US1512946A - Railway coaling terminal - Google Patents

Description

ci. 28 s 1924 S. OTIS RAILWAY, COALING TERMINAL Filed Dec. 1'7, 1921 Patented @et 28, 1924i.

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SPENCER OTIS, 0F CIK-ICAG, LLINCS,

Application ledgecsin'ber 17, 1921.

T 0 all ywhom t may concern.'

Be it known that l, SPENCER Ortis, a citizen of the United States, residing atChicago, in the county of Cook yand State of Illinois, have invented certain new and useful Inoprovements in Railway Coaling Terminals, of which the following is a specification.

The primary object of the invention is to .provide a coaling plaint of improved construction and arrangement, which, while occupying a minimum of ground area,

will instantly and with no cost for power, receive andA safely store in bulk, tonnage of coal required to vmeet demands over protracted periods of time; also nstantly and without cost for power deliver any required number of-sub-divided charges of such coal, of pre-measured volumetoas many different locomotive tenders or other vehicles through which the coal is made available atplaces of consumption; andpermit, at the will of the operatives, at convenient times and with economy in the expenditure of power,the selective replenishment of subdivided and measured charges so that they will be kept ready for such delivery.

Another object of the invention isto provide means whereby in a plant arranged as aforesaid, the measurementvof the sub-divid` ed charges may be ascertained in terms of weight by weighing' the coal in transit lbetween the bulk storage spacel and the containers of the sub-divided charges permitting a record to be kept in terms of weight, of coal delivered to different vehicles.

In carrying out the invention, dump car trackage is provided and beneath this trackwith the `capacity stored and of a construction which permits the coal to be submerged in water and thus protected not only from spontaneous combustion, but from external lignition and thereby admitting of the passage of locomotives over Vthe dump car trackage bot-h for drawing dump cars to the point of discharge and for filling the tenders of locomotives in case it becomes necessary at any one time to vincrease the charging capacity beyond that of the means for delivering the pre-measured sub-divided charges; supports, for instance in the form of structural framing arises from the sides of the storage bunker and therefore, on either side of the dump car trackage and upon this framing, are mounted, at successive elevations, first a series of Aup such coal and l y :tenders of locomotives occupying the dump Serial No. 522,979.

pockets of selected capacity to receive and hold the pre-measured charges of coal at an elevation which permits of automatic and instantdelivery by gravity into tenders or other vehicles passing beneath the pockets 4andalong side `the framing, and secondly,

.of pick up and deposit being adapted'to serveythe.purposestof picking up coal from the bunker and depositing it in any one of' .theseveral pockets, selectively, and picking depositing .it into the car trackage incase of necessity. The structural framing extends upwardly to the crane trackage, in a plane outsideof the opening. ythrough which the 'pockets' are and thus gives the trolley a range of travel which f enables the bucket to be brought. to any of the several positions named.

In order thatthe invention may be fully understood, I will proceed to a detailed description of the preferred embodiment thereof; referencebeing made to the accompanying drawing, in which- Figures 4l, 2,' and 3,are, respectively, a plan view, a side elevation, and a vertical,

Vtransverse section of a railway terminal embodying the several features of the invention.

Vl represents a surface level track over which material, such as coal, may be brought in from any distance in standard dump cars A; and 2 represents 'a subsurface storage bunker adapted to receive the material, by gravity, fromV said dump cars. Bunker 2 may be supplied with water, as, for instance, through hydrant 3 to render safe from sponaneous combustion or external ignition coal stored indefinitely therein.- To remove coal from bunker 2, a grab-bucket or other lifting receptacle 4 is suspended from a crane, as, for instance, from the trolley 5 running on bridge 6 which traverses the tracks 7 and thus adapts the bucket to discharge into any one of a series of provisional containers or distributing pockets 8. Containers 8 are above a delivery track 9, which is preferably on surface level or suitably connected therewith, and are adapted to deliver into a transport vehicle B presented on track 9 beneath them. Vehicle rB is shown as a road surface vehicle, but it is to be taken as typi-ying any vehicle that it may be desired to load from the pockets, and the track or way 9 is to be taken as the equivalent of a rail-equipped track if it be desired to present locomotive tenders beneath the pockets. Y

By having the pockets 8 overhang the storage chamber 2 as shown, surplus or overiiow coal returns to the latter.

By having an electric Weighing device l0 interposed in the lifting cable and adapted to be read upon the ammeter in the en gineers cage l1, the weight of material deposited into each pocket 8 can be determined in transit, and since the crane deposits in the individual pockets selectively, a record can be kept or' the contents of each and render it unnecessary to Weigh the load deposited into avehicle B.

v .Structural framing 12-13 rises from the lateral contines of the bunker 2 and therefore from either side of the dump car trackage 1, the framing 12 being between the bunker 2 and the track 9. This framing rises not only to the level at which it supports the individual charge-pockets 8, but beyond the same Lat least to a level which accommodates the bridge tracks 7 and as shown more clearly 8 extend well within the tracks 9 and the track 7 Aso that the bucket 4 can travel to a 'point outer'side of the framing 4l2.

above any pocket in the series; but the lower discharge ends of these pockets are on the By an arrangement such as here described,

the purposes of theinvention can be fully realized in a simple and efcient manner, with a minimum of expenditure of power and minimum loss ottime of the conveying vehicles.

Obviously, the subsurface storage bunker may be subdivided into compartments for the storage of different classes of coal. When so subdivided the partitions may be such as to admit water from one compartment to another (say, through the spacing of the partition vfrom the bottom of the bunker) or the partitions may be tight so that water storage'will be available for those classes of coal which are more liable to spontaneous combustion, while other classes are dry stored.v

in Fig. 1,'the open tops oli' the pockets Y I claim: "r"

1. A coaling station comprising surfacelevel supply trackage for coal oarryingcars, a sub-surface pit of major capacity receiving coal by gravity from cars standing on said trackage, and coal distributing means comprisingv supports rising above said pit and` trackage, open top delivery bins of minor capacity mounted 'on said supports at an intermediate level and a bucket handling crane surmounting said supports, over-traveling the storage pit, the cars on said Vsupply trackage and the delivery bins; said pit 'and bins being offset horizontally one from the other, whereby thehoisting bucket has vertical access to said pit, to cars on said trackage and to all of said bins.

2. A. coa-ling plant comprising a dump car trackage, a subsurface storage bunker con- Y structed and proportioned to confine and afford protective storage to coal in tonnage (bulk, located beneath and in the direction of said trackage and receiving by gravity, into storage position, said trackage; supports rising from said bunker on either side of said dump car trackage, distributing trackage for coal receiving vehicles extending along the outside of one of said supports; a series of pockets extending along said supports, adapted lto contain charges o f coal, and mounted on said Vsupports at anl intermediate level thereof,

said pockets having upwardly presented re.-y ceiving openings on the inner Vside of said supports and downwardly presented delivery openings on the outer side thereof, over the distributing trackage; crane-bridge tracks rmounted on said supports vparallel with said y series of pockets but at a level above theA same, one of said tracks being in a vertical plane outside the receiving openings of the pockets; a bridge mounted on said bridge tracks adapted to bepbrought over any pocket in the series; a trolley on said bridge; andy a bucket having elevating connections carried by said trolley and adapted to be, by said trolley, presented to bulk coal in'said bunker, also to any pocket over which the bridge is standing and to any open top coal' carrier occupying the dump car trackage.

Signed at Chicago, Illinois, this 15th day of December, 1921. y v

SPENCER oris'.

coal from dump cars on

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