Improvements in and connected with Railways.
Year: 1892

page_text: Date of Application, 10th Aug., 1892-Accepted, 10th Sept., 1892
.COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in and connected with Railways.
I, ESPRIT PERRODY, of 3 Rue Chaponnière, Geneva, in the Republic of
Switzerland, formerly Metallurgist, 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 :-
1
This invention relates to improvements in the permanent way of railways, and
includes also a metal sleeper for roads having two gauges and improvements in
bolts and nuts.
The metallic sleeper constructed according to this invention possesses the
following advantages, viz., it ensures an unvarying distance between the rails
constituting the road, it gives any desired inclination of the rails, the ballast
remaining at the same time perfectly horizontal, it offers a resistance to sliding
movement five times as great as that of the wooden sleeper, it renders it absolutely
impossible for the bolts to become loose; and thus gives entire safety, it will last
for a long time, and finally it offers a surface of support for the line of rails, and
for each rail, twice as great as that afforded by the wooden sleeper.
My invention also includes a bolt with a lock-nut, for attaching the rails to the
sleepers, and this is equally suitable for the fish-plates at the joints of the rails.
A system of lubricating the bolt and nut allows of their being easily separated,
however long they may have been in use.
The accompanying drawings illustrate in detail the improvements in question.
Figure 1 is a vertical section shewing the end of a metallic sleeper, constructed
to carry a rail and a point or switch:
Figure 2 is a vertical transverse section of the end of a sleeper for a single
headed rail:
Figure 3 is a transverse section of the end of a sleeper for a double-headed rail:
Figure 4 shews in plan a bearing plate serving to connect the single headed rail
with the sleeper:
Figure 5 shews in plan the general view of one of my sleepers for a railway with
single headed rails :
Figure 6 is an elevation of the sleeper for a railway with double headed rails:
Figure 7 shews the gauge or tie-bar of old railway metal which unites the two
ends of the sleeper:
Figures 8 and 9 are respectively a transverse and longitudinal section of one end
of the sleeper:
Figure 10 is a view in plan of a sleeper for single headed rails laid to form a
road with two gauges:
Figure 11 is an elevation of a sleeper for double headed rails for a road having
two gauges:
Fi
Figure 12 shews the gauge or tie-bar :
Figures 13 and 14 are sections similar to Figures 8 and 9 but shewing the
ballast in dotted lines:
Figure 15 shews a view in plan of a design for a triple sleeper for the joints of
single headed rails :
Figure 16 shews a locking-plate to prevent the loosening of the bolts which fix
the rails to the sleeper:
Figure 17 is an explanatory diagram :
Figures 18 and 19 shew in elevation and in horizontal section the application of
the locking-plates to the bolts of the fish-plates of the rails:
Figure 20 shews two patterns of these locking-plates:

page_text: Figures 21 and 22 are two vertical transverse sections of single and double
headed rails as jointed with locking plates on the bolts which secure them:
Figure 23 is a perspective view of a bolt with its locking-plate and its lubricated
nut:
Figure 24 is a transverse section of this nut:
Figures 25, 26 and 27 shew patterns of locking-bolts with channels for
lubrication.
My metallic sleeper is composed of two cast iron boxes A, A which are filled
with concrete to resist crushing strains, and which support the rails. These
boxes A, A are connected together by an old rejected rail B, which serves as a
gauge-bar. This bar B enters each of the boxes and its ends are plunged in
the packing of cement which fills the boxes; to complete the bedding, the two
ends of the bar are pierced with holes C. C into which pass bolts D, D, the
heads and nuts of which forming projections are buried in the concrete and
resist removal. These boxes A, A are of cast iron, steel or any other metal,
rolled or cast, on which may be cast any sort of chair for the attachment of
any kind of rail R. These boxes are say 40 centimetres long and 18 centimetres
wide and deep, and rest on the ballast through the intervention of a wide flat
iron sole A, about 1 centimetre thick, 60 centimetres long, and 40 centimetres
wide, which gives a surface of 24 square decimetres, that is to say, a bearing
surface of 48 square decimetres for each sleeper.
For double headed rails the chair E is cast in one piece with the box on its
upper surface at the desired inclination.
For single headed rails a bearing surface a which gives the inclination is
constructed on the box, which for this purpose is more raised at the outer side
than at the inner side of the road.
The required inclination which is, say, one twentieth of the width of the rail
out of the horizontal is thus naturally obtained though the ballast is at the
same time kept horizontal and the two soles are always in a straight line with
each other whatever may be the curve of the road.
The weight of my sleepers is for single headed rails, say, 160 kilogrammes,
disposed as follows; 100 kilogrammes of metal and 60 kilogrammes of concrete.
My sleeper for the double headed rail weighs, say 30 kilogrammes of metal more,
on account of the addition of the chair. These weights are at least two thirds
less for narrow gauge roads of 1 metre width; in this case I employ as a gauge-
bar I-iron of 7 or 8 kilogrammes weight per metre.
Upon my system I also make a sleeper for the joints of rails, Figure 15, made
up of a sole 120 metres long and 60 metres wide. This sleeper, which I call a
triple sleeper has two similar soles, on each of which are arranged three
boxes A, A, A, A', A', A¹ of cast iron, rivetted or bolted to them; the middle box
is intended to receive the joint of the rails, and the two other boxes to keep the
rails firmly in position. The whole arrangement possesses only two ties or gauge-
bars B, B bedded in the concrete of the four outer boxes. This arrangement is
designed to obviate completely the jolting shock given to each axle-tree which
passes over the joints, which shock is so prejudicial to the rolling stock and the
permanent way and so unpleasant to travellers. By avoidance of these shocks the
locomotives are able to draw a load heavier by two-fifths than heretofore.
Upon my system I construct a sleeper (Figures 10, 11, 12) made up of three
boxes A, A, A³ and of a tie or gauge-bar B traversing the three blocks in one
straight line. This sleeper is designed for an ordinary line and a narrow gauge
line together, thus allowing the rolling stock of ordinary roads to be run over
narrow roads, and narrow gauge and ordinary gauge rolling stock to be included
in the same train at any time when required, an arrangement which is specially
suitable for trains for military purposes.
As an indispensable accessory to my sleeper for single headed rails held by
bolts F the nut F₁ of which below the upper part of the box is buried in the cement
filling, which prevents the nut from turning and the bolt from loosening downwards,

page_text: I have been compelled to devise a bolt which could not be loosened by the
vibration of the trains and yet could be easily unfastened when after a certain time
it might become necessary to change the rails.
In order, then, to prevent the bolts from loosening I make use of a plate which
opposes any motion of that kind in the bolts. This plate, a kind of closed key
(Figures 16 and 20) has formed in it a six sided hole, the angles of the sides being
varied in the successive plates by one seventh. Each plate bears a number, in
order, and if the first plate has the angle of one of its sides at the division 1, the
side of the following plate will be at the division 2, that of the third at the
figure 3, and so on successively, Figure 17. Each division in turn serving as a
starting point, a series of six plates having each its division indicated by its serial
number will be sufficient to cover the locking-bolt, and the tail of each plate will
come just against the stop without the least possible loosening and this even
though the bolt may be screwed to the bottom. This is what constitutes the
absolute security of my bolt..
In order to make it easy to loosen it, it is necessary to be able to lubricate
the screw-thread 1, 4, 6, 7, 8 and 9. For this purpose I employ the lubricating
bolts in Figures 21-27. To enable the petroleum oil to reach the screw-thread
I form a hole through the head and the stem of the bolt at the centre (Figures 26
and 27) or I groove the stem externally, Figure 27.
In order that these holes may not become choked with dust, mud, or rust, I
seal each hole completely by driving in a ball of lead of larger diameter than
the hole, which lead prevents the passage of water, air, or even petroleum.
When it is desired to undo the bolt, a simple drill is forced into the lead, and
the channels are as clean as when they were first made. The lubrication is then
easy, even along the stem, as in the fish-plate bolt, Figure 22.
This system of
lubricating bolts is so advantageous that, if it were not possible to lubricate the
bolts before loosening them, bolts which had been in their nuts for from 10 or 15
years and were rusted into them could not be removed without cutting them. With
my lubricating bolt nothing of the kind happens, the loosening is easily effected,
and the rail is changed more easily and more quickly than when on a wooden
sleeper.
With the lubricating bolts are included lubricating nuts. For horizontal bolts
the nuts have holes on three equidistant surfaces, so that when the nut is screwed
home, one or other of these three holes, each of which corresponds to an oil
chamber in the nut, will immediately lubricate the whole of the screw-thread,
and as one or other of these holes will be more or less on the top, it can be
unstopped and the lubrication will be effected all along the thread of the
screw.
By the use of my locking-plate (Figures 16 and 17) I obtain an absolutely
inseparable joint, and yet one which is capable of being easily loosened when it is
necessary to change the rails.
h, h shew the fish-plates which combined with the bolts screwed into one of the
fish-plates which serves as nuts which cannot be loosened by vibration, give a fish-
plate joint which is absolutely secure.
Figure 18 shews a fish-plate joint with the four bolts furnished with my locking
plates, and marked with successive numbers to shew clearly that the angles
indicated by the arrow & are exactly on the horizontal line, and for the three
following plates are inclined to the extent of one seventh more progressively.
Each of the plates (Figure 20) is furnished with a small hole g which always
coincides exactly with a screw-threaded hole in the fish-plate for the insertion of a
safety screw v.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of my said inven-
tion and in what manner the same is to be performed, I declare that what I
claim is :-
1. The metallic sleeper composed of two cast iron boxes, supporting the rails.

page_text: and filled with concrete, which boxes are united by a gauge-bar (preferably an old
rejected rail) traversing the said boxes and fixed by transverse bolts, substantially
as described.
2. In the metallic sleeper which forms the subject of Claim 1, the use of boxes
of cast metal with or without chairs, according to whether the rail is single headed
or double headed, substantially as described.
3. The metallic sleeper intended for rail joints, composed of six boxes of cast
metal similar to those referred to in Claim 1, the said boxes being grouped in
threes, and these groups being united by two gauge bars of old rail, substantially
as described.
4. A metallic sleeper applicable to two gauge railways and having at one end
one box of cast metal, and at the other two such boxes, the whole being united by
means of a gauge bar of old rail, substantially as described.
5. The locking plate to render the bolts which fix the rails upon the sleepers,
and in the fish-plate joints immovable, this plate or kind of hexagonal key
conforming to all positions which the tightening uuts may occupy substantially as
described.
6. The improved bolts and nuts provided with lubrication which allow of their
being loosened, however long they may have been in position, substantially as
described for the purpose specified.
Dated this 10th dex of Aus 1899
1.
G. F. REDFERN & Co.,
4, South Street, Finsbury, London, Agents for the Applicant.