Level Crossings of Railways by the Passing Trains.
Year: 1887

page_text: Level Crossings of Railways by the Passing Trains.
We, ANTONIO JOSÉ MARTINS, Carpenter, JOAQUIM MARIANO DA SILVA Junior, Civil
Engineer and ALFREDO DE ARANJO NEVES, Merchant, all of rue de Rosario
No. 11, Barra Mausa, Province of Rio de Janeiro in the Empire of Brazil, 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 automatic signals and gates for level crossings of railways,
whereby firstly, on the approach of a train, this causes a danger signal to be exhibited
at the crossing, secondly it causes the gates to be closed, and thirdly, after passing
the crossing it causes the danger signal to disappear and the gates to be opened.
For this purpose an arrangement of levers is provided at the side of the rails which
is acted upon by the wheels of the passing train as 1 will proceed to describe with
reference to the accompanying drawings, in which Fig. 1 shews a side view of a
level crossing and part of the permanent way on either side thereof, where B and C
represent the levers on either side for effecting the closing of the gates as the train
approaches in the one direction or the other, and which are depressed by the wheels
of the passing train.
Fig. 2 shews a plan of the permanent way and crossing, the gates, which in Fig. 1
are shewn closing the crossing, being here shewn open to the crossing and closing
the line. In this position the levers BC are raised above the rails as shewn at Fig. 1

page_text: while when the gates are closed to the crossing, the levers are depressed below
the rails.
Fig. 3 shews the application of our invention to a double line of rails, the automatic
apparatus being in this case arranged between the two sets of rails. In this figure
are also shewn the two levers A A' and D D' situated at a greater distance than B B'
and CC respectively for actuating the danger signal and for opening the gates again
after the passage of the train.
Fig. 4 shews the mechanism (irrespective of position) of the levers C for closing
the gates, and D for opening them, which operate in contrary directions upon the
slide L and gates R by means of the arms E and H and cranks F G and I J.
Fig. 5 shews a cross section of the slide L with part of the arm M.
Fig. 6 shews the arrangement of the levers operating in contrary directions for
effecting the turning in opposite directions of the signal axes O and 0³, indicated in
Fig. 3 which may also be effected by fixing the cranks differently upon the axes.
The arrangement and mode of operation of the apparatus will be readily understood
from the drawings. Assuming by way of example that a train is approaching from
the north in the direction of the arrow V on the right hand side of Fig. 3, it will, on
coming in contact with the lever A, cause the danger signal at O' to be actuated so as
to give time to the persons or vehicles situated on the line at the crossing to pass off
it; in then acting on the lever at B, the train operates the slide L by means of the
cranks G I and the rod K and causes the gates on the right-hand side to move from
the position across the line to that closing the crossing, the slide L being connected
by arms M to cranks on the gate posts for this purpose; at the same time by
connecting the slide L on the right-hand side to that on the left hand side by means
of the rods PO, and sway beam Q, the gates on the left hand side are simultaneously
closed in the same way. The lever C being depressed by this movement, it is not
acted upon as the train passes but in coming in contact with the lever D the train
imparts a reverse motion to the before described parts whereby the gates are closed
across the line and the danger signal is lowered. The movement of the levers will be
understood from Fig. 4; the levers A and D are connected respectively to the
levers B and C by means of metallic ropes having adjusting devices for regulating
their length.
The levers are curved upwards as shewn so as to allow the wheels to pass upon and
depress them without shock, they are pivotted at one end to a fixed fulcrum and at
the other end to rods H E connecting them to cranks G F on axes carrying levers I J
connected by rods K to the slides L sliding on plates fixed to the permanent way.
The slides are connected by rods M M to crank pins N on the door posts as
described.
Instead of communicating the motion of the apparatus on one side to that on the
other side by means of rods O, P, and sway beam Q as described, the rods may have
rack teeth formed on their ends gearing with a pinion mounted on a pin fixed to the
permanent way; this connection may either be arranged horizontally as shewn, or it
may be placed vertically in the case of a double line of railway where there is an open
space between the sleepers of the two lines.
In the other cases the mechanism may either be arranged on the upper side of the
sleepers, which would be suitably notched for this purpose, or on the underside.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of our invention
and in what manner the same is to be performed we declare that what we claim is :-
1. The herein described arrangement for automatically opening and closing the
gates of level crossings by means of levers arranged at the sides of the rails so as to
be acted upon by the wheels of the passing train.
2. The herein described construction of curved levers pivotted at one end to a fixed
fulcrum and arranged to be depressed by the wheels of a passing train and connected
to cranks actuating a slide that moves two rods connected to the gate posts, arranged
and operating as set forth.

page_text: 3. Connecting the slide referred to in the preceding claim, to a similar slide on the
opposite side of the crossing by means of rods and a sway beam or by rack rods and a
pinion, so that the movement imparted to the one slide is imparted to the contrary
direction to the other side, and through this to the other pair of gates substantially as
herein described.
1
4. The herein described combined arrangement of four levers on a line of railway,
two of which are situated at a greater distance from the level crossing than the other
two, and which are made to actuate danger signals when depressed by the passing
train, while the other two serve to open and close the gates and to lower the danger
signal substantially as herein described.
ABEL & IMRAY,
Agents for the Applicants.