Year: 1887

page_text: Date of Application, 9th Feb., 1887
Complete Left, '9th Nov., 1887
Complete Accepted, 9th Dec., 1887
We ROBERT REDHEAD Engineman THOMAS REDHEAD Foreman Cooper JOHN JAMES
REDHEAD Tailor all of Heworth Lane in the Parish of Heworth in the county of
Durham JOSEPH CARR of John Street Wallsend in the county of Northumberland
Joiner and GEORGE ALEXANDER DIXON of Tyne Street Newcastle-upon-Tyne
Blacksmith do hereby declare the nature of this invention to be as follows:-
The instantaneous self-coupling and uncoupling of railway vehicles either when
standing or in motion by means of loose hooks and levers attached to the said vehicles.
Links are attached either to a double eve or cross bar at the ends of the said vehicles
and the coupling is effected by the hooks grasping the said links on the vehicles
coming together, and a bar almost touching the hook prevents the link from being
jerked out of the hook while the uncoupling is effected by the working of levers.
A link upon each vehicle will not be in use and this unused link is raised by levers
or by levers and chains or by pullies and cords.
A hooked bar is placed at either side of the link and couples itself to prevent
accidents in the event of the link breaking.
A lever or levers may also be attached to the internal part of the engine box and
communicated to other vehicles thus enabling the engine driver to couple or uncouple
the vehicles without leaving his position on the engine.
This invention obviates the necessity of any person or persons getting between the
vehicles for the coupling and uncoupling thereof and prevents the dangers and loss
of life attendant thereon.
Dated this 7th day of February 1887

page_text: We, ROBERT REDHEAD, Engineman, THOMAS REDHEAD, foreman Cooper, JOHN
JAMES REDHEAD, Tailor, all of Heworth Lane in the parish of Heworth in the
county of Durham, JOSEPH CARR of John Street, Wallsend, in the county of North-
umberland, joiner, and GEORGE ALEXANDER DIXON of Tyne Street in the City and
County of Newcastle upon Tyne, Blacksmith 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 :-
This Invention relates to Railway Vehicle Coupling and Uncoupling and has for its
object an expeditious system of coupling and uncoupling railway & other similar
vehicles either when standing or in motion by means of loose hooks and levers attached
to the said vehicles.
According to the arrangements at present in use it is frequently necessary for the
attendant to go between the vehicles for the purpose of coupling and uncoupling the
same thereby endangering life and wasting time, but by our invention we entirely
abolish the necessity for such dangerous practice, whereby a great saving in time is
effected and danger to life & limb avoided. We will now proceed to describe
particularly the nature and operation of our invention, having reference to the
accompanying drawings.
Fig. 1 is a side elevation showing two vehicles coupled.
Fig. 2 is a longitudinal sectional elevation showing two vehicles in the act of
uncoupling.
Fig. 3 is a plan showing two vehicles coupled.
Fig. 4 is an end elevation of a vehicle illustrative of our invention.
Fig. 5 shows the coupling hook in positions more particularly hereinafter
referred to.
Throughout this description, similar letters of reference designate corresponding
parts.
A is part of a vehicle with sole-pieces A' and cross-sheth A. To the centre of the
cross-sheth we secure a bracket B preferably of wrought or cast iron by means of
pins and forelocks or bolts & nuts or both, or if so desired we may fit two such
brackets to the sheth on either side of the centre thereof for greater strength &
security of connection, by doubling the same. The bracket preferably has two sides
or cheeks bb, the hook C being suspended between the two near the top of such
bracket on the rod c, the curved stop-lever D being suspended near the bottom of the
bracket & between its projecting flanges on the pin d. EE are guards of wrought
iron or other suitable material securely fixed to the ends of the vehicle having their
lower ends e in close proximity to but just clear of the top of the loose hook C for the
purpose of preventing the connecting link or shackle F being jerked out of the same.
FF are the coupling links or shackles, the rods c passing through their double eyes as
well as through the eye of the hook C. The ends c¹ of the rods c are carried in

page_text: brackets G which are firmly secured preferably near the ends of the solepieces A' of
the vehicles. The ends of the rods c may be furnished with holes or eyes through
which the loose pins H pass being suspended therefrom as shown in the drawings and
acting as levers for turning the rod on which they are suspended, or instead of the
loose pins H short cranks or levers may he secured to the ends of the aforesaid rods
for the purpose of affording a ready means of giving revolution to the rods and the
shackle or shackles thereon fitted. The turning of the rods c does not affect the
position of the hook C as it works loose on its rod but the connecting link or shackle F
is fast on its rode & by turning the rod, the shackle also is turned.
In the figures,
one shackle is shown in gear and one out of gear & it is evident that if the rod c is
turned by any means, whether by the loose pins I or by fixed levers, the shackle
being rigidly connected thereto must move therewith and the movement of the shackle
is preferably limited in its action to the positions shown on the drawings. When in
gear with the hook D it is nearly horizontal and when out of gear it resis against the
end of the vehicle at any angle deemed sufficient to prevent its falling over to the
horizontal position, but to prevent the latter occurrence, any known locking device, e.g.
the device shown at M m on lever L or its equivalent, may be applied to the loose
pins H or the above-referred-to cranks and levers.
JJ are brackets of iron or other suitable material firmly secured to the sides of the
solepieces of the vehicle, their lower ends having eyes through which pass the rods or
bars K. The extremities of these rods or bars are fitted with levers L capable of
segmental motion to a suitable extent, the upper ends of the levers working in guide
bars M. & being held in position when under stress by means of the spring locking
device m.
A toothed rack or other suitable equivalent may of course be substituted for
the arrangement shown at m. The rods or bars K which pass underneath the
vehicle are fitted with a pair of cranks K' with crank pin K & the longer end of the
curved stop-lever D rests on this crank pin substantially as shown in the annexed
drawings. If deemed requisite, the end of any vehicle may be fitted with a duplicate
set of the above described gear for the purpose of having a double connection between
the vehicles instead of a single connection as shown in the drawings, thus providing
NN are
for an emergency should any part of the gear give way when under stress.
the vehicle buffers fitted with buffer boxes in the usual way. OO are the vehicle
axles and P the wheels. Q is the running surface of the rail.
The operation of our invention is as follows. Taking the position shown in fig. 1
where two vehicles are securely coupled, whether these two vehicles are standing
motionless or in slow or rapid motion, the movement of the lever L from position
shown in fig. 1 to position shown in fig. 2ª causes stop-lever D to take the position
shown in fig. 2 and the vehicles are at once uncoupled. Assuming now that the
vehicles are standing motionless & that vehicle 1 commences to move in the direction
shown by the full-line arrow, the immediate result is to place hook C in position
shown in fig. 2ª, leaving vehicle 2 standing motionless. The instant shackle F is out
of contact with hook C, the latter falls back to its normal vertical position. Assuming
then that vehicle 1 returns as shown by the dotted arrow to be re-coupled to vehicle 2,
shackle F on vehicle 1 causes the top of hook C to be depressed & as soon as shackle F
has over-reached hook C on vehicle 2, the hook again falls automatically to the vertical
position and the attendant having already returned lever L from position shown in
fig. 2 to position shown in fig. 1, the vehicles are again coupled. The shackle F on
either vehicle may be used for coupling the two vehicles, the requisite for automatic
and instantaneous coupling being that the attendant has left at least one shackle on
either of the vehicle ends which are about to be coupled in a horizontal or downward
position and the lever L in the position shown in fig. 1. Fig. 5 shows the loose
hook C in its normal vertical position y y, in an uncoupling position and in a
coupling position z 2.
For shunting and similar purposes it may be found useful and convenient to have
control of our coupling gear either from the Engine or from the brake-van & for this
purpose the upper end of lever L may be connected by means of a rod to a hand
lever within easy reach of the driver or fireman in the one case or the Guard in the

page_text: other case, thus rendering it unnecessary for an attendant, for the purposes of coupling
or uncoupling, to leave his position on the train.
Having now particularly described & ascertained the nature of our invention and
in what manner the same is to be performed, we wish it to be clearly understood that
we do not lay claim to any of the separate parts forming the hereinbefore described
gear, because we are aware that the parts taken separately are old but what we do
claim is:
1. In railway or other similar vehicles, a coupling & uncoupling device consisting
of the combination of parts formed by the loose hook C, the adjustable shackle F and
the adjustable stopping piece or thrust lever D, all arranged, disposed & operated
substantially in the manner & for the purposes herein before described & illustrated in
the annexed drawings.
2. In railway or other similar vehicles, a coupling & uncoupling device consisting
substantially of the combination of a freely suspended hook operated in the manner
herein before described with an adjustable stopping piece or thrust lever actuated as
herein before described, the whole being arranged to operate in the manner & for the
purposes substantially as set forth.
3. The combination of parts forming the coupling & uncoupling device arranged
disposed and operated substantially as & for the purposes herein before described &
illustrated.
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