Improvements in Suspended Vehicles of Elevated Railways.
Year: 1896

page_text: Date of Application, 26th Aug., 1896-Accepted, 24th Oct., 1898
COMPLETE DI PAJITOATION
[Communicated from abroad by EUGEN LANGEN'S ERBEN, of Werthstrasse 14,
Cologne, in the German Empire.]
Improvements in Suspended Vehicles of Elevated Railways.
1, CHARLES DENTON ABEL, of 28 Southampton Buildings, Chancery Lane,
in the County of London, Consulting Engineer and Chartered Patent Agent, do
hereby declare the nature of this invention and in what mauner the same is to be
performed to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following
statement:-
This invention relates to the construction of elevated railways with suspended
vehicles, in which guard rollers are made to bear against the underside of the rail,
Buch as were described in Patents Nos. 4189 of 1893, 5408 of 1895, and 10028.
of 1895.
The present invention relates to means whereby such guard rollers, instead of
being merely held up, to the rail without exerting pressure thereon, as was
heretofore the case, are pressed with slight spring pressure against the rail
whereby, while such pressure does not prevent the necessary lateral motion of the
rollers relatively to the rail which must occur when the carriage is deflected
laterally by considerable forces it is sufficient to prevent, or considerably reduce
minor oscillations such as are produced by the movement of persons within the
vehicle, and the like, and which, if occurring frequently, may be unpleasant to 'the
passengers. In combination with the said arrangement, there is also employed a
spring brake apparatus as I will describe with reference to the accompanying
drawings, in which
Figures 1, 2 and 3 shew one arrangement for the purpose. Figure 1 'being a
vertical section on line n-o Figure 3. Figure 2 a section on line p-g and Figure 3
a side view of so much of a vehicle as is required to explain the invention.
Figure 4 shews a section on line l-m.
Figure 5 which shews a side view of another arrangement with the brake device
alone.
In the constructions at Figures 1, 2 and 3 the guard rollere E are pressed
against the underside of the rail F by means of the springs J which in their turn
are pressed upward by the helical springs K, so that by drawing downwards the
rod L connected to the springs K, the pressure of the guard rollers against the
rails can be reduced. The upward pressure of the rollers being thus capable of
regulation, the extent to which the oscillations of the vehicle are controlled can
also be regulated.
The guard rollers E are here shewn of the construction described in Patent
No. 10028 of 1895 where, instead of forming the bottom of the rail, with a circular,
curvature on which the guard roller slides laterally as described in the previous
patents, the bottom of the rail is narrow and the guard roller is widened and
formed with a concave curved surface, so as to enable it to slide laterally over the
rail when the vehicle oscillates laterally. It will be seen therefore that although
the guard rollers are pressed to a certain extent against the rail, the suspended
vehicle is free to perform lateral oscillations produced by a certain force.
Between the springs J is placed a brake block M, which, when the rod L is not

page_text: pulled downwards is pressed by the springs K against the underside of the rail F..
This pressing of the brake block is independent of the adhesion-weight of the
vehicle; the brake power will be the greater the stronger the springs K are
made.
Preferably these springs are made so strong that when their action is not
restricted the brake block M, will be pressed with such force against the rail that
even under the most unfavourable couditions a sufficient brake action is obtained.
When no braking action is to take place the rod L is pulled downwards with
such force that the brake block M, does not bear at all against the rail. The
springs J, are in this case made of such strength, that on drawing the brake block
out of action the rollers E will still be pressed against the rail, and will only be
made to release the same on exerting a further pull upon the rod L.
The arrangement above described with reference to Figures 1 to 3 may be
applied with advantage not only to the motor vehicles, but also to passenger cars
that are drawn along by locomotives.
In the latter case, if the car is attached to the locomotive, and is to be trans-
ported thereby the rod L is so arranged as to bo subject to a pull of the locomotive
of such strength that the brake block is drawn out of action while the guard rollers
are still pressed upward, with the desired light pressure. Should the pull on the
rod L be lessened, an automatic application of the brake will take place so that if
the car is uncoupled from the locomotive or if the coupling between them should
break, a sufficiently powerful brake action would at once take place.
Figures 4 and 5 shew the same arrangement of the brake for goods vehicles ;
with these vehicles it is not necessary to reduce the lateral oscillations by pressing
the guard rollers against the rails, and the guard rollers can therefore be entirely
dispensed with and the running off the rails by the running wheels R can be insured
against by a suitable formation of the brake block.
In Figures 4 and 5 the brake block M, is pressed upwards against the underside
of the rail by means of the springs K. The withdrawal of the brake block is
effected by a pull on one of the rods L which act upon the brake block through
the elbow levers N. The connection of these vehicles with the locomotive engine is
just the same as described with reference to the passunger vehicles, so that in the
event of the breaking of a coupling, or on the locomotive becoming detached from
the vehicles the brake is put in action automatically.
In the above arrangements, the vehicles are otherwise constructed in any known
manner suitable for railways with suspended vehicles; the ruuning wheels R
support the body A of the vehicle by the bracket B.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of the said inven-
tion and in what manner the same is to be performed declare that what I
claim is-
1. In suspended vehicles of elevated railways the combination of guard rollers E
pressed against the underside of the rail by means of springs, such as J, a brake
block M, also pressed against the underside of the rail by springs K, which at the
eame time press the first named springs J upwards, the action of these parts being
controlled by a rod L in such manner that on exerting a certain pull upon the said
rod, the brake block is alone removed from the rail while on exerting a farther
pull the guard rollers are also more or less relieved of the spring pressure acting
upon them substantially as and for the purposes described.
2. In suspended vehicles of elevated railways, the combination of guard rollers E
pressed against the underside of the rail by moaus of blado springs such as J which
in their turn are pressed upward by helical springs such as K the pressure of which
can be controlled by means of a rod such as L whereby the degree of elastic
pressure of the wheels E against the rail can be accurately regulated substantially
as described.
3. In suspended vehicles of elevated railways, the use in lieu of or in combination
with guard rollers E, of brake blocks M with concave faces pressed upward against

page_text: the underside of the rail by means of springs K, such upward pressure being
controlled by rods L that are subjected to the pull exerted by the locomotive engine-
substantially as and for the purposes described.
Dated this 28th day of August 1896.
ABEL & IMRAY,
Agents for the Applicant.