An Improved Shunter for Railway and other Vehicles.
Year: 1887

page_text: Date of Application, 10th Nov., 1887
Complete Specification Left, 10th Aug., 1888
Complete Specification Accepted, 21st Sept., 1888
An Improved Shunter for Railway and other Vehicles.
1, JOHN MACKENZIE, Engineer, Egglescliffe Yarm-on-Tees, Durham, do hereby
declare the nature of this invention to be as follows:-
I construct the Shunter in the following ways, first and preferably, I take a lever
from four to six feet long, and at one end I fix a triangular device, in this triangle
I make three holes, one at each angle, the hole at the top of the triangle is attached by
a pin or bolt to a clip or bracket, on which it is free to move like a hinge, this clip is
formed so as to grip on the buffer or any other suitable part of the vehicle to be moved,
the holes at the base of the triangle are attached by pins, or bolts, to two legs, which
are also free to move on the triangle like a hinge, these legs are fitted with suitable
claw shaped feet, formed so that when the legs are thrust in one direction, they grip
on the rail on which the vehicle is standing, and when moved in the opposite direction,
they are loose and free to slide along the rail-the legs are made a suitable length to
reach the rail at a proper angle for the feet to grip on the rail.
In the second form of Shunter, I use a lever from four to six feet long, slightly
bent at one end, to a suitable angle to the lever, in this bent part, I make three holes
at a suitable distance apart, the centre bole is attached by a pin or bolt to a clip or
bracket as described, and on which it is free to move, the two outer holes are attached
or bolts to two legs with feet as described above.
by pins
The Shunter put into working position, by placing the clip or bracket under and
against the buffer or other suitable part of the vehicle, and the feet allowed to rest on
the rail. By moving the lever first mentioned, up and down, a walking motion is
imparted to the legs, and powerful leverage obtained to propel the vehicle.
Dated this 9th day of November 1887.

page_text: I, JOHN MACKENZIE, of Eaglescliffe, in the County of Durham, 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 :-
This Invention relates to an improved mode of shunting railway vehicles by means
of a portable apparatus or appliance, which consists of a combination of parts from
the motion of which a means of leverage is brought into action by operating a main
lever furnished by means of a frame or its equivalent with a triangular arrangement
of pivots, two of which form a double knuckle joint with legs or stilts upon which the
apparatus advances step by step with the railway vehicle which it shunts forward by
repeatedly applying pressure thereto through the third pivot in the manner hereinafter
described with reference to the accompanying drawing, in which Figure 1 illustrates
my improved shunter in position to be brought into action to shunt an ordinary railway
truck Figure 2 illustrates to a larger scale a shunting apparatus or appliance
constructed according to my invention, dotted lines being employed to illustrate the
movements of the different parts of the shunter when effecting its purpose; Figure 3
illustrates the formation of the foot or claw of the shunter when designed to be worked
along the surface of a rail head.
act
In the figures a is the arm of the lever by which the shunter is manipulated; one
end of the arm a is furnished with a triangular arrangement of pivots, one at each
corner of a triangular frame rigidly united thereto, of which bbbare the sides. The
top corner or vertex of this triangular frame is furnished with a device e, which is
constructed to any required design or form to effect the purpose of affording a suitable
contact or connection between the shunter and some part of the vehicle to be shunted,
the form shown in Figures 1 and 2, namely that of a plate bent to a right angle, being
generally suitable when applying the shunter to the buffer of a railway vehicle. The
main lever a is supported at the two lower corners or pivots of the triangular frame
upon the stilts or legs de, to which it is connected so as to form a double knuckle
joint. As is clearly illustrated by the dotted lines which indicate the motion of the
triangular frame when actuated by the arm a, it is essential that the frame must be
free to move about each of its corners, that is, the joints forming the connections
between the triangular frame, the device c, and each of the stilts or legs d and
like hinges such as the joints formed by pins or bolts passing through double eyes
provided on the device "c, and on each of the stilts or legs d and e; and through
corresponding holes in the respective corners of the triangular frame. The
particular form of the foot or claw as illustrated in the figures is that which is
designed to enable the shunter to adapt itself to a rail head as the surface from which
it exerts the requisite pressure to shunt the railway vehicle; it is essential that each
foot or claw should be constructed so as to slide over the rail readily in the direction
of the railway vehicle which it follows, and that the rail should be securely gripped by
the foot or claw in the opposite direction, that is to say, the formation of the feet or
claws should allow the legs d and e to slide over the rail to positions d² and e
respectively, but resist all tendency to their sliding over the rail in the opposite
direction, which it is evident would deprive the shunter of the power to exert pressure
on the vehicle to be shunted; this may be readily effected by making the biting or
gripping edge f sharp like the corner of a true square.

page_text: The action of the shunter is as follows:-in Figure 2 the position which the shunter
occupies when in a state of readiness to be brought into action is indicated in full lines
by the letters abcdef for the respective parts thereof; by raising the arm a of the
lever to the position at the sides of the triangular frame, which turns about on its
corners, are brought to their corresponding positions b₁ b¹¹, the pin g to which the
leg or stilt d is connected being carried up to the position g', and the pin h to which
lege is connected to the position h¹; the effect of this movement of the triangular
frame upon the logs or stilts is that the leg d is relieved of all pressure and slides
forward to the position d, whilst the leg e turns upon its foot to a more upright
position; when the arm a is brought down again the pressure exerted by the apparatus
is brought into action, the foot or leg d remaining in its new position, whilst the
device c moves forward to position e', and of course shunts the railway vehicle with
it, the sides of the triangular frame being simultaneously brought to the new
positions 62 62 ; with this movement of the triangular frame the leg d turns
about on its foot into the position 2, whilst the leg e slides forward to position e²,
the relative positions of the legs with reference to each other and the other parts
of the apparatus being the same as when the shunter occupied its original position in
readiness for use; by repeating the above described operation any required number
of times the truck is shunted forward a corresponding distance from its original
position.
It is obvious that the principle upon which my improved shunter is constructed
and operated and which enables it to exert the continuous pressure requisite to shunt
a truck up an incline renders it suitable for shunting purposes generally, whether
applied to a railway vehicle or to any other heavy article capable of similarly moving
forward under pressure, and that the only parts requiring a modified construction to
suit the particular purpose for which the shunter is to be employed are the device c,
which can be indefinitely varied in design to any required form or size, and the feet
of the legs d and e, which as herein before described and illustrated in the accompanying
drawing are constructed with a sharp biting edge to adapt them to the surface of a
rail head, but which in other cases might be required to present a broad surface to
adapt them to the pavement of a street, or to be a sharp spike for entering timber or
other material upon which the shunter may have to be placed.
I wish it to be understood that I do not limit myself strictly to the particular
construction of apparatus as described and illustrated in the drawing, for instance,
although I have described the lever as consisting of an arm a as extending from a
triangular frame, the corners of which are the points of connection with the pushing
device c and the legs d and e, for the triangular frame could be substituted an
Lframe or T frame to which the device c and the legs d and e could be connected
in precisely the same manner as described with reference to a triangular frame.
Having now described the construction of my improved shunter and the mode in
which it is applied or brought into use, what 1 claim is :-
The apparatus for shunting railway or other vehicles in which the combination of
parts constituting the apparatus consists of a main lever furnished by means of a frame
or its equivalent with a triangular arrangement of pivots, two of which form a double
knuckle joint with the legs or stilts of the apparatus which is thereby enabled to exert
a thrust through the third pivot upon the vehicle and to follow up and retain its
contact therewith as the vehicle moves forward, substantially in the manner and for
the purpose as herein before described.
Dated this 9th day of August 1888