Improvements in Signalling on Railways, and Means therefor.
Year: 1895

page_text: Date of Application, 18th Jan., 1995-Accepted, 30th Mar., 1895
Improvements in Signalling on Railways, and Means therefor.
We, REGINALD BREADALBANE ANNESLEY, of 11 Rumford Street, Liverpool,
in the County of Lancashire, Gentleman, EDWIN BLAKEY of Alma Chambers,
18 Horton Road, Bradford, in the County of York, Electrical Engineer, WILLIAM
ROBERT SYKES, Junior, of 43, Kent House Road, Beckenham, in the County of
Kent, Electrical Engineer, and JOHN PATRICK O'DONNELL, of 70 and 71, Palace
Chambers, Bridge Street, Westminster, in the County of Middlesex, Civil
Engineer, 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 :-
Our invention has reference to improvements in what is known as lock & block
signalling on railways and has more particular reference to the system described in
the Specification No. 9930 of A.D. 1894 granted to the Automatic Electric
Railway Signal Company Limited of Liverpool, Edwin Blakey and John Patrick
O'Donnell.
In our present invention we retain and utilize the ordinary single needle or other
form of block instruments now in general use on railways as part of our lock &
block system.
It is well known that where the single needle, or other form of block instrument,
is in use without any additional check, such as a lock & block system, that
mistakes frequently occur through a signalman accepting a second train from the
rear when he has already a train in his section.
In the Specification No. 9930 of A.D. 1894 above referred to, the ordinary
single needle instrument was retained in its entirety and an essential feature of the
invention described in the said Specification was that a train itself (should the
signalman, say at B, have failed to peg. his instrument to "Train on line ") would
peg the instrument at B to "Train on line " and the needles of the block instruments
would remain held in that position until released by the depression of the treadle
in advance of B's home signal. The starting signal of a section, say A, could not
be lowered to the "safety" attitude until the signalman at, say B, had pegged the
needle of his instrument to "Line clear" which action also indicated "Line clear"
in the instrument at A and placed the polarized relay at A in such a condition that
upon the signalman depressing the tapper a circuit would be completed to the
electric slot on the signal post and the signalman at A was enabled, by moving his
mechanical lever in the signal cabin, to deflect the said sectional signal to the
safety attitude.
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66
2:
For the purposes of the description herein the words "sectional signal" and
'starting signal" may be understood as meaning the same.
The train upon passing out of A's section and depressing a treadle in advance of
A's starting or sectional signal replaced A's starting or sectional signal to the
danger" attitude, and this starting signal could not be lowered again to the
safety" attitude until the train had passed out of B's section and operated the treadle
in advance of B's sectional signal.
Our present invention consists in improvements on the invention previously
described in the said Specification No. 9930 of A.D. 1894.
In order that our said invention may be better understood and more readily
carried into effect we will describe the drawing hereunto annexed.
In the illustration four treadles are shown, two at desired spots in advance of
D

page_text: A's starting signal and, correspondingly, two doing similar duties, in advance of
B's starting signal.
It should be understood that although the contacts perform different results yet
they may be in one treadle, or they may be in two treadles. This description
refers to the treadles in advance of A's starting signal and the same description
also refers to the treadles in advance of B's starting signal.
is the ordinary block instrument in signal cabin A, 2 is a similar instrument in
signal cabin B, 3 and 4 are treadles in advance of the starting signal at A,
5 and 6 are similar treadles in advance of the starting signal at B, 7 is the circuit
from treadle 6 through relay 10 to treadle 3, 8 is the circuit through treadle 5
relay 23 and treadle 4, 9 is the ordinary block circuit through instruments 1 and 2
and also passing through polarized relay 11 to earth 30, 10 is an ordinary relay,
11 is a polarized relay whose tongue 19 makes contact with 20 when the block
instruments are pegged over to "Line clear," 12 is a battery in circuit 7, 13 is the
battery in circuit 34, 14 is the block instrument battery at A, 15 is a powerful
battery which deflects the needles in block instruments at A and B to "Train on
line" when relay 23 is energized, 16 is the block instrument battery at B, 17 is an
insulated arm fixed to the axle of block instrument at A which raises spring 18
when the handle of the instrument is moved to Line clear." The object of this
is to prevent a permissive current being sent through the polarized relay 11 by
signalman at A when the line is blocked or the section occupied by a train.
21 illustrates the starting signal in advance of A's signal cabin, 22 is the arm
replacer or electric slot fixed in the upright rod between the balance weight lever
and the signal arm, 23 is a relay placed in signal cabin at B, or any desired spot,
the object of which is to send a current into the instruments at A and B indicating
on the dial "Train on line" when the treadle 4 is depressed; 24 is the armature
of relay 23 shown in the normal position, that is, making contact with two contact
pieces 25, 26 are the contacts below the armature which are made when the relay
magnet 23 is energized, 27 is another contact placed below armature 24 which leads
to earth 31, 28 is an earth wire leading to battery 15, and 29 is a battery in the
circuit 8, 30 is the earth wire attached to polarized relay 11, 32 is the earth wire
attached to armature of relay 10, 33 is a trigger contact on starting signal lever
at A which is normally broken but is made when the catch-handle is raised, 34 is
the replacer circuit, 35 is the earth wire leading to replacer 22 on the starting
signal at A, and 36 is the earth of block instrument at B.
The working of our invention is as follows:-The drawing illustrates the various
magnets and treadles after the passage of the first train over the railway. The
action set up by the passage of the train is as follows:-
As sanction must be given by the cabin in advance, B, before any train can
leave A, that is, before A's starting signal can be lowered, it is obvious that some
action must be performed on the treadle at B in order that B may start the first
train from A; therefore, let it be assumed that the treadle at B has been operated
so that B can give sanction to A. The action of the treadle 6 being deflected is as
follows:-
The armature of relay 10 is away from its contact before the treadle 6 at B has
been depressed but immediately upon the depression of treadle 6 the contacts which
are normally broken are made; this sets up a current on line wire 7 from the
battery 12 energizing magnets 10 and attracting armature of same. Immediately
on the train passing clear of treadle 6 it resumes its normal position, that is to say,
the circuit at the treadle being broken, but the armature of 10 being attracted and
held has set up a local circuit (which we will call 7" for the purposes of distinction
from the main circuit 7), holding the armature in the worked position; this circuit
is from the battery 12, through wire 7 to the coils of the magnets 10, through the
treadle 3 to earth 3, from earth 3ª to earth 32, through the armnature of 10 and
its contact and the wire 7 to battery 12 thus completing the circuit. There is
now no current flowing through the main wire 7 from its junction with 7" to
the treadle 6. The effect of this last current flowing through 10 from battery 12

page_text: and treadle 3 is that upon the signalman moving his catch-handle the contacts 33
are made and a current is set up from battery 13, through wire 34, contacts 33,
wire 34 to the electric slot or replacer 22 on the starting signal 21, through the
coil of the replacer to earth 35, from earth 35 to earth 32, through the armature
of magnet 10 and its contact to the tongue 19 of polarized relay 11 to contact 20
(which must be made by the signalman at B pegging the needle of his instrument
to "Line clear" moving the tongue 19 to contact 20, which will be described
hereinafter), along wire 34, to spring 18 and from thence back to battery 13.
The signal arm can now be moved to the "safety" attitude.
Upon the train passing out of A's section, treadle 3 is operated, contact being
broken, armature of relay 10 moves away from its magnets thus breaking down
circuit through the slot 22 on the starting signal 21; by this action the arm 22
assumes the "danger" attitude. This starting signal at A cannot be lowered to
the safety attitude until the current which was previously broken down by the
action of treadle 3 is again set up, which latter cannot take place until treadle 6
has been depressed which action is hereinbefore described.
"
A train on passing over the contact 4, which may or may not be in a separate
treadle from 3, sets up a current from battery 29, along the line wire 8, through the
oils of relay 23 and attracts the armature 24, this is held locally by making
contact with the contact 27, the earth 31 joining with carth 5ª. The effect of this
is to bring battery 15 into operation. A powerful current is now flowing from the
battery through contacts 26, through the dial of the instrument 2 at B, out again
through line wire 9 into the instrument 1 at A and its dial, finding earth 30 through
the polarized relay 11. The needles are now pointing to "Train on line" and they
remain in that position until the train arrives at treadle 5 which being operated
breaks down the circuit 8, the armature 24 moves away from magnet 23 and the
current releases the needles in both instruments allowing them to assume their
previous position.
Before A can lower his starting signal 21 to "Safety," B must peg the needle of
his instrument to "Line clear," this indicates at A Line clear," by A's needle
being pegged to that position. When B pegs the needle of his instrument to
"Line clear" a current is set up as follows:-From battery 16 it goes to the
reverser 2, to the left hand line spring 2b, along line wire 9, through contacts 25,
back along line wire 9 through the terminals and lightning arrester, round the coils
of the dial at B and through the terminals on the right hand of the instrument,
along line wire 9 to the right hand line spring of the instrument 1 at A, across
to the left hand spring, from thence to the terminals and lightning arrester in
the instrument at A, through the coils of the dial, from the right hand terminals
along wire 9 to the coils of the polarized relay 11, through them to earth 30,
from earth 30 to earth 36, along the wire 9 to the right hand line spring of
the instrument at B (this being in connection with the reverser 2), and from
thence through the line wire 9 to the battery 16, completing the circuit. This
current moves the needles on the dials of both instruments to "Line clear"; it
also moves the tongue 19 of polarized relay 11 into contact with contact 20.
An important feature of our invention, which is incidental to the working, is that
if B, having given sanction to A to send a train from A to B and A has lowered
his starting signal to the "safety" attitude, and at this stage B wishes to suspend
that sanction and prevent A from sending the train B can, by restoring the
handle of his instrument to the straight or normal position, and the needle on
the dial to "Line blocked," replace A's starting signal to the "danger" attitude
independent of A and indicate at A on A's dial that he has suspended the
sanction by A's needle assuming the normal or "Line blocked" position.
The arm replacer or electric slot, which is fixed in the upright rod intermediate
between the arin and its balance weight lever on the signal post, may be of any of
the various forms or kinds of electric slots or arm replacers which are now in use,
the method of operation being that, assuming it is A's starting signal, A is
powerless to operate the arm to the " safety" attitude without previous sanction

page_text: from B; if A moves his starting signal lever the balance lever on the post is thrust
For the arm to be deflected B must
upwards but no action takes place on the arm.
have given electrical sanction by pegging his instrument to "Line clear," which,
as described, sets up a current so that the armature in the electric slot on the post
is attracted to the magnet which makes a rigid connection, so that A on operating
his mechanical lever in the signal box can then deflect the arm to the "safety
attitude.
If desirable, an arm or other form of indicator might be attached to the armature
of the relay 10, so that the movement of the armature would deflect a small sema-
phore arm or a needle, as the case may be, indicating when a train has passed clear
of B's section, that is to say, depressed treadle 6.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of our said inven-
tion and in what manner the same is to be performed, we declare that what we
claim is:-
-
1. In railway signalling, improvements such as herein described whereby a
signalman, say A, is prevented from lowering his starting or sectional signal until
the previous train has passed beyond the sectional or starting signal of the cabin
next in advance, say B, substantially as herein described with reference to the
accompanying drawing.
2. In railway signalling, improvements such as herein described whereby a
signalman, say A, is prevented from lowering his starting signal until the signalman
in the cabin in advance, say B, has pegged the needle of his instrument to "Line
clear," substantially as described with reference to the drawing annexed.
3. In railway signalling, employing the handle of the single needle block
instrument as a suspension switch, say at B, for suspending a sanction previously
given to, say A, operating that if the sectional signal at A has been lowered to the
"safety" attitude the arm of the said signal will be replaced to the "danger'
attitude by the operation of the handle of the block instrument acting as a
suspension switch, all substantially as herein set forth.
ג'
4. In railway signalling, apparatus such as a treadle or rail contact which, on
being operated by a passing vehicle, will (should the signalman at the cabin next
in advance have failed to do so) move the needles on the dials of the instruments
in both cabins, say A and B, to "Train on line "and the said needles will remain in
the position of "Train on line " until the train has passed out of the section, in
advance of say B's starting signal, all substantially as described with reference to
the accompanying drawing.
5. In the system of signalling on railways as above claimed, means for carrying
out the same consisting in the combination with the single needle instruments 1
and 2, of a main circuit 7, treadle 6 (operated by a passing train), an electric slot
circuit 34, a polarized relay 11 in the block circuit 9 which also controls the electric
slot circuit 34, a treadle 4, relay 23, battery 29 for holding the block instrument
needles at "Line clear," a treadle 5 for breaking said circuit, and a treadle 3 for
breaking down the arm replacer or electric slot circuit, all substantially as described
with reference to the accompanying drawing.
6. Our improvements in signalling on railways and means therefor, substantially
as herein described and illustrated on the accompanying drawing.
Dated this 18th day of January 1895.
JOHN P. O'DONNELL,
70 & 71, Palace Chambers, Westminster, London, S. W.,
Agent for the said Applicants.