GB204432A - Improvements relating to wheels, wheel mountings and tracks for railway vehicles - Google Patents

Abstract

204,432. McGinness, M. July 7, 1922. Tyres, non-elastic, and rims. - Comprises a traction system in which the wheels and rails are formed so that a combined wedge- and rack-grip is obtained on each rail. The wheel A. Fig. 1, is formed with a groove so that it has a flange on each side of the rail. One flange C is detachable and is corrugated or toothed to engage similar corrugations or teeth E, Fig. 2, on the rail. The other flange B may be plain as shown, or may also be corrugated. On gradients the heads of the rails are too broad to allow the bottom of the groove in the wheel to run on the rail, but on level sections the rail may be narrower so that the wheel runs on the flat head of the rail. The wheels may be the ordinary driving wheels, or may be auxiliary wheels driven either from the ordinary wheels or by a separate power unit, and differential gear may be employed. They may be raised or lowered by the driver through a power-operated cylinder, and are then kept in contact with the rails by spring pressure. To allow for irregularities in the width or gauge of the track the wheels on each axle are so mounted that they have a certain amount of freedom for transverse movement. At points and crossings the outer or corrugated flange, which is preferably not so deep as the plain flange, may be raised above the head of the rails by means of ramps, the inner flanges still acting as guard flanges. In a modification, Fig. 7, a pair of wheels, one plain, the other toothed, are mounted in a frame R to give the same effect. According to the Provisional Specification, the wheels and rails may be formed entirely with plain surfaces so that the rack-grip action is not obtained.