US1023388A

US1023388A - Brake-rigging for railway-cars.

Info

Publication number: US1023388A
Application number: US59926610A
Authority: US
Inventors: Louis E Oliver; Albert Cureton
Original assignee: Individual
Current assignee: Individual
Priority date: 1910-12-27
Filing date: 1910-12-27
Publication date: 1912-04-16
Anticipated expiration: 1929-04-16

Description

I L. E. OLIVER & A. CURE-TON.

BRAKE BIGGING FOR RAILWAY CARS.

APPLIOATION FILED DBO. 2'7, 1910.

Patented Apr. 1.6, 1912.

3 SHEETS-SHEET 1.

COLUMBIA PLANOGRAPH (20., WASHINGTON, D. c.

L. E. OLIVER. & A. OURETON. BRAKE BIGGING FOR RAILWAY CARS.

APPLIOATION TILED D120. 27, 1910.

1 23,388, Patented Apr. 16; 1912.

3 SHEETS-SHEET 2.

Ga C051 wLUMBlA PMNOGRAPH C0,, WASHINGTON. n. c.

L. E. OLIVER & A. OURETON. BRAKE RIGGING FOR RAILWAY CARS.

APPLICATION FILED DEC 27, 1910.

1,023,388. I Patented Apr. 16, 1912.

3 SHEETS-SHBET 3.

Jaw/(i040? COLUMBIA PLANDGRAPH C(LJVASHINGTON. n. c

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

LOUIS E. OLIVER, 0F MAYWOOD, AND ALBERT GURETO'N, OF CHICAGO, ILLINOIS.

BRAKE-RIGGING FOR RAILWAY-CARS.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Apr. 16, 1912.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that we, LOUIS E. OLIVER and ALBERT OURETON, citizens of the United States, and residents of the cities of Maywood and Chicago, respectively, county of Cook, and State of Illinois, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Brake-Rigging for Railway-Cars, of which the following is a specification.

This invention relates to improvements in brake rigging for street railway cars and more specifically to the rigging in cars in which the ends of the body of the car are supported upon trucks of the two wheel t e.

The object of our invention is the production of mechanism whereby the slack in the brake rigging of a car of the character mentioned may be readily and expeditiously taken up or adjusted by the motorman or trainman from a convenient position within the car or exteriorly thereof, and along one side; it being necessary, as is known, at the present time in order to effect such adjustment for the motorman or trainman to crawl under the car or to drive the latter to a position over a pit where access to the bottom of the car may be gained.

A further object is the provision of a brake rigging adjusting mechanism which will be economical of construction and of great efliciency in operation.

Other objects will appear hereinafter.

With these objects in view our invention consists in the combination and arrangements of parts hereinafter described and claimed.

Our invention will be best understood by reference to the accompanying drawings forming a part of this specification, and in which Figure 1 is a top plan view of a conventional car of the type above mentioned, the car body being omitted, to which is applied adjusting mechanism embodying our inven tion, Figs. 2 and 3 are elevations of the respective ends of the construction shown in Fig. 1, and Fig. 1 is a central longitudinal section thereof.

Referring now to the drawings 1 indicates the body of the car which .is of ordinary con-' struction, the ends thereof being supported upon the usual body bolsters 2. Arranged below the bolsters 2 at the respective ends of the car are the brake beams 3 and 3'. Said brake beams carry brake shoes 4 at their respective extremities, the latter being adapted to cooperate with the car wheels 5 which are arranged intermediate of the beams 3 and 3, so that operation of the brake shoes is effected by inward movement of said brake beams. Release springs 6 are secured at their upper extremities to the bolsters 2, the lower extremities of said springs engaging against the inner edges of the beams 3 and 8 serving as a means of effecting the release of the brake shoes 4, that is outward movement thereof when the brake beams are released by the motorman. Arranged adjacent the outer longitudinal edges of the beams 3 and 3 and parallelly extending therewith are secondary beams 7 and 7 respectively, the latter serving as will be observed, to limit outward or releasing movement of said brake beams determining the slack of the latter, the arrangement being such that such movement of said brake beams or the slack thereof, may be increased or diminished by varying the distance between said beams 7 and 7. The beams 7 and 7 are connected by rods 8 extending longitudinally of the car, the corresponding headed ends 9, of said rods being rigidly secured to the beams 7 by housings 10, the latter, as clearly shown in Fig. 3, being formed to snugly engage the squared or polygonally The opposite ends of said rods 8 pass loosely through tubular housings 11 rigidly secured upon the upperside of the beams 7. Threaded upon the outer or last mentioned extremities of said rods 8 (said ends as will be observed being oppositely screw threaded) are nuts 12, the inner sides of the latter engaging against the outer extremities of spacing sleeves 13 arranged between said nuts and the outer extremities of the members 11. With this arrangement it will be seen that adjustment of thebeams 7 and 7 toward or from each other as above mentioned, may be readily effected by rotation of the nuts 12 upon the rods 8. The-arrangement is such then that adjustment of the slack in the brake rigging may be effected by simply adjusting the positions of the nuts 12 upon the rods 8. A

Operation of the brake beams 3 and 3 is effected by means of levers 14 which are pivotally secured intermediate their extremities as at 15 upon the upper sides of said brake beams, corresponding extremities of effected by rotation of the shaft 23.

said levers being fulcrumed as at 16 to clevises 17 rigidly secured to and projecting from the beams 7 and 7 Pivotally secured to the opposite extremities of said levers 1a are inwardly projecting brake rods 18, the arrangement being such, that inward drawing of said brake'rods by the brake mechanism which is controlled by the motorman or brakeman, effects inward movement of the brake beams 3 and 3 effecting the'en-' gagement of the shoes 4 carried thereby with the wheels 5. This mechanism for operating the brake beams is, however, old and well known, no claim being here made thereto, since the same does not in any way affect the construction which constitutes ourinvention;

Arranged adjacent to the outer threaded extremities of the rods 8 and coplanar with the latter is a transversely extending shaft 19, the same being rotatably mounted in

bearing brackets

20, 20 and 20 secured to and projecting from the beams 7. Fixed to the respective extremities of the shaft 19 are bevel gears 21, the latter meshing with similar bevel gears cut in the outer edges of the nuts 12, so that rotation of the latter in effecting, the adjustment thereof upon the rods 8 may be effected by rotating the shaft 19. Also fixed to the shaft 19 intermediate the extremities thereof is a larger bevel gear 22. Arranged above the shaft 19 and adjacent the gear 22 is a vertically extending shaft 23, the lower end thereof being mounted in a bracket 24 secured to and projecting from the beam 7, the upper end portion of said shaft being mounted in a bearing 25 secured to and projecting from the adjacent bolster 2. Fixed to the lower extremities of the shaft 23 is a bevel pinion 26 which meshes with the gear 22 carried by the shaft 19, so. that rotation of the latter may be The upper extremity of the shaft 23 projects through the permanent bottom 27 of the car body 1 terminating in a pivoted operating handle 28, the latter being readily accessible for manual rotation of the shaft 23 through a pivoted or hinged section 29 of the removable or upper floor 30 of said car body.

Spaced above and parallelly extending with the shaft 19 is a counter shaft 31 mounted in the upper end of the

bearing brackets

20 and 20, the latter being upwardly extended in order to accommodate said shaft. Said shaft 31 carries a gear 32 at its innerextremities, said gear 32 meshing with a gear 33 fixed to the shaft 19, so that rotation of the latter may be efiected by rotation of said shaft 31. The outer extremity of the shaft 31 terminates in a squared end 31 which is positioned laterally of the car for ready engagement from a position alongside, the car, said end being preferably formed so that the same may be engaged by the motormans controlling handle, whereby said shaft may be readily rotated. However, any other suitable handle or crank for rotating said shaft will suffice.

With the construction as set forth then, it will be observed that rotation of the shaft 19, in order to effect the adjustment of the nuts 12, and which adjustment serves as a means of adjusting the slack of the brake rigging as above described, may be readily and expeditiously effected from a position either within the body ofthe car or from a position exteriorly thereof, and alongside the latter. By reason of the'readiness with which the slackinthe brake rigging may be adjusted with this construction, a motorman or other driver of a car will see to it that a proper slack in the brake rigging will be constantly maintained, this being to his ad vantage, since a car may evidently be con trolled with greater facility under these conditions. This being so, it will tend to prevent accidents which are generally caused by too great or too little slack in a brake rigging, thereby resulting in a saving to the company controlling the car. Also, with the proper slack in the brake rigging, a car will operate to its best advantage which also results in economy.

Vhile we have shown what we deem to be the preferred form of our construction, we do not wish to be limited thereto as there might be various changes made in the details of construction and arrangements of parts described without departing from the spirit of the invention; hence we desire to avail ourselves of such variations and modifications as comewithin the scope of the appended claims.

Having described our invention what we claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent is:

1. The combination with a brake rigging for railway cars comprising brake beams adapted in operation to be moved toward and from each other; means at each of said beams cooperating therewith for determining the slack of said beams; and connecting means establishing an operative connection between saidslack determining means 'cooperating with the respective brake beams; of manually operable means cooperating with the last-mentioned.connecting means whereby the positions of said slack determining means relative to said brake beams may be manually adjusted from a position other than one under the car, substantially as described.

2. The combination with a brake rigging for railway cars comprising brake beams adapted in operation to be moved toward and from each other; means at each of said beams cooperating therewith for determining the slack of said beams; and connecting means establishing an operative connection between said slack determining means cooperating with the respective brake beams; of rotatable means cooperating with the lastmentioned connecting means whereby the positions of said slack determining means relative to said brake beams may be manually adjusted from a position laterally of the car or within the car body, substantially as described.

3. The combination with a brake rigging for railway cars comprising brake beams adapted in operation to be moved toward and from each other; means at each of said beams cooperating therewith for determining the slack of said beams; and connecting means establishing an operative connection between said slack determining means cooperating with the respective brake beams; of rotatable means on said connecting means for adjusting the positions of said slack determining means relative to said brake beams; and rotatable means operatively connected with said last-mentioned rotatable adjusting means whereby the latter may be manually adjusted from positions laterally of the car or within the car body, substantially as described.

4:. The combination with a brake rigging for railway cars comprising brake beams adapted in operation to be moved toward and from each other; means at each of said beams cooperating therewith for determining the slack of said beams; and connecting means establishing an operative connection between said slack determining means cooperating with the respective brake beams; of rotatable means threaded upon said connecting means for adjusting the positions of said slack determining means relative to said brake beams; and rotatable means operatively connected with said screw threaded adjusting means whereby the latter may be manually adjusted from a position other than one beneath the car, substantially as described.

5. The combination with a brake rigging for railway cars comprising brake beams adapted in operation to be moved toward and from each other; and means at each of said beams cooperating therewith for determining the slack of said beams; of bars extending between and connecting said slack determining means cooperating with the respective brake beams; rotatable means threaded upon said bars for adjusting the positions of said slack determining means relative to said brake beams; and rotatable means operatively connected with said screw threaded adjusting means whereby the latter may be manually adjusted upon said bars from a position other than one beneath the car, substantially as described.

6. The combination with a brake rigging for railway cars comprising brake beams adapted in operation to be moved toward and from each other; and means at each of said beams cooperating therewith for determining the slack of said beams; of bars extending between and connecting said slack determining means cooperating with the respective brake beams; nuts having gears formed thereon threaded upon said bars for adjusting the positions of said slack determining means relative to said brake beams; and rotatable means meshing with said adjusting nut-s whereby said nuts may be manually adjusted upon said bars from a position within the body of the car or laterally of the latter, substantially as described.

7 The combination with a brake'rigging for railway cars comprising brake beams adapted in operation to be moved toward and from each other; and means at each of said beams cooperating therewith for determining the slack of said beams; of nonrotatable bars extending between and connecting said slack determining'means cooperating with the respective brake beams; nuts having gears formed thereon threaded upon said bars for adjusting the positions of said slack determining means relative to said brake beams; a rotatable shaft; gears carried by said shaft meshing with the gears on said adjusting nuts; and manually rotatable shafts operatively connected with said first-mentioned shaft, said last-mentioned shafts being accessible for manual rotation from a position within the body of car or laterally of the latter, substantially as described.

8. The combination with a brake rigging for railway cars comprising brake beams adapted in operation to be moved toward and from each other; beams at the outer sides of said brake beams cooperating with the latter for determining the slack thereof; of non-rotatable bars extending between and connecting said slack determining beams; nuts having gears formed thereon threaded upon said connecting bars for adjusting the positions of said slack determining beams relative to said brake beams; a rotatable shaft; gears carried by said shaft meshing with said gears on said adjusting nuts; rotatable shafts geared to said first-mentioned shaft, said last-mentioned shafts being accessible for rotation from a position within the body of the car or laterally of the latter, substantially as described.

In testimony whereof we have signed our names to this specification in the presence of two subscribing witnesses.

LOUIS E. OLIVER. ALBERT CURETON. Witnesses W. 0. SMITH, JOSHUA R. H. Po'r'rs.

Copies of this patent may be obtained for five cents each, by addressing the Commissioner of Patents,

Washington, D. C.