Improved Means for Holding Down the Floors of Railway Trucks, Waggons, and other similar Vehicles.
Year: 1893

page_text: Date of Application, 27th Oct., 1893
Complete Specification Left, 27th July, 1894-Accepted, 1st Sept., 1894
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION.
Improved Means for Holding Down the Floors of Railway Trucks,
Waggons, and other similar Vehicles.
I, JOHN BOWSER, of Mount Pleasant, Burry Port, in the County of Carmarthen,
Coal Merchant, do hereby declare the nature of this invention to be as follows:-
My invention relates to improved means for holding down the floors of railway
trucks, waggous and other similar vehicles, and the object of it is to prevent the
serious damage which, in consequence of the means at present employed for holding
down the floors, is done to the sole bar or under frame, when the removal of the
floor, or of any of the planks of it, becomes necessary, as when the under frame
needs repairing and the floor has to be taken up to give access thereto.
It is the custom to spike the floor planks of a railway waggon down to the sole
bars. The spikes rust in their holes so that the removal of a plank is a work of
considerable difficulty. It occupies a considerable time and the plank itself is
often broken by the severe strains of the leverage which the firm hold of the spike
in the sole bars render necessary. Sometimes the spike breaks, and sometimes the
plank. If the spike breaks in the sole bar, the latter is injured. If the plank
breaks, a new one must be put in.
According to the present invention, the use of spikes and the like driven through
the floor planks and into the sole bars, is dispensed with, and nothing of the kind
of a spike is used, neither is the sole bar bored nor its fibres interfered with in any
way, as far as regards the holding down of the floor.
In carrying my invention into effect in respect of a wooden railway waggon of
the construction at present in vogue, I provide a series of eyed bolts for each sole
bar, that is one for each side of the waggon. These eyed bolts stand up against
the inner face of their sole bar, being bolted through the curb rail and sole bar by
bolts passed through the respective eyes. I make use of the ends of the bolts
which are at present used to hold the curb rail to the sole bar, because they are in
the position which my invention requires and also because the eyes of the eyed
bolts serve as washers. The screwed ends of the eyed bolts stand up above the
sole bars in two rows, at a sufficient height to receive the floor boards, two holding
down bars which lie along the surface of the floor and the nuts of the bolts.
The present invention is applied to any other type of waggon in substantially
the same way as described above.
Dated this 26th day of October 1893.
PHILLIPS & LEIGH,
Agents for the Applicant.
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
Improved Means for Holding Down the Floors of Railway Trucks,
Waggons, and other similar Vehicles.
I, JOHN BOWSER of Mount Pleasant, Burry Port, in the County of Carmarthen,
Coal Merchant, 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 :-
My invention relates to improved means for holding down the floors of railway
trucks, waggons and other similar vehicles, and the object of it is to prevent the

page_text: serious damage which, in consequence of the nature of the means at present
employed for holding down wood floors, is done to the sole bar or under frame
when the removal of the floor, or of any of the planks of it, becomes necessary, as
when the under frame needs repairing and the floor has to be taken up to give
access thereto.
It is the custom to spike the floor planks of a railway waggon down to the sole
bars. The spikes rust in their holes so that the removal of a plank is a work of
considerable difficulty. It occupies a considerable time and the plank itself is
often broken up by the severe strains of the leverage which the firm hold of the
spike in the sole bars, renders necessary. Sometimes the spike breaks, and
sometimes the plank. If the spike breaks in the sole bar, the latter is injured.
If the plank breaks, a new one must be put in.
According to the present invention, spikes and the like devices to be driven
through the floor planks into the sole bars as well as the vertical boring of the sole
plates, are both dispensed with and replaced by a series of bolts which are passed
vertically downwards through the planks and present either their heads or their
nutted ends above them. Only each fourth plank or so is bolted, the holding
power of the bolts being brought to bear upon the other planks by a holding down
bar interposed between the bolt heads or nuts, as the case may be, and the planks,
the bar being long enough to reach from one end of the waggon to the other.
The opposite ends of the bolts present themselves on the under side of the planks
where they are held by being rigidly connected to the respective fixed points
which are, preferably, furnished by the inner ends of the curb rail bolts.
In order that my invention and the best means of carrying the same into
practical effect, may be thoroughly understood, I will now describe it and them in
detail, referring in so doing to the accompanying drawings which are to be taken
as part of this Specification and read therewith.
Figure 1 is a longitudinal section taken on the line 1-1 of Figure 2, omitting
the nuts of the sole bar bolts,
Figure 2 is a transverse section taken on the line 2-2 of Figure 1.
Figure 3 is a plan.
The foregoing illustrate one method of carrying the invention into effect.
Figure 4 is a detail sectional end elevation illustrating a modification of the
invention.
Figure 5 is a detail sectional side elevation taken on the line 5-5 of Figure 4.
Referring to Figures 1, 2 and 3, a, a are the sole bars and b, bare the curb rails
of the waggon.
c, c are the usual bolts by which the curb rails are bolted to
their respective sole bars. These parts are of the same construction as heretofore.
d, d are the floor planks. I prefer to make use of the above mentioned usual
bolts c as the fixed points under the waggon floor, to which the floor bolts are to be
made fast, and for that reason, there are in a waggon floor held down according to
the method of carrying my invention into effect which I am now describing, as
many floor bolts as curb rail bolts. e, e are these floor bolts. A floor bolt is
made fast to its curb rail bolt e by having an eye e' instead of a head, which eye
is of a proper size to receive and pass the screwed end of the bolt c and to serve
as a washer for the nut of it. f, are the holding down bars. They extend for
the full length of the floor in order that when the nuts of the floor bolts are
tightened up, they will distribute the pull of them fairly along the respective side
of the floor. One end of the bar terminates in a squarely hooked end f¹ adapted
to embrace the outer edge of one sill plank while the opposite end terminates in a
screwed end which is passed through the respective end of the waggon and there
receives a nut and washer f2 after the manner of a tie rod. The bars are punched
to pass over the upstanding screwed ends of the floor bolts. e², are the nuts and
the washers of the latter.
It is now obvious that any one or more of the floor planks can be taken up
without even splintering any of them and used again while there are no spike holes
made in the sole bars nor any spikes used at all.

page_text: The modification illustrated in Figures 4 and 5 still uses the internal or nutted
ends of the curb rail bolts as the fixed points to which the floor bolts are respec-
tively made fast, but it reverses the latter so that their heads, instead of their
nutted ends, present themselves above the floor, and as the heads can be and easily
are counter sunk, there are not any projections above the holding down bars.
The opposite ends of the floor bolts e, are made fast to their respective curb
rail bolts by being passed through the top and horizontal flanges of angles 9, 9,
which fit close up to the under side of the floor; the side and vertical flanges
fitting close up to the inner face of the sole bars a, a and over the curb rail bolts c, c,
as clearly shewn in Figures 4 and 5. The latter figure shews an angle gas narrower
than a plank, but they may be as long as the waggon will admit of, for instance,
two as long as from the end sole bar to a middle bearing h and one from one middle
bearing to the other.
My invention does not limit me to relying upon the curb rail bolts for I may
provide any suitable equivalent. I prefer, however, to make use of them for the
sake of economy.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of my said
invention and in what manner the same is to be performed, I declare that what
I claim is :-
1. The combination of floor bolts and fixed points underneath the floor to which
the said bolts can be made fast..
2. The combination of bolts presenting ends beyond the inside face of the sole
bars eyed bolts adapted to pass over said ends and to present screwed ends
standing up above the floor planks.
3. The combination of bolts presenting ends beyond the side face of the sole
bars, floor bolts presenting ends on the under side of the floor, and angles to which
both set of ends can be made fast.
4. The hereinbefore described combination of bolts passed through the sole
plates, fixed points provided thereby, and bolt and nut devices and holding bars by
which the floor boards can be held down on the said sole plates.
Dated this 27th day of July 1894.
PHILLIPS & LEIGH,
No. 22, Southampton Buildings, Chancery Lane, London, W.C.,
Agents for the Applicant.