Improvements in and connected with Couplings for Railway Waggons and the like.
Year: 1891

page_text: Date of Application, 25th Apr., 1891
Complete Specification Left, 20th Jan., 1892-Accepted, 12th Mar., 1892
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in and connected with Couplings for Railway
Waggons and the like.
GEORGE JOHN BELLINGHAM 21 Warner Street Barnsbury London N.
Mechanical Engineer do hereby declare the nature of this invention to be as
follows:-
This invention relates to couplings such as are used for the purpose of connecting
railway waggons carriages cars or engines.
The object of the invention being to provide a simple safe means of coupling
or uncoupling carriages by turning a shaft round by means of handles conveniently
arranged at the sides of the carriage.
This invention can with very slight alterations be attached to any kind of
coupling now in use and does not necessitate its being added to both the couplings
of carriages in contact, besides effecting a great saving of life the work is done
much more expediently than by the very dangerous practice usually adopted.
The invention consists of a very simple arrangement & combination of parts as
hereinafter described.
In place of the pin or bolt that goes in the eyes of link & through the drawbar
I have a shaft extending out as far as convenient with handles each side, the link
being fast to the shaft is raised by the shaft being turned round by moving the.
handle.
The shaft is supported by brackets having elongated holes through parallel
with drawbar the shaft acts as an axle for arms each side also having handles, the
movement of which effects the opening out or drawing in of the end link clear of
the drawbar hook of the opposite carriage.
Lugs are clamped to each end link, forming an axle for rods to work on, these
rods connecting the two end links, are joined to each other by means of a pin thus
forming a hinge, the hinge, or hinge rod furthest from the shaft bas a slot through
its sides, for the pin at the end of loose arm to work in so that by moving the arm
handle, the end link is drawn up towards the shaft. The arm or drawing up
handle works independently of the handle for raising the whole of the coupling,
but both handles are so adjusted as to be used by one hand.
When rigidly mounted links are used I form them with hooks projecting thereon
from each side opposite each other, strengthened by a cross-bar inside the link.
The links are raised to such a position that will allow the end of one link to
engage itself with the hooks on the one coming in contact, this being effected by
means of the shaft as before described.
Dated this 25th day of April 1891.
GEORGE JOHN BELLINGHAM.
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in and connected with Couplings for Railway
Waggons and the like.
I, GEORGE JOHN BELLINGHAM of 21 Warner Street, Barnsbury, London,
Mechanical 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 :-
This invention relates to couplings for connecting together railway waggons,

page_text: carriages and the like, the chief object of the invention being to provide a coupling
which can be used without risk of danger to the operator.
In carrying out the invention I provide, in place of the pin or bolt which usually
connects one of the coupling links to the draw-bar, a shaft extending out as far as
convenient at each side of the waggon or the like and with hand levers attached.
The said link is fixed to the said shaft and is therefore raised when the shaft is
turned by moving either of the hand-levers; or a supplementary shaft can be used
carrying the levers and connected to the other shaft by chains or the like. The
shaft is supported by brackets having elongated holes or bearings and acts as an
axle or drum for operating arms at each side connected to levers by chains or the
like, the movement of which arms effects the drawing up or opening out of the
end link to clear the draw-bar hook of the opposite waggon or the like; or the said
chains can be operated from sleeves surrounding the supplementary shaft. Lugs
are fixed to each end link and have pins for rods or bars to hinge upon.
rods connect the two end links together by means of the arms herein before described.
The levers for operating the said arms work independently of the shaft levers
which serve to raise the whole coupling, but both levers are arranged so that they
can be locked together so as to be worked by one hand.
In the annexed drawing,
These
Figure 1 is a section of the end of a railway waggon provided with my improved
coupling.
Figures 2 and 3 are respectively an end view and a plan of the same.
Figures 4 and 5 are details drawn to an increased scale.
a is the draw-bar provided with the usual hook a' and b is the link connected
thereto by the shaft supported in the brackets d having the elongated holes or
bearings e. The said shaft may be extended to each side of the waggon and be
provided with hand-levers, but I advantageously provide a supplementary shaft f
carried below the waggon in bearings and extending to each side thereof and
provided with the hand-levers g, the said shaft being connected by chains / to
the bosses of the link 6 so that by rotating either of the hand-levers g; in the
direction of the arrow 1, Figure 1, the said link will be raised.
ii are the arms which connect the link b with the end link j through the medium
of the rods kk hinged to the links. The said arms serve to raise the link ; as
hereinafter described. The said hinge joints serve to allow the coupling to yield
laterally when the waggons or the like are running round curves, and in order to
cause the parts to return to their normal or central position after such yielding
movement, I advantageously provide the said joints with spring plates n connected
to the rods k k¹ and bearing against the faces of the lugs m, as shewn clearly in
Figures 4 and 5, which represent a plan and a section respectively of a part of the
link and its bar k. The elongated bearings e also allow the shaft c to yield for
the same purpose as the hinge joints, the hole in the draw-bar a, through which
the shaft e passes, being made slightly larger than the shaft to allow also of the
yielding movement. The arms turn upon the ends of the bark and have their
bosses connected to chains ¹ which pass over pulleys o on the shaft c and are
advantageously attached to drums formed by sleeves p p on the shaft f, which
sleeves are connected together as at p and actuated by the hand levers
if the shaft c be extended to each side of the waggon as hereinbefore described the
sleeves can be carried thereby. The bar k¹ can turn in the ends of the arms i i
connected thereto in one direction only, to allow the link j to fall to the bottom
of the draw-bar hook with which it engages, the link being prevented from
moving in the opposite direction by projections 2 on the bar abutting against
lugs on the arms i i.
9; or
In order that the levers 9 and 9 can be locked together, I advantageously form
the boss of one of the levers 9 with a hexagonal or other suitably shaped orifice q¹
with which the boss of the adjacent lever g, which boss is correspondingly shaped,
can engage, the shaft being arranged so that it has sufficient end wise movement
to allow of this being effected.

page_text: ز
In order to operate the coupling to engage the draw-bar hook a² of another
waggon or the like, as shewn by dotted lines in Figure 1, either lever q is moved
in the direction of the arrow 1, thereby raising the arms ii and link j into a
position at right angles or thereabouts to the link as shewn by the dotted lines 2
in Figure 1. By then moving the levers g and q simultaneously, locked together
or not still in the direction of the arrow 1, the whole coupling will be raised, and
if, when the outer end of the link is just above the draw-bar hook a² either
lever be moved in the reverse direction to that of the arrow 1, but still con-
tinuing the movement of the lever g till the link assumes an approximately
horizontal position, the arms ii and link j will be projected forward over the said
hook. a so that if the levers g and q be released the link j will fall into the hook a³
thereby completing the coupling operation.
To uncouple the waggons, the links are again moved into the horizontal position
when the hook j will be disengaged from the hook a² and by moving the arms i i
and link into a position at right angles to the link as hereinbefore described
the whole coupling can be lowered into the position shewn in full lines in the
drawing.
It will be seen that the link b is made wider than the link j. This is for the
purpose of using the coupling on each waggon for connecting them together, the
link of each coupling passing through the link 6 of and engaging with the draw-
bar hook of the other coupling. When coupling in this manner, it is necessary
that one of the couplings be lifted up into the position shewn in dotted lines at 3,
Figure 1, and held there while the other coupling is operated to connect the
waggons. For the purpose of holding the said coupling in such position, I provide
a pawl pivotted to the under side of the waggon and designed to engage with a
tooth s on the shaft. This tooth, however, can only engage with the pawl r
when the handles 9 and 7 are locked together, the movement of the shaft fto
effect such locking bringing the tooth into line with the pawl so that when the
handles y and are raised to bring the coupling into the position just referred to,
they will be sustained in such position by the engagement of the tooth and pawl.
To disengage the said tooth and pawl, it will be obvious that it is only necessary
to unlock the levers and 7 and the coupling can then be lowered into the opposite
draw-bar hook.
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 I
claim is:
1. A coupling for railway waggons or the like, comprising two links one of
which is jointed to the draw-bar hook and has the other link jointed to it by
suitable means, and means for enabling the said links to be operated either inde-
pendently or together, substantially as described.
2. A coupling for railway waggons or the like comprising two links one of which
is pivotted to the draw-bar hook, rods hinged laterally to the said links, arms to
which the said rods are jointed and shafts having hand levers adapted to be con-
nected together, the said shafts being connected either directly or by chains or
their equivalent to one of the said links and to the rods, all being arranged and
operating substantially in the manner and for the purposes set forth.
3. In a coupling for railway waggons or the like of the kind described in the
first claim, forming the link connected to the draw-bar hook wider than the other
link, substantially as and for the purpose set forth.
4. The improved coupling for railway waggons or the like hereinbefore described
and illustrated in the accompanying drawing.
Dated this 18th day of January 1892.