Improved Means of and Apparatus for Opening and Closing Sliding Doors of Railway Rolling Stock and other Vehicles.
Year: 1898

page_text: Date of Application, 4th Nov., 1898-Accepted, 25th Feb.,
1899
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
Improved Means of and Apparatus for Opening and Closing Sliding
Doors of Railway Rolling Stock and other Vehicles.
I, EMILE FREDERIC. LEMAIRE, of 111, Rue Peronnet Neuilly, sur Seine, France,
Advocate of the Court of Appeal, 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:-
My invention has for its object to obviate the inconvenience and uncertainty
in the opening and closing of doors of railway rolling stock and other vehicles,
and it consists mainly in substituting, for the ordinary hinged doors, sliding doors,
that are opened and closed automatically, by means to be presently described so
that the opening and the closing will be effected with certainty, and the doors
secured in whichever position they are brought. They are so arranged as to be
capable of being opened and closed either separately or simultaneously, by which
latter arrangement a great saving of time and labour at the stations is effected.
I will describe my said invention with reference to the accompanying drawings,
in which Fig. 1 shews a perspective view of part of a railway carriage with a
sliding door actuated by mechanism according to my invention. Fig. 2 shews,
an enlarged front elevation of one part of the operating mechanism, Fig. 3 shows a
front view of the hand lever for actuating the mechanism. Figs. 34 and 3 shew
details of the locking mechanism. Fig. 4 is a plan of Fig. 2. Fig. 5 is a side
view of the mechanism. Fig. 6 is an enlarged perspective view of a detail;
Fig. 7 a longitudinal section of the motor cylinder and piston, Fig. 8 a plan
thereof, Fig. 9 a diagrammatic plan of the general arrangement of the mechanism
for actuating all the doors simultaneously, whether for opening them on stopping
or for closing them on starting, Fig. 10 is a section of the valve 7. Each door A
is arranged to slide longitudinally on the outside of the compartment of the
vehicle; it rests upon two rollers B B¹, the axes of which are carried in slots b
in brackets a fixed to the door.
The rollers BB run with angular grooves upon an angle rail C fixed to the
carriage frame, while at the top of the door are provided horizontal rollers c
that run upon a trough shaped rail D that is covered by a moulding.
The opening and closing mechanism consists of an endless rope X passing round
the two pullies E and F, to which rope the door A is attached by the piece d
secured to the bracket a; on the same axis as the pulley E is fixed a toothed
wheel e gearing with a toothed rack f attached to the cable G Fig. 1, which passes
over a guide pulley g and is connected to the piston H (Fig. 7) of the motor
cylinder h fixed at the end of the carriage. In the arrangement shewn on the
drawing the said mechanism is supposed to be actuated by compressed air supplied
by the atmospheric brake apparatus of the train; any other motive power may
however be employed for acting upon the cable G and other parts of the
mechanism.
The rod of the toothed rack f which extends along the whole length of the
carriage, has its other end attached to another cable G¹ Fig. 1 passing over two
guide rollers g¹ q" and having suspended from it the counterweight 1.

page_text: A two-way cock I arranged as will be presently described allows the compressed
air to pass from a supply pipe to the cylinder h, so that the pressure will act on the
piston H in the direction of the arrow Fig. 1, and consequently also upon the rods J
and the cable G.
The rack-rod f will thereby be moved in the corresponding direction and will
effect the rotation of the wheel e and will consequently actuate the other parts of
the mechanism connected to the door so as to effect the opening thereof.
If now the cock I be turned so as to allow the pressure fluid to escape from the
cylinder so that there is no force acting on the piston H the counter weight P
acting at the opposite end of the rod f will cause this to move in the contrary
direction and consequently in also effecting the reverse motion of the other parts
of the mechanism will effect the closing of the door.
In whichever position the door is moved into, it requires to be secured by a
suitable locking device, for this purpose I employ the following arrangement.
For opening the door, the handle K carried by the framing at the side of the
door is moved upward into the position shewn by the dotted line in Fig. 3 thereby
turning the toothed pinion connected to its axis which pinion gears with the
rack forming part of the rod L; and this rod in being moved downward turns
the spindle M by means of the small forked lever arm m. The spindle M carries
a lever N which is connected to the plug of the cock I by the rod n and lever i,
so that the cock is thus turned to admit pressure fluid into the cylinder h by the
turning of handle K, and the piston H effects the opening of the door as described.
When the door is fully open the block d fixed to the door A and cable X (Fig. 6)
passes behind the pivotted spring latch o on an arm of the spindle M and in thus
preventing the cable from moving back, locks the door in the open position.
For closing the door the handle K is turned downwards into the horizontal position
shewn at Figs. 3 and 3* whereby M is turned so as to move o away from d, and
thus free the door, whereupon by the simultaneous turning of lever N the cock I is
turned into the position for discharging the pressure fluid, and the door will then
be closed by the balance weight. As shewn more clearly in the perspective view
at Fig. 3 and plan at Fig. 3, the door A has a pivotted spring catch Q Fig. 3
which as the door advances to the closed position bears with its inclined outer face
of the catch q on lever K, as indicated at Fig. 3, and consequently catch Q is
forced outward until it has passed the nose of q, whereupon the spring 1 forces
it into engagement with and thus locks the door in the closed position, so that
it is impossible to open the door from the outside, whether accidentally or other-
wise, without applying pressure to turn the handle K. The engaging surfaces of
the two catches and q are formed as circular arcs, struck from the centre of
axis a¹, so that on raising lever K as described the catch will be disengaged
from Q.
For enabling the opening and closing of the door to be effected from within the
compartment, the rod L is extended upward and provided with a second toothed
rack with which gears a pinion that can be turned by a handle K'.
Each door of the carriage is provided with the above described mechanism,
all the rack rods f being arranged in line and actuated by the cylinder h.
In order to effect the opening and closing all the doors of a train simultaneously,
I employ the arrangement shewn at Figure 9, the mechanism here shewn being
provided under cach carriage.
A main fluid pressure pipe 1 extending under all the carriages of the train,
communicates with a fluid pressure reservoir 2 through a branch pipe provided
with a check valve 3; the reservoir serves to supply press fluid to the motor
cylinders for actuating the doors.
The main pipe 1 is also connected by branches and check valves 4, 5 and 6 and a
four-way cock, with two cylinders 8 containing pistons 9 the rods 10 of which
act upon the plugs of the cocks I by means of a slotted connection II with a lever
arm on the cock. The one cylinder S actuates the doors on the one side of the
carriages and the other actuates those on the other side.

page_text: The four-way cock 7 has its plug connected by a lever 14, and spring rod 13
to a lever 12 having a fixed fulcrum on the carriage frame at r and connected at R
to any convenient part of the draw-bar frame of the carriage. When the train is
started the draw-bar frame of each carriage being shifted forward in position
relatively to the carriage frame which carries the before described operative
mechanisms, the lever 12 has a motion imparted to it whereby the plug of the
cock 7 is turned into the position shewn in full lines at Figure 9.
The valves 3, 4, 5 will then be opened by the pressure fluid and this will pass
both into the reservoir 2, and into the cylinders 8 on both sides of the pistons
which will thus remain in a middle position.
If at this movement the engine driver or guard opens a discharge valve on pipe 1
the valve 3 will be closed by the fluid pressure from the reservoir 2, which is
thus cut off.
The valves 4 and 5 will also be closed by the fluid pressure in the cylinders
and connecting pipes, while on the other hand the valve 6 will open, and the
pressure fluid will consequently escape from the front ends of the cylinders 8 into
pipe 1. The pistons 9 will consequently be forced forward by the fluid pressure
behind them, as indicated by the arrows. This motion being imparted to the
rod 10, 11, actuating the cock I that controls the door-opening and closing
mechanism as above described, it will follow that should any one of the doors be
open and consequently the lever of cock I be in a corresponding position, the
rod 10 will turn the lever and cock into the position for closing the said door,
this operation being effected on all the doors that may be open. When the train
stops, the draw-bar frame returns to its original position, and thereby turns by
means of levers 12 and 14 the cock 7 into a position in which the passages shewn
in dotted lines at Figure 9 are put in communication with the pipes leading to the
cylinders, as shewn in the section at Figure 10.
If now the discharge valve of pipe 1 be again opened, the valves 3, 4 and 5 will
again close, while 6 will open, but with this position of the cock 7 it will be
seen that the rear ends of the cylinders will have the fluid pressure exhausted
therefrom into pipe 1, while the fluid pressure will be retained in the front ends,
so that the pistons 9 and rods 10 will be moved in the opposite direction to the
arrows, and the levers of the cocks I will consequently be turned into the position
in which the motor cylinders receive pressure fluid for opening the doors.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of this
invention and in what manner the same is to be performed, I declare that what
I claim is:
1. In railway or tramway rolling stock and other vehicles having sliding doors,
the combination with the said doors of lower rollers B B with horizontal axes
having angular grooves running on a rail of angular section C, and upper rollers c
with vertical axes running in trough shaped rails D on the upper part of the
vehicle, substantially as described.
2. In railway or tramway rolling stock and other vehicles having sliding doors,
the mechanism for opening and closing the said doors consisting of the combination
of the cable X, pulleys E and F pinion and rack, e and f, cable G, piston I, for
effecting the opening, and the cable G¹ and counterweight P for effecting the
closing, substantially as described.
3. In combination with mechanism for opening and closing sliding doors such as
is referred to in the second claim, the mechanism for controlling the opening and
closing of the individual doors and for locking them in either position, consisting
of a handle K pinion k, rack 7 rod L, levers m and N cock I and locking devices o
and Q, arranged and operating substantially as described.
4. Mechanism for effecting the simultaneous opening and closing of all the
sliding doors of a train, consisting of the combination of a main pipe 1 for pressure
fluid supply, connected to a reservoir 2, valves 3, 4, 5, 6 cock 7 cylinder 8 and
piston rod 10 having a slotted connection II with the lever of the controlling

page_text: cock I, arranged and operating substantially as described with reference to
Figure 9 of the drawings.
5. The combination of sliding doors having supporting and guiding appliances,
such as are referred to in the first claim, with mechanism for opening and closing
the said doors, such as is referred to in the second claim, substantially as
described.
6. The combination of sliding doors having supporting and guiding appliances
such as are referred to in the first claim, with mechanisms for opening and closing
the said doors and for controlling the opening and closing thereof such as are
referred to in the second and third claims, substantially as described.
7. In railway and tramway rolling stock having sliding doors, the combination
of mechanism for supporting and guiding the doors, for effecting the opening and
closing thereof either separately or collectively and for controlling such opening
and closing, and for locking the doors in the open or closed position, arranged
and operating substantially as herein described with reference to the accompanying
drawings.
Dated thin 1th la of Nawanshan 1000
ABEL & IMRAY,
Agents for the Applicant.