IMPROVEMENTS IN SWITCH APPARATUS FOR OPERATING THE POINTS AND CROSSINGS OF THE PERMANENT WAY OF RAILWAYS
Year: 1870

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Charles Martin Wade at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
11th January 1870.-A communication from abroad by James
Walker Robertson, of Tanna, in the Presidency of Bombay.
I, CHARLES MARTIN WADE, of Furnival's Inn, in the County of
Middlesex, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for
"IMPROVEMENTS IN SWITCH APPARATUS FOR OPERATING THE POINTS AND
CROSSINGS OF THE PERMANENT WAY OF RAILWAYS," a communication to me
from abroad by James Walker Robertson, of Tanna, in the Presidency
of Bombay, to be as follows:-
The Invention consists of an arrangement and mode of working the
switches on lines of permanent way for railways, and is designed to
prevent accidents to railway rolling stock by their getting off the line
of rails through the carelessness or inattention of the pointsman, thereby
securing the more perfect guidance of trains and rolling stock from one

page_text: .
line of rails to another and reducing the number of pointsmen employed
in station yards, whereby one pointsman can attend to four or more
points, as the case may be, his services not being required at the switch
box as now during the entire time that a train is passing over the points.
The principle may be practically applied in cases where the tongue rails
are fixed, and the ordinary permanent way rails drawn to them, or
where they are moveable into line with the ordinary rails.
The main object and principal feature of the Invention is to cause the
moveable rail to traverse a definite degree of space, affected by certain
levers always working and moving through one uniform degree of action,
thereby securing the moveable rail from derangement.
The mechanical means adopted to affect this are simple, substantial,
inexpensive, and are as follows:-An arm or lever, as now in use, is
attached to the ordinary switch box connected with the horizontal centre
bar and tongue rail, to which handle, arm, or lever another horizontal
bar is attached connected with a second lever or arm and crook, so
arranged as to work under the permanent way rail, and to be put into
action simultaneously with the first lever. The first lever is constructed
to work in a double segmentary bar attached to the present switch box
set at a convenient angle at a suitable position, in which a slot or recess
is 'cut so as to secure a self-working and acting roller or bar attached to
the first lever, in such a manner that when the said, lever is. worked or
pulled back to the full extent, and the tongue rail at the same time is
brought to or in contact with the permanent way rail, the self-working
or acting roller or bar attached to the lever drops of its own accord into
the slot or recess in the segment, thereby permanently securing the
tongue rail in position, and causing the second lever, attached as
aforesaid to the former, to work and act at the same time, thus securing
the tongue rail in its position along with its crook lever underneath the
permanent way rail.
The self-locking arrangement can likewise be affected as efficiently
and securely without the second lever arm or crook. The working or
pulling of the lever as aforesaid causes the said lever handle to become
permanently self-locked, and thereby permanently secures the tongue
rail along with its crook lever underneath the permanent way rail. . The
passage of trains over the points are thus rendered perfectly safe and

page_text: not dependent as under the existing system of points and crossings on
the sole care and attention of the pointsman.
The Invention can be made applicable at a slight cost to existing
points and crossings.