Improvements in Car Replacers.
Year: 1894

page_text: Improvements in Car Replacers.
I, ROBERT ELLISON ALEXANDER, Manufacturer, of Forest City, in the
County of Susquehanna, and State of Pennsylvania, United States of America,
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 :-
The object of my invention is to improve upon car replacers consisting of a
movable track or guide-way having inclined surfaces adapted to extend from the
ties upwardly and inwardly to the central apex, and provided with grooves or
hollows formed in the said inclined surfaces for the purpose of leaving flanges and
ridges to guide and receive the wheels. In said device the base was made
substantially rectangular in general outline so that when placed against the rail
the side contiguous thereto would lie parallel with the rail and thereby make it
impossible to shift the extremities of the replacer closer to or farther from the
rails without throwing the central portion out of adjustment. The purpose of the
present invention is to overcome this difficulty and to provide other features to
facilitate the replacement of the wheels, and this I accomplish by using a pair of
replacers having many of the same general characteristics, excepting that the sides
of the replacer adapted to lie contiguous to the side of the rails are formed so as
to diverge away from the rails and from the central portion of the replacers, so
that the ends of the replacers can be readily shifted closer to or farther from the
sides of the rails without changing to any appreciable extent, the relation of the
central portion of the device to that of the rails.
My invention further consists in other peculiar features and characteristics
which will be more fully described hereinafter and pointed out in the claims.
In the accompanying drawings:
Figure 1, represents a top view of my invention as applied to ordinary railroad
tracks, a pair of car wheels being shown ready to ascend;
Figure 2, an end view of my invention in which dotted lines represent a pair of
wheels in the act of descending upon the rails;
Figure 3, a perspective view of oue member of my complete invention;
Figures 4 and 5 transverse sections through 4-4 and 5-5 respectively of
preceding figure;
Figure 6, a perspective view of the right hand guide or replacer, and
Figures 7 and 8 transverse sections through 7-7 and 8-8 of preceding figure.
It is my practice to employ two metallic guides or replacers alike in general
construction, one being higher at the centre than the other; and these are
designated by the reference figures 1 and 2. The central portion 3 of the guide 1
is lower than the corresponding portion 31 of the guide 2 and each is adapted to
be placed upon the right hand side of each rail when the wheels are coming

page_text: toward the observer as shown in the drawings. This relative altitude of the two
guides is for the purpose of depositing first the left hand wheel 4, and then the
right hand wheel 4', successively upon the rails in order to create as little jar as
possible and to more perfectly effect the replacing of the wheels. The central
surfaces 5 and 5' respectively slope about 45 degrees from the apex 3 to the base,
the line curving slightly inward as will be clearly seen in the end views given in
the drawings.
The inner edges 7 and 7" or those which lie next to the bottom of the rails, are
each curved from one end to the other of the guides whereby they will diverge,
from the central surfaces 5 and 5' away from the rail when placed alongside the
rails. This construction permits either end of the guide to be adjusted farther
from or nearer to the rails, without throwing the central portions 5 and 5¹ out of
operative adjustment.
8 indicates the longitudinal grooves in the inclined surfaces of the guides and
9 and 10 the ridge and flange respectively extending along the opposite sides of the
grooves. These grooves, ridges and flanges merge into the central smooth
surfaces 5 and 51 and are substantially the same as those in my copending
application and therefore need no further description. In order to make the
replacers as light as consistent with strength they are formed by stamping them in
a die out of sheet metal. Pins or teeth 11 are formed at the opposite ends so that
when the weight of the wheel passes upon the replacer the teeth will sink into the
ties and the replacer be prevented from sliding.
From the foregoing description it will be apparent that when the replacers or
guides are placed against the rails as in Figure 1, and the wheels are advanced
upon them, the tread of the left wheel will travel upon the ridge 9 while its flange
travels in the groove 8, the flangeless side of the tread being guided upward and
inward by the sloping side of the flange 10. A corresponding action will ensue
with reference to the other wheel, excepting that while the tread is ascending the
ridge of the flange will be guided to the rail by-coming in contact with the ridge 9.
As soon as the wheels approach the apexes of the replacers they run onto the
smooth sliding surfaces 5 and 5', as seen in Figure 2, and sliding down laterally
are successively deposited on the top of the rails. In this latter action the
replacer 1 being lower than the replacer 2 the wheel 4 is deposited upon the rail
slightly in advance of the wheel 5, for the purposes before explained. Hand
holes 12 in the sides of the replacers permit them to be easily handled.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of the said inven-
tion and in what manner the same is to be performed I declare that what I
claim is :-
1. A car replacer comprising a pair of grooved replacers or guides adapted to
be placed alongside the rails, and having laterally and longitudinally sloping outer
surfaces converging to a smooth apex, the apexial portion of one of the replacers
or guides being made lower than the apexial portion of the other, whereby the
wheels are successively deposited upon the track, in the manner and for the
purpose substantially as described.
2. In a car replacing device a pair of replacers of different heights, and provided
with smooth apexial portions, in combination with grooved surfaces sloping
downwardly away from said apexial portion, and a curved or divergent edge
whereby the ends of the replacers can be moved toward and away from the rail, in
the manner and for the purpose substantially as described.
3. A car replacing member consisting of a grooved guide, substantially as
described, having an apexial portion, and a sloping inner side arranged to lie
alongside of and to diverge away from the rail at the central or apexial portion,
whereby the ends of the replacers can be adjusted toward and away from the rail,
as and for the purpose set forth.
4. In a car replacer, a replacing member or guide provided with oppositely
sloping surfaces, having longitudinal grooves therein and longitudinal ridge

page_text: extending upwardly and merging into a smooth apexial surface, said surface
extending from the apex obliquely down to the edge of the base, and said edge
being made to diverge from the smooth surface toward its ends, in the manner and
for the purpose substantially as described.
For the Applicant,
W. LLOYD WISE,
46, Lincoln's Inn Fields, London, W.C., Chartered Patent Agent.