Improvements in Railway Wagons.
Year: 1896

page_text: Date of
an., 1890
Complete Specification Left, 29th Oct., 1896-Accepted, 5th Dec., 1896
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in Railway Wagons.
I, JONATHAN ANGUS of 17, Victoria Street, in the City of Westminster, Civil
Engineer, do hereby declare the nature of this invention to be as follows:-
My invention relates to that kind of railway trucks or wagons used for the
conveyance of minerals which have discharge doors in the bottom of the wagon
body and are usually known as hopper wagons.
The invention has for its object to provide improved means of securing and
releasing the doors accessible from either side of the truck, to render the doors
self-closing after the discharge of the load, and to provide means whereby the
automatic closing may be delayed until the required moment in order to give
opportunity for cleaning off any part of the load that may remain adherent to the
doors.
The doors, of which there are two working upon a longitudinal axis so as to fall
down back to back when opened, are combined with springs or it may be with
counterweight levers adapted to raise the doors to the horizontal position and are
secured in that position by latches or other fastenings adapted to self-engage with
the doors and connected to rock shafts provided with lever handles for operating
them, the rock shafts at opposite sides of the truck being connected together so
that both sets of fastenings will be operated at once by either handle. With the
doors there is also combined retaining detent apparatus each comprising a rack
and pawl gear adapted to be moved relatively the one to the other by the opening
motion of the door whereby the doors are retained in the open position until
released so as to allow the springs or counterweights to come into action, the
release being effected by means of a cross shaft which may be operated from either
side of the wagon.
Dated this 30th day of January 1896.
A. M. & WM. CLARK,
53, Chancery Lane, London, Chartered Patent Agents.
I, JONATHAN ANGUS of 17, Victoria Street in the City of Westminster, Civil
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 :-
My invention relates to self-discharging railway trucks or wagons of the kind
used for the conveyance of minerals which have discharge doors in the bottom of
the wagon body and are usually known as hopper wagons.
The invention has for its object to provide improved means accessible from
either side of the truck whereby to secure and release the discharge doors, to
render the doors self-closing after the discharge of the load, and to provide means
whereby the automatic closing may be delayed.

page_text: Reference is to be had to the accompanying drawings forming part of this
specification wherein Figure 1 is a side elevation and Figure 2 an end elevation of
a hopper wagon the under frame in each case being in section. Figure 3 is an
inverted plan. The doors are shewn in the closed position in all the views.
Each door A A, of which there are two, is hinged to a longitudinal axis B
mounted in brackets fixed to the underside of the wagon body frame. The axis B
may be common to both doors A which fall down back to back when opened.
Each door is provided with a torsion spring C coiled about the axis B and
fastened at one end to the back of the door and at the other to the adjacent
bracket in which the axis B is carried so as to be adapted to raise the door to the
horizontal or closed position. Euch door is secured in the closed position by a
pair of pendent latch levers D adapted to automatically engage with pins d
fastened to lugs d' fixed to the underside of the door, the pair of latch levers of
each door being keyed upon a rock shaft E supported by the wagon frame so as to
be worked together as one by means of a handle D' projecting at the side of the
wagon. To lock both the doors in the closed position the one or other latch
lever D may be secured in engagement with its pin d by a cotter pin passed
through a hole d³ in the lug d'. The rock shafts E of opposite pairs of pendent
levers D are coupled together by links F and crank arms f so that by operating
either handle D' both the doors are unlatched simultaneously. To the underside of
each door is affixed a quadrant rack G with which engages a spring or weight actuated
pawl g mounted beneath the wagon frame so as to retain the door in the position to
which it is opened by the discharge of the load and thus prevent the door closing
prematurely before the whole load has been discharged, and also give time for
cleaning off any adhering matters. The two quadrant racks G are fitted at
opposite ends and project beyond the ends of their respective doors, so that each
will clear the other door during the opening motion. The release of the doors
from the retaining mechanisms, so as to permit the springs C to come into action
and to close them, is effected by pulling the one or other handle D' still further in
the direction in which it was moved for the opening motion of the doors, this
further motion causing lugs h on the links F to strike against pins h on the
pawls 9 and so disengage the latter from the ratchet quadrants G.
It will be obvious that instead of the dours A being closed by springs C the
latter might be replaced by counterweights attached to lever arms projecting in
opposite directions to the doors beyond the axis B. These lever arms might be
fixed to the doors themselves and curved so as to project first from the ends of the
doors and then past the axis B so that the counter-weights will oscillate in vertical
planes beneath the sloping ends of the bopper shaped body.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of the said inven-
tion and in what manner the same is to be performed declare that what I
claim is :-
1. In a hopper wagon the combination, with a pair of discharge doors hinged to
open under the weight of the load as described, of means substantially as described
for securing and releasing the doors.
2. In a hopper wagon the combination, with a pair of discharge doors hinged to
open as described, of means substantially as specified for rendering the doors self-
closing and for securing and releasing the doors.
3. In a hopper wagon having a pair of doors hinged to open and rendered self-
closing as described, the combination with the doors and with the releasing
mechanism of means substantially as specified for retaining the doors in the opened
position.
Dated this 29th day of October 1896.
A. M. & W M. CLARK,
53, Chancery Lane, London, Chartered Patent Agents.