IMPROVEMENTS IN RAILWAY CARRIAGES AND LOCOMOTIVE ENGINES
Year: 1861

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to William Johnson, of Little Malvern, in the County
of Worcester, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN RAILWAY CARRIAGES
AND LOCOMOTIVE ENGINES."
Sealed the 31st October 1861, and dated the 6th May 1861.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said William Johnson at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 6th
May 1861.
I, WILLIAM JOHNSON, of Little Malvern, in the County of Worcester, do
hereby declare the nature of the Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN RAILWAY
CARRIAGES AND LOCOMOTIVE ENGINES," to be as follows:-
This Invention has for its object improvements in railway carriages and
locomotive engines. In order that a railway carriage may be more suitable
for running on curves of railways the body of the carriage (whether it consists
of one long compartment or is divided into several compartments) is mounted
on two trucks or under carriages with suitable springs interposed between the
axletrees and the body of the carriage. Each of the two trucks or under
carriages is mounted on two or more pairs of wheels sufficiently near together
to admit of their travelling easily round the sharpest curve of the line of
railway where the carriage is to be used. The axles of the trucks or under
carriages may turn in bearings or boxes such as are now employed, or they

page_text: may revolve in long bearings of a length corresponding with the distance the
naves of a pair of wheels are apart, in which case the axle should only be
arranged to touch the long bearing at intervals, the space between the axle
and bearing being kept supplied with lubricating fluid. In addition to the
running flanged wheels of the two trucks or under carriages, I prefer to apply
two disc wheels on a suitable horizontal axis to each truck or under carriage
in such manner that these wheels may descend below the top surfaces of the
rails and come against their sides only, so that the disc wheels simply act as
guide wheels to aid the bearing wheels to retain the trucks or under carriages
correctly on the line of rails. By this arrangement of the trucks or under
carriages they will, by reason of their being of short length, more readily and
freely pass round curves than would be the case if a carriage with a like length
of body, and carried by a continuous unyielding frame, were used on the same
curves. The body of the carriage is connected at one of its ends to the end,
or near the end, of one of the trucks or under carriages by a vertical axis or
pivot, and the other end of the body is in like manner connected to one end
of the other truck or under carriage; the other ends of the two trucks or under
carriages are connected to each other in such manner as to admit of play or
independent movement of each truck or under carriage to the extent required
by the sharpest curves on the line of rails on which the carriage is to be used.
By this construction of railway carriages great flexibility will result in respect
to a train of carriages by reason of the use of trucks or under carriages, as
above explained; and it will be evident that whilst the trucks or under car-
riages are travelling on straight line all the axles will be parallel to each
other and at right angles to the rails; but when passing round a curve the
axles of the two trucks or under carriages of each railway carriage will no
longer be parallel, but they will assume lines more nearly radial from the
centre of the curve around which the railway carriage is moving. It is
preferred, that in place of the buffers being applied at or near the two sides of
each railway carriage, that there should only be one line of buffers in a train
of railway carriages, and that that line of buffers should be in the centre of the
carriages, and the carriages should at the same time be coupled up centrally
as at present by like couplings to those now used or by other couplings,
prefering such as will cause one carriage to be coupled to another by simply
moving the one carriage up to the other. In constructing locomotive engines,
in place of a long body there will be a long boiler supported by two trucks or
under carriages.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said William Johnson in the Great Seal Patent Office on the
6th November 1861.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, WILLIAM
JOHNSON, of Little Malvern, in the County of Worcester, send greeting..
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Sixth day of May, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and sixty-one, in the twenty-fourth year of Her reign,
did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said
William Johnson, Her special licence that I, the said William Johnson, my
executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said William
Johnson, my executors, administrators, and assigns, should at any time agree
with, and no others, from time to time and at all times thereafter during the
term therein expressed, should and lawfully might make, use, exercise, and
vend, within the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, the Channel
Islands, and Isle of Man, an Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN RAILWAY CAR-
RIAGES AND LOCOMOTIVE ENGINES," upon the condition (amongst others) that I,
the said William Johnson, my executors or administrators, by an instrument
in writing under my, or their, or one of their hands and seals, should particu-
larly describe and ascertain the nature of the said Invention, and in what
manner the same was to be performed, and cause the same to be filed in the
Great Seal Patent Office within six calendar months next and immediately
after the date of the said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said William Johnson, do hereby declare
the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be per-
formed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following
statement thereof, that is to say:-
This Invention has for its object improvements in railway carriages and
locomotive engines. In order that a railway carriage may be more suitable
for running on curves of railways the body of the carriage (whether it consists
of one long compartment or is divided into several compartments) is mounted
on two trucks, or under carriages with suitable springs interposed between the
axletrees and the body of the carriage. Each of the two trucks or under
carriages is mounted on two or more pairs of wheels sufficiently near together
to admit of their travelling easily round the sharpest curve of the line of
railway where the carriage is to be used. The axles of the trucks or under
carriages may turn in bearings or boxes, such as are now employed, or they
may revolve in long bearings of a length corresponding with the distance the

page_text: naves of a pair of wheels are apart, in which case the axle should only be
arranged to touch the long bearing at intervals, the space between the axle
and bearing being kept supplied with lubricating fluid. In addition to the
running flanged wheels of the two trucks or under carriages, I prefer to apply
two disc wheels on a suitable horizontal axis to each truck or under carriage
in such manner that these wheels may descend below the top surfaces of the
rails and come against their sides only, so that the disc wheels simply act as
guide wheels to aid the bearing wheels to retain the trucks or under carriages
correctly on the line of rails. By this arrangement of the trucks or under
carriages they will by reason of their being of short length moro readily and
freely pass round curves than would be the case if a carriage with a like
length of body, and carried by a continuous unyielding frame, were used on
the same curves. The body of the carriage is connected at one of its ends to
the end, or near the end, of one of the trucks or under carriages by a vertical
axis or pivot, and the other end of the body is in like manner connected to
one end of the other truck or under carriage; the other ends of the two trucks
or under carriages are connected to each other in such manner as to admit of
play or independent movement of each truck or under carriage to the extent
required by the sharpest curves on the line of rails on which the carriage is to
be used. By this construction of railway carriages great flexibility will result
in respect to a train of carriages by reason of the use of trucks or under
carriages, as above explained; and it will be evident that whilst the trucks or
under carriages are travelling on a straight line all the axles will be parallel
to each other and at right angles to the rails, but when passing round a curve
the axles of the two trucks or under carriages of each railway carriage will no
longer be parallel, but they will assume lines more nearly radial from the
centre of the curve around which the railway carriage is moving. It is pre-
ferred, that in place of the buffers being applied at or near the two sides of
each railway carriage, that there_should only be one line of buffers in a train
of railway carriages, and that that line of buffers should be in the centre of
the carriages, and the carriages should at the same time be coupled up
centrally, as at present, by like couplings to those now used or by other
couplings, preferring such as will cause one carriage to be coupled to another
by simply moving the one carriage up to the other. In constructing loco-
motive engines in place of a long body there will be a long boiler supported by
two trucks or under carriages.
Having thus stated the nature of.my Invention, I will proceed more fully to
describe the manner of performing the same.

page_text: Figure 1 shows a side elevation of a railway carriage, constructed according
to my Invention; Figure 2 shows a plan, the body being removed. In these
Figures the body of the carriage is divided into compartments, but, when
desired, the body may consist of one long compartment; Figure 3 shows a
longitudinal section of one of the trucks; Figure 4, a plan thereof; Figure 5
is a side view thereof; and Figure 6 is a transverse section thereof. In these
views the discs for keeping the wheels correctly on the rails are only applied
to one pair of wheels, and the other pair have the ordinary flanged tyre; this,
however, may be varied. And I would state that in the construction of the
trucks, and of the bodies of the carriages used therewith, the details may be
varied. In the arrangement shown the buffing apparatus is placed centrally
of the trucks, and only one line of buffers is used in place of two, as hereto-
fore, but, if preferred, two lines of buffers, one on each side of the carriages
of a train, may be used. I, however, prefer to use the single line of buffers
in the centre of a train of carriages.
The body A, A, of the railway carriage is in each case mounted on two
trucks B, B, and the two trucks are connected to the framing of the body by
pivots or axes C, so that the trucks may be independent one of the other, and
so that the axes of the wheel trucks may, when the carriage is running on a
straight line, be parallel with each other, and the axles of the wheels of one
truck may depart from their parallelism with the axles of the wheels of the
other truck; when the carriage is passing round a curve in a line of railway
the buffers between the two trucks of a carriage aiding to connect the action
of the two trucks, and, if desired, the two trucks may be further connected to
each other to control them, and prevent their separate action to an extent
beyond that necessary to the extent of the curves of the line of railway. The
coupling apparatus I prefer to be as heretofore, but applied to the framing of
the trucks. The construction of buffing apparatus I prefer to employ is that
shown in the Drawings, but the construction of the buffing apparatus may be
varied. It will be seen that in each truck two of the wheels D, D, have plain
tyres, and that there are two discs E on a horizontal axis F to retain the
wheels from getting off the rails. In the Figures of the Drawing above men-
tioned, these discs are of small diameter, but in place thereof discs of larger
diameter may be used on the axles of the running wheels of the trucks, as
shown at Figure 7, where the discs are of larger diameter than the running
wheels, and act as flanges to retain the plain tyred wheels on the rails. I
would, however, state that I do not claim separately the use of discs on axes

page_text: to act as flanges to retain the running wheels on the rails of a railway.
Figure 8 shows a Diagram indicating the manner in which I prefer to apply
my Invention to locomotive engines. In the Diagram each of the trucks is
shown to have engines: applied thereto, so that not only are the trucks inde-
pendent of each other, but they are each propelled by their own engines; but
the manner of, applying the engines to the two trucks on which the boiler of a
locomotive engine is mounted may be greatly varied.
Having thus described the nature of my Invention, and the manner of per-
forming the same, I would have it understood that I make no claim to any
of the separate mechanical parts; but what I claim is the combination of two
trucks with the body of a railway carriage, or two trucks in combination with
the boiler of a locomotive engine, as described.
In witness whereof, I, the said William Johnson, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Sixth day of November, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and sixty-one.
WILLIAM JOHNSON. (L.S.)