IMPROVEMENTS IN CERTAIN PARTS OF THE PERMANENT WAY OF RAILWAYS
Year: 1855

page_text: by the Act.)
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by John Livingston at the Office of
the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 12th October
1855.
I, JOHN LIVINGSTON, of Leeds, in the County of York, do hereby declare
the nature of the said Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN CERTAIN PARTS OF THE
PERMANENT WAY OF RAILWAYS" to be as follows:-
These improvements are designed for the purpose of dispensing with the
use of switches or points as heretofore constructed and employed on railways
for passing a train of carriages from one line of rails to another: The mode
heretofore commonly practised of constructing such parts has been to plane
them to a taper point; and the object of these improvements is to obviate
the necessity for pointing the rails, by substituting in lieu thereof the following
arrangement, that is to say-At those parts of a line of railway where a
crossing occurs I place a pair of sliding rails, formed either of single or double
headed rails, and I connect each such pair of rails securely together in any
convenient manner at such distances asunder that the flanges of the wheels of
the carriages may pass clear between them; or one bar can be rolled in the
form of the aforesaid two rails so fixed together, and that one end of such
sliding rails corresponds with the butt ends of the crossing and main rails of the
permanent way, and the other end of the butt ends of one of the rails of each
such pair corresponds with the butt ends of the rails of the main line only;
and it is at this particular juncture that the action of the sliding. rails takes
place, so as to present one or other of the ends thereof opposite to those of the
main rails, whilst the opposite ends of the sliding rails are securely connected

page_text: by fishing or otherwise to the fixed rails: which form the crossing and the
main line.
An important feature in these improvements consists in rendering the afore-
said sliding rails self-acting, which I effect by the use and employment of two
check rails or bars, securely fixed to the chairs or sleepers, or to both of them,
of the permanent way, between the inner pair of the aforesaid sliding rails.
The ends of the check rails.or.bars.are.curved inwards, and are so fixed with
respect to the main rails as that the straight part of such check rails allows the
flanges of the wheels of the carriages to pass between them and the side of one
or other of the sliding rails, according to the position such said rails occupy
with respect to the fixed rails. The effect of thus arranging and combining the
before-mentioned sliding rails and fixed check rails with the ordinary crossing
rails and those of the main line will be better understood by the following
example of the mode of operating therewith, that is to say: supposing the
aforesaid sliding rails to be pulled or pushed by means of a handle, so as to
connect the crossing rails with the rails of the main line, a portion of one of
the inner rails of one pair of sliding rails will be pulled under that particular
fixed check rail which is nearest thereto, and in like manner and simultaneously
with such movement the inner rail of the other pair of sliding, rails, will be
pulled from under the other fixed check rail, and in this manner and by these
means railway carriages may be passed, or their course diverted, from one
line of rails to another. The curved ends of the aforesaid fixed check rails
serve to ensure such diversion from the main line by the flanges of the wheels
coming into contact with the curved ends of the aforesaid check rails, thereby
forcing and retaining the wheels of the carriages in their proper course.
supposing the carriages to be passing from a crossing or siding to the main
line in an opposite direction to that above mentioned, the flanges of the
wheels coming into contact with that portion of the sliding rail which is under
one or other of the fixed check rails, will force the aforesaid sliding rail out-
wards, and thus bring the ends of the crossing rails opposite to those of the
main line. A weight attached to the handle which actuates the, sliding rails
throws the crossing rails out of a line with those of the main line after. the
flanges of the wheels have passed the check rails, and thus renders the afore-
said sliding rails self-acting.
But