Improvements in Manufacturing Railway & Tramway Rail Joints
Year: 1899

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in Manufacturing Railway & Tramway Rail Joints,
JOHN STANLEY HOLME Iron & Steel Merchant Southolme Villa Egremont
Liverpool do hereby declare the nature of this invention to be as follows:-
This invention relates to improvements in the manufacturing of railway &
tramway rail joints particularly to Holme & others system of jointing rails
without fish plates. According to Holme & others system which is the over-
lapping or cross-locking of the rail ends, the method of making these joints
has been by bending the rails back at the ends & then plaining away the
requisite amount of metal to make when the two ends are overlapped or joined
together the same width as the running & bottom surfaces or ordinary section
of rail, but by making this kind of joint in the above manner it has proved by
practice to be seriously detrimental to the steel inasmuch that by bending the
rail ends back & then plaining part of the metal away destroys the continuty
of the fibre consequently makes the rail ends or joints weak.
Now the object of this invention is to manufacture rail joints to Holme &
others system by hydraulic forging the rail ends & the metal to be displaced
being pressed back into the web & taper of the rail end thus enabling the weak
portion of the rail is the taper to be as strong as the ordinary section of
rail, as by this method of forging the rail ends, they undergo a considerable
contraction or rather compression thus the particles are brought into closer
& more intimate contact with a corresponding increase of tensile strength
ductility & compactness of surface which enables the rail ends also to resist the
same amount of heavy wear as the main rail
1000
"Improvements in Manufacturing Railway and Tramway Rail
Joints."
I JOHN STANLEY HOLME of Southholme Villa, Egremont en Liverpool and
of 4 South Parade Manchester in the County of Lancaster Iron and Steel
Merchant, 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 manufacturing railway rail or tramway rail, scarf,
or lap joints of the kind such for example as are described in Patents Nus.
17277/91, 11889/95 and 17664/99, that is to say those in which the joint is
produced by forming the two rails so that the joint between the two lateral

page_text: faces of the overlapping rails extend obliquely across the crown of the rail.
By means of this class of joint fish plates can be entirely dispensed with.
The method of making these joints has. hitherto been by bending the rails
laterally at the ends and then planing away the requisite amount of metal to
make, when the two ends are overlapped or jointed together, the same width as
the ordinary head or base of the rail. The making of this kind of joint in the
manner above described has been found in practice to be seriously detrimental
to the steel inasmuch as by bending the rail ends back, and then planing away
part of the metal, it destroys the continuity of the fibre and consequently makes
the rail ends or joints weak.
Now the object of the present invention is to manufacture rails with this
oblique form of scarf joint and at the same time avoid the objections commonly
arged against such joints, among which may be mentioned that they are
structurally weak owing to the planing away of the metal which destroys the
continuity of the metallic fibre and are costly to manufacture.
In carrying the invention into effect; I heat the rail ends, and then swage or
press the heated end portions of the rail between dies or swages so as to form
a lap or scarf joint. This is effected in a hydraulic press in such-a manner that
the web is obliquely deflected laterally at the ends of the rails which overlap
in forming the joint, and furthermore a part of the metal which is displaced
by the pressing is pressed into the web and taper of the rail end, thus thickening
and strengthening it. This enables what would otherwise be the weakest portion
of the rail, namely the taper, to be as strong as the ordinary section of rail, as
by my method of swaging or pressing the rail ends they undergo considerable
contraction or rather compression, and thus the particles are brought into closer
and more intimate contact, with a corresponding increase in tensile strength,
ductibility and compactness of surface and besides the parts so compressed are
reinforced by the addition of surplus metal pressed into it. This enables the
rail ends to resist the same amount of heavy wear as the other portion of the
rail. By this invention therefore the rail is made as strong or stronger at the
splice than at any other part instead of being weaker, and further I do away
entirely with separate fish plates as the securing bolts pass through slotted holes
in the webs of the overlapping rails. This imparts strength to the rail at the
splice, and each rail end is rigidly supported at the joint by the adjacent rail,
and thus the rails throughout the entire length of the permanent way mutually
support each other and provide a thoroughly smooth reliable track.
In the accompanying drawings-
Figure 1 is a general view of the swaging press (with dies removed) for
swaging or pressing the heated end portions of the rails;
Figure 2a general view of the dies for bull headed railway rails;
Figure 3 a cross section through these dies when in use taken on line g-h
of Figure 2 before being closed together;
Figure 4 the same shewing the dies closed together;
Figure 5 a perspective view of two railway rail ends after having been
pressed or swaged at ends to form the joint;
Figure a detail view of the dies for making tramway rails of standard
section;
Figure a view of these dies at end lettered c Figure 6 when closed together;
Figure S a similar view of the end lettered d;.
Figure 9 a perspective view of the ends of two tramway rails after having
been pressed or swaged at ends to form the joint.
Referring to these drawings, Figure 1 shows the hydraulic press such as may
be used for pressing or swaging the rail ends. The press illustrated in the
drawing is an hydraulic press in which A are the two cylinders, and B B¹ the
cross heads in which the dies are mounted and secured. The figure shows three
cross heads, one for holding the die acting on bottom of rail and two for
supporting the rail and acting upon its slides. One of these cross heads B' is

page_text: a fixture, and the other two B are movable by hydraulic rams in the cylinders A.
Though three dies are shown, it is obvious I do not confine myself to that
number, as one two or any other number may be used.
Figures 2, 3, and 4 show dies suitable for making railway rails of the bull-
head pattern. These are mounted in the cross heads of the press and secured by
passing bolts through holes B². They are so made and operate as to form the
rail ends shown in Figure 5, and not only deflect the web obliquely at the ends
but also compress the whole taper of the rail so that its particles are brought
into closer and more intimate contact, and further re-enforce the parts so com-
pressed by pressing thereinto surplus metal resulting from the pressing of the
rail ends into the scarf or splice. With this end in view, the dies are made
at D so as to fit the section of the rail required to be dealt with, and thus pre-
vent any escapement of metal at that end during the pressing, while at E the
two dies begin to obliquely deflect the web laterally so as to produce the oblique
splice e. The head and base are gradually tapered off to an S curve, and by
means of the projecting parts FF on the two dies, the head is completely
pressed off at extreme end of rails and spewed out at J as surplus metal In
railway rails, we generally provide two dies G Has shown in Fig. 2, namely,
one H for acting on the back of the rail, and G for acting on the other side.
Thus, it will be seen by reference to Fig. 2, that the part D fits the section of
the rail required to, be dealt with while the remainder of the dies deflect the
web and compress both the web and the head and base, so as to bring the
particles into closer and more intimate contact with corresponding increase of
tensile strength ductility and compactness of surface. Furthermore this press-
ing forces a part of the metal to flow forward and be pressed into the web and
taper of the rail so as to re-enforce them, and in fact make the overlapping
part thicker than the main web. Any surplus metal such as J is spewed
out at the gits or channels I and nipped off. The parts and I are so formed
as to press the head and base of the rail out through the gits leaving the part f
which is straight, and not oblique like the tapered part e, intact. Of course the
displacement gets less as you approach the other end of the dies at 1), the dis-
placement finally disappearing altogether. At this point the swages envelope
the rail. The rails when they are forged by the dies at one end are taken from
the press and the other end heated, and then forged at the opposite end. The
appearance of the rail ends when completed are set forth in Fig. 5 in which e
is the taper or re-enforced web obliquely deflected laterally out of line with the
main web so that the line of the web at this point does not follow the longi-
tudinal axis of the rail. The part f which is also re-enforced in thickness,
is in a different plane to the longitudinal axis of the rail, but parallel thereto.
In making tramway rails of standard section, I have found it desirable to
use three dies as shown in Figure 6 one 0 for acting on bottom of the rail, which
I prefer to forge head downwards and two P Q for supporting the rails and
for acting on its sides. The swage P is a fixture and the swages and Q which
are mounted in cross heads attached to hydraulic rams do the displacement of
the flange and the nipping off of the side that has to be removed. The dotted
lines in Figure show the way in which the swages come together into their
working positions. They are simply opened out in the manner indicated so
that the working face can be seen. The groove in the rail being out of the
centre, the tram rail will require right and left hand swages. Right and left
hand swages are also generally required in the case of railway rails. The arrows
show the direction of motion of the swages. The dies in this case also compress
the metal at the ends, thus bringing the metallic fibres into closer and more
intimate contact, at the same time causing the surplus metal to flow towards
the end so as to reinforce or thicken the overlapping parts of the web, any excess
of metal being spewed out by the dies and nipped off as surplus. The rail com-
pletely formed by these dies is shown in Figure 9. The dies may be so arranged
as to punch holes in the heated rail ends at the same time as they are being

page_text: pressed. This may be effected by forming projecting studs on one die pro-
jecting into holes on the opposite die.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of my said
invention and in what manner the same is to be performed, I declare that what
I claim is: :-
1. The improvement in making the scarf or splice joint of railway and tram-
way rails, which consists in swaging or pressing the re-heated end portions of
the rails in their entire cross section, substantially as described.
2. In the manufacture of scarf or splice joints or ends of railway or tramway
rails, swaging or pressing the heated end portions of the rails between dies so
as to compress the metallic fibres and bring the particles into closer and more
intimate contact, and at the same time reinforcing the parts so compressed, by
pressing thereinto the surplus metal resulting from the pressing of the rail ends
into the scarf or splice, any excess of metal being spewed out by the dies and
nipped off, substantially as described.
3. The use of apparatus for forging the scarf or splice joint ends of railway
and tramway rails, containing the arrangement of dies constructed (or formed)
and operating substantially as hereinbefore described with reference to and
shown in the drawings annexed.
Bat the 99th dor of Cantombo 1000
WM P THOMPSON & Co
Of Lord Street, Liverpool, Agents for the Applicant.