GB639524A - Improvements in switches for overhead runways - Google Patents

Abstract

639,524. Elevated railways. LOCKERBIE & WILKINSON (TIPTON), Ltd., and WALFORD, A. E. J. Aug. 14, 1948, No. 21506. [Class 104 (ii)] In a transfer switch for an overhead runway of the type comprising two parallel strip-metal rails for a trolley or trolleys each having a pair of wheels which are spaced side by side on a horizontal axle and run on the top edges of the rails, with fore and aft guide rollers mounted on vertical axes so that they engage the inside faces of the rails, the two parallel rails 1, 2, Fig. 2, diverge to form the outer rails of the two branches 1, 3 and 2, 4 of the track, and a switch bracket 6 located within the angle thus formed is provided on its underside with a switch arm or lever 11 pivoted on a vertical pivot 10 and provided with a raised or upstanding portion 12 which, by swinging the switch arm, can be engaged with the inner surface of either of the rails 1, 2, thereby constraining the leading guide roller of the trolley to take the other branch. Operation of the switch arm is effected by pulling on one or the other of two chains 21 connected to the extremities of a two-armed lever 20 secured at the upper end of a vertical shaft 16 carried in a bearing 18, the lower end of the shaft being formed of square section to engage one end of a crank arm 15 which is connected to the rear end 13 of the switch arm by a pin-and-slot connection 14. The bracket 6 is secured to the lower end of a hanger bolt 9, and the mounting for bearing 18 and brackets 23 for flared guide tubes 22 for the chains 21 are welded to the bolt 9. The pointed end portion 7 of the bracket 6 is formed with laterally projecting flanges 8 which overhang the side faces of the bracket to prevent the trolleys jumping the switch point. In a modification the operating lever is spring-loaded and operated against the action of the spring by a single chain.