IMPROVEMENTS IN AND CONNECTED WITH RAILWAY SLEEPERS
Year: 1883

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Francis Goold Morony Stoney and
Richard Christopher Rapier at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents on
the 9th February 1883.
FRANCIS GOOLD MORONY STONEY, and RICHARD CHRISTOPHER RAPIER, both of
Westminster, in the County of Middlesex, Civil Engineers, "IMPROVEMENTS IN
AND CONNECTED WITH RAILWAY SLEEPERS
"
This Invention has for its object to simplify and otherwise improve the con-
struction of railway sleepers and parts connected therowith.
In carrying out the invention steel is by preference used for all the parts, but
wrought iron may be used for one or more of the parts. The improved sleepers
are formed by stamping or shaping a plate of suitable thickness by means of dies.
In one modification two sleepers forming a pair are made in one piece, the ends
being of round or oval or other suitable form-somewhat like what are known as
pot sleepers, but with a comparatively narrow transverse connecting part. The
sleepers are made concave, for the retention of ballast, on the undersides not only
of the end parts but also of the transverse connecting part, the downwardly
projecting sides being by preference of conoidal form. In another modification
the two sleepers of a pair are made in separate pieces each with a neck-like
connecting part; and when placed in position the neck ends overlap each other at
the centre of the road and are fixed together by means of a coupling sleeve or other
suitable fastening. The contact surfaces of the overlapping parts are by preference
formed with small corrugations allowing of adjustment and at the same time
locking the parts together. These arrangements dispense with the tie-bars, gibs,
and cutters usually employed with metallic sleepers.
The sleepers and their chairs may be adapted for rails of various sections or forms
but preference is given to the flat-bottomed rail sometimes termed the Vignoles
rail. The chair for each rail consists of a plate riveted to a part of the sleeper
which is by preference flattened to receive it. The chair plate is a rectangular
piece of suitable breadth for giving a proper length of bearing to the rail and holds
the rail by means of its inner and outer ends which are turned up and over for the
purpose. The inner end or edge is turned over so as to fit closely upon and clip
the inner edge of the bottom web of the rail, but the outer edge is turned over so
as to form a curved recess for a key this recess being slightly tapered so that the

page_text: key which is also tapered acts like a wedge. The key is made out of a plate
bended so as in section to form about three quarters of a circle with tangential
parts at the ends, and when the key is in place one edge bears against the outer
edge of the bottom web of the rail and the other edge bears on the top of that web
so that the wedge action presses the rail downwards on its seat and also towards
the turned over clipping edge of the inner end of the chair. The wedge is entered
into its place like the key of an ordinary railway chair, and when the key is
removed the chair and sleeper can be got free from the rail without disturbing any
neighboring chairs or sleepers.