Improvement in Railway Buffer Arresters.
Year: 1896

page_text: Date of Application, 25th Feb., 1896-Accepted, 28th Mar., 1896
COMPLETE DIECIFICATION.
Improvement in Railway Buffer Arresters.
A communication from abroad by JOHN A. WEBER, of 25 Frank Street, Chicago,
in the County of Cook and State of Illinois, United States of America,
Gentleman.
I, JAMES GRIEVE LORRAIN, M.I.E.E., M.I.Mech. E., of Norfolk House,
Norfolk Street, Strand, London, W.C. in the County of Middlesex, Chartered
Patent Agent, do hereby declare the nature of this invention, as communicated to
me from abroad, 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 that class of apparatus which is located at the end or
termination of a railway track and employed for the purpose of arresting the
progress of a train, car or other object upon the track which is moving toward.the
end thereof.
The object of my invention is to provide an apparatus for this purpose which
shall be capable of resisting the strain imposed thereon by the forcible impact of
the moving car and to accomplish this result by an apparatus which shall be
simple in construction and of minimum cheapness.
To this end my invention consists in a stationary buffer post which is held in a
vertical position intermediate between the rails of the track by means of any
suitable stay rods or the like and a movable or swinging buffer post which is
pivoted or hinged to the stationary post, the latter receiving the initial impact of
the moving car or other object and distributing the strain along its length, the
stationary post also co-operating conjunctively with the hinged post in order to
resist the strain of the shock, means being employed for causing the hinged post
to normally assume a receptive position after receiving the impact of the moving
object.
My invention consists in certain other features hereinafter to be particularly
described reference being had to the accompanying drawing in which:
Figure 1 is a side view of a section of railway track, showing my device for
arresting the movement of a train arranged in position.
Figure 2 is a vertical section through the buffer posts showing the device for
normally causing the movable buffer post to resume a receptive position.
In carrying out my invention I provide the stationary buffer post A which is
held firmly in its stationary position by means of the stays or stay rods A 2
extended and fastened to the rails A 3 and the ties of the track. This stationary
buffer post A may be designated as the auxiliary buffer post, as the same reinforces
or supplements a primary buffer post, about to be described, which receives the
initial or first shock of the moving train, car or other object upon the track.
The primary buffer post is designated at B which is hinged to swing upon the
buffer post A by means of the hinged connection D held by the rods B2 and B 3
extended respectively through the two posts A and B.
Extended loosely through the buffer post A is a pull rod H which is held at
one end to the lower portion of the buffer post B and has heads H 2 and H 3 at
each of its ends respectively, springs J and J 2 being disposed about said pull
rod H and located respectively between the heads H 2 and H 3 and the sides of
the buffer posts A and B.
Extended through the upper portions of the posts A and B is the arrester rod K

page_text: about which the spring K2 is disposed and positioned within a recess K 3 in the
post A and bearing against a plate K4 held by straps K5 to said post and a
plate K 6 held by the arrester rod K.
Held securely on the outer end of said arrester rod K is an arrester head K 7
which receives the initial impact of the object moving along the track, the arrester
rod K having free vertical movement within the slot K 8 in the post B.
It is now apparent from the foregoing description that the springs J and J 2
operating upon the pull rod H normally hold the lower end of the buffer post Bin
such a position that the upper, end thereof is advanced into a position to receive
the forcible impact of the car or other movable object advancing toward the end of
the track. It will be noticed however that the preliminary force of the impact is
received by the arrester head K7 which is resisted by the spring K 2.
Thus a part of the shock ultimately imposed upon the post A, is relieved, this
ultimately imposed shock being also resisted by the springs J and J 2 in the manner
following:
"
When the moving object forcibly impacts against, the arrester head K 7 of the
buffer post B said arrester head and upper end of the said post receive the initial
strain of the shock which is cushioned by the spring K 2 and the upper end of the
post traveling rearward under such influence causes its lower end to move
forwardly in an opposite direction by reason of the hinged connection at D.
Owing to this forward movement of the lower end of the buffer post B the pull
rod H and its heads H 2 and H 3 alsó compress the springs J and J 2 disposed
respectively between said heads H 2 and H 3 and the buffer posts A and B.
It is thus evident that these springs J and J 2 in offering a resistance to the
rearward movement of the upper end of the buffer post B serve, in conjunction
with said rearward movement, to relieve the shock of the forcible impact which
the device as a whole must receive and relieves the strain of the shock to a
considerable extent before the upper end of the buffer post B strikes against the
stationary buffer post A. Therefore by means of the movable buffer post the
strain of the shock which ordinarily is imposed immediately upon the stationary
buffer post is relieved by the preliminary traverse of said movable buffer post and
the resistance of the spring which latter also causes the movable buffer post to
resume a position in which again to receive the forcible impact of an object, such
as a car moving along the track.
So also by means of the various provisions for relieving the shock, the strain
upon the fastenings or ties of the posts is much lessened.
The arrester rod K being adapted to move vertically within the slot K 8 avoids
any liability to raise the impacting car from the rails owing to the moving of the
upper end of the post B in the arc of a circle.
In certain exigencies of use such as for freight car service it may be desirable to
dispense entirely with the arrester head K 7, its rod K and spring K 2.
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. In an arresting device for use on railway tracks the combination with a
stationary buffer post held between the rails, of a movable buffer post hinged to
the stationary buffer post and adapted to receive the strain of the shock from
forcible impact and relieve said shock by a traverse of the movable buffer post
thereunder.
2. In an arresting device for use on railway tracks the combination with a
stationary buffer post held between the rails, of a movable buffer post hinged to the
stationary buffer post adapted to receive the strain of the shock from forcible
impact and relieve said shock by a traverse of the movable buffer post thereunder
together with a resisting device acting in opposition to the movement of said
movable buffer post.
3. In an arresting device for use on railway tracks the combination with a

page_text: stationary buffer post held between the rails, of a movable buffer post hinged to
the stationary buffer post and adapted to receive the strain of the shock from
forcible impact and relieve said shock by a traverse of the movable buffer post
thereunder together with a pull rod and spring acting in opposition to the move-
ment of the movable buffer post and adapted to return the same into a position
to receive another impact.
4. In an arresting device for use on railway tracks the combination with a stationary
buffer post held between the rails, of a movable buffer post hinged to the stationary
buffer post and adapted to receive the strain of the shock from forcible impact and
relieve said shock.by a traverse of the movable buffer post thereunder together
with a pull rod and spring acting in opposition to the movement of the movable
buffer post and adapted to return the same into a position to receive another impact
together with an arrester head, a movable holding rod therefor and a resisting
device for said arrester head.
Dated this 20th day of Feb 1900
J. G. LORRAIN,
Chartered Patent Agent,
Agent for the said John A. Weber.
J. G. LORRAIN,
Chartered Patent Agent,
Agent for the said John A. Weber.