IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS TO FACILITATE COMMUNICATION BETWEEN PASSENGERS, GUARDS, AND ENGINE DRIVERS TRAVELLING BY RAILWAY TRAINS
Year: 1864

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Thomas Wray and Richard
Robinson at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with their
Petition, on the 23rd August 1864.
We, THOMAS WRAY, of Darlington, in the County of Durham, Millwright,
and RICHARD ROBINSON, of the same Place, Clerk, do hereby declare the
nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS TO FACILITATE
COMMUNICATION BETWEEN PASSENGERS, GUARDS, AND ENGINE DRIVERS TRAVELLING
BY RAILWAY TRAINS," to be as follows:-
This Invention has for its object improvements in apparatus to facilitate
communication between passengers, guards, and engine drivers travelling by
railway trains. For this purpose there is applied a lever or levers to each
compartment of the carriages of a railway train, which may be readily acted
on by passengers travelling therein. Each lever passes out of the carriage to
the roof or other convenient part of the carriage, and has a hole or eye formed
through its outer end. The outer end of the lever has only a signal fixed
to it. A cord is passed from end to end of the train and through the hole
or eye of each of the levers. The two ends of this cord are connected to two
signal bells, one in the guard's van or carriage, and the other on or near the
locomotive; hence, when either of the levers is acted on by a passenger, the
bells at each end of the cord will be sounded. In order that a guard may
know from which compartment of a carriage and from which carriage of the
train the communication has been made, there is a catch applied to each lever,
which locks it securely and in such manner that it can only be released by

page_text: the guard when he comes to the carriage. It should be remarked that it has
before been proposed to communicate between passengers, guards, and engine
drivers of railway trains by bells, cords, and by instruments or pulls in the
compartments of carriages to act on the cords, and it has also been proposed
to shew signals external to the carriages. In order to enable a guard to pass
with safety from one carriage to another of a railway train, what we call a
truck and other apparatus are applied to the carriages to enable a guard to
pass with safety along a suitable step running from end to end of each
carriage, and extending beyond the ends to such an extent that the ends of the
steps at the sides of one carriage may come nearly to the ends of like
steps of the next, carriage. At the ends and at the upper part of each car-
riage the roof is extended, or a projection to the roof is applied so that such
extensions of succeeding carriages may come nearly together. There are also
affixed on the roof of each carriage, and on the extensions above mentioned,
guide rails, on which a truck or apparatus can be readily slid or moved and yet
retained from getting away from the guides. From this truck bent bars fixed
to the truck descend to such a position below the roof of a carriage that a
guard when standing on one of the steps before mentioned may place his armi
over a rail fixed to and carried by the lower ends of the bent bars, and support
himself thereon, whilst he is walking freely along the steps of the several
succeeding carriages of a train. This truck will, at the starting of the train,
be in a position readily to admit of the guard stepping from the compartment
of the van or carriage in which he may be situated, and he may then
readily walk from such van or carriage to the one from which a communication
has been made, pushing the truck along as he does so, and he will be protected
from falling by reason of his being. between the rail of the truck and the-
bodies of the carriages,