US1203969A - Automatic train-stop. - Google Patents

Description

M. B. BULLA.

AUTOMATIC TRAIN STOP.

APPLICATION FILED sums. 1915' Patented Nov 7, 1936.

WITH/588$ ATTORNEYS irnLBn-nn :B. BULLA, or EL PASO, TEXAS.

AUTOMATIC TRAIN-STOP.

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Specification of Letters latent.

Application filed September 9, 1915. Serial No. 49,74Q.

locomotive cab or its equivalent when a danger signal is passed.

. Th1s present invention constitutes an 1mprovementon the device shown and claimed v in my co-pending application filed May 1, 1915, Serial No. 25,177, and as in said earlier application, one of the objects of this improvement is to provide means whereby in the eventof carelessness or incapacity of the engineer a locomotive is permitted to pass a danger signal, the brakes will be set, the alarm will beset in operation, and the steam will, be shut off automatically. In

i this present improvement, however, one of my special objects is, to provide a tallying or recording device made operative in con.- nection with a bleeder valve used to restore the parts to their normal running position after the stopping device has been autotion of railway matically opera-ted.

A further object of the invention is to provide an automatic device including an electric circuit having a normally closed switch, said switch'constituting the arm of the bleeder valve and having direct connection' with the recording device.

With the foregoing and other objects. in view the invention consists in the arrangement and combination of parts hereinafter described and claimed, and while the invention is not restricted to the exact details of construction disclosed herein, still for the purpose of illustrating a-practical embodiment thereof reference is had to the accompanying drawings, in which like reference characters designate the same parts in the several v1ews, and in which Figure 1 is a vertical longitudinal section indicating diagrammatically the relative positionsof the main parts of theapparatus when in stopping position. Fig. 2 is a diagram of a sectrack having brushes electrically connected to both rails; and Fig. 3 1s a detail view of parts shown in Fig. l but in normal running position.

Referring more particularly to the drawings, I show a locomotive whose cab is fitted with the main portions of my improvement. A contact shoe is carried by the truck frame or other suitable part of the locomotive close to one of the rails and has a wire 11 leading to the battery 12, whose function is to energize the electromagnet 13. The armature 14 of this magnet is a pivoted arm carrying a leaf spring 14. This arm is held normally spaced from the magnet by means of a spring 36, the magnet being normally'denergized as shown in Fig. 3,

and at such time, the spring 1-1 is spaced slightly from the contact point at the end of a wire 19 leading from the main wire 11. The energy from the battery 12 passes through a wire 21, contact switch 20 and wire to the electromagnet 13. When the shoe 10 engages the brush 23 which is normally in electrical connection with the track or switch mechanism, an initial impulse is given from the brush 23 through the battery 12 and magnet 13, through the wire'16 and ground 17, the switch being normally closed connecting the wires 15 and 21. It is to be noted at this time that this present improvement is mainly concerned with locomotive devices and that the brush 23 may be stationary or otherwise dependent upon the purpose-of the railway officials. If it is intended to be made functional in connection with the movable switch or semaphore devices its operation will be the same as herein explained, but my present purpose is more particularly to mount the brush in a stationary position, as for instance, at the approach to a roundhouse, so that the stop mechanism may be tested automatically when the engineer takes out the engine or returns it, and hence I prefer to employ several of these brushes adjacent each other, as shown in Fig.

At 25 I indicate an air line leading in the usual manner from the train line, not shown, and from this air line a branch pipe 26 leads to the atmosphere but normally closed by a valve 27 having an arm 28. An air motor cylinder 29 is located adjacent the valve 27 and has a sliding piston 30 therein Whose piston rod 80 is connected to the arm Patented Nov. 7, 1916..

28, the piston 30 is normally held at the rear end of the cylinder by means of a spring 31 thereby holding the valve 27 closed.

32 indicates a pipe leading from the main reservoir 32' and having its other end connected to the rear end of the cylinder 29, this pipe 32 is, therefore, normally charged witn compressed air from the reservoir but such air is held from flowing into the cylinder 29 by virtue of the valve 33, having an arm 31 whose free end is connected by a link 35 to the armature arm 14 above described.

The switch arm 20 constitutes a means for manually controlling the position of the bleeder valve 45 connected to the rear end of the cylinder 29, such valve being normally closed by a spring, and the arm properly insulated from other parts.

A tube or pipe 14 leads from the normally empty portion of the pipe 32 to a motor cylinder 39, having a piston 10 whose piston rod 12 is connected to the engineers throttle lever 43. Under normal conditions piston is held in the end of the cylinder remote from the throttle lever by virtue of the spring 41, but when the valve 33- is opened, the compressed air from the reservoir passing through the pipe 32 not only moves the piston 30 but also the piston a0 as shown in Fig. 1, thereby shutting off the steam as well as opening the train line at the valve 27.

The operation may be briefly summarized, as follows: lVith the locomotive in running condition and with the magnet deenergized and having the associated parts in the position shown in Fig. 3, when the shoe 10 engages the brush 23, such contact being mementary only when the train is in motion, the impulse given from the track and passing through the wire 11, battery 12, wire 21, switch 20, wire 15, magnet 13 and wire 16 to the ground 17, will give suflicient power to the magnet to start the arm 14 toward the magnet bringing the spring 14E into contact with the terminal at the end of the wire 19. Even though the shoe 10 may have passed by .this'time beyond the brush the power of magnet 13 will be continued from the battery 12 through the wire 21, switch 20, wire 15, armature 14, spring 141 and wires 19 and 11. It follows, therefore, that the arm 14 will be continued in its swinging motion toward the magnet until the free end of the magnet strikes the gong l8 and completing the opening of the valve 33 through the connections 34 and 35. When. however, the engineer wishes torelease the brakes and his throttle lever he will bleed the cylinder 29 by opening the valve 45, thus allowing the springs 31 and 41 to restore the pistons 30 and 40 to their normal position. This bleeding of the cylinder is effected by moving the switch 20 forwardly, causing the register 37 to be actuated one point through the connecting rod 38. This movement of the switch 20 breaks the circuit through the magnet and the denergization allows the spring 36 to restore the armature arm 14 to the normal position shown in Fig. 3 and thereby closing the valve 33. Thereafter the engineer will return the switch 20 to its nor mally closed position.

One, of the important advantages ofthis improvement lies in the fact that the engineer may, under orders, move the switch 20 forwardly so as to enable him to pass a danger point but since the circuit between the wires 21 and 15 is thereby broken no impulse will be given to the magnet 13 from the track rails or battery 12, and hence there will be no release of the compressed air tending to set the brakes or shut ofl the steam automatically. Such forward movement, however, of the switch 20, whether it is done by the engineer regularly or in an endeavor by him to defeat the object of the invention will be recorded on the register 37.

I claim In an automatic train stop, the combination with a train line, a valve normally closing the train line and a compressed air motor connected to the valve for opening- MELBERN B. BULLA.

Witnesses.

F. E. HUNTER, CHAS. B. LEWIS.

Copies of this patent may be obtained for five cents each, b addressing the Commissioner of Patents. Washingtom D. G.

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