Improved Means for Coupling and Uncoupling Railway Vehicles.
Year: 1899

page_text: Date of Application, 16th Oct., 1899
Complete Specification Left, 16th July, 1900-Accepted, 13th Oct.,
1900
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION.
Improved Means for Coupling and Uncoupling Railway Vehicles.
We, FREDERIC O'CONNOR PRINCE, of the Silvertown Ironworks Limited, Silver-
town, London, E., Civil Engineer, and CHARLES EDWIN MONKHOUSE, of 3, Danes
Inn, London, W.C., Gentleman, do hereby declare the nature of this invention
to be as follows:-
-
The salient feature of this invention is the employment of weight or spring
appliance to lift a coupling link, which appliance can be set while the coupling
is drawn tight and which operates to lift the link free of the hook on the vehicles
being backed, the said arrangement also being such that operating it in a reverse
direction brings the coupling link to a position that the front of it rides over
the face of the hook on the next carriage when the two carriages come together.
Various mechanical devices can be employed to utilise a weight or spring appliance
for coupling or uncoupling purposes.
A simple plan is as follows.
a
The coupling hook is made with an inclined face. In place of the usual
chain or screw coupling single coupling link is used which can be attached
by cross pin passing through an eye at the back of the coupling hook. This
coupling link is made with a pendant lever by which it is operated. When the
link is not required for coupling purposes it can be turned up against the end of
the vehicle.
Connected under the bottom of the vehicles, are two bell crank levers one end
of each is weighted, pivotted to each of the other ends is a straight rod terminating
in a fork. The rods are guided by passing through an eye. The pendant lever
of the links engages the fork consequently the pressing forward of either of the
rods lifts the link, this is done by the weight counterbalancing the link conse-
quently the normal position is for the links to be lifted. To bring the coupling
links down to a position to couple the weight requires to be lifted, this is effected
by a cam on a cross rod, turning the cam in one direction lifts the weight, and
turning it back allows the weight to fall. This cross rod extends to each side of
the vehicle and is fitted at each end with crank handle by which it is operated.
Suitable stop or catch is provided to secure the handles in position. Or instead
of the forked rod terminating in a fork where it operates the link it may be
pivotted to the pendant portion. In this way the link could not be turned up,
and by setting both links for coupling, would enable both to couple and by either
weight being heavy enough could lift both links. Setting one link to uncouple
would enable both links to uncouple. For locomotives the cam can be operated
The above
by the driver the cam rod not requiring outside crank handles.
arrangement is double on each vehicle one for each end. It will be understood
that a spring may be substituted for a weight.
Doted this 16th day of October 1899.
FREDERIC PRINCE,
Agent for Applicants.

page_text: Improved Means for Coupling and Uncoupling Railway Vehicles.
We, FREDERIC O'CONNOR PRINCE, of the Silvertown Ironworks Limited, Silver-
town, London, E., Civil Engineer, and CHARLES EDWIN MONKHOUSE of 3, Danes
Inn, London, W.C., Gentleman, 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:—
This invention refers to improved means or devices for coupling and uncoupling
railway vehicles, prominent features of the said invention consisting in the employ-
ment of weight or spring acting appliances, so arranged as to lift a pivotted
coupling link when such appliances are free to act, controlling mechanism being
so arranged and combined with the link lifting appliances that the latter can be
set free to act while the vehicles are connected and the coupling drawn tight, and
whereby upon the vehicles being backed, the lifting mechanism automatically
operates, lifts the links and uncouples the vehicles. Moreover the controlling
mechanism can be so set as to bring the couplings links into such position that
the front of the links will ride over the face of the hooks on the next carriage,
and fall into the bite of the said draw bar hook when the two carriages are brought
together. Our invention as hereafter described also provides for an automatic
double coupling of the vehicles, that is the link on each vehicle is capable of
being caused to engage simultaneously with the hook upon the opposite adjacent
vehicle. The mechanism is further of such a character that when a double coup-
ling has been effected, setting the mechanism on one vehicle to uncouple will be
sufficient to simultaneously lift both links for uncoupling on the vehicles being
backed.
Such being broadly the leading features of our invention we will now describe
an example of the construction of same with reference to the accompanying
drawings.
Fig. 1 is an elevation of the adjacent ends of two waggons fitted with our
improved coupling devices, and shewing the waggons coupled with a double
coupling.
Fig. 2 is a perspective view shewing the parts of our coupling device and the
relation of the parts to each other.
Fig. 3 is a side elevation of spring acting mechanism and also shews connections
suitable for operation from inside a vehicle or upon a locomotive.
Referring to Fig. 1, it will be observed that the ends of each vehicle are pro-
vided or fitted with precisely similar coupling devices, and therefore for the
purposes of this specification it will be sufficient to describe the coupling device
upon one end of one of the vehicles.
The draw bar hook A, Figs. 1 and 2, is made with a backwardly inclined front
face, and a single coupling link B is pivotted to the back of the hook by a pivot
bolt B passing through an eye in the said hook, the coupling link B being formed
at its rear end with a pendant arm B2, by which it may be turned about its pivot
bolt, and when not required for coupling purposes, the link B can be turned up
against the end of the vehicle.
Pivotted on a bracket carried under the frame of the vehicle, is a bell crank
lever C, one arm being weighted at C¹, while to the downwardly extending arm,
a rod D is pivotted, the rod passing to the end of the vehicle, and terminating
in an open fork at D¹, the rod D being guided by a suitable fixed guide such as 12.
The open front fork D of the rod 1), rearwardly receives the pendant arm B
of the coupling link, and therefore, when the counterbalanced bell crank lever C

page_text: is free to act, the link B.will be turned about its pivot into a raised position, thus
it will be seen, if these weight acting appliances are left free, the vehicles being
coupled as shewn, that upon the vehicles being backed together, the coupling
inks will be raised, and the vehicles automatically uncoupled.
In order to control the operation of the weighted bell crank lever C we provide
mechanism as follows, a rock shaft E is carried in bearings beneath the vehicle
and extends from one side to the other of same, the said shaft E being located for
example as shewn beneath the weighted arm of the lever C. Upon the shaft E
we fix a cam or arm El adapted to engage the lever arm C and support same
when the shaft E is partially turning in one direction, whereby the link B is
supported about horizontally by the fork D¹ of the rod D, while when the shaft E
is turned in the other direction the cam or arm E allows the lever arm C to
descend, and the link B will then be lifted or turned upwards about the bolt B¹,
when the said link is free to be so lifted.
At each side of the vehicle the rock shaft E is fitted with a suitable handle F,
by which the shaft may be operated, and catch or retaining mechanism is fitted
such as a fixed segment G on the vehicle and a spring catch G' on the handle F,
whereby the shaft E may be retained in the required position.
With the arrangements described and referring particularly to Fig. 1, when
the vehicles are brought together, the handle F having been previously placed
in the position shewn by the full lines, the link B will strike the inclined face
of the hook A of the opposite carriage, rise upon same and fall into the bite of
the said hook and the carriages will be coupled. Moreover should the controlling
mechanism of the coupling devices of both vehicles be set for coupling, then the
links B of each vehicle will engage the opposite hook A and a double coupling,
as shewn at Fig. 1, will result.
When it is required to uncouple the vehicles, the handle F is rocked to the
position shewn by the dotted lines, leaving the weighted lever C free to act, the
vehicles are then back or closed together, and the link is lifted from the hook A,
if both links are engaged as shown by the drawings, the lifting of the link B
of the right hand vehicle may be caused to lift or disengage the link of the left
hand vehicle, provided the weight C (or its equivalent, say a spring) was suffi-
ciently heavy or powerful.
It will have been observed that the controlling mechanism may be operated
from either side of the vehicle but our coupling devices can be quite readily
operated from within the vehicle, by the arrangement shewn at Figs. 1 and 2,
by bringing the operating handle F within the vehicle, or upon locomotives when
the coupling device may be operated by the driver.
At Fig. 3 we have shewn the operating handle I placed within reach to be
operated by a person in or on the vehicle, and in this drawing we have also shewn
an application of a spring instead of the weighted bell crank lever before described.
In this construction Fig. 3 the spring C is placed upon the rod D), acting between
a collar on the rod, and a fixed guide D³, and tending to hold the rod D in its
forward position. In order to control the position of the rod D, we have shewn
it connected by a connecting rod H to a lever H¹ pivotted to the underframe of the
vehicle, the lever H being operated by a slotted link H2 connected to the operating
lever or handle F. The operation of the device is similar to that described with
reference to Fig. 1.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of this inven-
tion and in what manner the same is to be performed we declare that what
we claim is: -
1. The means for coupling railway vehicles with a single or double coupling
and uncoupling same hereinbefore described and illustrated by the accompany-
ing drawings.
2. In means for coupling and uncoupling railway vehicles, the combination
with a coupling link or links and a drawbar hook or hooks with inclined face, of

page_text: a weight or spring appliance arranged to counter-balance the link or links, which
weight or spring can be held up or set to allow the link or links to fall into a
position for coupling on meeting the inclined face of a drawbar hook and also after
coupling while the coupling is drawn tight the means for retaining the weight
or spring may be removed to allow the weight or spring to act upon the link
or links to lift the same for uncoupling on the vehicles being backed or pressed
together to move the front of the link or links back beyond the bite of the drawbar
hook or hooks.
Dated this 16th day of 1000
FREDERIC PRINCE,
Agent for Applicants.