US122648A - Improvement in devices for utilizing power at railway stations - Google Patents

Description

UNITED STATES WILLIAM J. PLECKER, OF BUSHNELL, ILLINOIS.

IMPROVEMENT IN DEVICES FOR UTILIZING POWER AT RAILWAY STATIONS.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 122,648, dated January 9, 1872.

Specification describing certain Improvements in Utilizing Power at Railroad Stations, invented by WILLIAM J. PLEOKER, of Bushnell, in the county of McDonough and State of Illinois.

This invention relates to a new and useful improvement in securing, storing up, and utilizing the power of passing locomotives 5 and consists in a mechanism or apparatus by means of which power for driving a pump, sawing wood, or for other purposes, may be stored up by a locomotive passing a station or any locality wherever the apparatus may belocated.

In the accompanying drawing, Figure l represents a plan view. Fig. 2 is a vertical longitudinal section of Fig. l taken on the line a' w. Fig. 3 is a sectional detail of Fig. l, the section being on the line y y.

Similar letters of reference indicate corresponding parts.

A A represents the rails of a railroad. B represents the ties. C is a transverse shaft, supported beneathI the track of the road, in any suitable manner, upon which are two halfclutchwcouplings, marked D and E. (See Fig. 3.) F is a drum, which is held in position by the double pawl F', operated, as seen in Fig. 2, by means of the shifting-bar N. G and H are two sleeves on the shaft (l. I and J are two coil-springs. One end `of each spring is fastened to the side of the drum, and the other end to the sleeves G and H. On the end of each sleeve are the other halves of the clutch-coupling I) and E, which are marked K and L. The outside couplings D and E slide on the shaft C on feathers, but turn with the shaft. The sliding couplings are made to engage with their counterparts K L alternate ly, or one at a time, by means of the shiftingframe M, which is placed on the ties between the rails. This frame is moved back and forth by the passing trains by tappet-bars from the trains, which strike one or the other of the projecting shifting-bars N O, according to the direction the train is going. P P are shoes, which slide in the grooved-tracks q q. R is a\ rope, which is wound around the drum F, the ends being attached to the shoes P P, as seen in the drawing.

A tappet-bar from train catches one of these shoes P and carries it along on its track and revolves the drum in one direction and thereby winds up not only the other end ofthe rope around the drum,but winds up one of the coilsprings. A train passing in the other direction will strike the other shoe and wind up the other spring. The shoes are freed from the tappet-bar of the train by means of depressions in their tracks when the shoes are extended to their limit from the drum; or, they may be detached in any other manner. Pow er is thus stored up in the springs, which, as they recoil, may be utilized for various purposes.

Inv this example of my invention, I impart motion to the band-wheel S by means of gear- Wheels, as seen at T.

I do not limiter confine myself to any particular apparatus or mechanism for thus obtaining power from passing trains, as the va! rions parts of the apparatusherein shown and described may be varied in many Ways without departing from my invention.

Having thus described my invention, I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent- I. The shaft G, drum F, coilsprings I and J, sleeves Gr and H, couplings D K and E L, and shifting-frame M, substantially as and for the purposes described.

2; The shoes P P and tracks q q, as and for the purposes described.

WILLIAM J. PLEGKER.

Witnesses MARTIN HINNY,

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