IMPROVEMENTS IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF RAILWAY RAILS AND WHEELS
Year: 1865

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to John Townsend Bucknil, Lieutenant Royal
Engineers, of Chatham, in the County of Kent, for the Invention of
"IMPROVEMENTS IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF RAILWAY RAILS AND WHEELS."
Sealed the 13th October 1865, and dated the 25th April 1865.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said John Townsend Bucknill
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
25th April 1865.
I, JOHN TOWNSEND BUCKNILL, Lieutenant Royal Engineers, of Chatham, in
the County of Kent, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention
for "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF RAILWAY RAILS AND WHEELS," to
be as follows:
This Invention has for its object improvements in the construction of
railway rails and wheels.
In order to enable locomotive engines to draw trains up steep inclines I
make the heads of the rails wedge-shaped or inclined at the sides and flat on
the top or table. The tyre of each of the driving wheels of the locomotive
engine I make with a groove corresponding with the form of the head of the
rail, so that the driving wheels rest on the sides of the rail and do not bear
on the top or table. The two sides of the groove in the wheel thus nip the
head of the rail, and in this manner a greatly increased adhesion is obtained.
The other wheels of the train may run upon the top or table of the rail in the

page_text: usual manner. Where there are portions of the line of railway which are
comparatively level it is desirable to make the driving wheels of the engine
double, that is to say, with one part grooved and another part plain, so that
on the level the plain parts of the driving wheels may run on ordinary
rails, on which also the carriages of the train travel, whilst on the inclines the
grooved parts of the driving wheels run upon rails with wedge-shaped heads,
as before described.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said John Townsend Buckmill in the Great Seal Patent Office
on the 25th October 1865.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JOHN
TOWNSEND BUCKNILL, Lieutenant Royal Engineers, of Chatham, in the
County of Kent, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Twenty-fifth day of April, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and sixty-five, in the twenty-eighth year
of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant
unto me, the said John Townsend Bucknill, Her special licence that I, the
said John Townsend Bucknill, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or
such others as I, the said John Townsend Bucknill, my executors, admi-
nistrators, 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 "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF RAILWAY
RAILS AND WHEELS," upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said
John Townsend Bucknill, my executors or administrators, by an instrument
in writing under my, or their, or one of their hands and seals, should par-
ticularly describe and ascertain the nature of the said Invention, and in
what manner the same was to be performed, and cause the same to be
filed in the Great Seal Patent Office within six calendar months next and
immediately after the date of the said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said John Townsend Bucknill, do hereby
declare the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same is to.
be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the
following statement thereof, that is to say:-

page_text: This Invention has for its object improvements in the construction of rail-
way rails and wheels.
In order to enable locomotive engines to draw trains up steep inclines I
make the heads of the rails wedge-shaped or inclined at the sides and flat
on the top or table. The tyre of each of the driving wheels of the locomotive
engine I make with a groove corresponding with the form of the head of the
rail, so that the driving wheels rest on the sides of the rail, and do not bear on
the top or table. The two sides of the groove in the wheel thus nip the head
of the rail, and in this manner a greatly increased adhesion is obtained. The
other wheels of the train may run upon the top or table of the rail in the
usual manner. Where there are portions of the line of railway which are
comparatively level it is desirable to make the driving wheels of the engine
double, that is to say, one part grooved and another part plain, so that
on the level the plain parts of the driving wheels may run on ordinary rails,
on which also the carriages of the train travel, whilst on the inclines the
grooved parts of the driving wheels run upon rails with wedge-shaped heads
as before bescribed.
In order that my Invention may be fully understood, and readily carried
into effect, I have in the Drawings hereunto annexed, shown examples of
railway rails and wheels constructed according to my Invention.
Figure 1 of the Drawings shews a section of a rail and driving wheel of a
locomotive constructed in a suitable manner for being used on a line of rail-
way, where nearly the whole of the line is composed of steep gradients.
Figure 2 shews a section of the same line of rail with one of the carriage
wheels, which is constructed in the ordinary manner, running upon it.
Figure 3 shows a section of a line of rail and a driving wheel of a loco-
motive suitable for being used on a railway where a large portion of the line
is level, and where, for the greater portion of the line, the ordinary rails are
only used.
When using a driving wheel such as shewn at Figure 3, I form the
leading and trailing wheels of the locomotive in the manner shewn at Figure 4,
in order that when the driving wheels of the locomotive are running on the
wedge rails the leading and trailing wheels may also run upon these rails, as
shown, so as to raise the locomotive uniformly from end to end when the
wedge rail is used.
Figure 5 is a section of a similar line of rail sbewing one of the carriage
wheels running on the ordinary rail. The wedge rails, as shewn in these
Figures, are fixed at the side of the ordinary rails, and are only laid along the
portions of the line that are at a steep gradient, as above stated. The incli-

page_text: nation of the sides of the groove formed around the driving wheels of the
locomotive, as shown at Figures 1 and 3, corresponds with the inclined sides.
of the rails, and the groove around the wheel is formed to such a depth that
the wheel shall not bear on the table or flat surface at the top of the rail, but
shall rest on the sides of the rail, as shown. By varying the angle or pitch
of the sides of the rails, and of the groove around the driving wheels, the
amount of adhesion of the wheels upon the rails can be varied, the sides of
the rails being made more nearly parallel to each other when the gradients to
be ascended are very heavy; the same pitch must however be always used
throughout a system of railways on which the same locomotives run.
Figure 7 shows a plan view of an arrangement suitable for shunting a train
from one line of rails to another when a double line of rails (such as shown
at Figures 3, 4, and 5,) is used; from Figure 7 it will be seen that the
shunting apparatus now commonly in use will not require any change, as the
outer or wedge rail is gradually dropped before arriving at the shunt, as
shown in the elevation of the pair of rails at Figure 6, where the upper
surface of the wedge rail is shown to drop gradually between the points c, b,
and a, before arriving at the point s, the momentum of the train, aided by
the driving wheels, acting on the ordinary rail in the ordinary manner will
carry the train over the shunt and on to the wedge rail on the opposite side
of it.
In witness whereof, I, the said John Townsend Bucknill, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, this Twenty-fourth day of October, in the
of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-five.
year
J. T. BUCKNILL. (L.S.)
Lieut. R.E.