US149990A

US149990A - Improvement in railway-switches

Info

Publication number: US149990A
Authority: US
Publication date: 1874-04-21
Anticipated expiration: 1891-04-21

Description

1. M. ELEM.

Railway Switches.

Patented April 21, 1874.

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PATENT OFFICE.

JAMES M. GLEM, OF LEE COUNTY, ASSIGNOR TO HIMSELF, M. F. EOHOLS, OF OPELIKA, ALABAMA, AND WEST POINT FOUNDRY COMPANY, OF WEST POINT, GEORGIA.

IMPROVEMENT IN RAILWAY-SWITCHES.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 149,990, dated April 21,1874; application filed fay 17, 1872.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, JAMES M. GLEM, ot' the county of Lee and State of Alabama, have invented a new and Improved Mode of Laying Tracks of Railroads,- and I do hereby declare the following to be a full, clear, and exact description of the same, reference being had to the accompanying drawing forming a part of this specification.

The invention consists in one short rail connected with three rails that form a doubletrack connection, as hereinafter fully described and claimed.

' In the drawing the figure represents a plan view.

A B represent two lines of a single track. The line A has two switch-rails, A A and the line B one switch-rail, 13. G D is abrauch or turn-oit' track; E, a fixed rail, corresponding in direction to the line I) and F, a V-rail. G is the crank-shaft, provided with rod-connections a Z) 0, attached to clamps d that hold the rails. The switches are represented in Fig. l of drawing as in position to allow the cars to pass over the straight or main track A B; but if the crankshaft is turned a half-revolution, the switch A is made to joint with branch line C, and B with fixed rails E, while A is moved in the opposite direction until it joints with the fixed rail E. The cars are thus enabled to take the branch track 0 D.

I am aware that several switch-rails have been operated simultaneously from a main track to connect with a turn-off track; but they have hitherto always allowed some of the joints to be formed of two loose or switch rails. and in an outward direction is always greatest at the end of the lever-switches or at the joint farthest from thefulcrum, it becomes highly important that two switches shall never form a joint. In order to prevent this, I employ a fixed rail, E, placed obliquely across the main track, and am thus enabled to complete the turn-oi'l with every joint composed of one fixed and one movable rail.

I am also aware that in patent to F. P. Perdue, April 12, 1869, an intermediate rail, the same number of switch-rails, and four joints, are described; but the fixed intermediate rail is made much longer than mine, and thejoints are so arranged as to require a too complicated mechanism.

By my construction I am enabled greatly to lessen and simplify the operative mechanism, while I save three bars of rail-iron, thirty feet of rod-iron for the mechanism, sixteen long ties, and dispense altogether with the two fulcrum-levers.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim as new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is

The combination, with the main rails A B, of the short fixed intermediate rail E and the three switch rails A, A and B, all connected to and operated from the single crankshaft G by the rods to b c, as and for the purposes herein set forth.

JAMES M. GLEM.

\Vitnesses:

WM. BRADLEY, J. W. SMITH.

As the strain on the curve of turn-offs