GB257623A - Improvements in track skates for braking railway vehicles - Google Patents

Abstract

257,623. McGahey, H. E. Aug. 28, 1925, [Convention date]. Skid; scotch blocks; indicators, application of. -A railway track skate or skid is provided with means for mounting it on a rail and for connecting it slidably with an operating member mounted adjacent to the rail, an inclined car-wheel seat being provided on the top of the skid and positioned at such an angle as to cause the car to roll backward off the incline through gravity when the skid comes to rest. The operating member 26, Fig. 1. is pivoted on trunnions 27 between brackets 25 fixed to the rail 20 and is provided with an off-set 28 connected by a link 29 to the piston 23 of an actuator cylinder 22 controlled from the signal cabin. A dove-tail slot 30 open at one end is formed in the member 26 and is adapted to be engaged by a dove-tail projection 35 on the skid 31 which has flanges 37, 38 to straddle the rail, the inner flange 38 being partly cut away and partly thinned and tapered so as not to interfere with the wheel flange. The skid has an abutment 32, Fig. 3. for the car wheel 33 and an incline 34 on which the wheel rests during the braking operation. Sand is supplied to the rail to increase the friction through an outlet 44 from a chamber 42 in the skid, a filling aperture 43 being provided. The member 26 is normally positioned to hold the skid off the rail, as shown in broken lines in Fig. 1, where it rests on a support 45 and is prevented from leaving the member 26 by a fixed arm 46. When power is supplied to the actuator cylinder 22, the link 29 is drawn to the right and the member 26 is turned on its trunnions to place the skid on the rail. When a car wheel mounts the skid and strikes the abutment 32, the skid leaves the member 26 and slides on the rail till the car is brought to rest, whereupon the car wheel rolls off the incline 34 and the skid may be lifted by a handle 41 and replaced in engagement with the member 26. The placing of the skid on the rail is indicated to the operator in the cabin by the lighting of a Lamp 49, Fig. 2, or by another signal. the lamp being in an electric circuit including a battery 57, a guide 52, a conductor 51 slidable in the guide and provided with an insulator 54 and a contact 53, and a spring contact 55 which rests upon the contact 53 when the piston 23, to which the conductor 51 is secured, is operated to place the skid on the rail.