Improvements in Tramways or Railways and in Rolling Stock therefor.
Year: 1889

page_text: Date of Application, 18th June, 1889
Complete Specification Left, 16th Apr., 1890-Accepted, 17th May, 1890
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in Tramways or Railways and in Rolling Stock
therefor.
I, CARL ZIPERNOWSKI, of Budapest, in the Kingdom of Hungary, Engineer, do
hereby declare the nature of this invention to be as follows:-
The attempts to introduce a cheaper and more simple device for tramways or
railways instead of the lines with horizontal track which have so far almost
exclusively been brought into use, have led to the construction of the well known
roads with a single set of tracks, with elevated rail and hanging vehicles. Although
by this construction the breaking up of the roadway is limited to those points
where the supporting pillars have to be erected, and though the costs are therefore
somewhat diminished, it must still be kept in mind that the numerous pillars which
this construction requires are a very disagreeable hindrance to the traffic in the
streets, and will eventually have an unfavorable influence upon the general
appearance thereof.
My invention has for its object to do away practically with all obstruction of the
roadway, and it consists in the construction of tramways or railways in which the
supporting structure is situated more or less entirely underground, the track being
arranged in what may be termed a "vertical position" within a channel formed
below the roadway, the only part of the track appearing on the surface of the latter
being a longitudinal slot communicating with the said channel, the edge or edges
of which slot may or may not be formed by a single or double bearing rail for the
wheels of the vehicles to run upon, when these are arranged above the roadway.
The construction of the track according to this system may be greatly varied;
thus according to one arrangement the vehicles run with wheels inclined in opposite
directions and situated centrally under the vehicle, either upon two rails forming
the edges of the before mentioned slot, or upon the two sides of a single rail on
the one edge of the slot, while from the middle of the vehicle one or more strong
arms pass down through the slot into the channel formed below, within which are
fixed guide rails, or a single guide rail, against which run one or more wheels or
rollers carried on vertical axes fixed to the said arm or arms. The arrangement of
these guide rails and wheels or rollers may be variously modified; thus there may
be two guide rails fixed on opposite sides of the channel and the arm of the vehicle
may be provided with wheels of a diameter about equal to the distance between
the bearing surfaces of the rails, so as to bear against the one or the other of these,
according to the strain put upon the arm by the unequal loading of the vehicle.
From the above arrangement it will be seen, that if the load of the vehicle is pre-
fectly balanced relatively to the obliquely placed running wheels, the vehicle will
run upon these without putting any strain upon the vertical arm and guide wheels
and rails below, but according as the load. is greater on the one side of the vehicle
or the other, the arm with its guide wheels, will bear against the one guide rail
or the other, and thus this rail, together with the bearing rail or rails upon which
"
vertical track as
the oblique wheels run will constitute what may be termed a
66
distinguished from the ordinary horizontal track. The said guide rails can either
be fixed to frames built into the masonry of the channel at suitable distances apart,
or they may be framed together with or formed on a downward extension of the
upper bearing rail or rails, in which case there may be a continuous web extend-
ing from the bearing rail or rails down through the slot to the level of the guide
rails, which are formed or fixed on the said web or 'webs, the latter being secured
to suitable transverse frames.
With this arrangement the guide rails may either be situated at one and the

page_text: same level and be fixed or formed on opposite faces of the two webs, when such are
used or on the opposite sides of one and the same web, when only one is employed,
the arm of the vehicle being provided with a crosshead at its lower end on which
are mounted the wheels or rollers that bear against the guide rails. Or the guide
rollers may be mounted one above the other on the vertical arm of the vehicle,
and the guide rails be arranged at correspondingly different levels.
According to another arrangement, the obliquely placed bearing wheels, instead
of being carried by the vehicle so as 'to run upon rails above ground, as described,
are carried within the channel at the lower end of the vertical arm or arms, of the
vehicle, and run upon either a single rail or on double rails at the bottom of the
channel, the guide rails and guide wheels being in this case arranged above the
bearing wheels.
The motors for propelling the rolling stock on tramways of the above construction
may be of any known kind, such as draught, animals, electric motors or other
motor engines mounted below the floor or above the roof of the vehicles, and driving
the bearing wheels, locomotive engines attached to the vehicles, or rope or other
traction contained within the channel and actuated by motor engines at the end
stations.
For the crossings and branch lines of the above described system of tramways or
railways I construct both the bearing rails as also the guide rails with suitable
crossings and switches, the moveable parts being actuated either by hand or auto-
matically, as will be more fully explained in my Complete Specification.
Dated this 18th day of June 1889
ABEL & IMRAY,
Agents for the Applicant.
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in Tramways or Railways and in Rolling Stock
therefor.
I, CARL ZIPERNOWSKI, of Budapest, in the Kingdom of Hungary, Engineer, 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:
The attempts to introduce a cheaper and more simple device for street and other
railways in place of the usual lines with horizontal tracks--that is, parallel rails at
a considerable distance apart in the same horizontal plane-have fed to the con-
struction of the well-known roads with single elevated rail-tracks and hanging
vehicles. Although by this construction the breaking up of the pavement is limited
to those points where the supporting-pillars have to be mounted, and though the
cost is therefore somewhat diminished, nevertheless the numerous pillars which
this construction requires are a hindrance to traffic in the streets, in addition to
spoiling the appearance of the latter.
The present invention has for its object the construction of a street or other
railway with vertical track, having no supporting constructions above the street-
level at all, and of a width which is, with normal vehicles, much less than with
any tramway with a horizontal track of the narrowest gauge. In the street-level
there are
only to be seen the head of a single rail or the heads of a pair of parallel
rails close together, and a narrow slot in the ground along the line of rails. The
principle of this tramway is that all the wheels upon which the weight of the
vehicle rests, run upon one line or upon two lines, whose distance apart is, how-
ever, so small that the stability of the car is not secured by it. The vehicle receives
stability by means of suitable parts of construction bearing against leading or
guiding side tracks, which are arranged below the line of rails upon which the
vehicle runs. It is for this reason that I speak of my invention as a tramway
with "vertical track," the track-rails and guiding-rails being vertically one over
the other or nearly so, instead of the ordinary arrangement of a pair of rails arranged

page_text: in the same horizontal plane. These guiding rails are always placed within a suit-
ably constructed conduit or channel below the street level into which the said parts
of the under frame of the vehicle project through the above mentioned slot.
In the accompanying drawings Figure 1 is a side view partly in section of a
railway and vehicle in accordance with my invention. Fig. 2 is an end view with
the conduit and rails in section. Fig. 3 is a cross sectional elevation through the
vehicle and conduit; and Figs. 4 to 10 inclusive are views of modifications, by which
however the number of possible constructions is not at all exhausted.
The body K of the car rests with its under frame Figs. 1, 2 and 3, by means of
the cross pieces T upon the running wheels L L-four in the present instance-
which are judiciously placed oblique and in pairs, with their lower parts converging
in order to transfer the horizontal pressure resulting from unsymmetrical load and
the swaying motions of the car to the double rails S S¹, upon which the vehicle
runs. From the frame strong arms A project through the slot Z into the channel
or conduit N. These arms, rigidly attached to the frame, carry at their lower
ends several leading or guiding wheels or rollers F, which bear against the side or
guiding rails E E₁ and thus keep the vehicle in a vertical position. If, for
instance, the load on the right side of the vehicle is greater, the guiding wheels on
the left side will bear against the left side rail E, and vice versa.
Both the chief, or what for convenience I will term "track rails S S¹ and the
guiding rails E E¹ rest upon trestles or yokes B which are sunk into the ground at
a suitable distance apart. Between these trestles or yokes the conduit is suitably
constructed--for instance, built up of bricks with a cement plastering. Into the
conduit any suitable apparatus can be placed in any well known manner. If, for
instance, the wheels are to be driven by electric motors, the conduit offers sufficient
space for the electrical feeding leads or conductors, the contact maker passing
through the slot in the top of the conduit. If the motive power is to be applied
to the vehicles by means of cables or chains, these cables or chains will move within
the conduit into which the grips project. Moreover, the vehicles can,
without any
essential change in the construction of the line of tracks or vehicle, be moved by
electricity, underground cables or chains, steam or any living motive power
arranged above or below the loaded vehicles or forming separate locomotives.
Various combinations or modifications may be formed from the elements of the
present invention, either in the track 'rail or rails upon which the vehicle runs, the
guiding rails, the running wheels or guiding wheels, or in the construction of
the arm A. Some of these modifications are represented in Figs. 4 to 10.
In Fig. 4 tlie rail upon which the vehicle runs and the guiding rail are united.
In this figure there is also shown an arrangement of the wheels so that they do not
cross but roll upon the exterior edges of the rail heads.
Instead of the double rail S S1, there may be used a single rail S, such as
shown in Fig. 5. The slot Z lies in this case at one side of the rail. The guiding
rails may be secured to the wall of the conduit or in any other suitable manner
within the conduit, or may also be formed by the foot of the track-rail S as is
shown in this figure.
Figure 6 shows a construction similar to that of Fig. 2, but with vertical track
wheels L L', each resting upon the heads of the two track rails S S¹, and the guith
ing rollers F being attached one behind the other alternately to the right and left
side of the arm A, and thus bearing against the guide rails E E¹ fixed opposite
each other within the conduit.
Figs. 7 and 8 show arrangements in which the guiding wheels F run above each
other instead of alongside each other, as is the case with the arrangements shown
in the rest of the figures. The difference between the two constructions represented
in these figures is the same as between Fig. 4 and Fig. 2. In Figs. 2 and 8 one of
the guiding wheels will bear against the left side guiding rail if the vehicle tends
to turn over to the right while in Figs. 4 and 7 it is the right hand guiding rail
which receives the pressure, and vice versa.
Another form is represented by fig. 9. Vertical track-wheels L L¹ run by pairs
on channelled angular track-rails S S¹, and guiding rollers F arranged above each

page_text: other within the conduit N give stability to the vehicle; the one of these rollers F
bears against the inside flanges of the angular track-rails, and the other leans
against the guiding-rails E E fixed to the trestles as described according to fig. 2.
Instead of several guide wheels a single one may be used, which will bear to the
right or to the left, according to the vehicles movement. Furthermore only a
single guiding-rail may be used against which the guide wheels or rollers bear
from opposite sides. The latter case is shown in fig. 10.
The track-rails S S are arranged by pairs in a manner similar to that shown in
fig. 9, whilst the guiding-roller F bears from opposite sides against the flanges of a
guide-rail E fixed to the trestles in the bottom of the conduit.
A suitable construction of the underframe of the vehicle is represented at Figs.
11, 12 and 13 of the accompanying drawings. Fig. 11 shews a part longitudinal
section, Fig. 12 a plan and Fig. 13 a cross section.
In this case the track-wheels L L¹ of the car are driven by an electric motor M
which may advantageously be arranged between them and be elastically suspended
in order to avoid the shocks resulting from carrying the vehicle on the rails and
which are dangerous to the motor's armature.
The motor M can also be arranged outside the track wheels L L', as shown in
Figs. 14, 15.
The motor swings therefore about the axle P held by the arm W and supported
the worm U
in the middle part by springs G attached to the underframe of the car;
of the motor shaft thus transfers the motion to the track-wheels L L' by means of
the worm-wheel V fixed on the axle P. The track-wheels L L' and the guiding-
rollers F fixed to the arm A are arranged as described according to fig. 6 of the
drawings. Fig. 14-15 show an underframe of a vehicle having independent
trucks (bogies) which enable the carriage or vehicle to be carried on tramways or
railways with curves of the smallest radius.
Each truck consists in a frame X, two axles P P¹ with the track wheels L L
and the arm A with the guiding-rollers F projecting from the car into the con-
duit N. The arm A is fixed to the transverse bearer Y fastened to the frame X.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of my said inven-
tion and in what manner the same is to be performed, I declare that what
claim is:
1. A tramway or railway for vehicles driven by electricity, underground cables
or chains, steam, or any living motive power, wherein a vertical track is formed by
providing a track rail or rails S at the street level, at the side of or between which
is a slot Z leading into an underground channel or conduit N containing a guid
ing rail or rails E situated more or less vertically under the track rail or rails, and
serving as support for guide wheels or rollers F on an arm passing down from the
vehicle into the channel, substantially as herein described.
2. In a vehicle for use on tramways or railways, with vertical track, such as is
referred to in the preceding claim, the combination of vertical or oblique converg
ing track wheels L for running on the track rail or rails, with an arm or arms A
projecting from the vehicle into the conduit and carrying guide wheels or rollers F
for bearing against guide rails in the channel in order to give stability to the
vehicle, substantially as described.
3. In vehicles for use on tramways or railways such as are referred to in the pre
ceding claim, constructing the underframe with two or more independent swivelling
bogies or trucks, each of which is composed of a frame X carrying two axles PP
with the track wheels L L¹ and an arm A fixed to a transverse bearer Y of the
frame, which arm carries the guide wheels, substantially as described with reference
to Figs. 14 and 15 of the drawings.
Doted this 15th day of April 1890.