IMPROVEMENTS IN THE PERMANENT WAY OF RAILWAYS
Year: 1880

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Samuel Lloyd at the Office of the
Commissioners of Patents on the 23rd September 1880.
SAMUEL LLOYD, of Birmingham, in the County of Warwick, Iron Master.
"IMPROVEMENTS IN THE PERMANENT WAY OF RAILWAYS."
My Invention has reference to the permanent way of railways in which iron or
steel sleepers are employed, and consists of the improvements herein after described,
whereby the jarring noise and tremulous motion attendant on the passage of a
train over the permanent way as ordinarily constructed are prevented or largely
diminished.
By my improvements the permanent way is otherwise improved as hereinafter
described.
I will describe my Invention in connection with a rail having a broad flanged
base. I make the chair in the form of a rectangular flat plate having at equi-
distant points on each side of its middle a vertical rib, the said ribs being at a
distance apart equal to the width of the flanged base of the rail. One of the said
ribs is turned inwards at top, so that the base of the rail may engage under the
turned in top. The chair is fixed to the sleeper by screw bolts and nuts, and the
base of the rail is fixed to the chair and sleeper by screw bolts and nuts. Between
the base of the rail and that part of the chair situated between the ribs described
I place a layer of vulcanized india rubber. The said layer consists of a piece of
vulcanized sheet india rubber of about from one quarter to one half an inch in
thickness, and of a size suitable to fit that part of the chair on which the base of
the rail is situated. The said layer of india rubber has holes for the screw bolts to
pass through. In fixing the rail to the chair the scrow nuts are screwed so tightly
on the screw bolts as to compress the india rubber and make a firin bearing for the
base of the rail. The spreading of the india rubber laterally is prevented by the
ribs on the chair.
When a train travels on rails connected with their sleepers according to my
Invention, it moves with great smoothness, and without the jarring noise and
motion which attend permanent ways with iron sleepers as ordinarily constructed.
Instead of placing the layer of india rubber between the base of the rail and the
chair, it may be placed between the chair and the sleeper, with nearly the same

page_text: effect. Or a layer of india rubber may be placed between the base of the rail and
the chair, and another layer of india rubber between the chair and the sleeper.
The cheeks of the chair may be made to extend along and support the web of
the rail on each side, the said checks terminating under the head of the rail. In
this case the chair is made preferably in two halves fixed to the sleeper.
When I employ chairs of this construction vulcanized india rubber is interposed
between the upper sides of the base of the rail and the opposed portions of the
chair in addition to the india rubber under the base of the rail.
In place of india rubber a fabric coated with india rubber or strong leather may
be substituted with nearly the same effect.
Although I have only described my Invention in connection with rails having a
broad flanged base, yet my Invention is equally applicable to the ordinary double
headed rail, and to rails of various sections. When applied to double headed rails,
my Invention prevents the indentation of the lower head of the rail by the chair.
My Invention is applicable to permanent ways having longitudinal sleepers as well
as to those having cross sleepors.
In addition to the advantages hereinbefore explained possessed by permanent
ways constructed according to my Invention the following advantages attend the
use of my Invention:-The compressed india rubber establishes a bearing between
the whole of that part of the chair which the rail bears upon and the base of the
rail, and the weight of a passing-train-is-distributed.over. a, surface very large in
comparison with the few points of contact between the base of the rail and the
-chair_when_the_metal_of_the rail and that of the chair are presented to each other.
Permanent ways constructed according to my Invention are more durable-than-
ordinary permanent ways, and permit-of-higher-spoeds_in_trains_travelling on
them.