Improvements in Buffer- and Draw-gear for Railway Vehicles.
Year: 1897

page_text: Date of Application, 25th June, 1897-Accepted, 21st Aug., 1897.
[Communicated from abroad by CHARLES MOULTON GOULD, of 66 Broadway, New York,
in the County and State of New York, United States of America, Vice President of
the Gould Coupler Company.]
Improvements in Buffer- and Draw-gear for Railway Vehicles.
I, HENRY HARRIS LAKE, of the Firm of Haseltine, Lake & Co., Patent Agents,
45 Southampton Buildings, in the County of Middlesex, 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:
This invention relates to a buffer gear of the kind described in the Specification of
my prior application for Patent No. 12,972 dated the 25th day of May 1897. The
chiaracteristic feature of that gear is the use of a central buffer or spring on the rear
side of the head stock, in connection with the continuous drawbar carrying an
automatic coupling and provided in rear of the head stock with a shoulder or abutment
which acts against the central buffer spring.
My present improvement has for its object to so.construct the gear as to relieve the
vehicle or wagon body from buffing strains and shocks and so that the semi-elliptical
springs employed in connection with the ordinary side buffers on the front side of the
head stock may be utilized in the improved gear.
In the accompanying drawing:-
:-
Figure 1 is a top plan view of the under frame of a goods waggon containing my
improved buffer gear.
Figure 2 is a longitudinal sectional elevation of one half of the under frame, on an
enlarged scale.
Like letters of reference refer to like part in both figures.
A is the head stook, A¹ the sole bars or side beams and A² the centre beams. Bis
the continuous drawbar having its two main sections connected at the middle of the
underframe by the customary cradle or yoke C, and D represents the usual draft springs
or cushions mounted on the drawbar sections between the end bars of the cradle and
the screw nuts e. Each main section of the drawbar terminates on the rear side of the
head stock and is provided with a bifurcated extension or pair of straps I arranged one
above the other and attached at their rear ends to the front end of the section by a
vertical pivot bolt g. These straps extend forwardly through openings formed in the head
stock, as shown in Figure 2, and between the projecting portions of these straps the
head H of the automatic coupling is arranged, the same being attached to the outer
ends of the straps, preferably by a vertical pivot bolt i so that the coupling is capable
of oscillating horizontally on the drawbar for insuring the interlocking of adjoining
couplings upon curves. The drawhead is yieldingly held in its central position by
forwardly converging spring followers or buffers jias in the construction shown and
described in my prior application hereinbefore referred to. The automatic conpling
may be of the same construction as that shown in said application or of any other
suitable construction.
KK are semi-elliptical buffer springs, preferably of the laminated type, which are
J

page_text: located transversely on the rear side of the head stocks, respectively, with their bowed
or convex sides facing the head stocks, and which pass through yokes or loops Li carried
by the drawbar. In the construction shown int tliet brawing, these loops are arranged
between the straps or extensions F, of the drawbar and are confined against
longitudinal movement between the front end of the drawbar sections B and blocks M
secured between the rear portions of said straps,
t
NN represent a pair of longitudinal thrust rods arranged on the inner sides of the
sole bars Al and guided loosely, in openings formed in the cross beams O of the
underframe. These thrust bars bear at their ends against the ends of the two
buffer springs K, as shown in Figure 1 and form movable abutments which transmit
the thrust of either spring to the other according as the buffing strain is exerted at..
one or the other end of the waggon. For example, if the coupling at. the right hand
end of the waggon is pushed inward by the coupling of an adjoining waggon,the
drawbar is moved in-the-same direction, thus deflecting or flattening the buffer
spring K at the saine end of the waggon. From the ends of this spring the thrust
is transmitted to the side rods N which latter slide.lengthwise on the underframe,and
in turn transmit the thrust to the buffer spring K at the left hand end of the waggon,,
thereby also straining the latter springs and causing the same to share the buffing.
strain with the first named spring.", As the entire draft end buffer gear consisting, of
the drawbar, the semi-elliptical springs carried thereby and the sliding rods or
abutments N is free to move independently of the under frame to a limited' extent,
the under 'frame is relieved from the strains and shocka received by the buffer
springs. The buffer springs are of the same!diniensions as the semi-elliptical springsr
employed with the ordinary-side buffers on the front side of the headstock, so that if
desired the old springs can be utilised as the buffer springs of my improved buffer
gear by simply applying them to the drawbar in a reversed position, in which case
the only additional parts required are the thrust rods N."
1 i
Having now particularly described and. ascertained. the nature of the said
invention and in what manner the
lanner the same is to be performed, as communicated to
me by my foreign correspondent, I'declare that what I clatin is heavista fal
ן
CORN wil stig touțitan ins
1. Transverse buffer springs arranged on the inner sides of the headstocks land
connected with the 'continuous drawbar, in-combination with sliding longitudinal
thrust rods arranged between the ends of the two springs so as to transmit the thrust.
from one spring to the other, substantially as set forth in abination with th
2. The transverse semi-elliptical buffer springs connected with the continuous draw
bar and arranged to face the headstock with the convex sides, in combination with the
loose longitudinal thrust rods guided on the underframe and interposed between the
ends of the two suringe ouhétantially as set forth
Dated this 25th day of June 1897
HASELTINE, LAKE & Co.,
45 Southampton Buildings, London, W.C., Agents for the Applicant.
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