Improvements in Railway Point and Signal Apparatus.
Year: 1899

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in Railway Point and Signal Apparatus.
We, JAMES PHILIP ANNETT, of "St. Catherine's," Winchester Road, Eastleigh,
in the County of Hants, Engineer, and WILLIAM ROBERT SYKES, Senior, of
15, Vernon Road, High Street, Clapham, in the County of Surrey, Railway
Signal and Telegraph 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: —
Our invention relates to improvements in connection with the working of
points on railways; but has particular reference to light railways, so that the
switch point need not be connected with a signal cabin or to any central
position; the switches are self-acting in the trailing direction and while they
have to be moved by a ground lever for the facing direction if the position of
the switches requires to be changed, yet the points must be in a relative proper
position before the facing signal can be given "all clear."
The way in which we carry out our invention is as follows:-
Underneath the stretcher-bar of the switch points is placed a tie-piate, and
in the centre of the 4ft., on this tie-plate is bolted or otherwise fixed a V-pro-
jecting piece. On the under side of the stretcher-bar
are two notches
corresponding with the V-projection on the piece bolted to the tie-plate. A
ground-lever is fixed at the side of the line, a rod connection is made from the
ground lever to the force-rod of the switch-points and by crank connection to a
safety-bar another connection is made from the same rod from the lever to an
ordinary detector the blade of which crosses the blade in the rod going to the
signal; the other end of the detector blade is connected by a wire to a lever on
the platform which operates the signal.
1
P C
1
1000
JOHN P. O'DONNELL, Fel. Chart. Inst. P.A.,
Agent for said Applicants,
70/1, Palace Chambers, Westminster, S.W.
Improvements in Railway Point and Signal Apparatus.
We, JAMES PHILIP ANNETT, of St. Catherine's, Winchester Road, Eastleigh,
in the County of Hants, Engineer, and WILLIAM ROBERT SYKES, Senior, of
[Price Sd.]

page_text: Station Road, High Street, Clapham, in the County of Surrey, (formerly of
15, Vernon Road, High Street, Clapham, in the County of Surrey), Railway
Signal and Telegraph 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:
Our invention relates to improvements in connection with the working of
points on railways (and has particular reference to light railways), so that the
switch points need not be connected with the signal cabin or to any central
position; the switches are self-acting in the trailing direction and while they
have to be moved by a ground lever for the facing direction if the position of
the switches requires to be changed, yet the points must be in a proper relative
position before the facing signal can be given "all clear."
The way in which we carry out our invention is as follows, reference being
made to the accompanying drawings in which,
Figure 1 is a plan view of our invention, and Figure 2 a front view showing
the notched stretcher-bar and inverted V-shaped projection engaging therewith
as hereinafter referred to.
Underneath the stretcher-bar of the switch points is a tie-plate a, and in the
centre of the 4ft. on this tie-plate is bolted or otherwise fixed a V-projecting
piece b. On the under side of the stretcher-bar bare two notches c c corre-
sponding with the V-projection b on the tie-plate. A ground lever d is fixed at
the side of the line and a rod connection is made from the ground lever d
to the force-rod f of the switch-points and by crank connection fl
to a safety-bar gi another connection h is made to an ordinary
detector the blade of which crosses the blade in the rod or connection m
between the platform lever and the signal.
The working is as follows:.
-
Assuming it is desired to work over the switch points from the position shown
in the drawings (to make the road for the other direction), with the signal in the
proper relative position, the lever would be pulled and by its connection to
the force-rod moves over the points, the notch e (Fig. 2) in the stretcher-bar b
moving over and beyond the projection b and the notch el moving down on said
projection, the switch point rising and falling to that extent. At the same
time the safety-bar gis operated through the connection f¹ to the rod e and
lever d, and the blade k of the detector is also operated by means of connection h.
It will be obvious that the switch-points cannot be moved during the passage of
a train over them in the facing direction as the notch c¹ (or c as the case may
be) combined with the weight of the train on the switch tongues will prevent
the switch points and stretcher-bar 61 rising and as they cannot rise they cannot
be moved over to split the train.
On a train running through in the trailing direction the flanges of the wheels
will open a way for themselves between the switch tongue and the rail the flange
of the wheel on the fixed rail forcing over both tongues and lifting the tongue
which is free of the wheels high enough to allow the notch e¹ in the stretcher-
bar to pass over the projection b and the road would then be made good, in the
same way as in the case of an engine running through a pair of points fitted
with a weighted point-box with the points lying in the wrong direction. It
should be understood that when an engine in passing through a pair of points
trailing with the points in wrong direction, where the flange first begins to
move the points the travel is very little as with the points say at least 10ft. long
the 33" travel from rail to rail is done almost directly the flange moves between
the fixed rail and the tongue.
It is obvious that our invention may be applied without the safety-bar, relying
upon the fact that the switches cannot be moved while a train is passing over
them to take the place of the bar, although we consider that the addition of
the bar is preferable.

page_text: Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of our said
invention and in what manner the same is to be performed we declare that what
we claim is:-
-
In railway point and signal apparatus, means for operating the switch-points
by a ground lever, locking them in the facing direction when the corresponding
signal is in the proper relative position, and enabling them to be run through
in the trailing direction, substantially as herein set forth with reference to the
accompanying drawings.
Dated this 7th day of Tule 1000
JOHN P. O'DONNELL, Fel. Chart. Inst., P.A.,
Agent for Applicants.
70 & 71, Palace Chambers, Westminster, S.W.