An Improved Construction of Railway and of Vehicles therefor.
Year: 1893

page_text: Date of Application, 20th Jan., 1893
Complete Specification Left, 18th Oct., 1893-Accepted, 18th Nov., 1893
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION.
An Improved Construction of Railway and of Vehicles therefor.
I, FRÉDÉRIC ENGEL-GROS, of Bâle, Switzerland, Manufacturer, do hereby
declare the nature of this invention to be as follows:-
My invention relates to an improved construction of railway and of vehicles
therefor, having mainly for its object the establishment of a continuous bridge like
structure of great strength and solidity supported on the ground, forming the
permanent way, on which run light vehicles travelling at a great speed. For
preventing the vehicles from running off the rails, either owing to the great speed,
or to the action of the wind, the structure of the permanent way is provided with
guard rails carried at a certain height above the main rails, and below the under-
side of which are provided auxiliary wheels on the vehicles, that are made to
revolve as nearly as possible with the same surface speed as the running wheels, so
that when brought in contact with such undersurface, owing to a slight canting
over of the vehicle, the auxiliary wheels will not cause any perceptible shock to
the motion.
The said guard wheels can be actuated in various ways for this purpose. The
simplest arrangement would be to allow them to rest freely with their rims upon
the upper part of the rims of the running wheels, either on a single one, or
between two bogie wheels; or they might run upon the axles of such wheels.
According to another arrangement they may be driven by bands cords or chains
from the axles of the running wheels.
The vehicles for this system of railways are by preference constructed as
follows. The body of the vehicle is supported by pivots upon a bogie frame at
each end, each bogie being in its turn mounted with a pivot upon the end of a
strong longitudinal beam that extends from the one bogie to the other, and which
bears with rollers upon a transverse bearer forming part of the bogie frame. The
ends of two carriages are coupled close together by a hinge joint, formed by fixing
a series of eyes on each carriage so as to fit one between the other, and then
passing a long pin through them, suitably secured by screw nuts at the ends.
The axles of the before mentioned guard wheels pass through the carriage body,
being suitably boxed in inside the latter.
The body is by preference made of reduced width at the lower part where it
fits between the upper guard rails, and the wider upper part of the body has
external side flanges projecting over the upper ends of the longitudinal bearers of
the permanent way structure, which flanges would come in contact with, and be
supported by such bearers in the event of an axle breaking.
For the same purpose, shoes are provided at the ends of the vehicles, held by
supports at a slight distance from the main rails, so that on the fracture of an
axle, such shoes would bear upon the rails.
The seats of the carriage are by preference mounted on swivels carried by
brackets fixed to the side walls, the widening of the upper part of the body being
made at such a height as to form internal longitudinal ledges serving as elbow
rests.
The locomotive engines are by preference constructed on the principle described
in the Specification to my Patent No. 9258 of 1888, that is to say, the engines
drive large drums round which are passed ropes or bands that impart motion to
comparatively small pullies on the axles of the driving wheels, so as to obtain a
very high speed of travel with a comparatively low speed of the drums.
As described in the said Specification there are provided at the underside of
the carriages a series of longitudinal pipes serving respectively for supplying

page_text: illuminating gas, steam or hot water for warming compressed air, and for containing
the electrical conductors for signalling.
The permanent way is by preference also otherwise constructed in a similar
manner to that described in the said Specification.
Dated this 20th day of January 1893.
ABEL & IMRAY,
Agents for the Applicant.
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
An Improved Construction of Railway and of Vehicles therefor.
I, FREDERIC ENGEL-GROS, of Bâle, Switzerland, Manufacturer, 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 :-
My invention relates to an improved construction of railway and of vehicles
therefor, having mainly for its object the establishment of a continuous bridge like
structure of great strength and solidity supported on the ground, forming the
permanent way, on which run light vehicles travelling at a great speed.
For preventing the vehicles from running off the rails, either owing to the great
speed, or to the action of the wind, the structure of the perinanent way is provided
with guard rails carried at a certain height above the main rails, and below the
underside of which are provided auxiliary wheels on the vehicles, that are made to
revolve as nearly as possible with the same surface speed as the running wheels, so
that when brought in contact with such undersurface owing to a slight canting over
of the vehicle, the auxiliary wheels will not cause any perceptible shock to the
motion.
The said guard wheels can be actuated in various ways for this purpose. The
simplest arrangement would be to allow them to rest freely with their rims upon
the upper part of the rims of the running wheels, either on a single one, or between
two bogie wheels; or they might run upon the axles of such wheels.
According to another arrangement they may be driven by bands cords or chains
from the axles of the running wheels.
On the accompanying drawings are shewn by way of example some of the
arrangements which may be employed for carrying out my said invention.
Fig. 1 shows a part longitudinal section of two railway vehicles with bogie trucks;
Fig. 2 shews a plan, and Figs. 3 and 4 cross sections.
Each of the bogies is mounted upon a pivot A fixed to the beam B extending
from the one bogie to the other, and which has two rollers CC that roll upon a
transverse bearer D fixed to the underframing of the vehicle thus affording a certain
amount of flexibility to the system.
Wheels E mounted on an axle F rest upon the running wheels G on each side of
the bogie, while the uppermost point of their periphery is situated at a slight
distance below the underside of the longitudinal counter rail H fixed on uprights
on each side of the line, forming part of the bridge like structure that extends on
the ground along the whole line, and on the bottom part of which the rails L are
fixed..
The wheels E being rotated by their frictional contact with the wheels G, the
axle F only serves to keep them at the proper distance apart, and need therefore
only be very slight; it is enclosed in a boxing I projecting up from the floor within
the body of the vehicle.
Shoes K are provided at the bottom of the underframing in front of and behind
the bogies, which shoes are at a slight distance from the rails L and which in the
event of an axle breaking will bear upon the rails and thus prevent the vehicle
from dropping.
The ends of two vehicles are coupled close together by a hinge joint formed by

page_text: fixing a series of eyes N on the one vehicle and another series N¹ on the other
vehicle so arranged as to fit between each other, and then passing a long pin M
through them, this being secured by screw nuts on each end."
Thus the whole train of carriages is rigidly connected together, the requisite
flexibility of the wheel base for passing round the curves being afforded by the
bogies.
The section at Fig. 4 shews the arrangement of the swivelling seats S.
The body is by preference made of reduced width at the lower part where it fits
between the guard rails H, and the wider upper part has external side flanges
projecting over the guard rails H, which flanges would come in contact with
these rails on the breaking of an axle, thus affording the vehicle an additional
support.
The ledges a formed by the wider upper part of the body next the seats serve as
elbow rests.
Fig. 5 shews a cross section of a vehicle serving as locomotive engine, being
constructed on the same principle as that described in my Patent No. 9258 of 1888,
that is to say, the motor engines on the vehicle drive large drums round which are
passed ropes or bands that impart motion to comparatively small pulleys on the
axles of the driving wheels, so as to obtain a very high rate of speed of travel with
a comparatively low rate of speed of the engine pistons.
As shewn at Fig. 4 the connecting beam B of the bogies serves to carry the gas
supply pipe g, hot water pipe h, compressed air pipe k and the electrical conductors /
required for the service of the train.
The longitudinal passage X at the top of the vehicle serves for conveying the
smoke from the locomotive engine to the rear end of the train.
Figs. 6 and 7 shew two arrangements whereby the upper guard wheels E are
rotated by transmission belts P from pulleys O on the running wheels G instead of
by frictional contact with the running wheels above described; Fig. 8 shews the
guard wheel E arranged directly above one of the running wheels G, instead of
between two of these as shewn in dotted lines at Fig. 1.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of this inven-
tion and in what manner the same is to be performed, I declare that what I
claim is :-
The herein described improved construction of rolling stock with bogies for
running at high speeds, wherein guard wheels driven either directly or indirectly
from the running wheels with the same surface speed are arranged immediately
underneath the elevated guard rails on the continuous bearers of the permanent way.
Dated this 17th day of October 1893.
ABEL & IMRAY,
Agents for the Applicant.