ways or Roadways.
Year: 1885

page_text: Railways or Roadways.
We ALFRED DICKINSON of the Tramway Depôt King's hill Wednesbury in the
County of Stafford Locomotive Superintendent and LOUIS CLAVERING CLOVIS of
Carters Green Westbromwich in the said county of Stafford Tramway Manager
do hereby declare the nature of said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN WHEELED
CARRIAGES FOR USE ALTERNATIVELY UPON RAILWAYS OR ROADWAYS to be as
follows:-
"
The carriage has two sets of wheels one set being plain wheels for use upon
Roads and the other set being flanged wheels for use upon Railways (including
Tramways) The flanged wheels and the axle thereof form an adjunct to the
axle of the Road wheels and by an arrangement of lever and screw the flanged
wheels may at will be lowered and the Road wheels raised for Railway work or
in the alternative the flanged wheels may be raised and the Road wheels lowered
for Roadwork.

page_text: Railways or Roadways.
We, ALFRED DICKINSON of the Tramway Depôt Kings Hill Wednesbury in the
County of Stafford Locomotive Superintentant and LOUIS CLAVERING CLOVIS of
West Bromwich in the said County of Stafford Tramway Manager do hereby
declare the nature of my invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN WHEELED CARRIAGES
and in what manner the
FOR USE ALTERNATIVELY UPON RAILWAYS OR ROADWAYS
same is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the
following statement :—
"
Our invention has for its object improvements in wheeled carriages for use
alternately upon railways and roadways i.e. carriages which combine in one facility
for running upon both ordinary roads and also upon rails and which may at a
very short notice and without the help of skilled labour or special preparations be
so fitted as to be almost equally adapted for either of the above named conditions
as if specially built for either. It is of course quite impossible to fulfil both
conditions in one carriage as completely as would be the case in two separate
carriages but my invention does meet both the conditions of ordinary road and
rails in a very thorough manner so that a vehicle running upon the rails may in
say two or three minutes be transformed into a vehicle for a common road and this
is done by the attendant himself without any special help which is a most
important matter.
A carriage built according to our invention has two sets of wheels one set being.
plain wheels for use upon common roads and the other set being flanged wheels for
use upon Railways which also includes Tramways. The flanged wheels and the
axles thereof form adjuncts to the axles of the common road wheels and by an
arrangement of lever and screw the flanged wheels may at will, be lowered and
the common road wheels raised making the vehicle suited for Railway or Tramway
work or in the alternative the flanged wheels may be raised and the road wheels
lowered for common road work.
1
In order that my invention may be clearly understood and more easily carried
into practice we have appended hereunto a sheet of drawings showing a carriage
which we have built according to our invention and by the help of which we shall
better ascertain the nature thereof and in what manner it may be performed and
from which practical men will be able to adapt the invention to other vehicles and
other varying conditions which may in practice be met with.
Figure 1. is a side elevation of a carriage showing the common road wheels A
and A¹ supporting the carriage upon a paved road and the supplimental or rail
wheels B and B¹ raised off the rails.
Figure 2. is a partly inverted plan of the same carriage showing the wheels A,
A1, A2 and A³ down on the common paved road and the rail wheels B, B1, B2, and B³,
lifted up.
Figure 3. is an end elevation showing the axles and parts of gear more clearly.
Now the drawings illustrate a carriage in a partly converted condition i.e. the
rail wheels B, B¹, B* and B³ have just been lifted of the rails C by means of the

page_text: winding handle D which revolves the shaft E and through a pair of mitre, bevel
or other wheels F turns the screw H which works in a swivel or other nut J thus
operating the lever K which turns upon a centre L upon the plate M which is
firmly attached to the under-frame of the vehicle. To the lever K is attached the
rods N and P which operate the levers upon the shafts R and S so as to turn them
round sufficiently to lift the rail wheel shafts T and U through the levers u¹ and u³
and t¹ and t these levers being either welded keyed or otherwise fastened to the
shafts R and S the other end of the levers carrying suitable bearings in which the
rail shafts T and U revolve. These levers are brought into a vertical position
when the rail wheels B are used. The bevell gear F and shaft E and one end
of H are hung upon the swivel plate W which turns in the slot X as the position
of the nut J changes when the lever K is brought over through the action of the
screw H. Now when the conversion of the vehicle from rail to road is complete
the lever N is lifted out of the hook K¹ and hangs loosely upon the chain N¹
which permits the front carriage or bogey to turn freely.
There may also be used the locking pin Y to secure the bogey when the vehicle
is used for rails but when used for common roads and the lever rod N hangs
loosely a locking pin is used to secure the front wheels B and B¹ and their
shaft U in the suspended position. I may manipulate the lever K by means of a
worm wheel fixed at the centre L and worked by a cross shaft carrying a worm
in which case the handle D would be operated at either side of the vehicle but in
that case the screw J bracket W and wheel F with their appendages would not be
needed. It will of course be understood that the wheel A run loose upon the
shafts R and S and these shafts are only capable of turning sufficiently to bring
the wheels B into and out of work. The shafts U and T are however fast to the
wheels B and run with them in the bearings before mentioned.
The vehicle may be coupled to the engine through the bar Z and either the
shafts shown or a bar or other suitable portable arrangement may be used for the
horse or horses and stored away under the vehicle or elsewhere when not required.
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,
The improvements in wheeled carriages for use alternately upon railways and
road ways of the double sets of wheels A and B with the B or rail set of wheels
operated from the axles R substantially as and for the purpose herein set forth.
Dated this 10th J
2 .1
1000
JOHN KENDRICK,
Agent for Applicants.