IMPROVEMENTS IN THE PERMANENT WAY OF RAILWAYS
Year: 1859

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Christopher Hill at the Office of
the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 25th March
1859.
I, CHRISTOPHER HILL, of the Chippenham Station, Great Western Railway,
do hereby declare. the nature of my Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE
PERMANENT WAY OF RAILWAYS," to be as follows:-
This Invention has for its object improvements in the permanent way of
railways. For this purpose when supporting the rails of railways by means of
side bearing plates of wrought iron, or cast, or malleable cast iron, having
flanges on one or both of their sides, which are bolted or otherwise affixed to
the rail, I form the rail with a web or keel, which projects downwards below
the bearing plates, strengthening the rail itself and preventing it and tho
bearing plates from moving sideways, and the lower end of this web or keel
may be formed with a flange or rest projecting on each of its sides.
When using what are known as bridge or trough rails, with wrought-iron.
bearing plates, I place the flanges on the sides of the bearing plates within
the hollow of the rail and between the two flanges of the side bearing plates;
I place the upper end of a web or keel of wrought iron which projects down-.
wards below the bearing plates; this web or keel has a projecting flange on
each side, which rests against the under sides of the bearing plates. The
flanges of the two bearing plates and the head of the web or keel exactly fit
within the hollow of the rail, and they are all held together by bolts passing
through the sides of the rail, through the flanges of the bearing plates, and

page_text: through the web or keel. Or in place of forming the two side bearing plates
and the web or keel in separate pieces, they may all be made in one piece, a
projection being then formed on the upper surface of the bearing plates to fit
within the hollow of the rail, and I then fasten the rail to the bearing plates
by bolts passing through the projecting pieces at the sides of the rail and
through the bearing plates.
In some cases I form the bearing plates of a circular form, so that the two
bearing plates, when connected to the rail, together form a half circle, and on
their lower ends flanges are formed, to which are bolted or otherwise attached
the flanges of a semicircular shaped piece of wrought iron, which ties the
lower ends of the side bearing plates together, and forms a hollow tubular
support, with projecting flanges at its sides; and when using a bearing of this
description I prefer to form the rail with a long keel, which projects down to
the bottom of the semicircular piece, which connects the side bearing plates,
and the end of the keel I form with flanges projecting on each side. In some
cases in place of forming the rail and the side bearing plates separate, I form
the rail with a short projecting wing or flange piece on one side, and a long
bearing wing plate on the other side, and I bolt together the projecting plates
of two rails formed in this manner, so that one rail projects upwards above the
plates and the other downwards below the plates, and so that the bearing plate
of one rail projects sideways in one direction, and the bearing of the other rail
projects sideways in the other direction, and when necessary I partly fill or
plug the hollow between the rails with cast or malleable cast iron, so as to give
additional support.
In arranging and fixing the bearing plates I occasionally for the purposes of
economising the metal, break their continuity on the alternate sides of the
rail, and I sometimes change the longitudinal character of the bearings by
leaving clear openings between the bearing plates, and allowing the rail itself
to be self-supporting, after the ordinary manner of the openings between the
transverse sleeper system, without allowing the corresponding rail at its trans-
verse point to be without the bearing support.