Apparatus for Stopping Railway Trains by Action from a Distance.
Year: 1894

page_text: Date of Application, 16th Oct., 1894-Accepted, 24th Nov., 1894
Communicated from abroad by LA SOCIÉTÉ ANONYME PLETTERIJ, Voorheen
L. I. ENTHOVEN & CIE., of The Hague, Holland.]
Apparatus for Stopping Railway Trains by Action from
a Distance.
I, OLIVER IMRAY, of No. 28 Southampton Buildings, Chancery Lane, in the
County of London, Chartered Patent Agent, do hereby declare the nature of this
nvention and in what manner the same is to be performed to be particularly
escribed and ascertained in and by the following statement :-
This invention relates to apparatus by which an operator at a station or signal
cabin can cause the stoppage of a train at some part of the line where it might be
ansafe for the train to proceed. Trains to which the invention is applicable are
such as have their brakes worked pneumatically, either by compressed air or by
vacuum. Such a train has a pipe coupled from carriage to carriage and so connected
with the valve, reservoir, and cylinder on each brake carriage that, when the pipe
is anywhere opened to let compressed air out from it in the one case or to let air
into it in the other case, the brakes are put on.
Advantage is taken of this to effect the stoppage of a train, according to
this invention, in the following manner :--At some part of the line, where it is
desirable that a train should be stopped, there is arranged at each side of the line
a trigger or arm which, by means of wires or rods connecting it to a lever in a
signal cabin or at a station, can be raised into an upright position when it is desired
to stop a train, or can be lowered when the train is desired to pass without stopping.
This trigger or arm may be worked by a special pull or may be connected to a
On the locomotive is
signal pull, so as to be raised when the signal is at danger.
arranged a branch of the train pipe furnished with a cock which is normally kept
closed by a pawl, but which, when the pawl is withdrawn, is opened by a spring.
The pawl is attached to a lever which hangs from the locomotive in such a position
as to encounter the trigger above referred to when it is raised. This pawl lever is
however jointed in such a manner that, if the train is running in the one direction,
it simply yields without withdrawing the pawl, but when the train moves in the
other direction, the pawl is withdrawn. The cock is thereupon opened by the
spring, and the train pipe being thus put in communication with the atmosphere,
the brakes are put on, stopping the train.
Fig. 1 of the accompanying drawings is a side view of part of a locomotive with
the branch pipe, cock and pawl lever attached to it, and Fig. 1 shews these
attachments at the other side of the locomotive. Fig. 2 is an end view, and Figs. 3
and 4 are respectively side and front views, to an enlarged scale, of the branch pipe,
cock and pawl lever.
A is the branch from the train pipe furnished with the cock B, the lever of which
is strained by the spring C, but the plug of the cock is prevented from turning by a
pawl D catching against a shoulder on the cock lever. To the pawl a lever É is
connected by a stop joint such that E is free to move one way without affecting the
pawl, but when it is moved in the direction of the arrow e (Fig. 3) it withdraws the
pawl allowing the cock to be opened by the spring. At the part of the line where
the train may be required to stop, there is provided a rocking shaft S which crosses
the line and has fixed on it on each side of the line a trigger arm T which by means
of a chain or other pull P attached to a lever t can be raised to the position shewn
in Figs. 1 and 2 so as to be in the way of the lever E, or can be lowered so as to
clear of E.
The pull may be so arranged that by means of a weight or spring the trigger T is
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page_text: normally kept in the upright position and has to be pulled down, and, when the pull
is connected to a signal, it is so arranged that the trigger is held up when the signal
is at danger. As the train proceeds in the direction of the arrow Fig. 1 the
pawl lever on the one side, when it meets the trigger merely yields, but that on the
other side shewn in Fig. 1 being inverted, withdraws the trigger allowing the cock
to be opened by its spring, thus causing the brakes to be put on. By employing
cocks on both sides of the locomotive, their pawl levers being inverted, the one or
the other releases the cock according as the locomotive is turned or travelling in
the one direction or the other.
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 combination with the train pipe of pneumatic brake apparatus on a railway
train, a branch pipe, cock, spring aud pawl lever, and on the railway line a trigger
arm with a pull or other connection by which an operator at a distance can raise it
so as to act on the pawl lever, substantially as and for the purpose set forth.
2. The construction of the pawl lever with a stop joint such that it is free to move
in the one direction without releasing the pawl, but when moved in the other
direction it releases the pawl, substantially as described.
3. The duplication of branch pipe and parts connected thereto, and of the trigger
arm, so that the brake apparatus is acted on whichever way the locomotive is
turned or travels, substantially as described.
Dated this 16th day of October 1894.
ABEL & IMRAY,
Agents for the Applicant.