IMPROVEMENTS IN RAILWAY ROLLING STOCK AND IN PERMANENT WAY TO BE USED IN CONNECTION THERE- WITH.
Year: 1871

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Thomas James Smith, of the Firm of Robertson,
Brooman, and Company, of 166, Fleet Street, in the City of London,
Patent Agents, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN RAILWAY
ROLLING STOCK AND IN PERMANENT WAY TO BE USED IN CONNECTION THERE-
WITH. ."-A communication from abroad by John and Nicolas
Tiranoff and Alexis Kousakoff, of Saint Petersburgh, in the
Empire of Russia, Engineers.
Sealed the 18th May 1872, and dated the 22nd November 1871.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Thomas James Smith
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition,
on the 22nd November 1871
I, THOMAS JAMES SMITH, of the Firm of Robertson, Brooman, and
do
Company, of 166, Fleet Street, in the City of London, Patent Agents,
hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN

page_text: leaving the rails should the leading or other wheel strike against an
obstacle, or from other causes. By this last arrangement carriages of
great length can be used with economy and with perfect safety.
Ordinary bearing springs are fitted to the central portions of the front
and back bars to act as buffer springs, the fronts of them having rounded
cushions, so that if struck at an angle the blow is received the same as
if struck fore and aft, this arrangement also allowing the carriages to
follow the curve with facility, there being no side buffers to obstruct
their action. The draw bar is forked to embrace the spring so that the
pull is from the centre as is usual.
The lateral sliding frames if fitted to engines have the cylinders
attached to them, so that the wheels of this frame, which should be all
driving wheels, are used to propel the train.
The axles are divided midway of their length, and have protuberances
at parts of them, against the shoulders of which sectional pieces are
caused to bear to retain them in place, the shoulder pieces being held in
clips extending from end to end between the wheels, and are bolted
together at intervals. Portions of the half axles are tapered and the
spaces between the shoulder pieces are filled in or nearly so with wood,
a chamber only being left to hold oil or grease for lubricating purposes.
The shoulder pieces are in sections, and bite the axle more or less
according to the degree of pressure exerted by the tightening up of the
bolts. The half clips may have straps over their ends to strengthen
them at those parts.
The treading faces of the wheel tires, particularly those of driving
wheels, are formed with two inclines, one incline being formed to run
upon the rails for ordinary travelling, and the other for taking upon an
additional rail laid outside the inner rails of curves, so that the wheels on
the inner part of a curve bear upon the additional rail, which is above
the level of the ordinary rail at the curve, thus each wheel accomo-
dates itself to the track and the speed at which the train may be passing
over it without putting unnecessary strain upon the clip if the axle be a
divided one, or upon the axle should it be a complete one, without clips
like an ordinary axle.
The height of the additional rail and its distance from the ordinary
one being first adjusted or laid according to the radius of the curve.

page_text: Thus curves of any radii can be travelled over at very high speeds with
perfect safety, the ordinary guard rails which limit the speed at curves
being dispensed with. The flanges on the wheels may also be much
deeper than is usual.
The meeting ends of rails are laid upon a plate of iron recessed into a
length of timber placed longitudinally across transverse sleepers to
prevent the rail ends sinking under the weight of passing trains.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Thomas James Smith in the Great Seal Patent
Office on the 22nd May 1872.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, THOMAS
JAMES SMITH, of the Firm of Robertson, Brooman, and Company, of
166, Fleet Street, in the City of London, Patent Agents, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing-date-the-Twenty-second-day-of-November, in-
the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-one, in
the thirty-fifth year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and succes-
sors, give and grant unto me, the said Thomas James Smith, Her special
licence that I, the said Thomas James Smith, my executors, adminis-
trators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said Thomas James Smith,
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 ROLLING STOCK AND IN PERMANENT WAY TO BE
USED IN CONNECTION THEREWITH," (communicated to me from abroad by
John and Nicolas Tiranoff and Alexis Kousakoff, of Saint Petersburgh,
in the Empire of Russia, Engineers) upon the condition (amongst
others) that I, the said Thomas James Smith, my executors or adminis-
trators, 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

page_text: the case may be.
The bogie frames are provided with perch or swivel bolts, and in some
cases with rollers on the sides or tops, so that they can adjust themselves
to the curve or be adjusted to it by their attachment to through links
or link frames, which shift the front rear wheels and their frames to the
radius of the track, and thus prevent the carriage bearing the rails should
the leading or other wheels strike against an obstacle or from other causes.
By this last arrangement carriages of great length can be used with
economy and with perfect safety.
Ordinary bearing springs are fitted to the central portions of the front
and back bars to act as buffer springs, the fronts of them having rounded
cushions, so that if they struck at an angle the blow is received the same
as if struck fore and aft, this arrangement also allowing the carriages to
follow the curve with facility, there being no side buffers to obstruct their
acting. The draw bar is forked to embrace the spring, so that the pull
is from the centre, as is usual.
The lateral sliding frames if fitted to engines have the cylinders
attached to them, so that the wheels of the frame, which should be all
driving wheels, are used to propel the train.
The axles are divided midway of their length, and have protuberances
at parts of them, against the shoulders of which sectional pieces are
caused to bear to retain them in their place, the shoulder pieces being
held in clips extending from end to end between the wheels, and are bolted
together at intervals. Portions of the half axles are tapered, and the
spaces between the shoulder pieces are fitted in or nearly so with wood,
a chamber only being left to hold oil or grease for lubricating purposes.
The shoulder pieces are in sections, and bite the axle more or less
according to the degree of pressure exerted by the tightening up for the
bolts. The half clips may have straps over their ends to strengthen them
at those parts.
The treading faces of the wheel tires, particularly those of driving
wheels, are formed with two inclines, one incline being formed to run
upon the rails for ordinary travelling, and the other for taking upon an
additional rail laid outside the inner rails of curves, so that the wheels

page_text: on the inner part of a curve bear upon the additional rail, which is above
the level of the ordinary rail at the curve, thus each wheel accommo-
dates itself to the track and the speed at which the train may be passing
over it without putting unnecessary strain upon the clip if the axle be a
divided one, or upon the axle should it be a complete one without clips
like an ordinary axle
The meeting ends of rails are laid upon a plate of iron recessed into a
length of timber placed longitudinaly across transverse sleepers to
prevent the rail ends sinking under the weight of passing trains.
The annexed Drawings represent how it is proposed to carry this
Invention into effect. Figures 1 and 2 are respectively a plan and eleva-
tion of the frame of a railway carriage or truck, to which is fitted two
bogie frames A, B, carrying two wheels a, a, in each of them for support-
ing the ends of the carriage body, which can be placed upon them, the
central portion of the carriage body being supported by a lateral
sliding frame C, in which two other wheels. are arranged.
The bogie
frames are each provided with small rollers b, b, which bear against a
circular plate or ring, the motion being round the central pin or perch
bolt passed into the eye or socket c of the transverse stay rods or bars d.
From the inside faces of the frames A, B, and C other bars D spring;
those of the lateral sliding frame C have pins e, e, for engaging into the
forked ends of the end frame bars, so that they can adjust themselves
freely to the angle, to which they may be moved over by the curve of
the line, the pin also sliding in a slotted bar f is secured to the under
side of the carriage body, the ends of which are rigidly attached to the
same. By this means carriage bodies of any length can pass over the
sharpest of curves now in existence with facility, and in the construction
of new lines much sharper curves can be made, thus avoiding the great
expense hitherto incurred in purchasing land in unnecessary quantities

page_text: for curves. The lateral sliding frame is also provided with rollers g, g,
which bear against plates or transverse bars of the frame, so that when
the carriage is moving over a curve say of the radius shown by the full
lines the carriage body maintains itself in the position shown by the
1

page_text: side blow or thrust is received in the centre of the carriage instead of
upon the end corners, which in the case of the carriage being upon a
curve at the time has caused serious results.
According to this method the ordinary buffers are dispensed with, and
instead of employing four springs for buffing purposes two only are
employed, and these are arranged in a better position for resisting con-
cussions than those at the corners. The spring q is encircled by a fork r
of the draw bar 8, and the connection is made by a pin or bolt, which is
dropped into the eye at the end. The ordinary safety chains t, t, can be
used if required, but in most cases they will be unnecessary, the pull
and the coupling being so arranged as to obviate their use.
The travelling wheels may be of the ordinary description for this
system, or they may be of a special kind, such as are shown in
Figures 11, 12, and 13, these however being more intended for the
driving wheels of the engine as shown in Figures 7 and 8. The tread or
faces of these wheels are double inclined, that is to say, from the flange
to about the centre of the tread it is tapered to an inclination of 1 in 20
(which is the usual taper or inclination from the flange to the edge of
the rim). The portion from the centre to the edge is tapered to an
inclination of 1 in 9, the tread being of greater width, so that in passing
over curves the smaller diameter, that is from the centre to the edge of
the inner wheel, would run upon an additional rail placed at a higher
level for the purpose to allow for the difference in the surface to be
travelled over between the two wheels, which are upon the same axle,
thus giving to each wheel an actual duty to perform without its being a
drag, or being charged with work which belongs to another.
By this
means friction of wheels when passing curves is reduced to a minimum
and accidents from that cause entirely avoided.
The additional rail is placed upon the inner circle or radius of the
curve, and preferably upon a longitudinal sleeper as shewn in Figures 7
and 14, but that is not compulsory. The ends of the rails are supported
upon an iron plate recessed into a longitudinal sleeper, in all this
system the balk being arranged upon or dropped into the ordinary
transverse sleeper, as seen in Figure 15, for the purpose of preventing
5 the rail ends sinking under the pressure of a moving weight without

page_text: taking its neighboring rail end it, so as to present an even surface over
which the wheels can travel without striking the neighboring rail end,
which is the case in the existing plan. The balks preferred need only
bear upon two adjacent transverse sleepers as shown, so that should one
rail end sink down the other sinks down with it by the fish plate or
other attachment.
The axles proposed for this system are of the divided class, with the
inner ends meeting in the middle, and these are enclosed in two half
boxes or clips, with flanges for bolts as shown in Figures 16, 17, 18,
and 19, with collars u, u, at the centre and ends for embracing the
axles and bearing against the shoulders of projections arranged upon
them. The collars are maintained at their respective distances apart by
filling in pieces of timber, which are of tapered shape, to form channels
for holding oil or other lubricant, which can be admitted through holes
in the clips when desired. The timber and also the collars are in segments
for easy adjustment, and to admit of removals in case of repairs being
necessary. The clip sections are square shaped on their inner faces for
retaining the collars and timbers, which are similarly shaped on their
exterior, in position, the outside of the top half clips having flat surfaces
upon which the main frame of the carriage is supported, so that the
axles, or more properly speaking the half axles, can rotate without
imparting a corresponding motion to them, thus when the vehicle is
passing round a curve the friction is reduced to a minimum, because the
close fitting of the shoulders of these collars against projections on the
axles prevents any lateral play of one in the other. Strips of yarn are
fitted in the oil space which receive the lubricant from the boxes and
distribute it to all the fractional surfaces automatically and in proportion
to the speed at which the axles may be revolving. These axles and clips
are applicable to other vehicles besides those used upon railways, and
may be applied to tram cars and to ordinary carriages, whether they
have the ordinary locking or turning appliances fitted to them or
not.
It will be observed that the improvements herein-before referred to
relate to a new system of construction and action for the better working
of railway rolling stock, having the following special objects, videlicit,
reduction in first cost and greater safety in travelling, particularly when
wound AUTON

page_text: Claim is made to the several improvements herein-before described
and shown, having regard to the eight heads or divisions recited by way
of introduction at the commencement of this Specification.
In witness whereof, I, the said Thomas James Smith, have here-
unto set my hand and seal, Twenty-second day of May One
thousand eight hundred and seventy-two.