US1000591A - Railway-car coupling. - Google Patents

Description

J. F. & V. S. DURBIN.

RAILWAY GAR coUPLING.

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RAILWAY GAR GOUPLING.

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JAMES F. DURBIN AND VOTAW S. DUR-BIN, OF FORT SCOTT, KANSAS.

RAILWAY-CAR COUPLING.

Specicaton of Letters Patent.

Patented Aug. 15, 1911.

Application filed May 31, 1910. I Serial No. 564,116.

T o all whom it may concern:

Be it known that we, JAMES F. DURBIN and Vo'rAw S. DURBIN, citizens of the United States, residing at Fort Scott, in the county of Bourbon and State of Kansas, have invented new and 'useful Improvements in Railway-Car Couplings, of which the following is a specification.

Our invention relates to car couplers of the automatic type, and has for its object to provide a novel construction for insuring the opening of the knuckles automatically, and which means shall present the minimum of frictional resistance to the closing of the coupler.

Ve are aware that variousr contrivances and constructions have been devised and patented for accomplishing the same purpose we have in view, and without attempting to deal with such devices specifically, we would simply state that many of them are open to the objection that they cannot be employed on car couplers of the standard type, others are so complicated as to be impracticable, and still others, if meeting the above objections, are inoperative for practical purposes for the reason that the resist- 'ance offered to the closing of the knuckle is so great as to cause excessive wear, and frequently breakage, 'of the parts.

Our invention aims to present an entirely practicable and simple means for accomplishing the purposes stated, and the employment of which necessitates no change in the general construction of the standard 'type of car coupler. Furthermore, a coupler-head provided with our improvement may be used in connection with the standard coupler-head which has not such improvement.

In the accompanying drawings -Figure 1 is a sectional plan view illustrating two coupler-heads'in position to be coupled, the coupler-head at the right having itsl knuckle locked in a closed position, and the knuckle of the opposing head being in an open position. Fig. 2 is a cross section on the line 2 2 of Fig. 1. Fig. 3 is an end view of a coupler-head provided with our improvement, the knuckle being removed. Fig. 4 is a section on the line t-4 of Fig. 1, with the knuckle in the position indicated by the dot-ted lines; that is to say, the knuckle being in the position it occupies before it is in the closed or locked position indicated in the full lines. Fig. 5 is a section on the line 5- 5 of Fig. 1, showing the position of the knuckle in the closed position. Fig. is a view similar to Fig. 5, but showing the position of the knuckle as it starts to open. Fig. 7 is a cross section through the tongue ofthe knuckle; and Fig. 8 is a diagrammatic view showing the points of relative coincidence and departure of the surfaces of the two inclined bearings employed for accomplishing the object of the invention.

Referring now to the drawings, the numerals 1, 2 indicate corresponding couplerheads of the standard type, eachv head having mounted therein, on a knuckle-pin 3, a knuckle 4, having a tongue 5 provided at its rear end with a hook 6. The hooks 6 of the respective knuckles are adapted to engage behind .locking-pins 10, these parts being of the usual or any preferred construct-ion. The heads 1 and 2 are hollow as usual, and in the floor of each, on the same side as the knuckle-pin 3, are provided two inclined bearings 12, 13, respectively, having substantially parallel 'lines of direction and as the construction. for each couplerhead is the same, we will describe the construction with reference to the coupler-head 2, shown to t-he right in-'Figs land 2.

Referring' more particularly tothe views shown on Sheet 2 of the drawing, it will be seen that we provide two distinct inclined bearings which engage with the inclined under side 14 of the tongue 8. As illustrated by Fig. 8, the bearing 13, which is toward the front of the coupler-head, is inclined upward toward the side thereof from a point on thercoupler-head indicated by the point a, to a point corresponding to the point c, at a greater degree than the inclination of the bearing 12 for the same distance,

while from the point c to the point CZ, corresponding to the side of the coupler, the degree and plane Yof inclination are substantially coincident. In other words, from the point a to the point cthe upper surface of the bearing -13 is lower than the same surface of the bearing 12. By this arrangement of bearing surfaces we obtain the advantage of securing anA easy closing movement of the knuckle by insuring that the minimum frictional resistance shall be opposed t0 such movement. First premising that there -is always a slight play between the knuckle and the knuckle-pin, the manner in which the arrangement of the two inclined surfaces will facilitate the closing movement of the knuckle will be more readily understood from an inspection of Figs. 1, 5 and 6, and the operation will now be described.

Assuming the knuckle to be in the open position, when the coupler-heads are brought together the knuckle is forced to, or slightly beyond, a true vertical position in the direction of the head, and the rear part of the tongue 8 will have its inclined under side 111 resting on the bearing 12, which is farthest removed from the point of application of power, that is, the front of the knuckle, and Where, consequently, the leverage, and the pressure exerted by the tongue on the bearing 12, is less than would be the case if the tongue were resting solely on the incline 13. There is, therefore, practically no tendency for the tongue, or the edge thereof, to bite into the metal of the incline 12, and thereby oppose the passage of the tongue over the same, as occurs where a single incline at the front of the coupler is employed. Furthermore, the degree of inclination of the incline 12 being relatively small, the tongue willV easily ride up and over the same. This movement continues until the tongue reaches the point indicated by c, in Fig. 8, on the incline bearing 12, where the'planes of the upper surfaces of the bearings 12 and 13 are substantially coincident, and from this point to the point d the tongue will ride over and rest upon both bearings. From the point on thebearings corresponding to the point c, indicated in 'Fig 8, to the upper end of the bearings, the

degreeV of inclination of said bearings is greater than that of either of them from the point a to the point c, for this greater ineline, especially of the forward bearing 13, is necessary to insure a certain and quick descent of the tongue to cause the knuckle to open. By having the tongue travel on both bearings in its passage thereon corresponding to the distance between the points c and el, the relativelyrapid rise of the tongue may be effected without thereby permitting the s aid tongue to be canted sufficiently to cause it to bind on the knucklepin or to bite into either bearingY surface. It is necessary, as stated, that the knuckle shall open easily and rapidly, and with certainty, and this we secure by taking advantage of the slight play between the knuckle and the pin whereby the weight of the lower part of the knuckle will cause a slight cant of the latter, which is sufficient to lift the tongue 8 off of the bearing 12 so that it will rapidly descend and ride over the forward bearing 13 only, which, owing to the quickness of its pitch, and its location in proximity to the knuckle-pin, will insure a more certain and rapid descent than if the tongue was supported only by the bearing 12. This will be clearly apparent from an inspection pidity and certainty in the opening movement.

A feature aiding in the operation of our improvement is the provision of an inclined lip 16 surrounding the lower edge of each `1 knuckle, the purpose of which, in operation, is to prevent the knuckle from dropping out of the opposing coupler-head in the event that either draw-bar should be pulled from its car. lower end of the knuckle at the front side and the added weight thereof, when the knuckle is released, aids in causing the said These lips are provided on thel knuckle to assume the position shown in Fig. 6.

We claim: p

1. In a car coupler, a head having two inclined bearings, located at different distances from the front thereof and having substantially parallel lines of direction, the

forward bearing, for a portion of its length, Y

having its bearing surface on a lower plane than the rear bearing, and a knuckle loosely pivoted in said head and having a tongue adapted to have its under side coperate with said bearings under the play of the knuckle on its pin, whereby said tongue will first engage and ride upward on the rear bearing in the closing movement of the knuckle and will first engage and ride downward on the front bearing in the opening movement of the knuckle.

2. In a car coupler, a head provided with two inclined bearings located at different distances from the front of the coupler, the rear bearing having a less inclination and being relatively higher through a portion of its length than the forward bearing, and substantially coinciding in inclination and height with the forward bearing throughout the remainder of its length, a knuckle loosely pivoted in said head, and having a tongue provided with an inclinedlower side adapted, when the knuckle is released, under the play of the knuckle'onits pin, to be lifted from the rear and ride only on the forward bearing, and in the closing movement of the knuckle, to first engage and ride upward on the rear or higher bearing.

3. In a car coupler, a head provided with two inclined bearings located at different distances from the front of the coupler, the rear bearing having a lessinclination and being relatively higher through a portion of its length than the forward bearing, and Substantially coinciding in inclination and ioo height with the vforward bearing throughout the remainder of its length, a knuckle loosely pivoted in said head and having a tongue provided with an inclined lower side adapted, in the closing movement of the knuckle, to first engage and ride upward on the rear or higher bearing, and a weight in the form of a projection on the lower end of the front side of said knuckle operating, when the lmuckle is released, under the play of the knuckle on its pin, to cant the upper end of the knuckle forward, and thereby cause said tongue to rest upon and ride downward on the forward bearing.

witnesses.

JAMES F. DURBIN. VOTAW S. DURBIN.

Witnesses to the signature of James F. Durbin:

STELLA HILL, v C. T. HUNN.

Witnesses to the signature of Votaw S. Durbin:

LENA M. CARLE, JENNIE ANDERSON.

Copies of this patent may be obtained for ve cents each, by addressing the Commissioner of Patents. Washington, D. C.

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