Improvements in or relating to Couplings for Railway Vehicles.
Year: 1899

page_text: Date of Application, 27th May, 1899-Accepted, 28th May, 1900
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in or relating to Couplings for Railway Vehicles.
I, EMERY DE MARSOVSZKY Royal Chief Engineer, of Felsö Erdösor 25, Buda-
pest, Hungary, 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 introduction of automatic couplings for trains such as used in Europe was
opposed on the ground that such trains are composed of large number of car-
riages which, if the American method of close coupling were adopted, would
necessitate a considerable increase in locomotive power in order to be able to
overcome not only the inertia of a long train, but also other resistances inci-
dental to such a system. As this however is impossible, European railways would
have to adopt the American system as regards short and frequent trains but this
owing to well known reasons cannot at present be carried out.
Starting from the fact that the starting of long trains is made possible owing
to the tractive force of the locomotive being first exerted to act upon and move
the first screw-coupling device, then the first carriage, then the moving of the
second coupling device followed by the movement of the second carriage, and
so on, taking up in this manner all the carriages composing the train one after
another. The drawback referred to above is avoided, by the present invention,
by introducing in the automatic coupling device, an arrangement according to
which a certain free space is introduced according to quality or strength of the
buffer springs, which arrangement renders it possible that at the starting of the
train, first a part of the draw or coupling gear is moved relatively to the frame
work of the carriage, and only after the limit of such free space-a limit pre-
viously decided on-has been reached is the carriage involved in the movement
of the coupling device.
The simplest construction presenting such an arrangement consists in the
draw bar being provided with a nut enlargement or wedge which is arranged at
a certain distance from a fixed abutment, the distance being arranged according
to requirements and irrespective of the formation of the compression springs,
i.e., being capable of being varied without changing the said buffer springs.
This mode of construction is represented in the accompanying drawings,
Figure 1 being a plan view partly in section of an otherwise well known coup-
ling device in its normal position riz. when the buffer spring is partly expanded.
Figure 2 represents the device with the buffer spring compressed, & Fig. 3
is a view with the coupling and buffer spring in action.
As shown in these figures the object desired is obtained in the simplest manner,
a nut a such as is usually employed on the draw bar being adjusted at a certain
point, by which arrangement the draw bar and with it the coupling may be
moved longitudinally a certain distance without actuating the buffer or draw
spring employed in the coupling. Owing to this arrangement the coupling will
make a relative movement, represented by r in Figure 1, as regards the frame
of the carriage, and only when this limit has been reached (Fig. 3) will the
spring power of the buffer spring come into operation, thereby effecting the move-
ment of the frame of the carriage.

page_text: The position of the nut a, or of the wedge, according as to whether one or
the other is employed, on the diaw bar bis, of course, adjustable, varying with
it, at the same time, the free space, by either increasing or diminishing it. It
should also be observed that the object of the free space may be secured by some
other device involving merely the work of a constructor: by for instance, a tele-
scopic arrangement of the draw bar or by allowing a movement of the coupling
relatively to the draw bar or the like, without however interfering with the
position of the free space.
In order to protect the device against sudden shocks on reaching the free space
limit a spring of lesser power than that of the buffer spring may be arranged
between the nuts or wedges a and the abutment e which marks the limit of the
free space.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of my said
invention and in what manner the same is to be performed, I declare that what
I claim is―
In a spring coupling device for railway vehicles a draw tar adapted to make
a relative movement as regards the vehicle itself, the tractive force being first
exerted, within limits, without affecting the interposed spring, and only after
reaching that limit being exerted on the vehicle itself substantially as described.
2. In a device of the kind described a draw bar adapted to move through a
certain distance without affecting the interposed spring, a projection on the end
of said bar and an abutment on the vehicle, with a spring between the projec-
tion and abutment, substantially as described.
3. The complete coupling device substantially as described or illustrated in
the accompanying drawings.
Dated this 27th day of Mov 1900
BOULT & WADE,
Agents for the Applicant.