IMPROVEMENTS IN OR RELATING TO PORTABLE RAILWAYS
Year: 1883

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Ernest de Pass at the Office of the
Commissioners of Patents on the 9th January 1883. Communicated to him
from abroad by George Alfred Béliard, of 17 Boulevard Saint-Martin, Paris,
France
-
ERNEST DE PASS, of the Office for British and Foreign Patents, 68, Fleet Street,
in the City of London, Fellow of the Institute of Patent Agents, IMPROVEMENTS
IN OR RELATING TO PORTABLE RAILWAYS, Communicated to me from abroad
by George Alfred Béliard, of 17 Boulevard Saint-Martin, Paris, France,
This Invention has for its object a combination of arrangements, constituting a
complete system, for the laying down of a portable railway, permanently jointed
with the cross sleepers and the fish plates, so as to form straight or curved lines of
rail in one piece, which may be laid down and removed instantly, without recourse
to any accessory, such as pin or bolt.
I proceed to describe the principal parts of the system.
1. Fish plates.
These are of plate iron, or steel beaten out to shape and possess, in tho plane
perpendicular to the rail, an extension sufficiently great as not to be weakened in
a dangerous manner by the rivet hole, while the fish plates of rolled iron, hitherto
employed, constantly break in this hole, they being so much the inore weakened at
this point, by reason of the punching not being done under normal conditions, the
hole being small compared to the thickness, and large compared to the width.
With these new fish plates, if it be desired to retain the possibility of bolting
the rails, holes may be pierced, without affecting the solidity, sufficiently large for
the bolting to be done without difficulty, instead of employing bolts of an
exaggerated sinallness, for the purpose of obtaining the necessary play. These fish
plates of hammered plate metal may likewise bo of two principal forms. They
may have the foot underneath and above, or they may have it abovo only.
Whatever be the form chosen, the fish plates may be rivetted or bolted, and to
facilitate the connection of the adjoining rail the projecting parts may be either
inflected slightly, or widened out obliquely.
On each length of line it is also desirable to dispose the fish-plates in such
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page_text: manner, that in placing one's self at one end of the length, and looking at it, the
fishing is always on the same side, the right hand, for example, in order that the
different lengths may connect with each other indifferently in one direction or the
other, and that a like curve may serve for turning to the right, or to the left,
at will.
These fish plates have also the advantage of being suitable to the following
arrangement, which allows of tho exterior fish plate being rendered easy of
removal, in such manner that, a great length of line being laid down, any sectional
length may be disconnected, so as to interpose, in its place, a special piece, such as
a crossing, or turntable.
For such purpose, the exterior fish plates, instead of being furnished with
cylindrical holes have sufficiently clongated openings, and bolts with a specially
formed head, are employed.
6
The same result may be obtained with rivets not tightened up, and in this caso,
to effect disconnection, it is only requisite to cause the exterior fish plato to slide 1
back, by striking it with a hammer."
2. Cross sleepers.
These are of two types, both of which have a tendency to retain the particular
advantago which the usual inverted U-shaped cross sleepers possess, viz; that of
fixing the line in the ground, without the drawback arising from their unsuitable-
ness for stowage.
One system is more particularly applicable to lines destined to carry heavy loads;
to receive locomotives; to be laid down on ground of slight resistance; in fact, to
lines on which it is required, above all, that the maximum of stability should be
presented.
As the only means of insuring stability is to make the cross sleepers project
beyond the rails, and as theso sleepers are very disadvantageous for stowage, if
they are delivered all mounted, recourse is now had to a simple means of effecting
a final jointing on the spot, and of a solidity to withstand any test.
This means consists in delivering the rails with the foot pierced with recesses
corresponding to the spacing apart of the cross sleepers, and furnishing these
sleepers separately, but provided with flat pins of soft iron, driven hard in, and
thus becoming solid with them. The materials being at hand, the rails are placed
on the sleepers in such a way that the pins enter the recesses, and it is then
sufficient to open and beat down these pins with a hammer in order to obtain a
length of unchangeable form.
•
•
Instead of placing a pin on each side of the rail, a pin may be placed on one
side only (the inner side for example) in order to obtain greater solidity, and a
heel plate may be placed on the other side, or the heel plate may be placed
alternately on the outside and on the inside.
If found more convenient, the head of the pin to be hammered down, may be
placed underneath instead of above.
Also instead of employing the rolled cross sleeper in the form of an inverted U,
a specially shaped cross sleeper may be employed. This sleeper in the central
portion is reduced to a simple stay, but at each end the edges aro beaten down,
either so as to present only two lateral cheeks, the ends remaining open, or so as to
form a completely closed chamber, except towards the inside of the line.
With this last form, this cross sleeper produces the effect sought for in India
and Egypt with chairs.
In the second system, the cross sleepers do not project beyond the rails, either in
width or in height, and for purposes of stowage they may be packed together in
two lengths, so as to reduce, to a minimum, the space occupied.
The cross sleepers are kept flat at the two ends on which the rails are rivetted,
but in the central portion take the form of a box, with the concavity turned
downwards, flat bottom, and sides straight and thin, the section of which is that of
an inverted U, which is the most reasonable and most practical.

page_text: If the nature of the soil is favourable, which is most generally the case, the
ground remains imprisoned in the box, and is there compressed by a sort of
ramming, which may be assisted by hand, with the aid of any tool, but which is
necessarily and naturally effected according as the line sinks down in the ground,
before taking its definite seating.
Under these conditions, even with a non-projecting cross sleeper, a portion of the
results is obtained, which has been sought for on the great lines with chairs,
and is here completely realised with the cross sleepers above described.