish plates which enter the channels of the rails
in the usual way, two hangers and a wedge piece which is supported in the said
bangers against the foot of the rails and tightened up against the same as desired.
In carrying out the invention we provide the fish plates, which are intro-
duced into the channels of the rails, with lips or ledges upon which hangers
may be supported. These hangers have bevelled or inclined adjacent surfaces
upon which a wedge strip is supported, the lower extremities of the said hangers
being adapted to receive bolts for drawing the hangers together in such a manner
that as the said hangers approach one another the wedge shaped strip which
lies upon and between them is forced up against the foot of the rail thereby
making the joint solid and immovable under wheel pressure.
To enable the invention to be fully understood we will describe the same by
reference to the accompanying drawing, in which:-
Figure 1 is a side elevation shewing the adjacent ends of two rails united in
accordance with our invention:
Figure 2 is a section on the line 2-2 of Figure 1:
Figure 3 is a view similar to Figure 2 illustrating a slight modification of
our invention; and
Figure 4 is a similar sectional view illustrating a further modification.
Similar letters of reference illustrate corresponding parts in the several
figures.
:
a, a are the rails to be jointed, b, bare the fish plates, c, c are the fish bolts
and d, d are the hangers. The fish plates b, bare of ordinary construction except
that at their lower edges they are provided with the lips or ledges e, e upon which
the hangers d, d are supported, as clearly shewn in the drawing, and the said
hangers are adapted to be drawn together at the lower parts by means of
bolts for other suitable fastenings.
9 is the wedge shaped strip which is placed beneath the rail and between the
hangers, as clearly shewn in Figures 2 and 3, in such a manner that when the
lower ends of the hangers are drawn together inner inclined faces on the latter
act against the wedge shaped strip and tend to force the same up against the
foot of the rails so as to form a solid bed for the ends of the same.
The arrangements shewn in Figures 2 and 3 are practically the same, the only
difference being that in the arrangement shewn in Figure 2 the wedge shaped
strip g is provided with a tongue which extends downwards and between the
lower ends of the hangers and has the bolts passing through holes ¹ in the said
tongue, the said holes being elongated as shewn in Figure 2 to allow of the
upward movement of the tongue relatively with the bolts f, f; whilst
in the arrangement shewn in Figure 3 the said wedge shaped strip is simply
supported between the hangers, the tongue being dispensed with.
In a modification of our invention shewn in Figure the wedge shaped strip is
dispensed with, the hangers being provided with projecting portions 7, which
as the said hangers are drawn together by the bolts f, f will be pressed into
contact with the foot of the rails.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of our said
invention and in what manner the same is to be performed, we declare that what
we claim is:-
1. The improvements in fishing or jointing railway rails consisting in com-
bining with the fish plates hangers adapted to be drawn together in order to
exert a pressure either directly or indirectly against the foot of the rails, sub-
stantially as described.

page_text: 2. The combination with the fish plates for jointing railway rails, of hangers
suspended from the said plates and adapted to be drawn together at their lower
ends and a wedge strip supported between the said hangers and adapted as the
latter are drawn together to be forced into contact with the rails, substantially
as described.
3. Fishing or jointing railway rails substantially in the manner hereinbefore
described and illustrated in Figures 1 and 2 and Figure 3 of the accompanying
drawing.
4. The modification of our invention wherein hangers supported by the fish
plates are adapted to be directly pressed against the foot of the rails, substantially
as described.
i
Dated this 1st day of April 1899.
G. F. REDFERN & Co.,
4, South Street, Finsbury, London,
Agents for the Applicants.