IMPROVEMENTS IN TRAMWAYS, AND IN FASTENINGS FOR THE SAME, AND APPLICABLE OTHERWISE
Year: 1880

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Francis Goold Morony Stoney at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents on the 22nd April 1880.
FRANCIS GOOLD MORONY STONEY, of the City of Westminster, Civil Engineer.
"IMPROVEMENTS IN TRAMWAYS, AND IN FASTENINGS FOR THE SAME, AND APPLICABLE
OTHERWISE."
'This Invention has principally for its object to construct tramways in an
improved manner, and so that the rails may be supported by parts which prevent
the formation of ruts or continuous depressions in the roadway alongside of the
rails. The Invention also comprises an improved kind of fastening to be used in
some modifications of the improved tramway, and also applicable for securing
various kinds of rails, and in other cases in which it is desirable to provide against
the loosening of screw fastenings through vibration.
The first part of the Invention consists principally in forming a tramway with
rails held in castiron chairs, which are in the form of hollow rectangular blocks,
resembling in their external form the paving stone or stone sets forming the
roadway. The part of each cast iron chair, block, or set on each side of the rail
will correspond to the half of a stone set, and stone sets will be laid close up to the
rail between the castiron chair sets, the remainder of the roadway being laid just
as if the castiron chair sets were some of the stone sets. The castiron chair sets
may be so near together along the rail as to admit of only single stone sets being
laid close up to the rail between them; or the cast iron chair sets may be placed at
such intervals as to allow of two or more stone sets between them.
The chair or rail-holding part of the cast iron set, and the mode of arranging
and fixing the rail, may be like any known arrangement that may be found suitable.
It is however preferred to employ a reversible steel or iron rail fixed so as to be
suspended. In one modification a longitudinal rib is formed on one inner side of
the jaw of the chair to support the upper table of the main rail at the outer side;
and another, but in general smaller rib is formed on the other side to support and
retain a subsidiary rail, the top edge of which forms the guard rail, whilst the
space between its upper part and that of the main rail forms the usual groove to
receive the flanges of the wheels. A second subsidiary rail is wedged in between
the first subsidiary rail and the main rail, and is formed with a rib entering
between the upper and lower tables of the main rail, and bearing on the under and
upper sides of those tables. After the main and subsidiary rails have been tightly

page_text: wedged in position holes are bored and screw-tapped half in each of the subsidiary
rails, and screws are entered into them to prevent separation. In a socond
modification longitudinal wedges are entered between the two subsidiary rails to
force them apart, and thereby fix the whole. In a third modification short pieces
are substituted for the second subsidiary rail, theso pieces being tapped to act as
nuts to horizontal screw pins, the heads of which bear against the subsidiary rail.
The nut pieces are shaped to bear on the 'bevilled surfaces of the tables of the main
rail, and they may also be made with projections to rest on the bottom of the chair
jaw. Horizontal slits or cuts are formed in the nut pieces across the screw holes,
and when the screw pins are turned in a direction to thrust the nut pieces against
the main rail the bevilled surfaces of the rail compress the nut pieces slightly,
and cause the screw pin to be tightly gripped, and so rendered less liable to work
loose.
In a fourth, and in some respects preferable modification two subsidiary rails
are used, and are made with horizontal flanges, which, when the parts are in place,
lie one over the other, countersunk or other screws being entered vertically down
through them to fix them together. The screws may be screwed either into the
lower Hange or into nuts placed below, such nuts being of the improved gripping
kind hereinafter described. The edges of the horizontal flanges and the surfaces
they bear on are bevilled so that as they are drawn together by the screws the
subsidiary rails are forced in opposite directions so as to jam and retain the main
rail and themselves securely in position.
At points and crossings and at curves special castiron chair blocks will be
required, and the upper surfaces of these, as well as of the simple set-shaped
blocks will be grooved, diced, or otherwise roughened to prevent the slipping of
horses feet.
In laying the improved tramway a suitable foundation is first formed with a
carefully levelled surface of concrete or cement, and the castiron chair sets and the
stone sets of the roadway are laid on such surface.
When the roadway is not paved with stone sets, but is formed of asphalte or is
macadamised, comparatively long castiron chair blocks are by this Invention used
to hold the rails, such blocks being made with lateral projecting parts uniform in
surface with the roadway, and of a triangular shape in plan, such lateral projecting
surfaces completely preventing the formation of continuous ruts alongside of
the rails.
At the joints of the rails somewhat elongated blocks may be used, and the main
and subsidiary rails may be arranged so as to break joint with each other, the
different rails being bolted together in the neighbourhood of the joints, or at other
suitable intervals.
The nuts of the bolts are made with bevilled inner faces, and slits or saw cuts are
formed in them, whilst the washers or fish plates or other surfaces against which
the nuts bear have countersunk holes to receive the bevilled parts of the nuts. On
screwing up the nuts the action between the bevilled parts of the nuts and the
bevilled sides of the countersunk holes causes the nuts to be compressed, and to
grip the screw bolts in a manner rendering them much less liable to become loose
from vibration or other causes than ordinary screw-nuts.