IMPROVEMENTS IN FASTENINGS AND SUPPORTS FOR RAILS ON RAILWAYS
Year: 1877

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Charles Walker, James Mitchell, and
Henry Walker at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents on the 17th
October 1877.
CHARLES WALKER, JAMES MITCHELL, and HENRY WALKER, all of Sheffield, in
the County of York. "IMPROVEMENTS IN FASTENINGS AND SUPPORTS FOR RAILS
ON RAILWAYS."
Our Invention relates to the chairs or supports used for carrying and securing
the ordinary rails used on railways, and to the methods of fastening together and
securing the ends of such rails. It has for its objects improved methods of con-
structing and arranging the supports and fastenings, so that they are simpler, more
effective, and durable, and less likely to get out of order than those heretofore
ordinarily constructed and used. We take two double flanged or other ordinary
railway rails, and out of the web of each rail at each end we cut or form a notch
completely through it. We prefer to make this notch rectangular, so that when the
rails are placed end to end the two notches form one rectangular opening through
the rails; into this aperture we fit a corresponding piece of steel, iron, or other
suitable material, fitting the upper and lower edges of the aperture formed by the
notches, but preferably of slightly less length. The ends of the rails fitted together
as described are placed in a chair or support of corresponding shape, of cast iron or
other suitable material, and a wedge-shaped key or plate of steel, iron, or other
suitable material, is driven tightly between the side of the chair and the rail. We
make the end of the wedge-shaped key split, so that when driven into its place
its split ends can be separated, and it is thus prevented from becoming loose or
coming out.
By the novel arrangement described the ends of the rails are kept rigidly at the
same level by the piece inserted into the notches in their ends, and this piece is
prevented from coming out, and the rails are firmly held in the chair by the split
wedge-shaped key described.
Instead of the opening formed by the notches in the ends of the rails being
rectangular, it may be made so that its depth at the ends of the rails is less than at
its inner ends, the metal piece which fits it being made of corresponding shape, and

page_text: the rails may thus be prevented from separating endways as well as from rising to
different levels. The corners of the opening may be rounded.
Another novel method of construction and arrangement which we sometimes
adopt is the following:-We make the ends of two adjoining rails fit into a support
or chair of cast iron or other suitable material, and of sufficient length to support
the rails and to allow one or more transverse holes to be made through the two
sides of the chair, and through the end of each rail. These holes may be circular,
rectangular, oval, or of other convenient section, and into them we fit tightly cor-
responding keys or bars, of any suitable metal (but preferably of steel). These keys
are driven from one side of the chair through the holes formed in it, and through
the corresponding holes in the rails into the holes in the opposite jaw of the chair.
On the side of the chair from which they are driven we make a recess having dove-
tailed or grooved edges, into which drops a loose plate (of cast iron or other suitable
material) which covers the ends of the keys when the latter are driven up tight,
and prevents them from working back and becoming loose by vibration. The holes
in the opposite jaw of the chair are not carried completely through the latter for
their full size, smaller openings only being left through which the keys can be
driven back when desired; or sometimes we carry the keys completely through the
opposite jaw of the chair, and their ends may be tapered or split, their heads fitting
the holes in the chair sufficiently tightly to prevent them from passing too far
through.
In order to fix firmly into the chair the rails, the ends of which are attached to
the chair in the manner described, we drive between the side of the rail and the
chair (before the keys are inserted) a wedge-shaped plate or key, of any suitable
material, but preferably of steel. This plate may have holes through it for the
passage of the keys already described when it has been driven into its place, but
we prefer to make it sufficiently thin to allow the keys to be driven completely
through it when it is in its place, pieces being punched out of it by the ends of the
keys when driven in.
The holes in the rails may be made somewhat oblong in the direction of the 3
length of the rail.
Instead of the different arrangements above described being applied to chairs
carried by sleepers in the usual way, the supports described may be made of such
a shape as to embrace the ends of the rails which are to be connected together,
and which are supported by chairs upon sleepers at a sufficient distance from 3
the ends, the novel fastenings and supports described not being themselves supported
upon sleepers.