ENABLING RAILWAY TRUCKS CARRIAGES TO BE DRAWN BY HORSES OR TRACTION ENGINES ON COMMON ROADS, AND SO AS TO PREVENT THE NECESSITY OF LOADING AND UNLOADING AT RAILWAY STATIONS
Year: 1869

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Clement Tudway Swanston, of Holly House,
Twickenham, in the County of Middlesex, one of Her Majesty's
Counsel, for the Invention of "ENABLING RAILWAY TRUCKS
CARRIAGES TO BE DRAWN BY HORSES OR TRACTION ENGINES ON COMMON ROADS,
AND
SO AS TO PREVENT THE NECESSITY OF LOADING AND UNLOADING AT RAILWAY
STATIONS."
Sealed the 17th August 1869, and dated the 14th April 1869.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Clement Tudway
Swanston at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his
Petition, on the 14th April 1869.
I, CLEMENT TUDWAY SWANSTON, of Holly House, Twickenham, in the
County of Middlesex, one of Her Majesty's Counsel, do hereby declare
the nature of the said Invention for "ENABLING RAILWAY TRUCKS
CARRIAGES TO BE DRAWN BY HORSES OR TRACTION ENGINES ON COMMON ROADS, 50
AS TO PREVENT THE NECESSITY OF LOADING AND UNLOADING AT RAILWAY STATIONS,"
to be as follows:-

page_text: or trucks, and again by their unloading from the railway waggons,
vans, or trucks into road waggons or carts, and also the avoidance of
the inconvenience and in some cases serious personal injury caused to
passengers from not being able to enter the railway carriages except
at the station where they take the railway, and being obliged to quit
the carriage where their journey can no longer be continued on a
railway.
My Invention consists in interposing ordinary carriage lock gear
between the bottom of the railway truck or carriage and the under frame
of the railway truck or carriage, each set of lock gear being connected
with each axle and pair of wheels as in common road carriages.
It further consists in making a part of that under frame altogether
removable, and the rest of it rigid or capable of turning according
to which end of the truck is to be treated for the occasion as the
front, the front being rendered capable of turning, the rear remaining
rigid.
It further consists in affixing to elongated axles road wheels in
addition to or substitution for railway wheels outside the remaining
portions of the under frame, and in making the buffers removable.
The mechanical means which I employ are as follows:-
1. I construct between the body of the ordinary truck or carriage
used on railways and the under framing or buffer case two common
lock and bolt gear, such as is used in ordinary road waggons and
carriages, for enabling the axle of the fore wheels to turn or lock round,
each one of such locks or bolt gear being immediately above one of the
axles.
2. When the truck is to be used on the rail I fasten the bottom of the
truck to the under frame or buffer case by six bolts on each side, which
I should pass through the ends of cross iron plates firmly attached to
the truck's bottom, but projecting a little beyond the truck's sides.
The bolts are equidistant and pass through the under frame outside the
sides of the truck and thus fasten the truck and under frame rigidly.
together, but leaving a space between them partly occupied by the two
lock gears.
3. I extend the axles and make the grease boxes removable. The
axles are fitted to receive a common road wheel outside each railway

page_text: wheel fastened by common pins or any other known contrivance. The
road wheels are a little larger than the rail wheels.
4. The buffer head is made to unscrew so that the buffer can be
drawn out, and I make the centre of the under frame removable (for
about one-third of its entire length) by removing the two most central
of the six bolts.
5. I make the buffer cases suitable to receive shafts to be fixed on
by pins in the ordinary way.
When it is desired to take the truck off the rail it is necessary (first)
to take off the grease boxes and to fasten the four road wheels on the four
ends of the axles; (secondly), to unscrew the buffer heads and draw out
the buffers; (thirdly), to take out four of the six bolts on each side,
consequently removing the centre piece of the under frame and enabling
one axle and pair of wheels to turn; (fourthly), to attach the shafts to
the buffer ends when the bolts are withdrawn, or if the carriage is
to be drawn not by horses but by traction engines instead of shafts to
couple the carriage to the enre in the ordinary way. Thus the railway
truck or carriage becomes a waggon or carriage, and by exactly
reversing the operations it is reconverted into the railway truck or
carriage.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Clement Tudway Swanston in the Great Seal
Patent Office on the 25th August 1869.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, CLEMENT
TUDWAY SWANSTON, of Holly House, Twickenham, in the County of
Middlesex, one of Her Majesty's Counsel, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Fourteenth day of April, in the year
of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-nine, in the thirty-
first year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors,
give and grant unto me, the said Clement Tudway Swanston, Her special
licence that I, the said Clement Tudway Swanston, my executors, admi-
nistrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said Clement Tudway
Swanston, my executors, administrators, and assigns, should at any

page_text: 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 "ENABLING RAILWAY TRUCKS AND CARRIAGES TO BE DRAWN BY
HORSES OR TRACTION ENGINES ON COMMON ROADS, SO AS TO PREVENT THE NECESSITY
OF LOADING AND UNLOADING AT RAILWAY STATIONS," upon the condition
(amongst others) that I, the said Clement Tudway Swanston, my
executors or administrators, by an instrument in writing under my,
or their, or one of their hands and seals, should particularly 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 Clement Tudway Swanston, do
hereby declare the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner
the same is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascer-
tained in and by the following statement, that is to say :-
The Invention is intended to avoid the expense and delay caused by
the loading of goods from road waggons or carts into railway waggons,
vans, or trucks, and again their unloading from the railway waggons,
vans, or trucks into road waggons or carts, and also to avoid the incon-
venience and sometimes personal injury caused to passengers from not
being able to enter the railway carriages except at the stations where
they take the railway, and being obliged to quit the carriage where their
journey can no longer be continued on a railway.
The Invention consists in interposing ordinary carriage lock gear
between the bottom of the railway truck or carriage and the under frame
of the railway truck or carriage, each set of lock gear being connected
with each axle and pair of wheels as in common road carriages and
waggons.
It further consists in making a part of that under frame altogether
removeable, and the rest of it rigid or capable of turning according to
which end of the truck is to be treated for the occasion as the front, the
front being rendered capable of turning, the rear remaining rigid.
It further consists in affixing road wheels to the axles, which are when
necessary elongated, such road wheels being in addition to or substituted
for railway wheels; and when in addition to the railway wheels the road

page_text: wheels are affixed outside the remaining portions of the under frame,
when the road wheels are in substitution for the railway wheels, the road
wheels and their axle are placed in the same place as the railway wheels
and their axle. I also make the buffers removeable.
The mechanical means employed are as follows:-I construct between
the body of the ordinary truck or carriage used on railways and the
under framing or buffer case two common lock and bolt gear, such as is
used in ordinary road waggons and carriages, for enabling the axle of
the fore wheels to turn or lock round, each of such locks or bolt gear
being immediately above one of the axles. In cases where the same end
is always to be the front the lock gear need only be complete at one end,
but at the other there may be merely the framework of the lock gear
(though not capable of turning) in order to make the carriage even.
When the truck or carriage is to be used on the railroad, and the under
frame is retained entire, I fasten the bottom of the truck or carriage to
the under frame or buffer case by six bolts on each side, which should
pass through the ends of cross iron plates firmly attached to the bottom
of the truck or carriage, but made to project a few inches beyond the
sides of the truck or carriage. These bolts are equidistant, and pass
through the under frame or buffer case outside the sides of the truck or
carriage, and thus fasten the truck and the.under frame rigidly together,
but leaving a space between them partly occupied by the two lock gears,
but which lock gears will not be able to turn while the bolts on each side
are fastened.
When I put on the road wheels in addition to the rail wheels I extend
the axles and make the grease boxes capable of removal. The axles are
made capable of having fastened to them outside the railway wheels and
other existing gear four common road wheels (one outside each railway
wheel), the road wheels to be fastened by common pins or any other
mode in which road wheels are ordinarily fastened on waggon or carriage
axles. The road wheels in this case are best made a few inches larger in
diameter than the railway wheels.
When I put the road wheels on in substitution for the rail wheels I
unscrew the two bolts at the bottom of the axle guard, and place a
screw jack under the end of the truck, leaving the wheels and grease
boxes on the ground. I roll the wheels back to the middle of the truck,
and lift them and their axle and grease boxes out at the side. I put the
road wheels and axle and grease boxes on in the same way, viz. from the

page_text: side, roll them up to their place, let down the truck guiding the axle
guards in the grooves in the grease boxes, and refix the bolts in the
bottom of the guards. In making this change I prefer to substitute
lighter grease boxes for the road work, but the same grease boxes will
do for both road and rail. The same process is performed with the
wheels and axle at the other end of the truck. I make the buffer cases
at the end suitable to receive shafts to be fixed on by pins in the
ordinary way, and I in some cases (but not necessarily for the adoption
of my Invention) alter the construction of the buffer, as more particularly
described afterwards.
When it is desired to take the railway truck or carriage off the rail
what is necessary is to take off the grease boxes and to fasten the four
road wheels with (if desired) lighter grease boxes on the four ends of the
axles, or to jack up the truck and substitute the four road wheels, the
axles, and grease boxes for the four rail wheels, axles, and grease boxes;
to unscrew the buffer heads and draw the buffers out, or otherwise
detach them according to the construction of the buffer; in each case to
take out four of the six bolts on each side of the body of the truck and
framework, consequently removing the centre piece of the under frame
or buffer case, and enabling one axle and pair of wheels to turn; to
attach the shafts to the buffer cases at the end which is to be the front,
or if the carriage is to be drawn not by horses but by traction engine
instead of shafts to couple the carriage to the engine in the ordinary
way. Thus the railway truck or carriage becomes a road waggon or
carriage, and by exactly the converse process it is reconverted into a
railway truck.
Referring to the accompanying Sheet of Drawings I now proceed to
explain them.
Figure 1 shows a side elevation of a railway waggon; Figure 2 shows
an under view of one-third of the framework of the waggon with the
road wheels put on by way of addition to the railway wheels; Figure 3
shows the same when the road wheels are put on by way of substitution
for the railway wheels; Figure 4 shows an under view of two-thirds of
the framework of the waggon as usually made; Figure 5 shows the
arrangement of the under frame of the waggon after fitting on the lock
gear; Figure 6 shows an improved buffer; Figure 7 shows the under
framework of the waggon äs fitted with this improved buffer.

page_text: Figure 1 is drawn so as to show the two alternative plans by which I
affix road wheels. The wheel E represents the outside road wheel fixed
on an elongated axle, leaving the railway wheel and axle unaffected.
This plan is convenient where the railway truck has to go but a short
distance on the road, but where the distance is longer and lightness
becomes of importance it is preferable to affix road wheels as represented
in F, where the axle guard bolts have been unscrewed, the end of the
truck jacked up, and the road wheels, axle, and grease boxes placed in
lieu of those used on the railway, and the axle guard bolts secured
again. The plates and bolts A, B, C, D, represent the four plates and
bolts on each side, which are fastened when the truck is on the rail,
while when it is on the road two at least are unfastened.
Also when the
truck is on the rail the part of the under frame G to H can, if it is
thought to make the carriage more secure, be restored and fastened by
two similar plates and bolts to those marked A, B, C, D, but the centre
part of the under frame may be, if preferred, left out altogether.
Figure represents the under part of two-thirds of the framework of a
truck as at present made. The centre part of the framework, which is
the part I remove while the truck is on the road (and which I prefer to
omit also when the truck is on the railway), contains the buffer springs,
the buffers being made to unscrew at the four points x, x, x, x, so
that they can be drawn out while the buffer springs are removed. There
are two alternative contrivances, however, by which this can be sim-
plified, and which (not claiming them as any part of my Invention for
which I claim protection) I mention here; one is shown in Figures 4.
and 5. In these I put one buffer in each end segment of the under
frame, so that the centre part of the under frame can be removed with-
out interfering with the buffers at all. The other is shewn in Figure 6
and 7, where I put buffers with spiral springs, which are much lighter
than the present style of buffers. I do not claim as part of my Invention
for which I seek protection any special construction of the buffers or of
the body of the truck.
The Invention is applicable to all kinds of railway waggons, trucks,
and carriages, whether the door or place for putting in goods or
passengers is at the side or behind, and whether the truck is made as at
present like a heavy box, or with light open trellis work sides, or in any
other shape.
I in no way limit myself to the arrangements for carrying
my Invention into practice herein-before described, as
these may

page_text: obviously be greatly varied without departing from the essential feature
of my Invention, whereby a slight alteration of the under gear of a
railway waggon or carriage renders it capable of being drawn on common
roads.
In witness whereof, I, the said Clement Tudway Swanston have
hereunto set my hand and seal, this Twenty-fifth day of August
in the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-
nine.
CLEM. T. SWANSTON. (L.S.)