Improvements in Barriers and Foot Boards or Steps for Controlling the Entrance to and Exit from Street, Railway, and like Vehicles.
Year: 1891

page_text: Date of Application, 30th June, 1991-Accepted 1st Aug., 1891
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
[Communicated from abroad by ROBERT DANA WILSON, of 113, Devonshire
Street, Boston, Suffolk, Massachusetts, United States of America, Broker.]
Improvements in Barriers and Foot Boards or Steps for Controlling
the Entrance to and Exit from Street, Railway, and like Vehicles.
I, HENRY HARRIS LAKE, of the firm of Haseltine, Lake & Co., Patent
Agents, 45 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 :-
which gate
The object of this invention is to provide a gate bar for railroad cars,
will prevent passengers from alighting from the car except upon one side, and which
can be rendered available for use on either side of the car according to the direction
in which the car is moving.
To this end the invention consists of the combination, substantially as and for
the purpose hereinafter set forth, of a hinged siep, a hinged bar fixed on the side of
the car, which bar when the step is turned up affords a barrier to entrance to, or
exit from, the car; and when the step is turned down is removed out of the way,
and mechanism connecting the hinged step to the bar so that the movement of the
step affects the movement of the bar.
"
I have represented my invention as applied to what is known as the "open car
in use on street railroads, but it can be applied to a "box car as well, and also can
be applied to the cars used on steam railroads.
In the accompanying drawing-
Figure 1 is a view of my device in side elevation, as applied to an open car.
Figure 2 is a sectional view, showing the step turned up and the gate bar turned
down and extending across the space between the seats; and
Figure 3 is another sectional view, showing the step turned down and the gate bar
turned up out of the way.
In these several figures, the same letters refer to the same parts.
Referring to the drawing, A is the roof of the car, B, B, are the seats, C, C, arc
the side posts supporting the roof of the car, and D is the step or running board.
This step is attached at intervals to metal plates E, and these plates are pivoted on
brackets F, F, extending from the under side of the car, and in end brackets G, G,
attached to the front end of each platform. These plates project from the under
side of the step or running board; at right angles to this board and suitably
secured to the projecting ends of these plates is a bar H, which is parallel to
the running board and at a distance therefrom about equal to the width of the
board or step, so that when this board or step is turned up the bar acts as a guard
and affords the proper protection to the car from the contact of vehicles with
the same.
.
In order that when the step is turned down it may take a horizontal position at
right angles to the position which it has when turned up, a suitable stop is provided
which prevents the movement of the plates E further than through an angle of 90°.
In the drawing, this limitation of movement is affected by the contact of the bent
end of the connecting rod I, with the bracket F.
K, is a bar which is pivoted to the support or post C, and when drawn down
extends across the space between the posts so as to act as a gate, but when thrown
up the bar fits into a groove L on the post. In order to afford a connection
between the plates E, and step D, with the gate bar K. a lever M, at right angles
to the bar K, is pivoted under the seat. The end of this lever is bent, as
shown at a, so that the end projects from beneath the seat, and to this end is

page_text: connected a rod N, which is also connected to the bar K. The lower portion of
the plate E, is connected by a rod I, with the end of the lever M, and thus, as shown
in Figures 2 and 3, turning down the step D, throws up the gate bar K, and turning
up the step throws down the gate bar.
I do not limit myself to the precise arrangement of mechanism shown and
described for connecting the step to the gate bar, and any other suitable device may
be used.
On the end posts I would have two gate bars and two levers, which gates act to
simultaneously guard the space between the seat and the dash-board, and the space
between the end seat and the seat next to it.
It is obvious that this device may be used for guarding the platforms of box street
cars, or of steam cars.
This mechanism is placed on both sides of the car, and the running board on
the side of the car next to the other track is turned up and the connected gates
are turned down, while on the other side the running board is turned down and the
gates are turned up. Passengers are therefore prevented from alighting from, or
getting on to, a car on the side which is next the other track, and liability to accident
is prevented.
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 I claim is :-
First. The combination, substantially as and for the purpose set forth, with a
railroad car, of a hinged or pivoted step, a hinged or pivoted gate bar preventing
entrance to or exit from the car, and mechanism connecting said step and gate bar
whereby turning up the step throws down the gate bar and rice versa.
Second. The combination, substantially as and for the purpose set forth with
the car body of the hinged or pivoted step or running board, and a guard bar
parallel to, and running with said step, and attached to the same at right angles
thereto.
Third. The combination with the car body of the brackets F, G, attached to
the underside of the car body, the plates E, hinged or pivoted to the brackets and
swinging through an are of 90°, a suitable stop for limiting the movement of
the plates, the step or running board D, attached to the plates and the guard
bar Hattached to the plates E, E, at a distance from the step, which is equal or
nearly equal to the width of the step and at a point at which a plane passing
through said point forms an angle of 90° with a plane passing through the point of
attachment.
Fourth. The combination, substantially as and for the purpose set forth,
of the hinged plates E, carrying the step or running board D, and the guard
bar H, and supported from the body of the car by brackets, of the gate bar K,
hinged in the side of the car, and mechanism connecting the gate bar to
the hinged plate whereby the movement of the plate causes the movement of
the gate bar.
Fifth. The combination, substantially as and for the purpose set forth, of the
hinged or pivotted plates E, the hinged gate bar K, the lever M, bent at one end
and pivoted under the seat to the side of the same and the connections I and N.
Dated this 30th day of June 1891.
HASELTINE, LAKE & Co.,
45, Southampton Buildings, London, Agents for the Applicant.