IMPROVEMENTS IN RAIL AND TRAMWAYS
Year: 1860

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by George Barclay Bruce and Andrew
Stein at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with their Petition,
on the 18th October 1860.
We, GEORGE BARCLAY BRUCE and ANDREW STEIN, both of 24, Great George
Street, Westminster, do hereby declare the nature of the Invention for
"IMPROVEMENTS IN RAIL AND TRAMWAYS," to be as follows:-
This Invention has for its object improvements in rail and tramways, and
the Invention is chiefly intended for cases where it is desired to lay down rail
and tramways on common roads, where carriages having wheels with plain
tyres as well as carriages having wheels with flanches are required to run, and
where the carriages having flanched wheels are to be drawn by horses or
other animals. The form or sections of the rail and tramways may be
varied, but it is preferred that the rails should be formed of such cross sections
that one part should form an edge rail suitable for flanched wheels to run on,
and another part should be flat or nearly so, and suitable for wheels having
plain tyres to run on. This Invention relates to the form of switches used
when constructing rail and tramways, and cousists in dispensing with the
moveable tongues usually employed when constructing rail and tramway
switches, and at the same time so forming a switch that the flanches of the
wheels will be caused to rise on and pass over the edge rail at the switch
when passing from one line of rails on to another. For these purposes,
where two edge rails of two different lines join at a sharp angle, and where a

page_text: flanched wheel is desired to pass from one rail to another, diverging therefrom,
the flanch on the inside of the wheel is inclined off from the rail (which is
formed with an incline on the inner side) as it comes near the point of the
diverging rail, and such point is also formed to an incline on its inner side, by
which the periphery of the wheel when it comes to the point of the diverging
rail will run on it, and this is aided by the form or transverse and longitudinal
section of the opposite rail, where the flanch of the opposite wheel meets
with an incline tendency to force the flanch of that wheel to descend, so that
the tread or periphery of its wheel will come on to the diverging rail, and pass
off the other rail. And the switch is so constructed that when a carriage is
moving in the opposite direction to that above supposed, the flanch of the
wheel, when moving towards the angle where the two rails first mentioned
come together in a sharp angle, the flanch rises up an incline, and is caused
to pass over the point or end of the diverging rail, and this wheel is insured
going correctly by means of a check rail on the opposite side, which prevents
the flanch of the opposite wheel departing to such an extent from the parallel
rail on which the opposite wheel is running as to prevent the tread or peri-
phery of that wheel passing off from its rail. By this arrangement a carriage
with flanched wheels may pass freely to and fro on the diverging line of rails,
but it is only intended to pass in one direction on the other line.
When it is desired that the form of the switches should be such as to admit
of a carriage with flanched wheels passing to and fro on both diverging lines
of rail or tramway as well as the line with which they are connected, the
forms or sections of the rails are different to what have been above described.
In this case one of a pair of rails which connect two lines of diverging rails or
tramways is at the switch so formed that it is discontinued as an edge rail, and
made wider at the same level as the top of the rail for a short distance, and
the corresponding rail of one of the diverging lines commences a short distance
from the end of the first-mentioned rail. Then the point or end of one of the
rails of one of the diverging lines comes nearly up to such rail, leaving a space
between it and the other sufficient for the passage of the flanch of a wheel
between them. The opposite rail of the pair, when it comes to the point
where the pair of rails joins two diverging lines, is bent or inclined outwards,
so as to form a continued line of rail, and opposite, where there is a space left
between the two rails, as above mentioned, there is a check rail, which
prevents the flanch of a wheel on that rail passing off to such an extent as to
cause the tread or periphery of its wheel to depart from the rail on which it
was previously running to such an extent as to get away from the end of the
rail where the diverging line commences. It should be stated that the portion

page_text: where there is a space between the end of one rail and the commencement of
another, and where the point of one of the rails of a diverging line joins such
space, such part is level with the upper surface of the rails, and the flanch of
a wheel passing in either direction rises to such space or surface by an incline,
and descends from such space or surface by another incline. By these means
a carriage having flanched wheels may pass freely in both directions, not only
on the diverging lines, but also on the line of rails which connect the two
diverging lines.