IMPROVEMENTS IN RAILWAY POINTS OR SWITCHES
Year: 1873

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Frederick George at the Office
of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 6th
November 1873.
I, FREDERICK GEORGE, of Birch Lodge, near Ross, in the County of
Hereford, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for
"IMPROVEMENTS IN RAILWAY POINTS OR SWITCHES," to be as follows:-
My Invention relates to the construction and operation of points or
switches of railways, particularly where a branch line or siding runs off a
main line, the object of the Invention being to maintain as completely as
possible the continuity of the main line of rails, and so to avoid some of
the dangers attending the use of facing points as they are ordinarily
constructed.
A branch or siding may run off a main line either to the right or to
the left. My improvements are applicable in either case, but in order
to simplify explanation I will describe them as applied in the case of a
branch running out of a main line on the left hand side.
I provide on the right hand a point like an ordinary facing point,
which when shifted away from the main rail leaves the latter continuous

page_text: and uninterrupted. On the left hand side I provide two complete rails
parallel to each other with sufficient space between them for the passage
of wheel flanges.
Both these rails are pivotted at their farther ends, the
one so that it is in line with the left hand main rail, and the other in
line with the left hand branch rail, and I connect both these rails by one
or more cross bars with the point on the right hand side already men-
tioned. From this arrangement it will be seen that when the point is
shifted away from the main rail on the right-hand side the one pivotted
rail on the left-hand side is brought into line with the left-hand main
rail, and thus the main line is rendered continuous and uninterrupted on 1
both sides.
I prefer also to place in front of the switch a pair of rails one inside.
the right-hand main rail, and one outside the left-hand main rail, in
such position that should the switch be set for main line traffic those
additional rails come in line respectively with the point and with the 1
outer left-hand shifting rail. If then a train should happen to back out
from the branch while the switch is set for the main line such train
would run along the additional rails which might be carried on a
sufficient distance backwards to give time for stopping the train.
In cases where a single line branches into two lines of equal 2
importance, the point on the one side may be replaced by a pair of rails
like those described above, and thus whichever way the two pair of rails
are shifted, whether to right or to left, a continuous and uninterrupted
line is formed.
Switches constructed as above described may be bolted or locked or 2
interlocked with signals and with other points according to any of
the modes usually adopted with respect to points of ordinary con-
struction.
One mode of bolting the shifting rail is the following:-On each side
of the fixed rail I fit a plate like a fish plate, and connect these two 3
plates by bolts passing through slotted holes in the body of the rail, so
that the plates can be slid forwards or backwards both together. When
they are slid forward their ends project beyond the end of the fixed rail
and engage between them the end of the switch rail, which is thus
secured to the fixed rail as with fish plates. When the plates are drawn 3
back the switch rail is left free to move. A similar bolting is applicable
to hollow flanged rails, but in this case instead of providing two plates

page_text: one on each side of the fixed rail I fit within its hollow a sliding bar,
the end of which when it is pushed forward enters the corresponding
hollow of the switch rail and so holds it firmly in line with the fixed rail.
Bolts constructed as above described may be connected to switch guards
of any known kind, so as to operate in conjunction with them.