Improvements in and connected with Signalling Apparatus for Railways.
Year: 1890

page_text: Date of Application, 29th Mar., 1890
Complete Specification Left, 29th Jan., 1891-Accepted. 7th Mar., 1891
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in and connected with Signalling Apparatus for
Railways.
I, CHARLES SIDDALL, of 41, Watson Street, West Gorton, Manchester, in the
County of Lancaster, Engine Fitter, do hereby declare the nature of my inven-
tion to be as follows:-
My invention relates to the apparatus whereby communication is obtained between
railway signalmen and the drivers of locomotives and has for its object to bring the
signals more directly under the notice of the drivers in order to increase the
certainty of the communication and to lessen the tendency to the occurrence of
accidents. In suitable positions I mount sets of apparatus which are controlled by
the signalman and which act upon apparatus carried by each engine and give the
drivers the necessary warnings or directions. Between two rails of a track I mount a
long signal bar rod or wire in such a manner as that it can be raised and lowered,
the bar being curved downward or bevelled at one end or at each end. In a method
of mounting which I consider to be suitable the bar is carried by short jointed
Each engine is
levers so as to move similarly to the members of a parallel ruler.
provided with a sliding rod or a lever or part which carries a wheel adapted to run
upon the said rail when the latter is raised. The said rod or lever is connected
with the signal or signals upon the engine as for example with the steam whistle
and with a cock or valve which when opened admits steam to the brake apparatus.
In the case of the steam whistle the actuating parts may be arranged either to give
a shortly lasting sound or a series of sounds or to give a continuous sound so long
as the signal bar is acting on the aforesaid wheel. The movement may be imparted
to the whistle cock through a trip lever motion. In another arrangement the
movement would be imparted through a catch and wheel or quadrant which would
permit the driver to stop the sounding of the whistle. To admit steam to the
brake apparatus I prefer to connect the signal motion with a special steam cock
or valve which need not allow steam to pass sufficient to give the full brake power.
I mount two of the signal bars at a suitable distance apart one serving as the
distance signal bar and the other as the home signal bar. They may be actuated
by the present system of rods or by suitable means. In addition to the sound signal
I may provide a sight signal. A quadrant arm carrying coloured glass would be
moved into position to bring such coloured glass before a lamp which would be
placed in front of the driver or in a conspicuous position. At junctions I prefer to
employ two signal bars mounted side by side one serving for the main line traffic
and the other for the branch or loop line traffic. This extra rail may act upon a
second wheel or be so mounted as to rise higher than the other rail and so be
capable of varying the signals. In the case of a sight signal the extra bar would
bring a glass marked loop line or marked to indicate that the points would be set
for the branch line. The first named signal rail would bring into sight a glass
which would be marked to indicate that the points would be set for the main line.
In addition to moving such sight signal the signal motion may ring a bell.
bell signal may be used in place of the whistle or as a signal to distinguish between
the branch line and the main line. By means of my invention the signalmen
would be able to communicate with the drivers as well in foggy as in clear
weather.
Dated this 28th day of March 1890.
Such
arch
DUTTON & FULTON,
1, St. James Square, Manchester, Agents.

page_text: COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in and connected with Signalling Apparatus for
Railways.
1, CHARLES SIDDALL, of 41, Watson Street, West Gorton, Manchester, in the
County of Lancaster, Engine Fitter, 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 and accompanying drawings :-
-
My invention relates to the apparatus whereby communication is obtained between
railway signalmen and the drivers of locomotives and has for its object to bring the
signals more directly under the notice of the drivers in order to increase the certainty
of the communication and to lessen the tendency to the occurrence of accidents.
In suitable positions I mount sets of apparatus which are controlled by the signal-
men and which act upon apparatus carried by each engine and give the drivers the
necessary warnings or directions. Between two rails of a track I mount a long
signal bar rod or wire in such a manner as that it can be raised and lowered the
bar being curved downward or inclined at one end or at each end. In a method of
mounting which I consider to be suitable the bar is carried by short jointed levers
so as to move similarly to the members of a parallel ruler. Each engine is provided
with a part which carries a wheel adapted to run upon the said rail and connected
with the signal or signals upon the engine and with a cock or valve which when
opened admits steam to the brake apparatus. I mount two of the signal bars at a
suitable distance apart one serving as the distance signal bar and the other as a
home signal bar. In addition to the sound signal I may provide a sight signal. At
junctions I prefer to employ two signal bars mounted side by side one serving for
the main line traffic and the other for the branch or loop line traffic.
to moving such sight signal the signal motion may ring a bell.
In addition
In order that my invention may be clearly understood I will describe the same
more fully with reference to the accompanying drawings.
In the said drawings Figs. 1 and 2 are diagrams illustrative of a method of
mounting the said signal bars. Fig. 1 representing the bar as when lowered so as
to have no effect upon a passing engine and Fig. 2 representing the bar as when
raised. Fig. 3 represents a signal bar and the parts which may be used in the
conveyance of movement to parts of the signal apparatus. Fig. 4 illustrates such
a combination of sight and sound signal apparatus as may be used.
In Figs. 1, 2, and 3 a represents a signal bar which is jointed to and carried by
supports 6 which are mounted to rock upon fulcra at c. In the case of Figs. 1 and 2
the bar is carried by three supports the end supports being levers. The lower
arm of each lever or a second lever arm secured to the same shaft as the lever b
is connected by a rod d and by a suitable system of connecting rods or parts with
actuating apparatus situated in an ordinary signal box or in a suitable place so that
the signal man can raise and lower the bar. A. second rod d¹ connects the bar
with a second bar which is situated at some distance from the bar a and is arranged
to act in concert with it so that both bars are raised and lowered simultaneously
by the movement imparted to the rod d by the signalman in charge. These bars
are conveniently situated so that one may serve as a distance signal and the other
as the home signal. Each locomotive should be furnished with a part which can
be raised by contact with the bar. In the example a wheel e is mounted in a frame
attached to a rod f which is fitted to slide up and down in a bracket attached to
the locomotive and is connected by suitable parts with the signal apparatus on the
locomotive. In Fig. 3 is a continuation of the rod for is a rod connected with
the same.
The rod is jointed to a semaphore lever g which is mounted to turn
upon a fulcrum and carries at one end glasses which can be alternately brought into
position before a lamp as in the case of an ordinary signal so that for example a
green glass will be kept in position for the light from the lamp to shine through it

page_text: so long as the wheel e is not acted upon but when the rod is pushed upward the
green glass is lowered and a red one brought into position to take its place. The
other arm of the lever g is connected with the valve lever of a steam whistle a so
that when the rod is pushed upward the whistle is sounded. In practice I also
connect the rod f with a steam cock or valve which is in connection with the brake
apparatus and which is arranged to cause the brake to be applied when the rod is
pushed upward. As the arrangement would vary according to the nature of the
brake apparatus I could not show a construction which would be suitable to all
cases but an efficient mechanic will be readily able to make use of the movement
of the rod to act upon a cock or valve so as to effect the application of the brake.
I prefer to use a special valve in connection with the rod f and to adjust it so that
the brake is not put "hard on
but is only partially applied so as to check the
speed of the train. When the bar a would be raised into its higher position the
wheel e carried by any locomotive which might pass over the bar would run up
the curved incline at the end of the bar and thereby would push up the rod f
whereby the brake would be partially applied the whistle would be sounded and
the semaphore arm g be lowered. This would be repeated on the locomotive
passing over the home signal bar if the same would not have been lowered in the
meantime. In the example the frame on f carries brushes f² to clear matters
from the surface of the bar but these brushes may not be considered to be
necessary. In the example the bar is horizontal or level for the greater part
of its length so that the rod f is sustained in its higher position and the whistle
is kept sounding for a longer or shorter period according to the length of the
bar and the speed of the locomotive. I may however arrange for the whistle
to continue to sound and for the brake and semaphore signal to remain on until the
engine driver re-sets the parts as for example a detent might hold up the rod for
might lock the lever g until the one part or the other would be released by
the driver. In such a case the bar a might be in the form of a double incline
as indicated by the dotted line a' in Fig. 3. As hereinbefore mentioned I prefer
to employ two signal bars at junction approaches. Such an arrangement repre-
sented in Fig. 5 wherein a a are the two signal bars. One of these bars is for the
main line traffic and the other for the branch or loop line traffic. The additional
or branch line bar may act upon a second wheel carried by the locomotive or may
be mounted so as to rise to a higher level than the main line bar so as to sound a
second whistle or may be shaped so as to give an intermittent signal or otherwise to
vary the signal. In the case of a sight signal the extra bar would bring a glass
marked loop line or marked to indicate that the points would be set for the branch
line. The first named signal rail would bring into sight a glass which would be
marked to indicate that the points would be set for the main line. As hereinbefore
mentioned I may in some cases use the movement of the parts to ring a bell. Such
bell signal may be used in place of the whistle or as a signal to distinguish between
the branch line and the main line.
Fig. 6 illustrates an arrangement which I may use for operating upon the cock of
a whistle. In this example the rod f is jointed to a bell crank leverk which is set
to act upon a jointed or trip lever which is formed in two parts and l'. The part
if moved by the lever k in the indicated direction turns the part upon its stud or
fulcrum thereby lifting the rod m which is jointed to a lever n upon the plug of the
whistle cock but the return movement of the lever k will have no effect upon the
lever so that the whistle will continue to sound until the driver pulls down
the last named lever. The trip lever motion provides for variation in the range of
movement of the rod f. I may use the sound signal in connection with the
operation upon the brake without using the semaphore or sight signal. I do not
claim the single rising and falling bar a alone as novel as I am aware that it has
been proposed to use such a bar to sound a whistle before the date of my invention.
By means of my invention the signalmen would be able to communicate with the
drivers as well in foggy as in clear weather.

page_text: Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of my said inven-
tion, and in what manner the same is to be performed, I declare that what I
claim is :-
:―
1. The bar a when used to act upon parts for giving sound and sight signals and
for operating a valve or cock connected with a brake apparatus substantially as set
forth and indicated.
2. As applied to a locomotive the wheel a the rod the semaphore the whistle i
and the parts in connection substantially as and for the purpose set forth and
indicated with reference to Figs. 3 and 4 of the drawings hereto.
3. The two rails a a mounted to be raised and lowered and to be operated from
a convenient distance by signalmen in combination with signal apparatus applied
upon a locomotive and adapted to give signals distinguishing between main line
and branch line traffic substantially as set forth and indicated with reference to
Fig. 5 of the drawings hereto.
4. The rails a when mounted in sets at a distance apart and connected together
so as to act for home and distance signals when used in combination with whistle
sounding and brake applying apparatus fitted to locomotives substantially as set
forth and indicated.
5. The arrangement substantially as set forth with reference to Fig. 6 of the
drawings when used in combination with parts acted upon by the bar a for the
purpose set forth.
Dated this 28th day of Janua№ 1801
DUTTON & FULTON,
1, St. James Square, Manchester, Agents.