improvements in Fortable Car or Carriage Replacers.
Year: 1888

page_text: improvements in Fortable Car or Carriage Replacers.
I, HENRY HARRIS LAKE, of the firm of Haseltine, Lake & Co., Patent
Agents, 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 portable apparatus for replacing railway or tramway cars
or carriages upon the rails and is designed as an improvement upon the construction
shown in Letters Patent of the United States No. 364,091 bearing date May 31, 1887.
In using the portable frog or car replacer described in said Letters Patent it was ascer-
tained that while with flanged wheels the frog operated perfectly, such was not the
case with blind wheels, or wheels not having flanges, the wheels in this case being
compressed by and bound between the side-bars of the frog. The present invention
is intended to overcome this difficulty, and also to provide means for holding the frog
rigidly to the rail so as to prevent the rear end of the frog from tipping upwards as
the car is pushed upon the front end thereof.
In the accompanying drawing
Figure 1 is a plan view of a pair of frogs in position upon the rails of the track.
Figure 2 is a perspective view of one of the frogs or car replacers fastened to the
rail; and
Figure 3 a sectional view taken on line 3, 3 of Figure 1 looking in the direction of
the arrows.
A and B are two castings which, when united, forin my improved frog; Ca side-
bar upon such frog or car replacer for the purpose of directing the flanges of the
wheels on the car intended to be replaced toward the rails; D bolts or tongues for
fastening together the two parts of the frog; E a shoulder formed on the piece A ;
F F tongues on the two pieces of the frog or car replacer fitting into the recesses of
the rail; and G a piece of the rail to which the frog or car replacer is attached.
In constructing the improved frog or car replacer I make, by casting or forging,
the piece A, consisting of an archod bed or bridge piece adapted to fit over the rail
and a side bar projecting below the bridge piece so as to rest upon the ties and passing
DC27

page_text: backward and resting upon the top of the rail. On the upper surface of this casting
is formed a shoulder E which rises gradually from the surface of the bridge piece
until at its rearward end it reaches a height equal to that of the side bar. This
shoulder is formed directly over the rail and parallel thereto. At the sides of the
piece A are formed bolts or tongues which pass through mortices in the piece B and
are held in place by keys. The piece B is formed correspondingly to the same piece
in my above mentioned patent except that I omit the side-bar, formerly constructed
thereon, and make the piece of such a height that when the two sections of my frog
are fastened together the top of the piece B and the bridge of the piece A shall be
flush with one another. At the rearward end of the two pieces composing my frog 1
form shoulders or tongues adapted to fit into the grooves in the sides of the rail in
order to prevent the frog from tipping upward as the car strikes the forward end
thereof. This construction is shown in Figure 3 of the drawing. As the other details
of construction are plainly obvious from an inspection of the drawings, and differ in
no way from that applied for in my prior patent, any further description of them
here is considered unnecessary.
In operating my improved frog or car replacer the parts are detached from one
another placed at opposite sides of the rail and then fastened together again by means
of the tongues and mortices or in any other suitable manner. As the wheels of the
car, which it is desired to replace, strike the forward end of the frogs, or car replacers
they roll up the incline and the flanges, striking against the side-bars, are guided
thereby into their proper position on the inside of the rail, the tread of the wheel
meanwhile passing along up the side bar and down the incline on to the top of the
rail. When, as in the case of mogul engines what are known as blind wheels are
used, that is to say, wheels baving no flanges, the wheel passes in the same manner
up the crown of the frog or car replacer, and striking against the side-bar, is unable
to raise up on the same, and it would therefore become bound were it not that the
contact forces the wheel over upon the shoulder E up the gradual ascent of which it
rolls till it reaches the top, whence it passes readily on to the side-bar and thence on
the track.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of the said inven-
tion and in what manner the same is to be performed as communicated to me by
my foreign correspondent I declare that what 1 claim is :-
First A portable frog or car-replacer provided with a shoulder for raising blind-
wheels, substantially as described.
Second In a portable frog or car-replacer, the combination of piece A having
shoulder E with piece B secured thereto, substantially as described.
Third In a portable frog or car-replacer, the combination of piece A having
shoulder E and lug F with piece B having lug F', the lugs fitting into the grooves
in the sides of the rail and preventing the frog from tilting or tipping, substantially
as described.
Dated this 28th day of August 1888.