IMPROVEMENTS IN STEAM TRAMWAY CARS
Year: 1874

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Joseph Apsey, of No. 22, Waterloo Road, in the
County of Surrey, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN STEAM
TRAMWAY CARS."
Sealed the 10th November 1874, and dated the 3rd September 1874.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Joseph Apsey at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
3rd September 1874.
I, JOSEPH APSEY, of No. 22, Waterloo Road, in the County of Surrey,
do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN
STEAM TRAMWAY CARS," to be as follows:-
My Invention relates to the arrangement and construction of tramway
cars to be moved by steam power.
I make the body of the car, which is intended to contain the
passengers, a separate and independent casing which is laid and steadied
on a platform, such platform having the engines, boilers, and wheels-
attached to it, and thus I am enabled readily to remove the body from.

page_text: the platform, and to replace it on another platform in case of repairs
being required to the engines or their appurtenances.
On the platform at one corner thereof I fix a boiler, so placing it as
to leave room for passengers to pass it in entering or leaving the body
of the car at the end thereof. I prefer to make the platform with a box
girder extending along each side thereof, such box girders serving to
strengthen the platform and to act as water tanks, and being accomodated
under the longitudinal seats of the car. Under the platform I arrange
two four-wheeled bogies with their turning frames, and in order to
maintain the lubrication of these frames I prefer to make in their upper
faces circular recesses into which project circular ribs from the platform
above, these recesses retaining the oil with which they are charged to
From the
lubricate the rubbing faces of the projections and recesses.
turning frame of each of the bogies an arm projects towards the middle
part of vehicle. I mount a shaft longitudinally under the platform near
one side thereof, this shaft having at each end a bevil or worm wheel
engaged with a bevil pinion or worm on an upright spindle mounted at
each end of the platform, and provided with a hand wheel. In the
middle of the shaft I fix a chain wheel, and pass a chain round it and
round a loose wheel mounted at the other side of the platform, and this
chain has fixed upon it at suitable places stops, which can by turning
the shaft be brought to bear against the arms of the bogies so as to
cause them to turn a little in opposite directions, for the purpose of
steering the vehicle into a branch on either hand. The stops on the
chain are fixed at such a distance apart that the bogies have sufficient
freedom to accommodate themselves to ordinary curves without the
nécessity for moving them by the action of the chain.
On the under side of one of the bogies I fix a pair of engines working
cranks on the shaft of the one pair of the bogie wheels, and I couple the
other pair to these by connecting rods in the ordinary manner. In order
to allow for the turning of the bogie on its vertical axis I provide in this
axis a tubular trunnion with a packed joint, whereby the steam pipe
from the boiler which is fixed on the platform is made to communicate
with the cylinders of the engines on the moveable bogie. The waste
pipe from these cylinders may likewise be made to pass through a
trunnion joint, or as it is not subject to great pressure it may consist in
part of a flexible tube to allow for the movement of the bogie. Both of

page_text: the bogies may be provided with engines as described above, particularly
in cases where the road has steep gradients.
It may be readily understood that the construction and arrangement
above described are applicable to existing tramway cars, the bodies of
such cars being removed from their existing under framing and placed
on a platform or bogies in the manner set forth above.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Joseph Apsey in the Great Seal Patent Office on
the 27th February 1875.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JOSEPH
APSEY, of No. 22, Waterloo Road, in the County of Surrey, send
greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her.
Letters Patent, bearing date the Third day of September, in the
year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-four, in
the thirty-eighth year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and
successors, give and grant unto me, the said Joseph Apsey, Her
special license that I, the said Joseph Apsey, my executors, admini-
strators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said Joseph Apsey,
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 "IM-
PROVEMENTS IN STEAM TRAMWAY CARS," upon the condition (amongst others)
that I, the said Joseph Apsey, 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 Scal Patent Office within six
calendar months next and immediately after the date of the said Letters
Patent.
:

page_text: be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the
following statement thereof, reference being had to the accompanying
Sheets of Drawings, and to the figures and letters marked thereon, that
is to say :-
My Invention relates to the arrangement and construction of tramway
cars to be moved by steam power.
I make the body of the car, which is intended to contain the
passengers, a separate and independent casing which is laid and steadied
on a platform, such platform having the engines, boilers, and wheels
attached to it, and thus I am enabled readily to remove the body from
the platform, and to replace it on another platform in case of repairs
being required to the engines or their appurtenances.
On the platform at one corner thereof I fix a boiler, so placing it as
to leave room for passengers to pass it in entering or leaving the body
of the car at the end thereof. I prefer to make the platform with a box
girder extending along each side thereof, such box girder serving to
strengthen the platform and to act as water tanks, and being accomodated
under the longitudinal seats of the car. Under the platform I arrange
two four-wheeled bogies with their turning frames, and in order to
maintain the lubrication of these frames I prefer to make in their upper
faces circular recesses into which project circular ribs from the platform
above, these recesses retaining the oil with which they are charged to
lubricate the rubbing faces of the projections and recesses. From the
turning frame of each of the bogies an arm projects towards the middle
part of the vehicle. I mount a shaft longitudinally under the platform
near one side thereof, this shaft having at each end a bevil or worm
wheel engaged with a bevil pinion or worm on an upright spindle
mounted at each end of the platform, and provided with a hand wheel.
In the middle of the shaft I fix a chain wheel, and pass a chain round it
and round a loose wheel mounted at the other side of the platform, and
this chain has fixed upon it at suitable places stops which can by turning
the shaft be brought to bear against the arms of the bogies so as to
cause them to turn a little in opposite directions for the purpose of
steering the vehicle into a branch on either hand. The stops on the
chain are fixed at such a distance apart that the bogies have sufficient
freedom to accommodate themselves to ordinary curves without the
necessity for moving them by the action of the chain.

page_text: On the under side of one of the bogies I fix a pair of engines working
cranks on the shaft of the one pair of the bogie wheels, and I couple the
other pair to these by connecting rods in the ordinary manner. In order
to allow for the turning of the bogie on its vertical axis I provide in this
axis a tubular trunnion with a packed joint, whereby the steam pipe
from the boiler which is fixed on the platform is made to communicate
with the cylinders of the engines on the moveable bogie. The waste
pipe from these cylinders may likewise be made to pass through a
trunnion joint, or as it is not subject to great pressure it may consist in
part of a flexible tube to allow for the movement of the bogie. Both of
the bogies may be provided with engines as described above, particularly
in cases where the road has steep gradients.
It may be readily understood that the construction and arrangement
above described are applicable to existing tramway cars, the bodies of
such cars being removed from their existing under framing and placed
of a steam tramway car constructed according to my Invention; Fig. 3
shewing a plan below the body; Fig. 4, a transverse section of the engine
bogie; and Fig. 5, a longitudinal section of the same.
It will be seen on reference to Figs. 1 and 2 that on the platform
which carries the body of the car near one corner is placed the boiler B
shielded by a plate b, and that the steering shafts S and levers L for
stopping, starting, or reversing the engines project upwards at each end
of the platform under command of the driver. The two bogies, each
having four wheels, have cach an upper plate or frame T made with an
annular recess t, in which is fitted a grummet or ring projecting down
from the platform P, so that the bogies can be turned thereon. On the
one bogie is fixed the engines E which work the coupled driving
wheels W, W. The steam pipe for the engines passes through a central
boss C of the bogie frame with a stuffing box. The other bogie has also
four wheels W¹, W. Each bogic frame has an arm A and A¹ connected
to bell cranks M and M', which are worked by rods from cranks or
eccentrics N, N', on cross shafts connected by bevil gearing to the
steering shafts S.

page_text: Fig. 6 represents a part side view, and Fig. 7 a plan under the
platform of a car, having a modified arrangement of the wheels. In
this case the engine works four coupled wheels W, W, mounted on the
platform, and the other four wheels W¹, W₁, are mounted in pairs on
two bogie frames, one near each end of the platform, centred at X, X',
respectively. For steering these bogie frames are made with racks R
worked by pinions on the upright steering shafts S. The driver standing
at the front end of the platform steers the front pair of those wheels, the
other pair being left free to trail.
Having thus described the nature of my Invention, and in what
manner the same is to be performed, I claim the following improvements
in steam tramway cars,—
-
First. Providing a platform on which are mounted the boiler, engines,
and wheels independent of the body of the car which is placed upon it,
substantially in the manner and for the purposes herein set forth.
Second. Arranging the wheels on bogie frames mounted on the
under side of the platform above referred to, substantially as herein
described.
In witness whereof, I, the said Joseph Apsey, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, this Twenty-ninth day of January, in
the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-
five.