IMPROVEMENTS IN AND CONNECTED WITH TRAMRAILS, AND POINTS, CROSSINGS, AND FASTENINGS FOR THE SAME
Year: 1880

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Clement Dunscombe at the Office
of the Commissioners of Patents on the 18th December 1880.
CLEMENT DUNSCOMBE, of Liverpool, in the County of Lancaster, Civil Engineer.
"IMPROVEMENTS IN AND CONNECTED WITH TRAMRAILS, AND POINTS, CROSSINGS,
AND FASTENINGS FOR THE SAME."
My Invention relates to the rails of street tramways and to the crossing pieces,
points, switches, and junctions, and to anchoring jaws, and bolts, keys, wedges, and
fastenings for securing the same.
I employ rails made of cast iron or steel, and preferably formed in one piece
with the sleeper or base plate, with or without bottom flanges and anchoring jaws,
but I may make the anchoring jaws of wrought or cast iron detached if necessary.
The top surface is "chilled" when the rail-sleeper is made of cast iron, and I
cast with the combined rail-sleeper anchoring jaws, extending downwards and
outwards; these jaws may be of any desired width, and connected together by a
rib or flange at the bottom end and centre, so as to surround a portion of the
Portland cement, asphaltic concrete, or other ballast, in which the lower portion of
the rail-sleeper is bedded. When thus made no fastenings are needed, and the
combined rail-sleeper and anchoring jaws are thus laid in one piece. The anchoring
jaws may be made separate from the rail-sleepers, and secured to it by timber or
iron wedges, pins, or keys, held in position by a body of plastic pitch being
inserted in the hole against each end of the pins or wedges. In such a case the
anchoring jaws will be used to fish the ends of the rail-sleepers together by means
of bolts, wedges, pins, or keys. In the sides of the cast iron rail sleepers I form
oblong or elliptical holes to receive the ends of the tie bars when used and to lighten
the casting. When desirable I make the tie bars with compensating screws and
iron washers and cotters. I also tie the adjacent sleepers together by inserting
wedge shaped pieces of cast or wrought iron into the bottoms of the rail-sleepers
where requisite, such pieces to have a deep central flange reaching down into the
concrete foundation.
I form the crossings, points, and junctions in a manner similar to the rail-
sleepers already described, with the spaces between the adjacent grooves or
wheel-treads made solid and roughened on the surface, the anchoring jaws being
either attached or detached as already described.
I also make use of a movable point or switch which can be taken up without
disturbing the rail-sleeper or pavement, made of Bessemer steel or other metal,

page_text: which point swings on a cylindrical-conical headed screwed bolt and nut made of
phosphor-bronze, monganese-bronze, or other suitable non-corrosive alloy, the
bolt to be unscrewed from the nut at the surface without disturbing the pavement
by means of a key or spanner, and the nut to be entirely enclosed in a matrix of
pitch and creosote oil, or other protective solution. The bolt can also be fixed to
an anchoring jaw through a hole in the rail-sleeper where requisite.
In the case of the rail-sleeper being of rolled steel, the anchoring jaws will be
detached, and will be secured to the rail-sleeper by means of iron or timber keys,
wedges, bolts, or rivetted pins, and the rail-sleepers will be fished or joined together
at their contiguous ends by means of timber keys or iron or steel wedges, bolts,
pins, and clips, or any of them. The wedges, pins, or keys will be prevented from
working loose by a body of plastic pitch being rammed up against their ends flush
with the sides of the rail-sleepers, and the anchoring jaws and keys will be embedded
in a mixture of pitch and creosote oil or other preserving solution. I further
propose to strengthen the rail sleeper when made of steel by means of rivets, bolts,
nuts, or cotters, passing through holes punched or drilled in the sides of the rail-
sleepers.
I also fill the rail-sleepers with Portland cement, asphaltic or other concrete, level
with their undersides.